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GODFREY REGGIO'S
"NAQOYQATSI":
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A REQUIEM FOR
HUMANITY
In the whole history
of cinema there have been very few films, of which it can be said that
they are essential, that they hold deep significance for human beings.
This is one of them. Through the mere act of watching this film
humanity divides itself, as each human being reveals the very state of
his soul by his reaction to the film. The film itself remains above
reproach, untouched by the reaction of humans, because it is the work
powerfully inspired and guided by the Light at this critical time in
our history, the End-Time.
The great director of the Qatsi
Trilogy Godfrey Reggio said that his films hold up a mirror to
humanity. And what a monstrous reflection of ourselves do we behold in
the mirror of "Naqoyqatsi"! Grinning back at us with an almost
unbelievable degree of self-satisfaction are images of ourselves at
the top of the ladder of human success in various fields: sports,
technology, commerce and - oh, yes - cinema. The breathtaking montage
of these all-too-familiar images works itself up into a kind of
frenzied celebration of our human "achievements" (complete with
fireworks) until there arises from within us a disturbing question:
"What is wrong with this picture?.." An answer to this question is
actually provided right away - on the film's soundtrack. Instead of
the usual accompaniment to these types of images (such as "I did it my
way" and the like) the music here is like a slow lament or a quiet
weeping, in other words, a requiem. It is a requiem for humanity,
which is so far gone, that it is no longer even capable of noticing
that all its "accomplishments" belie a woeful state of spiritual
poverty. There is no question about it because the one unmistakable
sign of spiritual poverty is there on the screen for everyone to see -
vanity. In close-up after close-up we see the expressions of boundless
self-satisfaction on human faces of different races and different
professions until it all begins to feel rather like a freakish horror
show.
A chill runs down one's spine, when one sees the
Hollywood industry portrayed in its true likeness: digitalized images
of Hollywood stars, stepping out of their limos, waving to the crowd,
looking like animated mannequins with self-enthrallment written all
over their faces. Is the rest of us much better, though? All is
vanity, all has become vanity, as the most telling sign of our failure
to realize our spiritual destiny. Nowhere is this more evident than in
the most popular pastime: sports. Faces of athletes with expressions
of the most intense concentration pass before us. What is the purpose
of this intensity? What lofty task awaits them?..Alas, it is not the
goal commensurate with the position a human spirit should occupy in
Creation! Through sports the spirit is forced into petty
accomplishments, which waste its power. Still worse, it entices other
spirits to succumb to squandering their time as well in mindless
observation. Whole stadiums of people cheer in imbecilic joy. When
later we see a face of a baby - so much hope in that face, such great
expectations - and then this image dissolves into a face of an
ecstatically cheering fan at some stadium, one can't help wondering:
"Is this why a man is born into this world?" Using images we have all
seen a million times before, Reggio manages to create such meaningful
montage out of them that the gravity of our human predicament strikes
us with a new force.
It is like a blow to the solar plexus
every time the film switches into another one of its sections with
violent imagery. There is no denying a tragedy that human beings are
killing each other. Yet the more one watches this, the more one begins
to sense that there must be an even more profound tragedy taking place
behind all this violence. It is not the violence of man against man,
but the violence of man against his own spirit. It is man standing in
opposition to himself, being a total stranger to himself, because he
has failed to concern himself enough with the cultivation of the
spiritual qualities of his being. This type of violence (the violence
directed against the living spirit within us) has gone unrecognized,
and yet it is the root cause of all the physical violence that
manifests around us. The underlying tragedy in the world today is the
suppression and, in many cases, even complete suffocation of the
spirit, which is practiced daily by each one of us on ourselves. Only
the degree of this violence differs and also the choice of forms aimed
at deadening our own spirits.
Sports is a weapon of choice for
many and is widely regarded as a "triumph of the human will", where as
in reality it is a voluntary suppression of spiritual qualities in
preference to the physical ones. It is just another way of mutilating
the spirit. This is superbly illustrated in the film, when a face of
an athlete in his moment of "triumph" dissolves into a face of a woman
in excruciating pain... Cinema is another weapon with which the human
spirit gets clobbered today. It is all the more alluring because it
postulates as "art", "enlightenment", "spirituality". In reality, the
films that give true nourishment to the human spirit can just about be
counted on the fingers of two hands, and the majority of the rest
nourish only human vanity, ambition, sentimentality, sensuality and
many other qualities that effectively prevent the spirit's emergence,
to say nothing of its blossoming. This is easily proven by one simple
observation: whenever a film of any spiritual merit comes out (once in
a blue moon), it is invariably labeled as "pretentious" in many
quarters. This was the case with Tarkovsky and it is the case with
Reggio. As a matter of fact, this tactic has become so effective in
scaring the upcoming filmmakers from pursuing the more profound themes
that many of them declare in advance that they do not wish to be
"pretentious". They obviously do not mind being shallow, loose and
vulgar, so long as no one whispers that frightful word
"pretentious"...
Yet another form of violence against the
spirit is the imposition of religious dogma upon it. This is
illustrated in the film by the rotating symbols of various religions,
which are depicted as indistinguishable from popular commercial
symbols (BMW, Pizza Hut etc.). The music underlining these images with
its driving, apocalyptic pulse makes it abundantly clear that the
religions of this world do not provide a way out for the oppressed
spirit.The spirit can never unfold under the rigidity of blind faith,
which is in contradiction to the Laws of Nature. This has been the
greatest disservice to the Creator, Whose Will actually manifests in
the strict logic of the Natural Cosmic Laws. Only the Knowledge of
these Cosmic Laws, conveyed in simple terms, can show the spirit its
way to beneficial development and liberation. Such Knowledge is given
in the book, which is mentioned throughout this site, "IN THE LIGHT OF
TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE" by Abd-ru-shin.
Other forms of violence against the spirit, which are
illustrated in the film, include commercialism, technology and the
elevation of physicality to a position of supreme importance. All
through the film the music, one might say, co-creates the imagery.
This unprecedented nature of the collaboration between the director
Godfrey Reggio and the composer Philip Glass is well known by now, but
in this film it seems to have been taken to a an even higher level of
creative fusion. The music evokes, laments and threatens together with
the images. In the cello solos (magnificently played by Yo-Yo-Ma) it
becomes the solitary voice of the one in despair, the voice crying in
the wilderness. It is the voice of the mutilated spirit within every
individual. At times this voice seems to be on the verge of breaking
down, unable to go on, tapering off as though stifling a sob... This
happens especially poignantly during one sequence that looks like a
retake of "Koyaanisqatsi". This self-reference is very moving, because
in that first film of the trilogy there was still a feeling of hope
for humanity, where as here in the last film of the trilogy it is made
clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have sealed our own fate - so
the cello solo over this Koyaanisqatsi-like sequence is particularly
mournful and bleak. It continues to lament all through the sequence
with the animals running away from mankind and also through the pan of
celebrities, where the famous and the infamous are grouped together
without any distinction. This is startling at first, until one
realizes that not one human being (not even someone as exceptional as
Albert Einstein) has been able to attain to the full potential of
spirituality. And the tragedy of this is underscored once again by the
requiem-like music of Philip Glass.
But the film goes beyond
this requiem-like lament for humanity. It also gives a glimpse into
what awaits us as a result of our failure to become spiritualized
beings. The last violent section of the film opens with an image of a
gun pointed straight at the viewer, releasing its bullet at a
point-blank range. This one image may be regarded as a
summation/culmination point of the entire film. In one master-stroke
it illustrates the Justice that awaits mankind. And if we had been
truly experiencing the film within us, we can do nothing other than
bring this same indictment against ourselves. Even if we know nothing
about the workings of the Cosmic Laws, which unfailingly deliver to us
the Returning Reactions of our own doings, we must sense in that one
moment of truth, as the Cosmic Gun is pointed at us, the full gravity
of our situation. In a stroke of genius, this one image makes it clear
where to place the blame for the present state of the world. All of us
are to blame, because the failure to develop spiritually up to the
level set by the Creator is a common failure that we all share. The
one thing that still matters is the degree to which we come to
recognize our personal share of guilt in this collective failure. The
relentlessly driving, apocalyptic music pulsating underneath the
stereotypical images of a happy family life leaves no room for
illusion that the family can somehow serve as an escape. There can be
no escape from who we are: spiritual retards, dummies. One of the most
powerful images in the film is the slow-motion footage of dummies in
an airplane crash. Slowly raising their arms upwards, they look as
though they are imploring for help. Is this not a portrait of
ourselves? We can send a rocket into space, but we have no idea how
the same Natural Laws were meant to help our spirits, how these same
Laws influence our upliftment or our downfall, and how the Creator
meant us to use Them not for the development of gadgets, but for the
development of our souls. Now we besiege Him for help, where as He had
long since given us everything we needed - but by not discovering the
proper use for His gifts we have grown dumb, blind and deaf to all His
Calls and all His Help.
We are essentially dummies in this
Creation, possessing no Knowledge of how the Natural Laws apply to our
spiritual life, we have no ears to hear Him with and no eyes to see
His help with. So we will wait for help in vain - unless we speedily
concern ourselves with acquiring the Knowledge of how to hear Him and
also how we came to be such failures. We need to discover the original
cause of our present predicament, to learn precisely where in our long
history we have taken the wrong turn. For all the violence and
devastation we see around us today are only the consequences of that
original wrong turn. And in order to discover that wrong turn it is
necessary to delve into the Knowledge
brought to us by Abd-ru-shin,
because only It provides a breathtaking survey of the entire history
of human development from its origin to the present day and thus makes
it possible to pinpoint the original cause of all violence and
suffering. Without the perspective of this Knowledge it is utterly
impossible. It is no longer so simple as to be able to stop violence
by just not being violent - that brings with it a good deal of
self-satisfaction, but not the actually satisfying results.
Unwittingly man continues to carry the cause of his dehumanization
within himself, even with the best of intentions. Without confronting
the underlying problem, only contentment with partial solutions is
achieved, nothing more. Therefore, the last image of the film is very
appropriate: we see a singular human being falling, falling,
free-falling into the vastness of space... Man has lost his way in
Creation. Some will, no doubt, attempt to blame the Creator for this,
while others deny His very existence. And only the courageous seekers
will reach for the book of Abd-ru-shin, so as to finally learn the
truth about where it has all gone wrong and what can yet be
salvaged!
Copyright 2003 by
Gregory and Maria Pearse
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