Author uses rock icon as introduction to Taoism

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- In 1956, Springfield was abuzz with the news that new rock 'n' roll sensation Elvis Presley would be performing at the Shrine Mosque. David Rosen was 11 years old.

Rosen ran from his home to the Shrine Mosque to buy his ticket as soon as he heard the news. He went to the show alone, arriving early. When the doors opened, he raced ahead of the crowd, landing a front-row seat.

"I could see him sweating. He would keep his eyes closed at times when he was singing," Rosen recalled recently. "There was something incredibly unusual about him, the way he moved. It was primitive but spiritual."

That experience wasn't enough for the McDaniel Elementary School student. After the show, he ran across the street to the Kentwood Arms Hotel, figuring Elvis would show up. "Any famous person would stay there," he said of the former hotel.

Rosen hid in a coat rack and spied on the entourage as it arrived. Out of sight, the boy got one more look at his idol. "I just remember his eyes. The way he looked was soulful."

That experience set in motion a fascination with Elvis that continued throughout Rosen's training as a Jungian psychologist, an academic career and work as an author.

It has culminated in his latest book, "The Tao of Elvis."

In "The Tao of Elvis," Rosen introduces the reader to the principles of ancient Chinese Taoism through the life of an American icon, the "king of rock 'n' roll."

It might seem like an unlikely pairing.

Taoism is a belief system that holds up simplicity as its highest virtue on a quest to follow the Tao, or the Way.

The "Tao Te Ching," the sacred text by Liu Tzu, founder of Taoism, describes what happens when life gives a person too much.

"Too much color blinds the eye,

Too much music deafens the ear,

... Too much desire tears the heart."

Elvis might be the perfect example of the results of such excess. He might also be the perfect example of a Taoist, Rosen's book attempts to show.

Elvis was a superstar whose taste for opulence is reflected in his home-turned-fan-Mecca, Graceland, and whose "way" ended in drug-induced heart failure at the age of 42 in 1977.

Rosen, a Jungian scholar at Texas A&M University, asks readers to suspend judgment on both Taoism and Elvis and give him a chance to show how people might find their own spiritual way. That lesson can be learned from Elvis, he says.

During presentations about the book, Rosen uses Elvis' music, words and photos to introduce readers to a poor boy from Tupelo, Miss., who grew up to be a superstar even 26 years after his untimely death.

"You will get to know Elvis as a human being, which is essential," Rosen said in an telephone interview from College Station, Texas.

"The Tao of Elvis" takes the reader through 42 short chapters -- one for each year of Elvis' life. Each introduces a Taoist principle through a few quotes from the "Tao Te Ching" and other Taoist writings. On a facing page are quotes by or about Elvis that reflect those principles. Finally, Rosen writes a brief summary of how Elvis embodies the principles of the Way, in his successes and his failures.

But ultimately it is not Elvis that Rosen wants us to see. It is ourselves, our own humanity and our own Tao -- the spiritual and philosophical principles that are in each person.

"Take this off of Elvis and deal with these issues in yourself," he advised. Define your own spiritual connection. It doesn't have to be Taoism.

And it doesn't have to be Elvis.

Rosen uses Elvis for two reasons: his own fascination with the singer and his understanding of Jungian psychology. Rosen sees Elvis as an "archetype" that speaks to everyone -- a larger-than-life American king.

Using that archetype -- a Jungian concept of a theme shared by all people -- Rosen wants the reader to turn the reflection back on himself, to see himself in the "Elvis mirror."

Fellow Jungian scholar Frances Parks, who works at the Forest Institute in Springfield, explained that public figures who capture our attention "speak to something in us." That energy, she said, represents something bigger than the person.

"Looking at someone like Elvis gives us a mirror in one way that does reflect something about who we are," she said. Seeing the flaws in Elvis "can be very healing because we all have those flaws."