Bloomington native Michael May stood at the front of a lecture hall at the Monroe County Public Library — not on the stage, but on the floor close to the audience members.
May is an instructor for the ULTIMATE Reality series.
His charismatic speaking style and deep understanding of human reality allowed him to fluently explain contemporary mythology, cosmic significance and the importance of reality.
The ULTIMATE Reality was presented by Interior Mythos Journeys and Transparent Works, a curriculum whose purpose “is a quest to articulate and explore contemporary mythic language,” according to their website.
The first session of the series, entitled Free Fall, gave context and background for the upcoming gatherings.
The audience — many with notebooks, pens and curious looks — spilled through the doors Wednesday afternoon.
They took their seats and it was not long before their conversation filled the room.
May spoke often about the importance and grandeur of the human reality.
“There is nothing more mysterious than reality,” May said.
After he finished, a video was played on a projector screen. The video focused on humans and their assumed importance in the universe.
The video included the cosmic solitariness of Earth and contained many quotes from American mythologist Joseph Campbell. With photos of ancient paintings, the video referenced the necessity of living in reality in favor of clinging to myth and traditions.
“In all of those traditions, those words pointed to inclusiveness, they pointed to gathering together the human family,” May said. “What has happened, historically and for lots of reasons, is that all of those great traditions — now they’re about divisiveness. Not only are we not replacing those traditions, we’re fulfilling those traditions.”
Returning attendee Chuck Thompson said these events seem more real to him than the ideas he learned as a child.
“It gives you the opportunity to revisit all the things you were indoctrinated with growing up and to revisit how much of it you can actually determine factually,” Thompson said. “It brings you to this other kind of reality that much of what we accept as real is, in fact, a myth.”
At one point during the presentation, May instructed the audience to answer several journal questions within the binder of papers given at the beginning of the presentation.
He told the audience to form groups to discuss several questions within their binder.
Discussions included topics that resonated strongly with individuals, questions they had about the material and doubts and issues individuals had with the presentation.
May said the series is about waking people up to their personal real lives, “because until they wake up to their own personal real lives, they can’t be of service to the village and the village has some problems these days.”
The series spans the next nine weeks with eight presentations every Wednesday except Feb. 16. The seminars will be presented from noon to 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“When you hit the door, the class is not ending. It’s just beginning,” May said. “The force is with you.”
