I want to share with you a powerful 35-minute film that Ben Stewart made from an interview we recorded last summer. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen such an effective treatment of what would otherwise be another talking head monologue. Just wow. Thank you Ben!
What a friggin' gift you are, Charles. And Ben, thank you infinitely for inspiring this in Charles. Deeply impactful. Hard for me to understand how someone can deliver this message with such eloquence and authenticity and yet they themselves still feel they need to be reminded........
I know -or I think - Charles is not keen on movements and organised structures around his messages but I would love to find some kind of community of people who share his views and hopes and invitations. So many thanks to you both for the gifts you give us and ARE
This is a beautiful sentiment and one I relate to from afar. It all spoke to me until....community. And with that I ask: Who among you are "elderly?" It is easier to find community when you are not old. Even before Covid, older people found themselves separated from community, not always by choice or orientation . It is so much worse now, especially for people like my parents who are over 80. I never understood why old people moved into over 55 ghettos; now I get it. Once I entered the world of the old (especially, as a woman), I became invisible,. I do not say this as a victim, but only as a warning. Find your community (and your true love) now because you will probably not find it when you are old.
I think maybe what you are getting at is that to have a meaningful, fulfilling, and happy life, one needs to be honest with themselves. Which is amazingly hard thing to do.
I think that sincere prayer used to help people strive toward this, because if one was communicating with an all powerful being that can't be fooled or misled, one tended to be more honest with oneself.
With the current world's loss of faith, we have also lost our ability to pray and therefore lost a very useful tool to help us be honest with ourselves. I am not religious, but I have done my best to understand the value that religion brings to humanity. And I think one of the top things on the list is prayer's ability to help us be honest to ourselves, for at least a short time.
In today's "God is dead" world it is very difficult for a person to be honest with themselves. I think this is why so many focus on the meaningless. As we grow older it becomes harder and harder to be honest with oneself. Social media rewards us fooling ourselves. We can post pictures and stories of the lies we tell ourselves and get 'likes' from all of our 'friends'. It can become impossible to extricate ourselves from the lies.
When you speak of artist perusing a state of devotion and not performing for the critics. I think that is what I mean by self-honesty.
Lying to ourselves lead to lying to others and pretty soon you have a lot nothing in the world.
Yes, I had a similar experience! What was spoken about here went in much deeper and more profoundly than I was expecting and invoked a depth of wisdom in thoughts and feelings that was just so self-affirming. I would also tend to agree that the way the message was wrapped up in with the visuals and the (awesome) and very well timed music was a significant contributing factor.
Exquisite. Ben brings your words to life with true artistry. It is profound and uplifting. My only suggestion would be to have more diversity of the characters in age and beauty. Almost all the people featured were young and beautiful and most of the women wore make up, even when supposedly at home alone and depressed. This may be because you needed to use stock images and video, as it must be expensive to film people yourself and difficult in the age of covid.
The only thing I don't resonate with Charles, is your views on covid, which I find perplexing. Of course humans need connection, but where I live, hospitals are overflowing, the health system is collapsing and health professionals and workers are desperate. Out of consideration for them we need to be cautious about gathering now and pivot to meed our social needs without making that storm worse.
I am so inspired by your words and the way you migrate in the world dear Charles, there is a deep resonance on a soul level. I have been noticing a collective expansion happening where we are starting to hear each other and ourselves more, a fine tuning of our antenna. What I have learned in alchemical studies is that we project our reality and that those around us are mirrors, or mirror back aspects of our selves. Within that construct, what you/we are experiencing is perfectly in line with that tenant.
I get it, all of what Charles is saying! So tell me this, according to ancient texts and Indigenous peoples, the Human collective has had four tries, so far, and we are living in the fourth world. And then there are the Yugas, the Earth within our solar system floating in the Milky Way Galaxy, continually going through these Yuga cycles! Why the heck are we here?
Thank you, just thank you Charles . In times of great turmoil, of loss , of rising cynicism and despair about the human world, you have given me hope and a pointer to what might be . Bless you
And the Music Played the Band
What a friggin' gift you are, Charles. And Ben, thank you infinitely for inspiring this in Charles. Deeply impactful. Hard for me to understand how someone can deliver this message with such eloquence and authenticity and yet they themselves still feel they need to be reminded........
I know -or I think - Charles is not keen on movements and organised structures around his messages but I would love to find some kind of community of people who share his views and hopes and invitations. So many thanks to you both for the gifts you give us and ARE
The easiest donation to online material I've ever made. Beautiful. I'll be sharing this again and again. Thank you.
This is a beautiful sentiment and one I relate to from afar. It all spoke to me until....community. And with that I ask: Who among you are "elderly?" It is easier to find community when you are not old. Even before Covid, older people found themselves separated from community, not always by choice or orientation . It is so much worse now, especially for people like my parents who are over 80. I never understood why old people moved into over 55 ghettos; now I get it. Once I entered the world of the old (especially, as a woman), I became invisible,. I do not say this as a victim, but only as a warning. Find your community (and your true love) now because you will probably not find it when you are old.
I think maybe what you are getting at is that to have a meaningful, fulfilling, and happy life, one needs to be honest with themselves. Which is amazingly hard thing to do.
I think that sincere prayer used to help people strive toward this, because if one was communicating with an all powerful being that can't be fooled or misled, one tended to be more honest with oneself.
With the current world's loss of faith, we have also lost our ability to pray and therefore lost a very useful tool to help us be honest with ourselves. I am not religious, but I have done my best to understand the value that religion brings to humanity. And I think one of the top things on the list is prayer's ability to help us be honest to ourselves, for at least a short time.
In today's "God is dead" world it is very difficult for a person to be honest with themselves. I think this is why so many focus on the meaningless. As we grow older it becomes harder and harder to be honest with oneself. Social media rewards us fooling ourselves. We can post pictures and stories of the lies we tell ourselves and get 'likes' from all of our 'friends'. It can become impossible to extricate ourselves from the lies.
When you speak of artist perusing a state of devotion and not performing for the critics. I think that is what I mean by self-honesty.
Lying to ourselves lead to lying to others and pretty soon you have a lot nothing in the world.
Such beauty... Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Ben.
Yes, I had a similar experience! What was spoken about here went in much deeper and more profoundly than I was expecting and invoked a depth of wisdom in thoughts and feelings that was just so self-affirming. I would also tend to agree that the way the message was wrapped up in with the visuals and the (awesome) and very well timed music was a significant contributing factor.
Stunning ! Thank you deeply.
Exquisite. Ben brings your words to life with true artistry. It is profound and uplifting. My only suggestion would be to have more diversity of the characters in age and beauty. Almost all the people featured were young and beautiful and most of the women wore make up, even when supposedly at home alone and depressed. This may be because you needed to use stock images and video, as it must be expensive to film people yourself and difficult in the age of covid.
The only thing I don't resonate with Charles, is your views on covid, which I find perplexing. Of course humans need connection, but where I live, hospitals are overflowing, the health system is collapsing and health professionals and workers are desperate. Out of consideration for them we need to be cautious about gathering now and pivot to meed our social needs without making that storm worse.
Thank you Charles. Thank you Ben.
beautiful words. beautiful images. beautiful world. beautiful potential. just dark times.
Thank you! I am so grateful for you and Ben and this work, this moving piece really touched me deeply. So needed today.
I am so inspired by your words and the way you migrate in the world dear Charles, there is a deep resonance on a soul level. I have been noticing a collective expansion happening where we are starting to hear each other and ourselves more, a fine tuning of our antenna. What I have learned in alchemical studies is that we project our reality and that those around us are mirrors, or mirror back aspects of our selves. Within that construct, what you/we are experiencing is perfectly in line with that tenant.
I get it, all of what Charles is saying! So tell me this, according to ancient texts and Indigenous peoples, the Human collective has had four tries, so far, and we are living in the fourth world. And then there are the Yugas, the Earth within our solar system floating in the Milky Way Galaxy, continually going through these Yuga cycles! Why the heck are we here?
Thank you, just thank you Charles . In times of great turmoil, of loss , of rising cynicism and despair about the human world, you have given me hope and a pointer to what might be . Bless you
Thank you Charles and Ben. My wish for the earth is that every being has the opportunity to watch this film.