Published on July 22, 2025 9:26 AM GMT

I am watching John Vervaeke's lecture series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. In episode 3 at around 5:00 (linked below) Vervaeke says:

Myths are not false stories about the ancient past. They are symbolic stories of perennial patterns that are always with us.

This take is not unique to Vervaeke. I have seen similar claims many times before - that myths supposedly encapsulate some eternal and valuable truths. These claims are seldom accompanied by examples, nor does Vervaeke provide any. (At least no clearly understandable examples in his first 4 episodes.)

If you think the claim is reasonable, can you give some good examples?