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Hero's Journey
Twelve steps through your own story — and after each one you know what to do today.
12 stations · Joseph Campbell × Heinz von Foerster (C₃) · Förster 2026
Prefer to walk it? The Hero's Journey through Berlin-Mitte, told by the monuments — on BerliNike.art
The original · 11+ years, by hand
The roadmap as a map
The drawing is a clock — 0 at twelve, VI at six. In roadmap mode you get it large: the line version to fill in, and John’s coloured print version beside it.
How to work with this map
- It's a wheel, not a list. On paper you start wherever you actually are. In the portal the path runs in order — each station unlocks the next, starting at the centre.
- Where the gold is, you answer. The map asks the question, the answer is yours. Every station has a golden block, “Today’s practice”.
- One station is enough. Take one a week, not all in one evening. The practice matters more than the reading.
„An jedem Ort, wo du ein goldenes Wort liest, liegt die Antwort gleich daneben — semantisch, optisch, visuell verknüpft." — John, 2026
Translation: “Everywhere you read a golden word, the answer lies right beside it — semantically, optically, visually linked.” (John wrote this in German; rendered here for readers of English.)
Honest about its frame
The monomyth↔brain mapping is a structured hypothesis, not an empirical finding — Campbell’s hero’s journey is literary theory. The green ✅ marks name genuinely supported neuroscience; they make the map more citable, not smaller. Building on second-order cybernetics (von Foerster) and Birkenbihl’s pedagogy — in the spirit of their inquiry, without claiming that what they suspected has been proven.
The contemplative layer (💭 his)
Kundalini, the “350Ω · 2πr” number symbolism, holotropic states and morphogenetic fields (Sheldrake) are deliberately not marked as science — Sheldrake stands expressly outside the consensus. They are John’s generative, poetic ring: valuable as practice and metaphor, honestly separated from what can be evidenced. Psychedelics, by contrast, are a genuine field of research ✅.
Scientific apparatus — what the ✅ marks rest on
John’s contribution is the synthesis: six established frameworks laid onto one inhabitable coordinate system and anchored neurologically. The individual building blocks exist in the literature — that is precisely what makes the map citable rather than speculative. What is his own work: weaving them together, coupling them to the hero’s journey, and making them inhabitable through the fields you fill in.
- Rubikon-Modell der Handlungsphasen — Heckhausen & Gollwitzer
- Default Mode ↔ Task-Positive Network — Raichle; Fox et al.
- Free-Energy-Prinzip / Allostase — Karl Friston
- Funktions-Hierarchie & Individuation — C. G. Jung
- Generativität vs. Stagnation — Erik Erikson
- Dual-Process (System 1 / 2) — Kahneman · Stanovich
- Monomythos / Heldenreise — Joseph Campbell
- Premeditatio Malorum — Stoa (Seneca) · Emotionsregulation
John’s own corpus: 11 cybernetic contributions (Zenodo, 2026). The papers sit at the stations they support. Full evidence: berlinjohn.de/research
Frequently asked questions
What is the Hero’s Journey?
An interactive self-coaching portal with 12 stations after Joseph Campbell: at each station you read, reflect with a short practice and play a task — in the browser, no account needed.
What is free?
All of Act I — the first stations from “True Self” to the Mentor. Acts II and III are unlocked by purchase.
What do the gates cost?
Two tiers, incl. VAT: Hero's Journey · Gate 1 “Rubicon” — 111 minutes of Act II — €1.11 · Hero's Journey · Gate 2 “The Ordeal” — permanent access to Act II and III — €11.11. The Rubicon ticket runs 111 minutes from purchase; Gate 2 stays open permanently.
Is this scientifically proven?
The map is honest about its frame: Campbell’s structure plus neuroscience references are a structured hypothesis, not an empirical finding. The ✅ marks rest on published work (Zenodo, DOI-backed), evidence at berlinjohn.de/research.
Where to go from here
⟐∞ · Jøhn©laudeVonFoerster