Philosophy of Watching Movies
I’ve mentioned before that the spirit of truth speaks to humanity through stories and especially movies. Watching movies is an activity I recommend for the average, modern person looking to access the deeper level of philosophy which overlaps with the spiritual.
The modern person will consume movies in a worldly way, similar to how they consume food. It’s ingested, some energy is experienced, and it’s excreted out within a day or two.
In contrast, a great film is meant to be consumed like your taking communion — it’s supposed to be transformative. Like communion, there is a feminine element to it, in that you submit and let go of your agency when the movie induces a higher state of consciousness.
The practical mind doesn’t like this and resists it. It wants you back to your normal state of consciousness associated with daily life. In order to gain the full benefit of a great film, you will have to be strategic about managing your practical mind.
The best way to do this is to get your life in order before watching the movie. Upon reflection, you can probably identify an issue(s) in your life and something practical you can do about it. This way, after watching a great movie, when you make your stand against the practical mind trying to fully re-enter daily life, you can remind the practical mind of your previous contribution.
After this, the practical mind should ease up and allow you to grasp at the higher state of consciousness associated with the spiritual and with transformation. Most movies are not worth taking a stand against the practical mind over, but it’s necessary to be ready.
Home alone
True Romance
Dog Day afternoon
The Deer Hunter
Slow starter, with that whole wedding business. Slow middle
And finally…
The Lost Boys
Full Metal Jacket.
My Name is Joe (Ken Loach) with Peter Mullan at the height of his powers. Trundles along with the hero on the wagon throughout... until he isn't. Symmetry and asymmetry. Loach's best films smash fairytale narratives.
I knew your ass was Irish or Scottish. Same people. Actually I donÂ’t know you. You donÂ’t even know you.
I donÂ’t know what this thread is neither. It is what you make it. Who are you.
I suspect you must name great movies that havenÂ’t already named. So itÂ’s gets harder each round. But it doesnÂ’t, because whatÂ’s good is subjective.
Or is it? You see, thereÂ’s our predicament. It applies to every thing outside of movies too.
I say all that to say this:
Apocalypto
Those weird symbols simply mean the illuminati are watching me. Unless you can explain them.
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Artifice Girl
Dead Man (1995)
Johnny Depp
Electric Guitar Score by Neil Young
PairTheBoard
The Limits of Control (2009)
"Everything is Subjective"
"I used my imagination"
PairTheBoard
I knew your ass was Irish or Scottish. Same people. Actually I donÂ’t know you. You donÂ’t even know you.
I donÂ’t know what this thread is neither. It is what you make it. Who are you.
I suspect you must name great movies that havenÂ’t already named. So itÂ’s gets harder each round. But it doesnÂ’t, because whatÂ’s good is subjective.
Or is it? You see, thereÂ’s our predicament. It applies to every thing outside of movies too.
I say all that to say this:
Apocalypto
Some films are objectively bad. Most Hollywood is objectively bad.
This thread is supposed to be more about the deeper meaning and purpose of movies rather than debating which movies are better than others.
The claim being made in the OP is that movies are supposed to assist in your transformation. Specifically, there is a spirit of transformation which uses movies to communicate to humanity.
Otherwise, you need to come up with an alternate explanation for why truth seeking creatures consume fictional stories.
Do truth seeking creatures “need an escape” from truth seeking? I would say only people who have a narrow and unsophisticated view of the truth believe this explanation.
More accurately, human beings exchange time and money to consume fictional stories in movies as a way to make deeper contact with the truth.
This thread is supposed to be more about the deeper meaning and purpose of movies rather than debating which movies are better than others.
The claim being made in the OP is that movies are supposed to assist in your transformation. Specifically, there is a spirit of transformation which uses movies to communicate to humanity.
Otherwise, you need to come up with an alternate explanation for why truth seeking creatures consume fictional stories.
Do truth seeking creatures “need an escape” from trut
Yeah, this turned into a movie recommendation thread, but I'm interested in discussing movies in depth and examining the truth and meaning within them. You find it in both good and bad movies. However, they can be an escape mechanism.
Yeah, this turned into a movie recommendation thread, but I'm interested in discussing movies in depth and examining the truth and meaning within them. You find it in both good and bad movies. However, they can be an escape mechanism.
Do you associate escaping daily life with a move toward untruth?
Not necessarily. For example, I can watch 80s movies for nostalgic reasons even if truth can be found in them. Or I can watch movies that don't challenge me. Sometimes, they're just mindless entertainment. That kind of entertainment doesn't equal untruth, unless you're arguing that anything that doesn't advance individual development is a move towards untruth, and I do think a case can be made for that.
For me, it’s a similar question as to whether or not pain relief is a move toward untruth. I would say not as long as you succeed in your higher purpose.
The issue is most people have given up on an idea of a higher purpose. For these people, watching a movie is all mindless entertainment in service of pain relief.
For me, it’s a similar question as to whether or not pain relief is a move toward untruth. I would say not as long as you succeed in your higher purpose.
The issue is most people have given up on an idea of a higher purpose. For these people, watching a movie is all mindless entertainment in service of pain relief.
That's fair. It's fine to take five every now and then and collect yourself, but a need to constantly escape is a problem. That said, I don't think everyone is capable of deriving truth from movies. Not consciously, anyway.
That's fair. It's fine to take five every now and then and collect yourself, but a need to constantly escape is a problem. That said, I don't think everyone is capable of deriving truth from movies. Not consciously, anyway.
My intention is to make it more conscious because the status quo isn’t good enough.
In contrast, a great film is meant to be consumed like your taking communion — it’s supposed to be transformative. Like communion, there is a feminine element to it, in that you submit and let go of your agency when the movie induces a higher state of consciousness.
This is a first step - becoming aware of the change of consciousness and realizing it’s a door opening.
Or even if you disagree that it’s significant, reconsider it for a moment. Later, reconsider it again.
Eventually, the next great movie you watch, you’ll find yourself lingering in the altered state of consciousness for a beat or two longer than before. This is how progress is made.
More precisely, I favor scenes from movies, but it’s often helpful to know the context of the scenes.
I have a good one from Magnolia. I'll give some context.
Donnie (William H. Macy) is a sap. He was a small-time celebrity as a kid; the champion on a trivia gameshow. Now he's an adult, and his fifteen minutes of fame are over. He never really grew up. He just got fired from his sales job and is infatuated with the bartender in this scene. So much so that that he decided to get braces just like the bartender. Henry Gibson is the actor sitting next to Donnie at the beginning. I've heard that character described as cold and indifferent, but I think he told Donnie what he needed to hear.
I think the power of movies is in the experience of them. They move people and in doing so, they move culture. Much of this is happening at the border between the conscious and the unconscious. It's the Truths beyond description, touching us in our experience of them, which awaken us to new perceptions, spiritual experience, transformation, and the sacred.
Something I called the Poetic Experience in an RGT thread some time ago. Truth is not conveyed by the words of the poem but in the experience of it.
PairTheBoard
This thread is supposed to be more about the deeper meaning and purpose of movies rather than debating which movies are better than others.
The claim being made in the OP is that movies are supposed to assist in your transformation. Specifically, there is a spirit of transformation which uses movies to communicate to humanity.
Otherwise, you need to come up with an alternate explanation for why truth seeking creatures consume fictional stories.
Do truth seeking creatures “need an escape” from trut
The film industry, like music and show-business in general, is designed as much to debase as to uplift the condition of (western) man, probably more so to debase when you consider the complete dross that is 97%+ of output. It is contradictory of course. Most of your recommendations are based on far superior books, with notable exceptions being the Nolan bros (not based on books largely?) - these are transformative in many positive ways, but they are also psychological offensives, Sir Christopher no less. It takes discernment to understand how one is influenced by this media. Think of Edward Bernays, the original propagandist, we can shape and control people's tastes, opinions etc etc, movies are powerful yes, and this is problematic. Movies of big budgets get produced if they are agreed by boardroom men, if they promote certain narratives. This again is not a simplistic relation, not all boardroom men are evil for instance (many of them are), and narratives can be complex. You could probably analyse Contagion with similar perspectives as we see in this thread. This film is predictive programming ofc.
And on that note, 'They Live' by John Carpenter.
I think the power of movies is in the experience of them. They move people and in doing so, they move culture. Much of this is happening at the border between the conscious and the unconscious. It's the Truths beyond description, touching us in our experience of them, which awaken us to new perceptions, spiritual experience, transformation, and the sacred.
Something I called the Poetic Experience in an RGT thread some time ago. Truth is not conveyed by the words of the poem but in the experience
Yes, there are emotions and experiences that can't be described, and the best way to communicate them is through stories and other forms of art. If two people have the same reaction to a movie, they are closer to understanding each other, even if they don't really understand themselves.
