the people turning out in vast numbers
every one of your talks in Australia's
been oversubscribed massively it tells
you they kind of get those more to this
well they know they're being told oh
yeah they know well it's one of the
things that's so interesting about
dealing with archetypal themes you know
archetypal themes are archetypal because
they actually speak of the structure of
human experience that's why they last
and so it's human nature and human
experience has a pattern you don't have
the capacity to articulate that pattern
as an individual in part because your
life is too short you just can't figure
it out but the the ancient
representations of those patterns are
everywhere around you and you you know
some of them in image you you cotton on
to them automatically you you you fall
into them if you go to a movie for
example because movies always express
archetypal themes if you hear them
articulated you think I knew that I knew
that I just don't know how to say it
that's that's the Platonic idea of of
learning is remembering your your soul
already knows but it doesn't have the
words yeah and so when people talk to me
about watching my lectures let's say
they say they basically say one of two
things if it if it's not just a simple
thank you they say one of two things a
third of them say quarter for them say
when I listen to you talk it's as if
you're telling me things that I already
know yeah it's like yeah well that's
exactly right because that's what
archetypal stories are they're the
description of what you already know but
that can be articulated and then who you
are and how you see yourself and the way
you describe yourself or all become the
same thing so that's wonderful then
you're not at odds with yourself you
know and then you have then you're a
functioning unity and that makes you
much stronger and more in dormant than
you would otherwise be and then the
other thing that people say and this is
more like 3/4 of them is that they say I
was in a very dark place I was addicted
I was I was drinking too much I had a
fragmented relationship with my fiancee
and I wasn't getting married things
weren't going we're very well with my
family my relationship with my father
was damaged I didn't have any aim I was
wasting my time some variant of that
some combination of those and they said
well
hmm I've been watching your lectures
I've decided to establish a purpose I'm
trying to tell the truth and things are
way better and I've and so let's say
I've done maybe eight or nine
large-scale public talks in the last two
months so that's probably 20,000 people
and about half of them a third to half
of them estate afterwards to talk to me
so that's about 7,000 people who have
said that to me and then people stopped
me on the street all the time and tell
me exactly that story which is just
wonderful like you can't imagine how
good it is to be able to go to places
you've never been and to have people
stop you on the streets spontaneously
and say look my life is way better than
it was it's like it's so good and so and
I've got like I don't know
35,000 letters from people since last
August it's more than that I can't keep
track of them and it's exactly the same
thing like 3/4 a quarter of them say
well you've given me the words to say
what I already knew was true and thank
you for that I can see that in the
audience it's so interesting because I
can lay out a story people go like this
and say they're doing that all the time
it's like the lights are going on and
that's a really while there's almost
nothing better than that to watch lights
go on when you're talking to people it's
like that's just absolutely fantastic
but to get this response from people my
father I have my father's about 80 and
he's 83 I think 81 he's 81 and I put him
in charge of going through my viewer
email which is an overwhelming job but
no he we've had discussions about this
constantly he's overwhelmed by the fact
that so many people are writing and
saying the same thing it's like well I
have a purpose man my life actually
matters I finally realized that and I'm
putting it into practice and I'm bearing
up under the heaviest load I can imagine
and it's really helping it's like God
and that's tens of thousands of
responses now so it's it's you couldn't
hope for anything better than that
there's zero harm in it right it's just
people putting their lives together
they're not mucking about with other
people and I'm trying to make
broad-scale social transformations about
which they have no idea they're trying
to make their immediate environment
better and it's working it's like
great well great you say there's zero
hominid size a form of legislature that
there's an enormous amount of good
enough huh a country is only the sum
title of the people that make it up to
the extent that they put together
resilient even contribute don't have to
ask others to help them huh the stronger
the nation or the society yes and
rapidly like I I mean I think I was
thinking the other day some journalists
asked me why the audience why people are
responding so positively to what I'm
saying the young men for example and I
thought yeah that's a good question so
it's well I'm actually on their side I'm
pretty happy that I'm really happy that
they're not wasting their lives I'm
really sad to see that people are
disenchanted and nihilistic and
depressed and anxious and aimless and
and perverse and vengeful and and all of
those things it's terrible and then to
see people question whether that's
necessary and then to start to rise out
of it it's like it's so fun like last
night I was at after my talk it's
overwhelming I don't usually think about
these things but I was I was after my
talk last night and so all these people
line up and you know they have their 15
15 seconds with me and they're kind of
tentative they're excited and a
tentative when they come up to talk to
me and then they have you know 15
seconds of time to tell me something I'm
really listening to them and they're
hesitant about whether or not to share
the good news about their life you know
and I think it's often because when
people share good news about their life
people don't necessarily respond
positively you know they don't get
encouragement and people need so little
encouragement it's just unbelievable and
so there comes something good and then
they call that's so good you know
somebody says oh I'm getting a long way
better with my father I haven't seen him
for 10 years and now we get along great
and the power of that you can't
overstate the power of that for
individuals to get their life together
the individual is an unbelievably
powerful force and every single person
who gets their act together a little bit
has the capacity to spread that around
them it's it's a chain reaction and so
it's a lovely thing
to see and that's fantastic