The ancient myths and saga of Harry Potter tell one eternal story. Why - explains culturologist Oksana Sedykh

For thousands of years, mankind has come up with so many fairy tales and legends that it is impossible to count them. But scientists say that every story that resonates with listeners, readers, or viewers is based on the same pattern.

What kind of plot it is and where it came from, philosopher Oksana Sedykh and journalist Boris Vedensky figured it out. Their conversation posted on the YouTube channel "The basis", and we made a summary.

Initiation is an important stage of human life

There is one common detail in the fates of people from different historical periods and classes. It unites both the ancient inhabitants, who recently emerged from the caves, and the modern inhabitants of the digital world. Here it is: each person must pass tests that help him rise to the next stage of development.

In a computer game, this can happen mechanically. Accumulated a certain amount of experience - open the next level. In life, everything is different. Every major transition involves a ritual of initiation. Or, as scientists call it, the process of initiation.

It may look different. But there is only one scenario.

1. The person loses his sense of comfort

Living conditions that previously seemed normal cease to suit the hero. When the situation becomes unbearable, he decides: something is needed change.

A person can put off change, try to adapt to reality. But sooner or later, he still understands that he should not hesitate any longer. He wants something new, yet unfamiliar. Otherwise, disappointment and longing.

2. The hero finds himself in a different environment and undergoes a serious test.

In this, a person is helped by the experience that he has accumulated at the previous stage. An important condition: the initiator knows perfectly well that he can fail. For example, an applicant takes entrance exams exams to a university for a creative specialty and may not pass through the competition. Or the applicant does a difficult test task, but another person can be hired for an interesting and prestigious job.

One of the analogues of such tests in antiquity is the rite of initiation into hunters. True, this initiation was much more severe. It could happen like this: after a certain ritual, young people went to the forest to defeat a wild beast.

Who returned with trophies - well done, he is honored as an adult. Whoever failed and left the fight has not yet grown up. He will get a chance to be initiated again in a year. Well, if someone stayed in the forest - it's a pity. So, he could not return from the other world.

3. The one who passed the test begins a new life stage

The person gets a completely different role than before. He enters a new game with different rules. So, the hero begins to learn again.

For example, at a new job, he has to master unfamiliar tools and cope with unusual responsibilities. But it is easy to get used to such changes. There are more serious stages - marriage and the birth of a child. They bring changes that a person might not have suspected before. Another important transition is death. Those who are forever breaks up with a loved one, this will be confirmed.

So all our lives we move from status to status, from one level to another. And then the cycle repeats again.

All the stories of the world are stories of initiations

The statement that a person needs to periodically leave the comfort zone was not invented by modern psychologists. Each of us, sooner or later, there are circumstances when this is indispensable.

The process of transition from stage to stage seems quite natural to us: humanity has been living according to this scenario since the Stone Age. That's why everything myths, legends, tales, parables, ballads and other oral and written stories tell about the same thing. Their main goal is to show how a person goes through initiation, what helps him in this. And what should be known to those who are now only preparing for initiation.

The brighter the story, the more emotional information it contains for those who still face trials, the more valuable it is. And it's more likely that a legend, novel or movie saga will get a lot of devoted fans. After all, such stories testify that even from the most difficult trials you can come out alive and transformed. And they show what a hero must be in order to succeed.

In all the popular stories of the world there is one "thousand-faced hero"

The most famous study on the topic of stories common to all mankind was conducted by Joseph Campbell. In 1949, his book,hero with a thousand faces». In it, he wrote in detail about the scheme, which can be found in Russian fairy tales, and in biblical stories, and in ancient Greek myths. Modern bestsellers are also built according to this algorithm.

The monomyth that Campbell spoke of has three main stages:

1. Exodus. The hero can no longer or does not want to remain in the same conditions. He hears a call that invites him to leave the familiar environment and go to another world. Then the hero enters a completely different universe through some kind of portal, where he will have to go through serious tests. In Russian fairy tales, Baba Yaga’s hut often becomes such a portal, and a dark forest or kingdoms that are “beyond distant lands” become a new dangerous world.
2. Initiation. At this stage, the hero learns, meets helpers and meets with enemies. Then he passes all the required tests and gains strength. An example is the school year at Hogwarts. There, the heroes master all the wisdom of magic, and also face various dangers that they overcome with difficulty.
3. Return. The hero can return to the former world, but he no longer looks like former self. He got new opportunities and opened up horizons that he had not even seen before. Now the hero can make his former world better. An example is the return of Ivan Tsarevich home after all the tasks completed. He passed the tests, brought the firebird and received many magical gifts.

When we watch or read a story, we often associate ourselves with the main characters. So, together with them we go through the whole path of change. It seems to us that we learn their lessons, get their experience, make discoveries together with them.

George Lucas made no secret of the fact that he created Star Wars exactly according to the scheme proposed by Campbell. Therefore, the author of the "Hero with a Thousand Faces" is considered the grandfather of "Star Wars". The same principle of plot construction underlies blockbusters about Iron Man or Spiderman. According to the same algorithm, the Harry Potter saga was created.

We read or watch these stories and get a little better too. At least we like to think so.