In the video, Joseph Campbell discusses the rites the some cultures have to facilitate the transformation from childhood to adulthood. He talks about the importance, and reverence, placed on the tools used and the initiation act itself. To the children, the rites are powerful and dramatic, because the power and mysticism of the rite has been instilled within them for their entire lives.
Campbell talks about how someone like a PhD candidate, who has spent many years in schooling, might miss this transition especially because those in the Western world don't have the same instilled reverence as other cultures. These people may struggle to be recognized as an authority, and that is their stepping stone into power and adulthood.
