September 6, 2025 • 36 mins
Why do humans put people on pedestals? From ancient gods and mythic warriors to modern celebrities and influencers, hero worship has been woven into the fabric of culture for thousands of years. In this episode, we dig into where hero worship began, how it shaped societies, and why it still influences the way we see leaders, stars, and even everyday role models today. Is it admiration, longing, or something deeper in our psychology? Join us as we trace the origins of hero worship—and question what it really means for us now.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, for effect, dear our aliens.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Our difference is worldwide would vanish if we were facing
an alien threat. Perhaps we need some outside universal threat
to make us recognize this common bound. Breaking news tonight,
(00:28):
Sean Diddy Combs has been arrested in an unhappy hotel.
There's a relation to some comments that you made on
a Facebook page. This is a Fox News alert.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
The Epstein Files have been released.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Across the Pond.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You're looking at now, sir.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Everything that happens now is happening for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Now, welcome back everyone to Across the Pond, the podcast
that dares to uncover the mysteries lurking beyond the veil
of reality. From government cover ups and secret experiments to
haunting scriptids and UFO encounters, we explore the unexplained and
(01:27):
the conspiracies that keep them hidden. I am your host Steinfox,
and today I want to talk to you about the
concept of hero worship or hero veneration, if you will,
(01:48):
something that has been a topic of all ages. You
could even say that it is the oldest, most natural
kind of worship there is. This has recently come to
mind through a follower, a personal follower of mine on Instagram.
(02:12):
So I decided to do some research on it and
I would like to share this with all of you.
So get ready, make sure that you are subscribed to
the channel, and if you are listening to this on
Apple podcast or Spotify, make sure to leave us a
(02:34):
five star rating. It is a small effort but means
the world to us. Also, if you're watching this or
listening to this on YouTube, make sure to like, share, subscribe,
and leave something nice in the comments. So hero worship?
(02:54):
What is it? How do we get there? How does
it start? Well, first of all, it is hard wired
in us human beings. As children, we admire our parents,
our teachers, We admire superheroes. My son, for example, seven
(03:15):
years old, and he is a major fan of Spider Man,
as he has often said that when he grows up,
he wants to be or wants to become Spider Man.
So it is really ingrained from So, really it is
hard wired into us from a very young age because
(03:41):
our parents are teachers. Those superheroes, like Spider Man, for example,
they embody perfection to us. You know, how often have
you heard or how often have you thought yourself when
looking at someone that you meyer or listening to this
(04:02):
amazing podcaster, Like, you know, all of us here out
across the pond, how how often have you thought, man,
if I could only be have as good as he is,
or have as good as they are, I would be truly,
(04:23):
truly happy. It is a adaptive mechanism in us that
provides us with comfort and self esteem. And this goes
all the way back in history. Like, if you think
about it, hero worship, it is part of you know,
(04:46):
god worship, It is part of ancestral worship. Let's take
the ancient Greeks for example, the ancient Hellenics, their form
of hero worship was a little different than the hero
worship and the hero worship we know nowadays. They didn't
aspire to be that person. They didn't aspire to be
(05:09):
that hero. They worshiped their deeds. They venerated them for
their deeds. Alexander the Great, for example, was venerated for
his boldness and for his brilliant and strategic minds. Heracles,
(05:32):
or as he's better known by his Roman name, Hercules,
is venerated for his strength and his perseverance. So it
is not Alexander the Great himself that they worship, but
they see his deeds. They see his boldness and his brilliance,
(05:54):
and they aspire to be like Alexander. They see her please,
his strength and his perseverance to do all the tasks
that are commanded of him, and they admire his perseverance.
They acknowledge his strength and aspire to be like Hercules.
(06:16):
They don't aspire to be Hercules. They don't aspire to
be Alexander. And this is also in star contrast to
how the Catholics venerates, because they see them as ideals
of virtue, so very objective, very much removed from the
(06:44):
people's themselves. And also the ancient Nordics, the ancient Germanics,
my people, your people, perhaps heroes. They admired Odin for
his wisdom. They admire Freia for the love that she has,
(07:06):
for the love that she gives. They admire Thor in
the same way that the Hellenics would admire heracles. They
admire his strength, they admire his power, his prowess in battle.
It is the same sort of worship and admiration as
(07:30):
the Hellenics would have, as the Romans would have for
their gods, for their heroes or demi gods. And speaking
of the Romans. This is where we get into more
I want to say, human hero worship, which all really
(07:53):
started with the imperial cults, which blend political power with
religious significance, something that we see nowadays as well, especially
in the United States. This is nothing against our US listeners,
(08:17):
of course, but it is something that you should maybe
pay attention to. The formal worship of emperors. The formal
formation of the imperial cults really started, or really began
under Emperor Augustus, who allowed temples to be dedicated to
(08:40):
him during his lifetime, actually in Greek cities throughout Asia Minor.
He was later on declared de v Philius, or son
of a God, so not full deification of yet, but
(09:02):
definitely presented as a divine being, definitely later on declared
to be a divine being. It wasn't until after the
assassination of Julius Caesar in forty four BC that he
(09:22):
officially was declared a god himself Deus Julius. He reached apotheosis,
as it is officially called, and generally that was done postthumously,
so after death if you were a particularly great leader
(09:48):
or have made a particularly great impact on Rome, both
as an empire, and as a city, of course, you
would be declared god, or you will be declared a
god again. It is called apotheosis to reach godhood. This
(10:11):
all really ramped up and became big with the Emperor Diocletian,
who demanded his servants, who demanded from the people of
Rome that when they saw him, when they acknowledged him,
that they bow in a ritual that they bow to
(10:33):
him in a ritual manner, which in Latin is called ruskynesis.
I know these are all, you know, pretty difficult Latin words,
and I know very little people today speak Latin, but
I'm going to do this right, so I am naming
(10:56):
the Latin words for it. And it was all so
the Emperor Diocletian who adopted sacrum or sacred for everything imperial,
so everything that was the empire, everything that belonged to
(11:16):
the empire, everything that he himself was in control of,
was sacred. And it was also Emperor Augustus, you know,
the one who allowed temples to be dedicated to him,
who claimed who crowned himself Pontifous Maximus or pontifacts Maximus,
(11:44):
or chief Priest of Rome. And you'll see this also
going back even further to Egyptian times, for example, where
a lot of the ancient kings of Egypt were also
the chief priest or even God's incarnate in the flesh.
(12:08):
If you want to know more about the ancient Egyptian
side of things, do leave us a comments. Let us
know either in the common section down below, or find
us on Instagram, TikTok or throughout the socials, and let
us know. I would be glad to dive deeper into
(12:30):
this and give you more broad examples. The imperial culleds.
The deification of emperors only really came to an end
with the rise of Christianity, to nobody's surprise. Of course,
we all know that this is the biggest, the greatest
(12:52):
example of hero worship, of hero veneration of savior worship,
especially when it comes to Christ. Christ really only became
venerated as a savior shortly after his death, when his
(13:13):
followers believed he was raised from the dead by God
himself and exalted to divine curios or Lord, and to
be the right hand of God. So this is where
we go even deeper into one single being, one single person,
(13:37):
assuming that he indeed was a person being exalted being
elevated to Godhood. This all was strengthened by visions of
the glorified Christ in heaven interpreted through the lens of scripture.
(14:02):
So it was through scripture. It was through the teachings
of his disciples and visions of the glorified Christ in
heaven that people really came to believe that He was curious,
that he was the lords that he set on the
(14:23):
right hand of God. Now, how many examples can you
name of people who elevated themselves or elevated others through
visions or dreams or you know that, or people or
entities who came to them and preached to them told
(14:47):
them that either they themselves or someone else was worthy
of worship. I mean, if you look at the Mormon Church,
for example, this is how their religion came to be.
And again, if Mormonism is something that is of interest
to you, please do let us know because we have
(15:10):
the perfect guest to explain all about it. So if
you are interested in that, let us know on Instagram
or through the comments down below. The Christ Savior figure
or the seeing Christ seeing one individual as the Savior
(15:35):
was completely new in Jewish monotheism. This wasn't known ununtil then.
So going in more modern days and this is taking
a leap to the nineteenth century. Yes, I'm skipping a
whole lot of centuries. Otherwise would be an incredibly long video,
(16:01):
this would be an incredible long podcast. But trust me,
I will come with some more ancient examples. It was
Thomas Carlyle who claimed in his book on Heroes, hero Worship,
and the Heroic in History that history is shaped by
(16:22):
great man and the veneration of such figures is an
innate human traits essential for societal progress and moral uplift.
This is kind of where we go back into what
I said at the very beginning, that hero worship or
(16:43):
a hero worship as such, is hardwired into us human beings,
starting as children. Modern day hero worship is very much
shaped by duality. I'm sure you have all seen have
all known examples of this, the duality of intense admiration
(17:10):
but at the same time a strong desire to expose this.
Individual examples of this would be Frank Sinatra and Tiger Woods,
who have dealt with this throughout their lifetimes. And you
(17:31):
could really sum this up in a single sentence, we
love you as gods. We love you as heroes, but
we need you to be human, We need you to
have flaws, We need you to be flawed. This is
also where we go into celebrity worship, which is something
(17:57):
very very bad, something very dangerous. Celebrity worship, of course,
mostly defined by parasocial relations. Eminem for example, his song
Stan is a beautiful example of this, or how many
(18:18):
celebrities have been unfortunately killed by their biggest fan just
because of admiration and kind of you know, really celebrity
worship pera social relations developing into a form of psychosis.
(18:40):
A more modern example would also be, for example, simps.
I'm sure most of us are familiar with that term,
mostly pertaining to egirls or internet celebrities and their fans
who will spend and thousands and thousands of euros, pounds, dollars,
(19:05):
whatever your currency is on these mostly girls and expecting
something in return, expecting acknowledgement, expecting them to recognize them,
or you know, sometimes even more, there are plenty of
(19:26):
stories of men who are so enamored with these women,
with these girls, often that they spend their life savings
on them just to have those girls. Have Those young
(19:46):
women acknowledge them, also giving the rise to only fans
of course, and if celebrity worship simps and stance is
thing that you wish we elaborate more on. Let us know.
Celebrity worship is, of course a thing of all ages.
(20:09):
This is nothing new. I am a big wrestling fan,
a big pro wrestling fan myself, and the characters that
the wrestlers portray are of course larger than life. The feuds,
the blood feuds, are intense. They sweep you up in
(20:35):
their stories, and even I have been guilty of thinking
of feeling that the stories are real, that the characters
that they portray are real. I remember during the initial
run of seth Rawlins, his initial heel turn after he
(20:58):
portrayed the Shields. Sorry, I'm kind of going into wrestling
stories now. I'm sure that not all of you are
wrestling fans, but this is just to give a proper
personal example. So seth Rawlins in his seth Rawlins, in
(21:18):
his time as the Architects, when he first betrayed this
shield and aligned himself with the authority, I hated him.
I hated how he portrayed himself, I hated how he acted,
I hated the authority, and I wished to see them
(21:44):
all out of power. I wished to see seth Rawlins fired,
to let go of WWE because what good does he do.
It was only later on, later in life when I,
you know, kind of grew out of it. This was
back in my early twenties, of course, but when I
(22:06):
grew out of it that I realized, Wow, they got me,
they got to me. I believed this was real. I
hated the character, I hated the man, but I saw
the man as the character. So this is a more
(22:27):
personal example of how celebrity worship, of how celebrity hatreds
can come to be. But kind of going back to
the Roman times, it is often said that football players,
for example, or MMA fighters or even pro wrestlers are
(22:50):
modern day gladiators. And I think, if you're going to
make a comparison, I think pro wrestlers are the best ones,
because even the gladiators, you know who you think of
of these strong, burly man, these you know, hardened fighters.
(23:12):
Let's not forget that that too was mostly show bread
and games, with the emphasis on games to keep the
populace occupied, something that is still being done unfortunately through
means as pro wrestling through means as football games and contests.
(23:40):
What even gladiators had their own merchandise, And we know
of this because there have been several pieces of merchandise found.
Glasses with the likeness of gladiators, burns, wooden plaques with
the likeness of gladiat and even the sweat of a
(24:07):
gladiator was sold and among the high class, among the
upper class, among the elite, it was seen as a
very popular and a very potent aphrodisiac another you know,
kind of difficult words, but to put it in layman's terms,
(24:28):
if you drank the sweat of a gladiator, if you,
I don't know, drenched yourself in the sweat of a gladiator,
you or your partner or whoever you were with, would
become incredibly horny, incredibly aroused. You know, it would increase
(24:53):
your sexual potency. And also for the ladies of the
upper class. And I'm sorry ladies that I'm about to
say this, but it was very popular to be used
in cosmetics or beauty products. So the sweat of a
(25:15):
gladiator would make you more beautiful, would give you that
radiant skin that we are all looking for. And this
is also, of course kind of reminiscent. Going back to
egirls of selling bathwater, it was Belle Delphine who really
(25:36):
popularized that. And don't ask me how I know. Unfortunately
I am also at times chronically online, so I know
too much about this. I know more than I I
wish I knew. Well, this is a thing of all ages.
Nowadays it's egirl bath water. Back in the days, it
(25:59):
was gladiator sweat, and now, of course, as we see
more and more, it is marvel superheroes. It is also
what is called the marvelization of Hollywood that has caused
hero worship or hero veneration to reach levels that I
(26:26):
don't think we have ever seen or haven't seen since
the Gladiators of Rome. And speaking of Rome, speaking of
the Roman Empire. Politics, politicians also of course seen as heroes,
seen as gods, seen as demi gods. Think back about
(26:47):
what I said about Julius Caesar or Emperor Augustus. I
think about figures as Donald Trump, for example, or even
one of his predecessors, Barrock Obama. They have been put
onto a pedestal and are seen or expected to save America,
(27:11):
to save you know, the Western world from the big
bad that is China, that is Russia, that is the communists,
that is I don't know, name a bad guy of
the last one hundred years. It is the President of America,
(27:34):
the leader of the Free West, that is expected to
save them from it. And I can narrow that down
even more, of course, within the last let's say five years,
five to eight, speaking of Trump, the rise of q
(27:54):
or QAnon. You know another hero, someone bed behind the scenes,
working with a powerful individual who is gonna save us all.
And we need not worry. We can just sit back
and watch it all unfolds. Because the world is a stage.
(28:18):
They know all the players, and all the players are
just bad actors, and the story will unfold, the veil
will be lifted, we will see, we will know what
happens behind the curtain. Insert Wizard of Last quote here.
(28:39):
But yeah, or you know, as as in the in
the Netherlands. Unfortunately, where I am from, we have heard
builders or the chairman or former chairman of Forum for
DEMOCRATSI for Democracy, Jerrybody, all very populist figures who say
(29:09):
exactly what the people want to hear, who say exactly
those things that we want them to say. How much
of it actually becomes true. How much of what they
promise us actually becomes truth they actually put into practice
that remains to be seen so far, not a whole lot, unfortunately.
(29:36):
And this is also where we get into the psychological aspects,
into the well psychosis that is modern day hero worship.
We keep waiting for a savior, We keep pointing to
someone to be our savior, whether it be Trump, whether
(29:58):
it be Cherry b whether it be QAnon, whether it
be the second Coming of Christ, where he will cleanse
the world of sin once more. It is all proliferated
through our superhero movies. It is prolifer It is proliferated
(30:20):
through figures such as Batman, the Dark Avenger. It is
proliferated through figures such as Superman, who is the ultimate good,
of course, and that is why you know movies such
as Batman views Superman are so incredible, are so incredibly popular.
(30:45):
It is the duality of dark versus lights. It is
the duality of the dark Avenger versus the one who
will do no harm to mankind and only is here
to serve us, to say us, Unfortunately for mankind, unfortunately
for all of us, it is not as easy as that,
(31:08):
And for everyone who still believes that we will be saved,
whether it be through you know, an alien race. Even
that's another thing, spiritual psychosis. I'll go into that in
another show, because boy, that goes deep and can be
(31:29):
definitely connected to hero worship, to hero veneration. Well, it's
not going to be an alien race. It's not going
to be the Pleadians. It's not going to be the
Divine Council. It's not going to be Trump. It's not
going to be QAnon. It's not going to be the
second Coming of Christ that will save us. They have
(31:52):
made us all these promises, they have sketched all these
beautiful scenario for us. You know, especially I'm sorry that
I keep going back to him, but he is such
a great example of this, especially Trump. He will make
(32:12):
America great again, and all the people are just waiting
and watching deal he will do so. He will drain
the swamp, and in meantime, he makes the rich even richer,
makes himself even more powerful. He is, in a way,
(32:35):
the second coming of Nero. He's gonna watch Rome burn,
He's gonna watch America burn while he himself sits on
his golden throne. So yeah, I am going to leave
it at this for you all to think about. If
(32:56):
you know of any more examples, or if you have
something to say about all of this, Whether you agree
with me or disagree with me, I would love to
hear your thoughts. I would love to hear your opinions.
Find us on YouTube, Find us on Instagram, find us
(33:18):
on TikTok, Across the Pond UK or Across the Pond Podcasts,
or even easier than that, go to our website ww
dot Across the Ponds dot co dot uk, where you
will find all the links to everything that we do,
where you will find the most recent and newest episodes
(33:43):
of Across the Pond Podcasts. I thank you all for listening.
I think you all for sticking with me. Please do like,
share and subscribe your thoughts in the comments down below,
or send your thoughts to us over our social platforms.
(34:07):
We are very curious as to what you think. Again,
whether you agree or disagree, do let us know if
you are listening to this on either Spotify or Apple podcasts.
Leave us a five star rating. If you do, you
will be our personal hero. It is a small effort
(34:29):
but means the world to us. It will push our content.
It will push our podcast further into the algorithm. It
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everyone that needs to learn these lessons, everyone that is
curious about it. So for now, I thank you all
(34:52):
and until next time, until the next episodes of Across
the Pond podcast, but by from one.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Stuttttttus contect contracts at Constett const
You know, for effect, dear our aliens.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Our difference is worldwide would vanish if we were facing
an alien threat. Perhaps we need some outside universal threat
to make us recognize this common bound. Breaking news tonight,
(00:28):
Sean Diddy Combs has been arrested in an unhappy hotel.
There's a relation to some comments that you made on
a Facebook page. This is a Fox News alert.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
The Epstein Files have been released.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Across the Pond.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You're looking at now, sir.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Everything that happens now is happening for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Now, welcome back everyone to Across the Pond, the podcast
that dares to uncover the mysteries lurking beyond the veil
of reality. From government cover ups and secret experiments to
haunting scriptids and UFO encounters, we explore the unexplained and
(01:27):
the conspiracies that keep them hidden. I am your host Steinfox,
and today I want to talk to you about the
concept of hero worship or hero veneration, if you will,
(01:48):
something that has been a topic of all ages. You
could even say that it is the oldest, most natural
kind of worship there is. This has recently come to
mind through a follower, a personal follower of mine on Instagram.
(02:12):
So I decided to do some research on it and
I would like to share this with all of you.
So get ready, make sure that you are subscribed to
the channel, and if you are listening to this on
Apple podcast or Spotify, make sure to leave us a
(02:34):
five star rating. It is a small effort but means
the world to us. Also, if you're watching this or
listening to this on YouTube, make sure to like, share, subscribe,
and leave something nice in the comments. So hero worship?
(02:54):
What is it? How do we get there? How does
it start? Well, first of all, it is hard wired
in us human beings. As children, we admire our parents,
our teachers, We admire superheroes. My son, for example, seven
(03:15):
years old, and he is a major fan of Spider Man,
as he has often said that when he grows up,
he wants to be or wants to become Spider Man.
So it is really ingrained from So, really it is
hard wired into us from a very young age because
(03:41):
our parents are teachers. Those superheroes, like Spider Man, for example,
they embody perfection to us. You know, how often have
you heard or how often have you thought yourself when
looking at someone that you meyer or listening to this
(04:02):
amazing podcaster, Like, you know, all of us here out
across the pond, how how often have you thought, man,
if I could only be have as good as he is,
or have as good as they are, I would be truly,
(04:23):
truly happy. It is a adaptive mechanism in us that
provides us with comfort and self esteem. And this goes
all the way back in history. Like, if you think
about it, hero worship, it is part of you know,
(04:46):
god worship, It is part of ancestral worship. Let's take
the ancient Greeks for example, the ancient Hellenics, their form
of hero worship was a little different than the hero
worship and the hero worship we know nowadays. They didn't
aspire to be that person. They didn't aspire to be
(05:09):
that hero. They worshiped their deeds. They venerated them for
their deeds. Alexander the Great, for example, was venerated for
his boldness and for his brilliant and strategic minds. Heracles,
(05:32):
or as he's better known by his Roman name, Hercules,
is venerated for his strength and his perseverance. So it
is not Alexander the Great himself that they worship, but
they see his deeds. They see his boldness and his brilliance,
(05:54):
and they aspire to be like Alexander. They see her please,
his strength and his perseverance to do all the tasks
that are commanded of him, and they admire his perseverance.
They acknowledge his strength and aspire to be like Hercules.
(06:16):
They don't aspire to be Hercules. They don't aspire to
be Alexander. And this is also in star contrast to
how the Catholics venerates, because they see them as ideals
of virtue, so very objective, very much removed from the
(06:44):
people's themselves. And also the ancient Nordics, the ancient Germanics,
my people, your people, perhaps heroes. They admired Odin for
his wisdom. They admire Freia for the love that she has,
(07:06):
for the love that she gives. They admire Thor in
the same way that the Hellenics would admire heracles. They
admire his strength, they admire his power, his prowess in battle.
It is the same sort of worship and admiration as
(07:30):
the Hellenics would have, as the Romans would have for
their gods, for their heroes or demi gods. And speaking
of the Romans. This is where we get into more
I want to say, human hero worship, which all really
(07:53):
started with the imperial cults, which blend political power with
religious significance, something that we see nowadays as well, especially
in the United States. This is nothing against our US listeners,
(08:17):
of course, but it is something that you should maybe
pay attention to. The formal worship of emperors. The formal
formation of the imperial cults really started, or really began
under Emperor Augustus, who allowed temples to be dedicated to
(08:40):
him during his lifetime, actually in Greek cities throughout Asia Minor.
He was later on declared de v Philius, or son
of a God, so not full deification of yet, but
(09:02):
definitely presented as a divine being, definitely later on declared
to be a divine being. It wasn't until after the
assassination of Julius Caesar in forty four BC that he
(09:22):
officially was declared a god himself Deus Julius. He reached apotheosis,
as it is officially called, and generally that was done postthumously,
so after death if you were a particularly great leader
(09:48):
or have made a particularly great impact on Rome, both
as an empire, and as a city, of course, you
would be declared god, or you will be declared a
god again. It is called apotheosis to reach godhood. This
(10:11):
all really ramped up and became big with the Emperor Diocletian,
who demanded his servants, who demanded from the people of
Rome that when they saw him, when they acknowledged him,
that they bow in a ritual that they bow to
(10:33):
him in a ritual manner, which in Latin is called ruskynesis.
I know these are all, you know, pretty difficult Latin words,
and I know very little people today speak Latin, but
I'm going to do this right, so I am naming
(10:56):
the Latin words for it. And it was all so
the Emperor Diocletian who adopted sacrum or sacred for everything imperial,
so everything that was the empire, everything that belonged to
(11:16):
the empire, everything that he himself was in control of,
was sacred. And it was also Emperor Augustus, you know,
the one who allowed temples to be dedicated to him,
who claimed who crowned himself Pontifous Maximus or pontifacts Maximus,
(11:44):
or chief Priest of Rome. And you'll see this also
going back even further to Egyptian times, for example, where
a lot of the ancient kings of Egypt were also
the chief priest or even God's incarnate in the flesh.
(12:08):
If you want to know more about the ancient Egyptian
side of things, do leave us a comments. Let us
know either in the common section down below, or find
us on Instagram, TikTok or throughout the socials, and let
us know. I would be glad to dive deeper into
(12:30):
this and give you more broad examples. The imperial culleds.
The deification of emperors only really came to an end
with the rise of Christianity, to nobody's surprise. Of course,
we all know that this is the biggest, the greatest
(12:52):
example of hero worship, of hero veneration of savior worship,
especially when it comes to Christ. Christ really only became
venerated as a savior shortly after his death, when his
(13:13):
followers believed he was raised from the dead by God
himself and exalted to divine curios or Lord, and to
be the right hand of God. So this is where
we go even deeper into one single being, one single person,
(13:37):
assuming that he indeed was a person being exalted being
elevated to Godhood. This all was strengthened by visions of
the glorified Christ in heaven interpreted through the lens of scripture.
(14:02):
So it was through scripture. It was through the teachings
of his disciples and visions of the glorified Christ in
heaven that people really came to believe that He was curious,
that he was the lords that he set on the
(14:23):
right hand of God. Now, how many examples can you
name of people who elevated themselves or elevated others through
visions or dreams or you know that, or people or
entities who came to them and preached to them told
(14:47):
them that either they themselves or someone else was worthy
of worship. I mean, if you look at the Mormon Church,
for example, this is how their religion came to be.
And again, if Mormonism is something that is of interest
to you, please do let us know because we have
(15:10):
the perfect guest to explain all about it. So if
you are interested in that, let us know on Instagram
or through the comments down below. The Christ Savior figure
or the seeing Christ seeing one individual as the Savior
(15:35):
was completely new in Jewish monotheism. This wasn't known ununtil then.
So going in more modern days and this is taking
a leap to the nineteenth century. Yes, I'm skipping a
whole lot of centuries. Otherwise would be an incredibly long video,
(16:01):
this would be an incredible long podcast. But trust me,
I will come with some more ancient examples. It was
Thomas Carlyle who claimed in his book on Heroes, hero Worship,
and the Heroic in History that history is shaped by
(16:22):
great man and the veneration of such figures is an
innate human traits essential for societal progress and moral uplift.
This is kind of where we go back into what
I said at the very beginning, that hero worship or
(16:43):
a hero worship as such, is hardwired into us human beings,
starting as children. Modern day hero worship is very much
shaped by duality. I'm sure you have all seen have
all known examples of this, the duality of intense admiration
(17:10):
but at the same time a strong desire to expose this.
Individual examples of this would be Frank Sinatra and Tiger Woods,
who have dealt with this throughout their lifetimes. And you
(17:31):
could really sum this up in a single sentence, we
love you as gods. We love you as heroes, but
we need you to be human, We need you to
have flaws, We need you to be flawed. This is
also where we go into celebrity worship, which is something
(17:57):
very very bad, something very dangerous. Celebrity worship, of course,
mostly defined by parasocial relations. Eminem for example, his song
Stan is a beautiful example of this, or how many
(18:18):
celebrities have been unfortunately killed by their biggest fan just
because of admiration and kind of you know, really celebrity
worship pera social relations developing into a form of psychosis.
(18:40):
A more modern example would also be, for example, simps.
I'm sure most of us are familiar with that term,
mostly pertaining to egirls or internet celebrities and their fans
who will spend and thousands and thousands of euros, pounds, dollars,
(19:05):
whatever your currency is on these mostly girls and expecting
something in return, expecting acknowledgement, expecting them to recognize them,
or you know, sometimes even more, there are plenty of
(19:26):
stories of men who are so enamored with these women,
with these girls, often that they spend their life savings
on them just to have those girls. Have Those young
(19:46):
women acknowledge them, also giving the rise to only fans
of course, and if celebrity worship simps and stance is
thing that you wish we elaborate more on. Let us know.
Celebrity worship is, of course a thing of all ages.
(20:09):
This is nothing new. I am a big wrestling fan,
a big pro wrestling fan myself, and the characters that
the wrestlers portray are of course larger than life. The feuds,
the blood feuds, are intense. They sweep you up in
(20:35):
their stories, and even I have been guilty of thinking
of feeling that the stories are real, that the characters
that they portray are real. I remember during the initial
run of seth Rawlins, his initial heel turn after he
(20:58):
portrayed the Shields. Sorry, I'm kind of going into wrestling
stories now. I'm sure that not all of you are
wrestling fans, but this is just to give a proper
personal example. So seth Rawlins in his seth Rawlins, in
(21:18):
his time as the Architects, when he first betrayed this
shield and aligned himself with the authority, I hated him.
I hated how he portrayed himself, I hated how he acted,
I hated the authority, and I wished to see them
(21:44):
all out of power. I wished to see seth Rawlins fired,
to let go of WWE because what good does he do.
It was only later on, later in life when I,
you know, kind of grew out of it. This was
back in my early twenties, of course, but when I
(22:06):
grew out of it that I realized, Wow, they got me,
they got to me. I believed this was real. I
hated the character, I hated the man, but I saw
the man as the character. So this is a more
(22:27):
personal example of how celebrity worship, of how celebrity hatreds
can come to be. But kind of going back to
the Roman times, it is often said that football players,
for example, or MMA fighters or even pro wrestlers are
(22:50):
modern day gladiators. And I think, if you're going to
make a comparison, I think pro wrestlers are the best ones,
because even the gladiators, you know who you think of
of these strong, burly man, these you know, hardened fighters.
(23:12):
Let's not forget that that too was mostly show bread
and games, with the emphasis on games to keep the
populace occupied, something that is still being done unfortunately through
means as pro wrestling through means as football games and contests.
(23:40):
What even gladiators had their own merchandise, And we know
of this because there have been several pieces of merchandise found.
Glasses with the likeness of gladiators, burns, wooden plaques with
the likeness of gladiat and even the sweat of a
(24:07):
gladiator was sold and among the high class, among the
upper class, among the elite, it was seen as a
very popular and a very potent aphrodisiac another you know,
kind of difficult words, but to put it in layman's terms,
(24:28):
if you drank the sweat of a gladiator, if you,
I don't know, drenched yourself in the sweat of a gladiator,
you or your partner or whoever you were with, would
become incredibly horny, incredibly aroused. You know, it would increase
(24:53):
your sexual potency. And also for the ladies of the
upper class. And I'm sorry ladies that I'm about to
say this, but it was very popular to be used
in cosmetics or beauty products. So the sweat of a
(25:15):
gladiator would make you more beautiful, would give you that
radiant skin that we are all looking for. And this
is also, of course kind of reminiscent. Going back to
egirls of selling bathwater, it was Belle Delphine who really
(25:36):
popularized that. And don't ask me how I know. Unfortunately
I am also at times chronically online, so I know
too much about this. I know more than I I
wish I knew. Well, this is a thing of all ages.
Nowadays it's egirl bath water. Back in the days, it
(25:59):
was gladiator sweat, and now, of course, as we see
more and more, it is marvel superheroes. It is also
what is called the marvelization of Hollywood that has caused
hero worship or hero veneration to reach levels that I
(26:26):
don't think we have ever seen or haven't seen since
the Gladiators of Rome. And speaking of Rome, speaking of
the Roman Empire. Politics, politicians also of course seen as heroes,
seen as gods, seen as demi gods. Think back about
(26:47):
what I said about Julius Caesar or Emperor Augustus. I
think about figures as Donald Trump, for example, or even
one of his predecessors, Barrock Obama. They have been put
onto a pedestal and are seen or expected to save America,
(27:11):
to save you know, the Western world from the big
bad that is China, that is Russia, that is the communists,
that is I don't know, name a bad guy of
the last one hundred years. It is the President of America,
(27:34):
the leader of the Free West, that is expected to
save them from it. And I can narrow that down
even more, of course, within the last let's say five years,
five to eight, speaking of Trump, the rise of q
(27:54):
or QAnon. You know another hero, someone bed behind the scenes,
working with a powerful individual who is gonna save us all.
And we need not worry. We can just sit back
and watch it all unfolds. Because the world is a stage.
(28:18):
They know all the players, and all the players are
just bad actors, and the story will unfold, the veil
will be lifted, we will see, we will know what
happens behind the curtain. Insert Wizard of Last quote here.
(28:39):
But yeah, or you know, as as in the in
the Netherlands. Unfortunately, where I am from, we have heard
builders or the chairman or former chairman of Forum for
DEMOCRATSI for Democracy, Jerrybody, all very populist figures who say
(29:09):
exactly what the people want to hear, who say exactly
those things that we want them to say. How much
of it actually becomes true. How much of what they
promise us actually becomes truth they actually put into practice
that remains to be seen so far, not a whole lot, unfortunately.
(29:36):
And this is also where we get into the psychological aspects,
into the well psychosis that is modern day hero worship.
We keep waiting for a savior, We keep pointing to
someone to be our savior, whether it be Trump, whether
(29:58):
it be Cherry b whether it be QAnon, whether it
be the second Coming of Christ, where he will cleanse
the world of sin once more. It is all proliferated
through our superhero movies. It is prolifer It is proliferated
(30:20):
through figures such as Batman, the Dark Avenger. It is
proliferated through figures such as Superman, who is the ultimate good,
of course, and that is why you know movies such
as Batman views Superman are so incredible, are so incredibly popular.
(30:45):
It is the duality of dark versus lights. It is
the duality of the dark Avenger versus the one who
will do no harm to mankind and only is here
to serve us, to say us, Unfortunately for mankind, unfortunately
for all of us, it is not as easy as that,
(31:08):
And for everyone who still believes that we will be saved,
whether it be through you know, an alien race. Even
that's another thing, spiritual psychosis. I'll go into that in
another show, because boy, that goes deep and can be
(31:29):
definitely connected to hero worship, to hero veneration. Well, it's
not going to be an alien race. It's not going
to be the Pleadians. It's not going to be the
Divine Council. It's not going to be Trump. It's not
going to be QAnon. It's not going to be the
second Coming of Christ that will save us. They have
(31:52):
made us all these promises, they have sketched all these
beautiful scenario for us. You know, especially I'm sorry that
I keep going back to him, but he is such
a great example of this, especially Trump. He will make
(32:12):
America great again, and all the people are just waiting
and watching deal he will do so. He will drain
the swamp, and in meantime, he makes the rich even richer,
makes himself even more powerful. He is, in a way,
(32:35):
the second coming of Nero. He's gonna watch Rome burn,
He's gonna watch America burn while he himself sits on
his golden throne. So yeah, I am going to leave
it at this for you all to think about. If
(32:56):
you know of any more examples, or if you have
something to say about all of this, Whether you agree
with me or disagree with me, I would love to
hear your thoughts. I would love to hear your opinions.
Find us on YouTube, Find us on Instagram, find us
(33:18):
on TikTok, Across the Pond UK or Across the Pond Podcasts,
or even easier than that, go to our website ww
dot Across the Ponds dot co dot uk, where you
will find all the links to everything that we do,
where you will find the most recent and newest episodes
(33:43):
of Across the Pond Podcasts. I thank you all for listening.
I think you all for sticking with me. Please do like,
share and subscribe your thoughts in the comments down below,
or send your thoughts to us over our social platforms.
(34:07):
We are very curious as to what you think. Again,
whether you agree or disagree, do let us know if
you are listening to this on either Spotify or Apple podcasts.
Leave us a five star rating. If you do, you
will be our personal hero. It is a small effort
(34:29):
but means the world to us. It will push our content.
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everyone that needs to learn these lessons, everyone that is
curious about it. So for now, I thank you all
(34:52):
and until next time, until the next episodes of Across
the Pond podcast, but by from one.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Stuttttttus contect contracts at Constett const
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