www.jcf.org
Institute of Noetic Sciences
www.noetic.org
Lucifer Effect
www.lucifereffect.com
Maps of Wars
www.mapsofwar.com/images/Religion.swf
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab
www.media.mit.edu/
Mindship
www.mindship.org
MYTHWORKS
www.mythworks.net
Philosophical Research Society
www.prs.org
Theosophical Society
www.theosophical.org/index.html
Science Week
www.sciencenews.org
Scientific American magazine
www.sciam.com
Skeptic Magazine
www.skepticmagazine.org
Silver Braid Survivors of Sexual Exploitation
Network
www.thesilverbraid.org
Stratfor – Global Intelligence
www.stratfor.com
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Ageless Wisdom - universal insights and information that show up in most cultures’ mythologies and spiritual systems. Often attributed to the gods, ancient civilizations, or simply wise humans, the Ageless Wisdom offers advice and disciplines on personal enlightenment and ethics, social systems, planetary and species history, and prophecies. Though the truths are evident in various writings and oral traditions, there is no rigid structure or dogma. If there is any dogma at all, it is not to form dogmas.
agnostic - thinks our human consciousness is unable to know for certain anything about any deities, so keeps an open but skeptical mind.
archetype - a personification of a psychological aspect said accessible to all humans via the collective unconscious. Most mythologies have slightly different versions of the same archetypes: warrior, lover, trickster, mother, etc.
astral plane – emotional realm shared by humanity which is how feelings can be communicated and understood by others. Other planes are the physical, mental, and spiritual. Many traditions say the astral planes are inhabited by all sorts of creatures, some helpful and some not.
atheist - does not believe in the existence of any deity.
Centers of Motivation - the chakras: physiological, psychological, and philosophical Centers that affect and effect our bodies, emotions, and thinking. See my INNER DRIVES book.
chakras - See Centers of Motivation.
dharma - duty, the law, everyday responsibilities. Social, familial, and professional harmony and virtue.
deus ex machina – in a story, supernatural intervention to save the day, usually clumsily done. From old theater where the god (deus) was flown or wheeled in via a machine (ex machina).
esoteric - hidden, open only to tested and approved initiates; opposite of exoteric, which means out in the open and available to anyone.
Karma - the Hindu version of the law of cause and effect. Often analogous to Isaac Newton’s third law: For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Karma (both positive and negative) is said to collect and be paid out over many lifetimes. Think of it as a character’s “ghost,” big time.
Law of Grace - enlightenment, being “born again,” baptism, forgiveness… all are examples of this Law in action. Once you get the point of life, existence, and the consequences of your actions, then supposedly you don’t need to pay back the debts, since it was all about getting you to become conscious and then stop creating Karma.
Law of Karma - cause and effect. You reap what you sow, positive and or negative, now or in another lifetime.
maya – Sanskrit word meaning “illusion.” Hindus and Buddhists see the world of the senses as maya, arising from the mind’s interpretations of sense perceptions, rather like the imposed reality in The Matrix films.
metaphysics - the study of first principals of reality; abstract reasoning; the origins of the world and how it works. Modern physics, astrophysics, and paleology are technically “proving” many things formerly considered “above physics,” or metaphysical.
Mithra(s) - ancient Persian god of Light and Truth. A popular god with the Roman Army, the Mithraic religion had seven levels of initiation. Many of the teachings migrated over to Christianity.
Mystery Schools - teach the Ageless Wisdom, the Physics of Metaphysics: how things, people, and systems really work; the nature of reality; the nature of consciousness and the unconscious; the interdependency and reciprocal workings of the soul-mind-brain-body connections. Modern physics, astrophysics, and paleology are technically “proving” many things these Schools have always taught. There is no structure, no bureaucracy, no set curricula, and most of the Wisdom is imparted orally from teacher to tested-and-proven pupil. The inherent Truths are so universal, however, that you can recognize them across the globe and across the ages, once you know what you’re looking at. Though usually kept secret and opened only to sincere seekers, the Wisdom Teachings are now being given to the world in general, in hopes of affecting positive changes in humankind.
mysticism - the emotional, feeling approach to life, initiation, character and spiritual growth; as opposed to the mental, rational, occult approach. Most religions have a mystic branch: Gnostic Christians, Sufi Muslims, Jewish Cabalists, etc.
mythology - the stories we tell ourselves to explain the world around us and within us. It’s said that a “true myth” will resonate with truth on at least seven different levels such as: physiological, sociological, psychological, historical, philosophical, geological, cosmological, astrological, astronomical, chemical, evolutionarily, and now with the incredible revelations of subatomic physics and quantum mechanics.
occult - means hidden. It does not mean evil. The Wisdom Teachings used to be kept hidden because it is powerfully effective, and if done without proper training and motivation, can be dangerous to the self and others. To be on the Occult Path implies study, mental work, step-by-step logical progression as opposed to the more emotional Mystic Path.
Persia - the old name for the country called Iran since 1935. Persians are not Arabs/Semitic; they are Aryan and thus related to Indians and Caucasians/Europeans.
Sanskrit - the sacred language of old India. Some say its words were designed to have specific effects, so mantras and names are “magical” The same is also said of Latin, which is related to Sanskrit. The liturgy of the Catholic Mass was also supposedly designed to have certain affects via the sounds of the words.
SETI - Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. An organization conducting scientific research on life in the universe with an emphasis on intelligent life.
Shadow - an individual’s more animal instincts, that pre-conscious part of the self. Dr. Carl Jung saw it as the unexpressed parts of ourselves we often project onto others.
soul - conscious awareness, sentience.
spirit - the animating life force.
Sufi - a member of the mystical order of Islam, seeking direct union with Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Vedas - the holy-historical Sanskrit writings of the Hindus, Aryan peoples of northern India.
White Brotherhood – intelligent entities, sometimes human, who embrace and work for the unity of all Life.
Wisdom Teachings - see Ageless Wisdom and Mystery Schools.
Yahweh – Jehovah of the Old Testament.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pamela Jaye Smith is a speaker, consultant, writer, award-winning producer-director, and the founder of MYTHWORKS. Credits and clients include Paramount, Disney, Microsoft, Universal, RAI-TV Rome, UCLA Ext. Writers Program, American Film Institute, USC Film School, Creative Screenwriting Expo, Pepperdine University, National Film School of Denmark, Thot Fiction Marseilles France, Women in Film, GM, Boeing, the FBI, and the U.S. Army.
Pamela is a lifelong student of religion, science, and mythology. Growing up in a cattle ranching family in Texas, she was raised Catholic for ten years, then mainstream Protestant. She was exposed to Sufi mysticism in
her early teens through her grandparents’ extensive library and to other Asian philosophies through tales brought back by traveling relatives.
Though she started in premed and music, Pamela received a B.A. with a major in English, minor in Latin, and secondary studies in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas, Austin. She studied Buddhism with novelist Professor Raja Rao and Sri Krishna Menon, a colleague of Joseph Campbell. Continually searching for the science behind mystical experiences, she came upon the Ageless Wisdom — the Physics of Metaphysics and heart of all mystery schools. After seven years of formal study, Pamela became a certified Wisdom teacher.
As a filmmaker for 30-plus years in Hollywood, having worked at the major studios, large corporations, and wildly independent productions, she has experienced first-hand the evil excesses of power, money, and ego — without falling prey to them herself, of course.
Besides weathering tornadoes in Texas, earthquakes, riots and celebrity trials in LA, and minus 80° temperatures in the Arctic oil fields, world travels have often plunged Pamela into perilous situations where the Dark Side looms threateningly close, such as rappelling down cliffs and skirting the fringes of third world revolutions, with kidnappers and machete-wielding crazies lurking nearby. Then there were the ornate five-star hotels with temptations such as cold gin-and-tonics and fresh fist-sized prawns.
Participation in a U.S. Army think tank (the Advanced Warfighting Working Group out of Fort Knox), attending both Army and Air Force War Colleges National Security Forums, and pursuing military intelligence studies have exposed Pamela to the more formal approaches to conflict.
Various projects have found her dealing with corporate and government personnel, including the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassies here and abroad, Chinese and other foreign Embassies, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Pan American Airlines, McDonnell Douglas, provincial Governors, and tribal chieftains.
She is an avid reader, drives a ’77 Bronco, and enjoys opera. A dilettante approach to sports has included surfing, skiing, snorkeling, flying, go-cart & auto racing, and driving an off-shore oil rig and an Army tank – both under close supervision.
Pamela is a member of Lodge New Isis, George Washington Union, a Masonic Obedience working in North America that accepts men and women on an equal basis. She was in the Millennial edition of Who’s Who in the World, and she is a card-carrying member of the California Emergency Response Team.
For story consultations, writing, speaking engagements, and lots more about myth and media, visit Pamela’s MYTHWORKS website www.mythworks.net.
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