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In this time between worlds and time between stories, we stand poised between a potential dystopia and an unimaginably beautiful future. Only a new Story of Value as a context for our diversity can change the vector of history towards a possible utopia. Movies are often the channel through which the voice of culture discloses itself. Hidden in the public texts of culture is a movement towards a new human and a new humanity. Reading the hidden text of She—woven into the fabric of our public stories—is a key part of this new Story of Value. This volume explores three recent movies: Dune, Don’t Look Up, and Avatar. In Dune we explore the necessity and dangers of charismatic spiritual and political leadership as well as the need for—and potential horror of—a new Messianic religion. The move is both a clarion call and a cautionary tale as we are in desperate need of Homo sapiens to triumph as Homo amor, the fulfilment of Homo sapiens. Don’t Look Up vividly critiques our current society, including our dysfunctional media landscape—what Marc Gafni calls our broken information ecology. In order to survive and in order to address the meta-crisis, we must not be afraid to “look up”—as they spectacularly fail to do in the film. In Avatar we depict the first expressions of Homo amor, the new human and the new humanity. Avatar reaches for the heavens in cosmocentric and even intergalactic levels of intimacy and consciousness. In our capacity to love beyond egocentric and ethnocentric boundaries, we directly participate in the evolution of love. Cinema (and culture in general) has a beautiful and necessary role in transmitting and expressing this new story—both in what it portrays, and especially in the ways that it falls short. In these movies, we can hear the hidden whispers of culture showing us the ways that we are not living into the new Story of Value, rooted in First Principles that our civilization so desperately needs.
Dr. Marc Gafni has been described as a world philosopher — a kind of galaxy heart brain — integrating wisdom from across multiple disciplines into what he has called a New Story of Value in response to the meta-crisis. One cultural critic described Gafni as a cross between Einstein, Da Vinci, and Rumi, with a dash of Robin Williams working at the cutting edge of the new narrative, collaborating with a team of leading-edge thinkers articulating a new vision of meaning for the world. Another wrote, “Gafni thinks in terms of panoramic vision but with an attention to intricate nuance and detail, which together generate a level of beauty and truth that, as Michael Murphy wrote, changes the game. And yet, he has the capacity to speak to virtually any audience with a direct sincerity, passion, and simple precision that melts hearts and blows open minds.” The renowned feminist theorist, cultural critic, and spiritual teacher Sally Kempton described Gafni as one of the great heart masters of this generation. Gafni is playing a pivotal role in evolving a new dharma or meta-theory of meaning overflowing with heart — a new set of distinctions that is helping to re-shape key pivoting points in global consciousness and culture. Gafni’s doctorate is from Oxford University with a masters degree from Bar Ilan University. He holds an orthodox rabbinic certification from the Chief Rabbinate in Israel and non-denominational rabbinic ordination. He is the author of forty books, of which only the first twelve have been published, including the award-winning Your Unique Self: The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment.
Award-winning storyteller Alex Turner's latest masterpiece awaits. Dive into a world of imagination and emotion.
