Celluloid Consciousness and The Eternal Filmstrip

I am fascinated with the idea that we are possibly just characters in a large cosmic theater. This physical realm is our "stage". Below is a narrative of a recent experience of my own...

From the upper right comes “the wheel” with a powerful motion akin to a flowing river. As it passes through I become one frame of many on a long filmstrip that spins and turns and twists. Flowing to the left, I witness a few frames ahead of me two beings, a male and a female, most indiscernible, only a silhouette, with a shape reminiscent of a family photo. Their presence feels so natural and welcome that not until after I’m down do I recall them.

The familiar feeling that my body is merely a vessel, an Earthly, heavy material object with no use in the world I’m being rolled into. The intangible “me” is stored in the celluloid and willfully flows with the motion. Cognizant of “the ride”, I struggle to clear an itch in the throat that proves quite distracting. It suddenly started feeling warm, and a small sweat broke out on my brow. I rubbed my face and “opened” my eyes to once again see the world around me.

I feel no shame, and I have no fear. I do not abuse and I do not deny. As my eyes well-up in mystery and restored faith I am grateful and humbled.

_____

Below are some quotes from others who relate similar sensations...

"All forms, all structures, all organisms, all events were television productions pulsing out from the central eye. Everything that I had ever experienced and read about was bubble-dancing before me like a nineteenth-century vaudeville show. My illusions, the comic costumes, the strange ever-changing stage props of trees and bodies and theater sets... I have never recovered from that ontological confrontation."

"Suddenly I am on camera in an ancient television show"

- T. Leary

"I often find myself believing that pandimensional beings who exist outside of the space time continuum are watching everything in our univserse as a film." - Mr. M.

"I attribute this sensation to our actual film like stream of consciousness. As one mind moment fades another one unfolds, on a continuous basis like the frames of a movie." - RedGreenVines

"I perceive that the world as I know it is projected out of my body like a 360-degree film projector." - Physics Envy

"Our eyes are not viewers, they're also projectors that are running a second story over the picture that we see in front of us all the time."

"We’re not the pictures on the film stock. We are the light that shines through it."

- Jim Carrey

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I find these shared experiences quite fascinating and can get lost in the imagination of it all. Surely there is some missing link that connects all the dots, but if there were such a detail, it would most certainly be suppressed by the powers that be.

Does any of this ring any bells or trigger any vibes for you? Please share your thoughts or experience!

a reply to: MarkOfTheV

Sooooo umm have you ingested anything you weren’t supposed to lately?
But ya it is interesting to ponder.

originally posted by: Allaroundyou

Sooooo umm have you ingested anything you weren’t supposed to lately?

That's Big Pharma talking.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

You may be correct there.

The Davies brothers know.


Everybody's in show biz,
It doesn't matter who you are.

Plato and The Allegory of the Cave...

Nothing new under the sun or in the shadow puppet show as it were in 2500 years...

a reply to: MarkOfTheV

These are wonderful rare moments where for a while we are caught between worlds. Treasure them.

Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds
The Beatles

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ah
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ah
Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamond

You're in the limelite!

a reply to: abeverage

My goodness how in the world did I leave THAT out! Thank you so much for jolting my memory!!

I've only read snippets of The Republic but it should definitely be on my reading list. In looking at the wiki there were some interesting "additional readings" that might be easier to digest with a quick cup of coffee.

Cinematic Spelunking Inside Platos Cave

Over the years my students have noted that the allegory of the cave describes the experience of seeing movies. The cave and the prisoners inside it remind them of a darkened movie theater. The shadow-play fully engrossing the prisoners’ attention seems like a film. In fact, plato describes the wall behind which the puppeteers work as be- ing “like the screen in front of puppeteers above which they show their puppets.

Thanks to everyone for the music videos!

a reply to: Phage

I didn’t know the Kinks were the genesis for that tune… I had only heard the Steve Vai version from his Elusive Light and Sound Collection. There is so much lyrical emphasis on the name dropping and Hollywood boulevard concept that I don’t hear a lot of trigger/truthy things. Good song nonetheless!

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

A classic for sure… although the tone of this tune was WAY more psychedelic in nature. Nonetheless there is most certainly some truth in there.

a reply to: randyvs

They are definitely in the know with this song. Lot’s of truth in there. Great documentary on Netflix about them, towards the beginning they make reference to how they didn’t get quite the fame they deserved… with lyrics like this it’s really no wonder…

_____

The vast majority of people are fairly unresponsive to these concepts. They knee-jerk into judgement because it challenges everything they know and believe to be real.

a reply to: MarkOfTheV

Rush lyrics create the ideal atmosphere for
this subjective. I love that most about them.
Even above Niels percussions.

Some folks just accept their lives as boring.
They don't realise they're accepting an
Infection.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

originally posted by: Allaroundyou

Sooooo umm have you ingested anything you weren’t supposed to lately?

That's Big Pharma talking.

I once thought our bodies were entertainment systems for the bacteria in our stomach's. They get to make the decisions like an audience in an interactive movie theater. We just get to act them out. Ever noticed how sometimes you want to press one button but for some reason, you accidently press another?

a reply to: MarkOfTheV

Someone told me of their experience once.

He said that he suddenly felt like he was being vacuum packed and that he felt like he was made of sand, as if he could feel every atom of his body.
Everything around him appeared flat and 2D, like cardboard cutouts arranged on a stage.
And above, all around he could make out the silhouettes of thousands of entities enjoying the show. And he got the sense of their shock that he was able to see past his character and the scene momentarily.
He wasn't suppose to be able to perceive the audience or anything beyond his role in the play.

a reply to: stormcell

You're not far off actually... multiple studies have been done on the "second brain" in your stomach.

If you’ve ever “gone with your gut” to make a decision or felt “butterflies in your stomach” when nervous, you’re likely getting signals from an unexpected source: your second brain. Hidden in the walls of the digestive system, this “brain in your gut” is revolutionizing medicine’s understanding of the links between digestion, mood, health and even the way you think.

The Brain-Gut Connection


a reply to: Ruiner1978

Great story! Thanks for sharing! The 2d cutouts on a stage is a prevalent theme as well as an "audience". I can completely relate to the feeling that "others" notice the fact that YOU notice them. Actually, in a previous experience of mine... I was "given" an opportunity to take part in a ride, instead I stayed behind and stared at this being behind a podium, the "operator" or "controller". I was dragged away by two VERY tall entities. I remember them being grayish blue with no facial features at all. Like autonomous guards. It was not mean or malicious feeling, more like a kid that was in the wrong section of a theme park. All very light hearted.

a reply to: stormcell

There's an element of truth to that:

You're stressed and your gut knows it—immediately. The enteric nervous system is often referred to as our body's second brain. ... The enteric nervous system is so extensive that it can operate as an independent entity without input from our central nervous system, although they are in regular communication.
www.scientificamerican.com...