TrueLife - Ritualistic Beauty: How Sacred Acts Shape the Soul and the Self

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/From ancient temples to digital filters, humanity has always worshipped at the altar of beauty. But beneath the surface of fashion, art, and aesthetics lies something older — a sacred impulse to order chaos through meaning. In this episode, George Monty unpacks how ritualistic beauty connects psyche, culture, and spirit, revealing why our obsession with the beautiful is really a longing for the divine.In this episode:The psychology of ritual and the neurochemistry of aweWhy beauty and symmetry are language before wordsHow modern culture distorts ancient sacred aestheticsThe difference between performance and presenceBeauty as rebellion in an age of noiseTranscript:https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/59345621Speaker 0 (0s): Right. Speaker 1 (8s): Yeah. Good morning everybody. How are you guys doing out there? I was supposed to have a, a, a, a live interview four, you today at seven 30 with a motivational speaker, but I blew it because I didn't realize that Colorado time was more than two hours. I thought it was just like California time. So I kind of spaced at right there, but that being said, you know what? I didn't want to deny everybody the opportunity to get to a, I don't want to deny myself the opportunity to get the hang out with anybody. So I thought I had walked out of the park. So you guys are a little sun, a little sunrise. Well sunrise here in Hawaii on a wahoo. And I wanted to tell you some things I was thinking about specifically, some things that I think are beautiful and of course, you know, that's my wife and my mom and my sister and my cousins and all my family. And of course all you, you know, you're beautiful, but you know, in times of crisis it seems like it's also a time of opportunity. And I bet most of you so much like me, I have been, maybe he had a little bit of extra time to think about life and think about what you're doing with your life and how your family is doing. And, you know, I, I had a really good friend of mine. What's up, my friend, Bernie man, you know, him and his family have been affected by COVID whether you have it or you don't have that, or whatever you believe you probably been affected by. And so all of these things together just kind of got me thinking about stuff. And I had a, what I think is a pretty beautiful idea. And maybe some of you have had this idea as well. And I think the older you get, the more you'll understand this idea and is the idea of, of, you know, maybe looking at life in a different way. One way is one way I have been looking at it is that instead of coming into this world, you come out of it. You know what I mean? Like, just like, just like to use pine trees, how, how pine needles, like a pine tree grows, pine cones. So does the earth grow people? And if you can humor me for a minute and just think about it from that perspective, that means that everybody you meet is kind of like a different version of you. And I know it sounds kind of crazy, but let me give you an example. I was talking to this young kid who I worked with and he's really smart. He was kind of arrogant and he was kind of like wanting to show everybody how smart he is and that's pretty annoying. Right? And then I started thinking about it and I'm like, man, this kid's like young version of me kind of annoying sometimes kind of thing that I'm a no at all, sometimes. And then it kind of dawned on me. It kind of clicked like everybody you meet is going through something that you've been through or is going through something you might go through. And that means that you have an opportunity to maybe help that person. But the first thing that you have to do is be able to identify what it is about that person that they were going through. And if you can think like that, if you can just take a few moments to really listen to people when they are, when you meet them and, and try to understand what they're going through, I think you can have a lot better communication with them. And I think you can have a lot better interaction with them, you know, for me anyways, I, I know sometimes when I'm talking to people, sometimes I get, instead of listening, I just, I'm waiting my turn to talk. So this strategy of just thinking about other people as a different version or at a different spot in their life than I am, But knowing where are the same has really helped me communicate better in it. It's just kind of seemed like a beautiful strategy and you guys should try it, see what you think. Let me know. And then I had another idea. I was thinking about education, right? Because a lot of our kids or stuck at home and they're, you know, they're, they're being bombarded by just different information, whether it's from teachers or I don't know, wherever that wherever we are, maybe your kids have been running on zoom or, or whatever it is. And there's so many different opinions out there. You know, in some ways when societies get in trouble or some ways when we get in trouble, it's always a good strategy to look back to a time when we were not in trouble to look back to a time where we were doing something right. And one thing that I think that we could reenter into the world of education that I'm going to try with my daughter and some kids in her school is this is this story I heard in a myth. And I'm going to, I'm going to tell you the myth. And then I'm going to try to tell you how it applies to our kids in how we can use it. So I think this particular myth is, is from Madagascar and the indigenous people in met a gas card. They have this tradition or this ritual, if you will. And from a young age, all the kids are, are exposed to the, all the kids are exposed to the forces of life. And, and a lot of the people in the tribe, they wear masks, right? They wear masks at her, like just painted. You may have rattles. And you know, one mask is like jealousy. And one mask is like anger. And one mask I would ask is fear. And so, you know, through there throughout the night, the, when they come and they were going through our days every now and then, you know, one of the, one of the men from the tribe or one of them, it's usually the older men, usually the older man from the tribe will come through and they will have this mass and they will scare the bejesus out of these kids. And that happens until the kids were about maybe 10. So in between T 10 and 14, what do you say? 14 So then at the age of 14, after the children have been conditioned to be exposed to the different forces of nature, fear and anger and anxiety, all of these people dressed up in different masks, you know, late one night when the kids 14, the men from the tribe, they come in to the house with a kid lives and they go into the kids room And and they go in and they know that sounds kind of, it sounds kind of sneaky But they go into the room and they grab the kid and they're all wearing their mask...

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Hears through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Seraphini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Yeah, good morning everybody. How you guys doing out there? I was supposed to have a live interview for you today at 7.30 with a motivational speaker. But I blew it because I didn't realize that Colorado time was more than two hours. I thought it was just like California time.

So I kind of spaced it right there. But that being said, you know what? I didn't want to deny everybody the opportunity to get to, I don't want to deny myself the opportunity to get to hang out with everybody. So I thought I walked down to the park, show you guys a little sunrise, little sunrise here in Hawaii on Oahu. And I wanted to tell you some things I was thinking about, specifically some things that I think are beautiful. And of course, you know, that's my wife and my mom and my sister and my cousins and all my family. And of course, all of you, you know, you're beautiful. But, you know, in times of crisis, it seems like it's also a time of opportunity.

And I bet most of you, much like me, have been, maybe had a little bit of extra time to think about life. and think about what you're doing with your life and how your family's doing. You know, I've had a really good friend of mine. What's up? My friend Bernie, man. You know, him and his family have been affected by COVID. And whether you have it or you don't have it or whatever you believe, you've probably been affected by it.

And so all these things together just kind of got me thinking about stuff. And I had a, what I think is a pretty beautiful idea. And maybe some of you have had this idea as well. And I think the older you get, the more you'll understand this idea. And it's the idea of, you know, maybe looking at life in a different way. One way is, one way I've been looking at it is that instead of coming into this world, you come out of it. You know what I mean? Like, just like these pine trees have pine needles, like a pine tree grows pine cones.

So does the earth grow people. And if you can humor me for a minute and just think about it from that perspective, that means that everybody you meet is kind of like a different version of you. And I know it sounds kind of crazy, but let me give you an example. I was talking to this young kid who I work with and he's really smart and he's kind of arrogant and he's kind of like wants to show everybody how smart he is. And that's pretty annoying, right? And then I started thinking about it and I'm like, man, this kid's like a young version of me. I'm kind of annoying sometimes. I kind of think I'm an know it all sometimes.

And then it kind of dawned on me. It kind of clicked. Like, everybody you meet is going through something that you've been through or is going through something you might go through. And that means that you have an opportunity to maybe help that person. But the first thing you have to do is be able to identify what it is about that person that they're going through. And if you can think like that, if you can just take a few moments to really listen to people when you meet them and try to understand what they're going through, I think you can have a lot better communication with them. And I think you can have a lot better interaction with them.

You know, for me anyways, I know sometimes when I'm talking to people, sometimes I get, instead of listening, I just, I'm waiting my turn to talk. So this strategy of just thinking about other people as a different version or at a different spot in their life than I am, but knowing we're the same has really helped me communicate better. And it just kind of seems like a beautiful strategy. You guys should try it. See what you think. Let me know. And then I had another idea. I was thinking about education, right?

Because a lot of our kids are stuck at home and they're, you know, they're being bombarded by just different information, whether it's from teachers or, I don't know, wherever they're, wherever your kids are running on Zoom or whatever it is. And there's so many different opinions out there. You know, in some ways when societies get in trouble or some ways when we get in trouble, it's always a good strategy to look back to a time when we were not in trouble, to look back to a time where we were doing something, right? And one thing I think we could reenter into the world of education that I'm going to try with my daughter and some kids in her school is this story I heard in a myth. And I'm going to tell you the myth and then I'm going to try to tell you how it applies to our kids and how we can use it.

So I think this particular myth is from Madagascar. And the indigenous people in Madagascar, they have this tradition or this ritual, if you will. And from a young age, all the kids are exposed to the, all the kids are exposed to the forces of life. And a lot of the people in the tribe, they wear masks, right? They wear masks that are like these painted masks and they have rattles and, you know, one mask is like jealousy and one mask is like anger and one mask is fear. And so, you know, throughout the nights, when they come and they're going through their days every now and then, you know, one of the men from the tribe or one of them, it's usually the older men. Usually the older men from the tribe will come through and they will have this mask on and they will scare the bejesus out of these kids. and that happens until the kids are about maybe 10, somewhere between 10 and 14.

We'll just say 14. So then at the age of 14, after these children have been conditioned to be exposed to the different forces of nature, fear and anger and anxiety, all these people dressed up in different masks. You know, late one night when the kid's 14, the men from the tribe, they come into the house where the kid lives and they go into the kid's room and, and they go and they it sounds kind of sneaky but they go into the room and they grab the kid

and they're all wearing their mask. Anger has his mask on and anxiety has his mask on and then they have like fear has his mask on. They grab the kid and the kid is just frightened like I'm gonna die oh no and he tries to run to his mom and of course the mom's in on it and she tries to protect him but the men

wrestle the kid away and they take him out out into the middle of the woods and the kid's like he's kind of crying and he's all scared and they make the kid fight each one of the men. So the men go up and they try to fight the kid. They wrestle with them, but they let the kid win. And the kid fights all the men in the masks. He fights like five different forces of nature. He fights anger, anxiety, jealousy, hatred. He fights these five men wearing masks. And the men of the tribe, they let the kid win. And so after the kid fights all

the men and he wins, then all the men surround them and they take off their mask and then they put it right on the kid. And it's this ritual. You know, the kid fights these forces of nature. And then the men put the mask on the kid. And then the kid realizes like, I am those forces of nature. I am anger. I am anxiety.

I am jealousy. I am hatred. You know, and I just thought, what a beautiful way to show the next generation. Like, hey, here's all the things in the world that are scary. All these forces of nature that can control you that a lot of people are afraid of. Here's all these masks and rattles and, you know, and then you make the kids fight them symbolically and in reality. And then you take off that mask and you put it on them.

You say, see, look, these are all the forces of nature that you should be afraid of that can scare you. But you and you alone are responsible for those forces. You know, what a brilliant way to show the children that, all these things that you're afraid of are you. And anytime you see somebody in one of those states, that's just a mask they're wearing. You know, we don't have anything like that in our culture. We don't have any ritual where we can,

the older members of the community can really have like a visceral exercise where they show the younger generation what they're really receiving. responsible for. Especially now, and it seems with the technology we're using, we're becoming so specialized. We're becoming so narrowly focused in our own echo chambers that someone who works on coding in Silicon Valley may not have anything in common with a kid that works in a machine shop in Alabama. And it seems to me like that's the divide. Anytime we focus on what separates us,

that's what you're going to get, right? I heard another good story about a guy that drove a race car, and he says, he says, you know, he was being interviewed, and they asked him, hey, man, aren't you afraid of crashing? And the guy's like, no, I'm not afraid of crashing. They're like, why not? He's like, because I understand the rules. I'm like, well, what are the rules?

He says, the rules are what you focus on is where you go. You know, it sounds so simple, but it's so true. Have you ever been like, I don't want to hit that thing? And then you plow right into it or, oh, man, sometimes I've been, skateboard or something like, you don't want to hit that tree, sure enough. Or you've ever been snowboarding? You're like, dude, I'm going to hit this ramp or I'm going to hit this pothole. And then, of course, you hit it, right? Because what you focus on is where you end up going. So if you focus on where you want to end up, you should be cognitive about ending up in a good

spot. So, well, that's what I had. I really wanted to do an interview this morning. And it was my fault. I kind of blew it with this guy. But we're going to reschedule. And I think you're really going to enjoy him. He's got a pretty good motor. motivational website that is really, it's got a lot of good information on there. And more than that, he has a really amazing story. You know, it's, it's heartwarming and it's amazing to hear someone who's been through some real trials and tribulations just stand up there with a no-nonsense attitude until you look, you know, whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, either way you're

right. But, well, I wanted to hang out with everybody for a little bit today. I wanted to tell all my family and friends, I totally love you. And after Christmas time, I'm going to try to get some more interviews and talk to some more people. And every one of you watching this are invited. All you got to do is hit me up in the comments. And you can do some Monday morning with Georgie or, you know, anytime.

I love you guys. We'll be. Have a great day.