Hope I haven't picked the wrong board for this topic, if so, please move it where appropriate.
Some time ago I came upon, on one Croatian blog, a post about Itzhak Bentov's video called "From Atom To Cosmos". It was described as "one of the best videos about consciousness and creation ever made".
_http://svjesnost.blogspot.com/2008/12/itzhak-bentov-od-atoma-do-kozmosa.html
(unfortunately it's only in Croatian, but there you can find link(s) for downloading this video)
Well, last night I finally managed to watch it through its entirety. And it's really very nice piece of work (although the video and audio quality are very poor).
It's based on two books of Bentov's: "Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness" and "A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness: A Cosmic Book on the Mechanics of Creation".
Did anybody read these (I haven't)? Or seen the video? I searched the Cass forum for Itzhak Bentov and couldn't find anything except in bibliography of one of D. Icke's books.
If somebody did read them or watched it, I would appreciate any comments and impressions about them (both books and the video).
Anyway, Bentov is regarded as the father of holographic model of reality, but he also had a dark spot in his resume, imo, because among other things he "designed Israel's first rocket for the War of Independence".
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzhak_Bentov
He died in 1979, in O'Hare Airport disaster in Chicago, "the deadliest single airliner accident on U.S. soil".
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191
Besides this video, you can find two youtube videos with him (or his ideas) on internet:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM_nCFugdkw
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmBgnHsJ-A
Which, imo, are taken out of context (e.g. only one third of the interview is shown) and don't give proper picture about Bentov's ideas and work, and try to emphasize mainly MS New Age things in it.
I won't be retelling the whole video, just some quotes from it that I found interesting:
There are some interesting diagrams and structures shown in the video, e.g. quality vs quantity of consciousness diagram, cosmic egg structure and explanation of contemporary astronomic data, "consciousness is modular" theory/hypothesis and structures that come forth from it...
and Bentov's analogies, from 1970s, look pretty modern to me, even today.
On the other hand, when I heard the word void it was "Oh no, not again", but there was a very unexpected twist with this void thing at the end:
And yes, there is a slight taste of YCYOR idea in this (and also in some other parts of video), but I can't say if it's originally contained in Bentov's work or it is a touch of Mirtala (Bentov's wife) and director of this video (H. Jessup).
Also, what I find seriously lacking in Bentov's work is the concept of Free Will and everything else that goes with it (although there was some implicit indication when describing Cosmic Law and Love-Will relationship).
At the end, I think that he was onto something, and it's a real pity that he was already gone two years after publishing his first book.
Some time ago I came upon, on one Croatian blog, a post about Itzhak Bentov's video called "From Atom To Cosmos". It was described as "one of the best videos about consciousness and creation ever made".
_http://svjesnost.blogspot.com/2008/12/itzhak-bentov-od-atoma-do-kozmosa.html
(unfortunately it's only in Croatian, but there you can find link(s) for downloading this video)
Well, last night I finally managed to watch it through its entirety. And it's really very nice piece of work (although the video and audio quality are very poor).
It's based on two books of Bentov's: "Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness" and "A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness: A Cosmic Book on the Mechanics of Creation".
Did anybody read these (I haven't)? Or seen the video? I searched the Cass forum for Itzhak Bentov and couldn't find anything except in bibliography of one of D. Icke's books.
If somebody did read them or watched it, I would appreciate any comments and impressions about them (both books and the video).
Anyway, Bentov is regarded as the father of holographic model of reality, but he also had a dark spot in his resume, imo, because among other things he "designed Israel's first rocket for the War of Independence".
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzhak_Bentov
He died in 1979, in O'Hare Airport disaster in Chicago, "the deadliest single airliner accident on U.S. soil".
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191
Besides this video, you can find two youtube videos with him (or his ideas) on internet:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM_nCFugdkw
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmBgnHsJ-A
Which, imo, are taken out of context (e.g. only one third of the interview is shown) and don't give proper picture about Bentov's ideas and work, and try to emphasize mainly MS New Age things in it.
I won't be retelling the whole video, just some quotes from it that I found interesting:
"We don't have Soul, but it's other way around, Souls have us."
"The Soul is repository of information that we gather during a lifetime."
"Bentov looked at reality as a whole as consciousness itself... consciousness in the state of evolution of unfolding itself to itself to know itself and there's nothing outside it."
"Physical reality is only another expression of that reality which is consciousness (or existence) itself, aware of itself... Matter is then another expression of consciousness at different levels of evolution... Reality is perceived by those who are experiencing it only on the level of their own evolution of the nervous system (mechanism in physical body that perceives reality)."
There are some interesting diagrams and structures shown in the video, e.g. quality vs quantity of consciousness diagram, cosmic egg structure and explanation of contemporary astronomic data, "consciousness is modular" theory/hypothesis and structures that come forth from it...
and Bentov's analogies, from 1970s, look pretty modern to me, even today.
On the other hand, when I heard the word void it was "Oh no, not again", but there was a very unexpected twist with this void thing at the end:
"...you are the consciousness which is the void... and that part of you that had never left had always been the void, and that observer that was watching through your eyes and guiding you through this obstacle course to go back to your (higher) self was the observer that had never left and was watching you creating this whole phantasmagoria for yourself... we each create our own!... we are the creators (producers) and the consumers of our own reality, because we are the consciousness itself. "
And yes, there is a slight taste of YCYOR idea in this (and also in some other parts of video), but I can't say if it's originally contained in Bentov's work or it is a touch of Mirtala (Bentov's wife) and director of this video (H. Jessup).
Also, what I find seriously lacking in Bentov's work is the concept of Free Will and everything else that goes with it (although there was some implicit indication when describing Cosmic Law and Love-Will relationship).
At the end, I think that he was onto something, and it's a real pity that he was already gone two years after publishing his first book.