"The Way to Illumination" uses the Kundalini yoga; a physical and meditative discipline that communicates between the mind and body and is used to take us up through the stages of consciousness to pass on the way to illumination. In the lecture Campbell explains that we move from our animal instincts to the experience of God.

"The Experience of God" turns us toward Tibet. By translating our experience of life to a spiritual exercise, Kundalini Yoga brought us to identification with the divine. Now, the Tibetan Book of the Dead translates the experience of death into a spiritual exercise. It starts at the point of illumination, and follows the path of the Kundilini downward. But to understand it Campbell takes the viewer back to before the message of Buddhism was carried beyond the borders of India.

Mythos II will make you think and give you pause to reflect on your beliefs. The no-frills presentation gives it authenticity and a sense of what it would have been like to be present at a Campbell lecture. Sarandon, rather than acting as a traditional narrator and talking throughout the piece instead only introduces the major segments and provides some brief overview. 

Mythos II was filmed in 1986 during the last year of Joseph Campbell's life. You can see his passion and his ability to convey a topic is extraordinary. What might seem to be a boring subject suddenly comes alive through his teachings. To see the extent of Joseph Campbell's influence on our culture one has to look no further than the Star Wars franchise. Writer and director George Lucas used Campbell's book Hero with a Thousand Faces as the basis and inspiration to write the storyline of Star Wars.

As with Mythos I, I found Mythos II highly engrossing and totally entertaining, and I highly recommend this DVD for anyone who loves history, mythology, sociology, or just wants a better understanding the human spirit.