George Lucas filmed lessons for his Star Wars fans / Star Wars audience in summer of 1986 and summer of 1987, released in summer of 1988 “Power of Myth”.

BILL MOYERS: What is the illumination?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The illumination is the recognition of the radiance of one eternity through all things, whether in the vision of time these things are judged as good or as evil. To come to this, you must release yourself completely from desiring the goods of this world and fearing their loss. “Judge not that you be not judged,” we read in the words of Jesus. “If the doors of perception were cleansed,” wrote Blake, “man would see everything as it is, infinite.”

MOYERS: That’s a tough trip.

CAMPBELL: That’s a heavenly trip.

MOYERS: But is this really just for saints and monks?

CAMPBELL: No, I think it’s also for artists. The real artist is the one who has learned to recognize and to render what James Joyce has called the “radiance” of all things, as an epiphany or showing forth of their truth.

MOYERS: But doesn’t this leave all the rest of us ordinary mortals back on shore?

CAMPBELL: I don’t think there is any such thing as an ordinary mortal. Everybody has his own possibility of rapture in the experience of life. All he has to do is recognize it and then cultivate it and get going with it. I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I’ve never met an ordinary man, woman, or child.

MOYERS: But is art the only way one can achieve this illumination?

CAMPBELL: Art and religion are the two recommended ways. I don’t think you get it through sheer academic philosophy, which gets all tangled up in concepts.