This is a sheet of paper I saved over English class of senior year. It's meant for writing, but it has useful information here I think could benefit the rpgmaker community.

Before starting I'd like to extend a hearty thank you to Karr, Lord of Chaos! I've always had the idea of doing this, but Karr's topic (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7810) gave me the extra motivational boost I needed to make this topic. Thank you Karr!

This is a word for word translation, and I take no credit for it, I didn't create it. I merely put it up here for all to see.

It took roughly an hour to type this all up.

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The Great Adventure
Primitive man knew life as a cycle: birth and childhood (dependancy), adulthood (independence), and death (a return to the eternal). He also saw that life itself was an unending series of smaller cycles, challenges which we face and overcome if we are to grow. This awareness of life's cycles and their importance is reflected in the pattern of "The Hero's Journey", or Quest, which we see repeated again and again in mythology and literature.
The Hero's Journey is similiar to the primitive Rite of Passage, which initiates a child into adulthood. In a Rite of Passage, a child first faces seperation, when he or is taken from his mother to confront some fearful monster or danger. The child faces the monster, and goes through an initiation, giving up his role as a dependant child. Then the child must return to his village as an adult, ready to take on adult responsibilities.

Basis of the Journey
Like a rite of passage, the Hero's Journey requires a seperation from the comfortable, known world: an initiation to a new level of awareness, skill and responsibility; and the return to the world.
This pattern is not simply the invention of the ancient storytellers. It is part of the human process of growth and discovery. Myths are metaphors for this process. While you can see the Journey most easily in the classical myths, you can also see it repeated in literature, movies (suchas Star Wars, Top Gun, Rocky, and Field of Dreams) and-if you look carefully-in your own lives.
The Journey can be divided into eight different stages. Each of these must be passed successfully if the initiate is to become a hero. To turn back at any point would mean our initiate is rejecting his own need to grow and mature.

The Seperation
The Call

The Call invities the initiate into the adventure, offers him the opportunity to face the unknown and gain something of physical or spiritual value. The initiate may choose willingly to undertake the quest, or he may be thrust into the adventure, whether he likes it or not.
In general, the Call comes as a realization of an imbalance or injustice in the initiate's life, and it can take many forms.
Often the Call comes when the initiate has had something taken from him, his family, or his society. He goes on a quest to reclaim what was taken. The call may be a sensation that there is something lacking in life, and the initiate must search for what is missing.
Another type of call comes when the initiate realizes that something is not permitted to members of his society, and he goes out to win these rights for his people. Often the call involves nothing more than a need to save honor.
Sometimes the initiate refuses the call. When this happens, the adventure turns into the opposite. By refusing to act, the initiate gives up the ability to take positive action. He rejects growth and responsibility. He sees the future not as a series of cycles moving toward awareness and power, but as a threat to his ideals, virtues, goals, and advantages. He is locked within the labyrinth of his own mind. His world becomes a wasteland, and his life feels meaningless.

The Threshold

The Threshold of adventure is the point at which the initiate leaves the known to enter the unknown. It is the "jumping off point," the interface between normal everyday life and adventure.
At this point (and often later), the initiate will encounter a helper (or helpers) or a guide. Helpers provide assistance or direction. The help may come in the form of a divine gift, such as a tailsman which will help him through the ordeal ahead.
The guide keeps the initiate focused on his or goal and gives him a physical or psychological center, an anchor for when the danger is greatest.
Helpers and guides also have a fortunate tendency to appear at the most opportune moments, just when the initiate is about to be killed, for example. We call this "synchronicity".

The Descent

The Descent may not actually involve "descending" into something. It is, rather, a voyage into uncharted territory , either physical or mental. The initiate gets farther and farther into the unknown, putting himself more and more at risk.

The Initiation
Tests and Ordeals

Oh his quest, the initiate faces a series of Tests and Ordeals which challenge him to the utmost, force him to grow physically or mentally. The tests see to it that the initiate should really be a hero and prepare him for the greater tasks ahead.

Into the Abyss

When he reacjes the Abyss, the initiate faces the greatest danger and challenge of the journey. Usually the initiate must face the abyss alone. He must also overcome his greatest fears. The challenge is so great at this point that our initiate must give himself completely to the quest, lose himself in the adventure.
Here is where the initiate must "slay the dragon." The dragon often takes the shape of something the hero dreads or needs to overcome.
Sometimes the initiate is not really ready or has some flaw in his character, and the challenge beats him. Other times, the initiate retreats from the challenge. He cannot give himself to it and so returns to his normal life, broken and bitter. Then life becomes a shadow of what it should be and the initiate may become evil or corrupt.

The Transformation

As the initiate meets the challenge of the Abyss and overcomes his fears, he is transformed. The Transformation is the moment of death and rebirth; some part of the initiate dies so that a new part can be born.
In primitive rites of passage, this marks the death of the initiate's childish, ego-centered "I" and the birth of the mature, society-oriented "we." The child moves from dependency to independance, from the mother/reliance phase of life to the father/independance phase.
Frequently the transformation results in a revelation, a discovery or insight about oneself or one's culture. This revelation involves a change in consciousness, a change in the way the hero looks at the world and life.
Mythology often speaks of this spiritual transformation in metaphors such as a physical death and resurrection or a "virgin" birth (a spiritual birth, a birth 'not of man').

The Atonement

In classical myth, after the initiate has been transformed, he has goes on to achieve Atonement, that is to say he is "at-one" with his new self and with life. In a spiritual sense, the transformation has brought the initiate into harmony with life and the world. The initiate is now truly a 'hero.'
Here he is given a "boon," a gift which is bestowed upon him based on his new level of skill and awareness. He may become richer or stronger; he may become a better leader or a more able fighter; he may become enlightened spiritually.

The Return

After his transformation and atonement, the hero faces one of the most difficult stages of his journey: he must Return to his everyday life to begin the labor of bringing his boon back to humanity. The hero and his boon may renew the community, found a nation, create a great order. The hero often finds that he is able to operate in two worlds; the world of man and the world of the gods.
Sometimes, however, things don't go smoothly. The hero finds himself frustrated with the state of the world as he tries to maintain his new-found cosmic viewpoint in a fragmented world. If the hero returns with a great, spiritual message for his society, he may find his message rejected and himself ostracized or even crucified for his ideal. The hero, who is now on a higher spiritual level than his people, may become disillusioned or frustrated and choose to leave society to be on his own.
It is not uncommon in myth for the hero to choose not to return and to take up residence forever in the land beyond man."

that wouldnt be from the "Educated Imagination", would it?

To be honest I'm not sure. The paper that had all this information had no indication where it came from.

oh, perversion brought up that its most likely one of joseph campbells works, which is very likely since the educated imagination quoted a hero of a thousand faces (i just cant remember which book its from).