I've always thought the superhero genre has had a bigger influence on our culture than people know. O.K. I say always thought, but that isn't true. I guess I've only been reflecting on the idea since I started reading writers like Ken Kesey and other beatniks. They seem to have been influenced by their comic book heroes when they were kids.

I don't want to get into the notion of heroes and myths in detail other than to say I see the superheros as mythic characters. The reason I am thinking about this right now is because I listened to an interview yesterday between Andrew Cohen and three gurus:

• Swami Chetanananda


• Master Charles Cannon

and

• Swami Shankarananda

The funniest thing they said was when they were talking about great power and great responsibility and they all said 'did you see that Spiderman movie?'.