Saturday, November 16, 2013

Shots of Awe

Jason Silva's Shots of Awe...




"Okay, so the idea is to believe in a more brilliant world. This requires a more child-like state of wonder. As Allen Harrington wrote in The Immortalist, 'we must all remain uncompromised as child voyagers, we must all maintain a child's eye view of what might be...'



What happens with adults is that we become jaded, you know? The 'been theres' and 'done thats' of the adult mind. It's a form of laziness, it's a form of dispensing with the here and now and jumping to the conclusions. It's a sort of impatience with lived life that we need to transcend. We need to reengage with the senses. We need to awaken the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom and the film of familiarity and redirect it to instead the wonders of existence."




"We're all born artists, we're all born ecstasy-seekers. And then it all just gets pummeled out of us, it gets like stripped away by banality."




"We need to strive to reenter these spaces because these are the only spaces that have ever led to visions that have reformed the world. And that my friends, is that."




Jason Silva is a film maker who has made a series of videos on his YouTube channel called 'Shots of Awe". All of his videos are only 2-3 minutes, but they all result in me sitting at my computer in awe. They really make me think and have a sense of legitimacy behind them. He is obsessed with the idea of life being a masterpiece and is blown away by the fact and idea that we have no limits. That when we step outside of our comfort zone we really start living. To tie into this philosophy of his, he says it is only possible if we maintain a child-like way of thinking. His favorite video of mine is "Ignite Your Child-like State of Wonder". 



I don't know why this idea is so provoking to me. It may be because my career is centered around children. Or maybe that my passion in life is to teach children. Either way..this idea is something that I have not only thought of before, but have actively explored in my own life. Like he says either in this or another video..they're all starting to blur together...is that it takes effort to put ourselves into this mindset. As adults, we consequently become jaded. We experience life and in return we build walls and barriers between the world and ourselves. Most likely as a defensive mechanism. This way of thinking, Silva calls a form of laziness. I think what he means by that is it takes effort to get ourselves to step outside the drawing of conclusions and look at the world in a child-like light.



I love this idea. He talks about how we are all born artists. As children, before we built those walls we were all dreamers and if we can get back to that way of thinking we can reform the world. 



Now don't get me wrong, I know that it's not realistic to go out into the world everyday without your defenses. But, you have to admit..it's definitely a cool idea. Something worth thinking about. And if you're like me, something worth striving for..

No comments:

Post a Comment