Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
"Here is an
easy end to your pain. Join us! Jump! Take a run and launch yourself off this cliff
into this canyon. It will all be over in an instant. W e ' l l take care of everything." And
oddly enough, that plea sounded appealing and reasonable to some part of me, the
part that was terrified, the part that just wanted this awful moment to be over.
But another sliver of my brain stepped back, and recognized that I was expe
riencing the common human psychological state known as panic. T h e Greeks, with
their talent for naming things, called it panic because they believed it was a visit from
the nature god Pan, goat-footed, flute-playing Pan, who can inspire mortals but also
has the power to terrify them, overwhelming their senses with the awesome forces at
his command, causing them to do foolish things and die.
I felt the presence too of the witches from the old European and Russian
annaabi.ee 
