One of the reasons that I am most proud of the extremely good work that the Joseph Campbell Foundation has done over the years is in their continued innovations by members to open up the world properly to future generations. I was extremely pleased to learn from them that Karina Epperlein has produced and directed a new film showing the wonderful work being done at the Alchemy, Inc academy in Akron, Ohio which seeks to specifically help young black males with a treacherous crises facing virtually every young man in the world presently—that enormous gulf required to step from childhood into manhood. Karina’s film is titled, Finding the Gold Within and focuses on six young men as they enter their first year of college. Each has personal circumstances to overcome as he works to escape the straightjacket of contemporary stereotypes, and each has participated from sixth grade on in Alchemy, a myth-centered mentoring program that fosters refection, critical thinking, and living an authentic life.

The biggest crises of our modern-day is not in politics, it is not in economics, religion, scientific development or any other nightly crises espoused on the various news broadcasts, it comes from an emerging menace which seeks to wipe out mankind altogether—the destruction of the male. The social experiments have concluded and a 100 years of results are now pouring in.   Some of those results are women climbing over themselves with soiled panties to see the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey movie largely because the men in their lives have been feminized and defanged to the point where females biologically, and intellectually just aren’t interested in them. This is bad because all young children crave the structure that a good solid father brings to a family as a pillar of reliability and strength. Kids who don’t have that fortunate situation in their lives suffer greatly until they find a replacement, or come to terms emotionally with their condition.

Of the worst of the social experiments were the various black communities where government tampering with the motivations of productive enterprise has most crippled enthusiasm for economic mobility. It has been more profitable for black households to produce children without fathers in the home, which has had a devastating effect on old and young males in minority neighborhoods. As the government has become the father figure in such homes—particularly under poor conditions, the real fathers and men of the community have turned to the bottle and drugs to compensate their failed family endeavors. There is a reason that a majority of state liquor licenses are issued to poor communities where a bar is open to wash away the broken dreams of the males while the women breed more fatherless children to qualify for more household government income. The intention was originally good, the by-product has been terrible. Black children as a result of this terrible social failure now are left with serious holes in their life which then gets filled with gangster behavior, drugs, illicit women, and years and years of alcohol. I have in the past tried to befriend these types of males and they all end up in the same place in spite of my optimistic attempts. Once they get to a certain point, there is no way to fix them. Alcohol and drugs literally destroy them, and they become hooked on those substances because of the mountains of guilt which follows them from their criminal past is impossible to escape.

The trick in the whole escapade is that young black males—all males for that matter—but particularly the ones in minority neighborhoods are looking desperately for that mysterious bridge from childhood, where they nurse close to their mother’s breast, into that void of master hunter and gatherer among their male peers. When young black kids do not have men in their lives to show them the path, they turn to gangs because males have a serious need to fill the role of a provider of some kind. Once they fall into the narco life, the money they make goes to cars, jewelry, and tattoos which indicate to females that they are a male worth mating with. But when the women aren’t interested in a family and the male has no goal to work toward because the females just want a sperm donor toward their next welfare check—the males by the time they hit their twenties flame out and end up as future alcoholics and drug addicts. If they live into their forties they are unlucky miserable specimens too far gone to properly help. The only answer that really works is to fix those young men before they become old broken heaps of social experimentation gone wrong at the local neighborhood bar going nowhere fast.

This is where Alchemy, Inc comes in. The use of myth has always functioned as a sociological and pedagogical tool with the goal of teaching people how to live in this world together while simultaneously providing examples of how to realize the personal gifts each individual brings to the stage play of life. Today this method closely resembles what is known as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The roles that we are all born with are meant to be fulfilled, not altered in some way that is not authentic to our individuality. To attempt otherwise is to declare that on the great stage play of life that we don’t want to play the role we are given—so we lobby for some other position. The transvestite community is good at this kind of second-guessing. They might have the role of the bold and gallant warrior in the great play of life, but decide that they actually want to play the princess. So they protest, yell and scream about the injustice of life, only to show up for the play in a dress. You can see why this causes a problem if the play was written by the god of your choice with the intention to see it play out on stage. Young males are brought into the world to become men and women will expect men in their beds, at their dinner tables, and helping to raise their children. But when young men don’t even get a chance out of the gate because nobody showed them the way, they fail. Alchemy, Inc is a group dedicated to teaching those young males how to find that path in their individual lives. Alchemy, Inc. according to their website shown below, provides a healthy masculine model and strategies that set youth on the right course to stay in school and become successful, responsible family men and professionals rather than being sidetracked by the false appeal of apathy, anger, drugs, violence and victimhood. Their program is embraced by young men because of its authenticity and realness. Young males who are alienated, disengaged, and cynical towards life are drawn to the program because Alchemy, Inc offers a way to answer their “call to manhood.” They are a program that does not question or criticize youthful masculinity but repositions its positive aspects to show the way from boyhood to manhood. The course values are steeped in the character traits of “The Hero.” The model of The Hero inspires youth to persevere, learn to make the necessary sacrifices, overcome obstacles, and serve their community. Alchemy, Inc is more about cultivating wisdom than teaching knowledge.

Alchemy, Inc. offers a safe group environment for youth to focus on topics directly related to their stage of development. Youth who have engaged our program:

• Increased their Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
• Increased their school attendance
• Increased their high Grade Point Averages
• Increased high school graduation rates
• Increased their college acceptance rates
• Developed the character traits necessary to succeed in life

http://alchemyinc.net/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alchemy-Inc/231344416972351

The beauty of Alchemy, Inc is that they do not seek to preach a particular set of values to young people; they instead turn to mythology to bring the kids to their own individual adventures with authenticity. The focus is on learning to think instead of being told what to think. The kids are shown the way to become the heroes of their own lives, so that they can aspire to become the hero of a family at some future time.

Alchemy, Inc is one of the best mentoring programs I have seen for young people, particularly minority kids. All young boys need atonement with their fathers and if they don’t have it, or get it, they are marked for life as lacking. They can overcome that drawback, but it is more difficult for them than it is with kids who have a stable father figure. The kids in the Alchemy program don’t have the advantage of fathers in their life. So they have myths to replace the emptiness, which is such a powerful tool. When there isn’t a father around to teach young boys how to be men, the job doesn’t get done. Myth is a worthy substitute. When it’s applied it does the same thing as a man who speaks to his sons about the mysteries of the universe and their role in it as men when they graduate to such a level. Mythology encourages young men to be heroes not villains in their own story, which a future family will need for their nurturing.

Before feminists declare that they don’t need men, think about what you’re saying. In just a few weeks from this writing Fifty Shades of Grey is about to hit theaters and women are salivating over it. Not all women but a large enough demographic sector to provide a scientific sampling. They are as excited for the movie as teenage males might be for Star Wars, or Avengers. But why? For the adolescent male Star Wars and comic book heroes are myths that instruct what our internal values are—authentically represented by the characters. The heroes in those stories are the men we all want to become—whether we do or not is up to our personal decisions and values. If we are given the myths to live by, we will likely follow the example into our own heroic story. But because too many men give up on their heroes, they do not arrive into their adulthoods properly equipped to take care of the needs of their women. So the women are left with a void to be filled by romance novels and the occasional movie like Fifty Shades of Grey. Men are scratching their heads wondering what all the fuss is just as most women wonder why Marvel comic films are so impressive to males. The story of Fifty Shades of Grey is all about a powerful man who is redeemed through a hero journey through love into an awakening of a higher truth. The sadomasochism is reflective of all the repressed and social pressure for authority that is imposed on most people, so in mythology it is revealed through sexual fantasy. Just as most women are suffering from the condition of not having men in their lives that are strong enough to fill their yearnings; the children of minority neighborhoods do not have proper males to lead the young to their adulthoods. What’s missing in both cases are strong male characters. And in the absence of proper instruction from one generation into another, it is mythology that provides the path. For that, I am very proud and happy to see what they are doing at Alchemy, Inc.

If you happen to have the chance to see Karina Epperlein’s new movie, you should do so. More on it can be found at the following link:

http://www.karinafilms.us/index.html

Rich Hoffman

Visit Cliffhanger Research and Development