Why did you decide to make videos on enlightenment/self development

[Rose]

For the people who make content regarding enlightenment/self development - why did you decide to do that? How do you feel it effected your life? What are some positive/negative ways in which it affected your life? Do you get a lot of criticism/hate from people?

[Mandy]

I wanted to so I did. At first it's making a youtube video that 3 or 40 people might watch, not a big deal. It's just like uploading a picture of a soup you made onto Facebook. It's just social media, everyone has it, no one knows if it will get a lot of views or not, and a lot of views aren't necessarily a desirable thing if it causes you to trip up and stop creating what you want to create.  It's made the experience of meeting people online be much more fun and more real which is a real positive, and much less anonymous which is a neutral one. The criticism and hate is from people who would like to create something or let themselves do what they want as well, but they don't see it or they won't own their own desire. It has nothing to do with what I say or do. Some criticism is stuff I need to hear, or address something I would like to give attention to, and so I realize it sooner possibly by having someone tell me. I also very much "hear" my own feeling when something is off, when I'm trying top present something in a way that isn't really aligned, and taking the time to really feel into it and speak with intention from a place outside of beliefs and conditioning becomes a practice. Videos make the easiest place to start with so long as you don't make the mistake of thinking of yourself as a teacher or authority with followers but consider it an art. Then you can take that intention speaking what you're truly aligned with into your everyday life and everyday relationships more and more. 

[Rose]

37 minutes ago, Mandy said:

much less anonymous

Do you feel like your personal privacy has been violated in some way though? Since you are sharing thoughts so deep and personal? Does privacy matter to you?

 

38 minutes ago, Mandy said:

Some criticism is stuff I need to hear, or address something I would like to give attention to, and so I realize it sooner possibly by having someone tell me

Are you able to discern constructive criticism from something coming out of ego? How do you do that?

 

40 minutes ago, Mandy said:

consider it an art

Is there a purpose of this art? 

[Mandy]

2 hours ago, Rose said:

Do you feel like your personal privacy has been violated in some way though? Since you are sharing thoughts so deep and personal? Does privacy matter to you?

 

No, I guess I've never had a need for privacy in that way. Or if I do it's just discordant concern about what people think of me. 

2 hours ago, Rose said:

Are you able to discern constructive criticism from something coming out of ego? How do you do that?

Feel into it, sit with it, contemplate it, forget it and see what clarity life reveals. Same as with any other conversation or any other event that triggers. If I can step out of the way of it and stop judging the messenger, I can see the message clearly and sometimes it says nothing like what the words are first inferred to have meant. 

2 hours ago, Rose said:

Is there a purpose of this art? 

 

No, it feels good, it's very clarifying to make them and sometimes that's transmitted but not by me, I guess. 🤷‍♀️

 

 

[Joseph Maynor]

On making videos:  Best thing I ever did.  Writing for me kind of ran its course.  Video was the next evolution for me.  There's something profound that happens when you share something.  Also seeing myself on video forced me to become much more conscious of how I present myself appearance wise.  When you're writing nobody has to know what you look like or sound like.  Another thing that's important is my videos are primarily for me and secondarily a sharing for others.  When I make a video I review it like 10 times.  I engrain each video I make.  The only thing I can do at this point to take it to the next level is like public speaking.  But I like video because you have to be a much broader communicator than in writing.  I still love writing as you can tell from my writing on here.  I write for my job so that's always going to be a skill I enjoy.  I like the beauty of writing too.  Before I made videos writing was the only medium I had to express myself.  It was when Leo banned me from Actualized in 2019 that I started my first YouTube channel. My videos went from very bad, to awful, to less awful, to kinda good.  My newer videos are still not great but if you saw the videos I made in 2019, there's so much improvement there.  My mannerisms.  I've learned so much about body language and just observing myself and noting weird ways that I would come off and slowly improving those.  One thing I still do that I need to work on is saying "right" so much.  That one is hard for me to kick.  I could work on my speaking more.  But it's cool because sometimes I work off notes, an outline, and sometimes the video is entirely improvised.  The thing about video too is there's no eraser like in writing -- you can't really revise.  You can if you edit but that breaks the flow of the videos.  So, making videos forces you to get it right the first time more.  With writing I can get it out and then do lots of revisions and make it perfect and beautiful through revising.  Becoming a better communicator has really helped me in my job.  it's made me more of a leader and more charismatic to communicate with.  I do best communicating in person.  But video does come close to communicating in person.  It comes closer to that than writing does.  At least you can see the person.  Writing is much more limited as a communication medium.  With writing you're focused on the ideas, with video you're focused on the person.  That's different and kind of cool.  It forces you to work on how you come across as a person not just your content.  Now you gotta worry about, focus on, and work on both.  I encouraged someone to make a video one time and they totally flipped out.  I forget who that was.  It was weird because I thought I was doing them a favor.  All I said was, you write great, you should think about making videos.  You never know how someone is going to take advice!  I guess it was seen as being forceful and the person I think was very insecure about what making a video requires.  You gotta put yourself out there when you make a video.  You can't hide.  That alone is a reason to make videos.  It helps you do self-help bigtime.  You're watching yourself as a person and others are too!  I highly recommend making videos if you haven't done it before.   It's a totally different animal than writing is.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Joseph Maynor

[Joseph Maynor]

I could tell you but I might as well show you.  My new video:
 

 

[Adeptus Psychonautica]

On 11/3/2023 at 8:35 PM, Rose said:

For the people who make content regarding enlightenment/self development - why did you decide to do that? How do you feel it effected your life? What are some positive/negative ways in which it affected your life? Do you get a lot of criticism/hate from people?

 

I wouldn't class my videos as enlightenment or self development, but to answer your question I created them because I thought there was a lack of rational voices in the psychedelic community.

It has effected my life positively in that it has given me a creative outlet, created opportunities to interact with people I respect, provided an additional source of income, and given me a platform to highlight things I think are worth discussing. The negative is that it can be very time consuming so I would really only recommend it to someone who already enjoys things like writing and video editing.

I wouldn't say I get "a lot" of criticism but that is certainly an element of doing this kind of thing. The overwhelming majority of it is mindless, regurgitated soundbites, which the person has not put any real thought into, and I quite enjoy dealing with those. I would say that if you do not have a thick skin for criticism, are not capable of defending your opinions, or admitting when you are wrong, then its probably not a good idea to broadcast things on the internet.