The taste of glass

These are some ideas I'm thinking about like a manifest..

It's a pretty rough scenario, but I like it. Let's call it version 1.0
This began with an idea for a youtube film, that can run on my channel..
But it should be many media.. A blog, a game and a movie, a pendant.
Let's start with the movie.

The taste of glass

Questions about answers.

Brought to you by ToT

Youtube movie, aim 15 to 20 minutes:

video: somebody shattering glass on a piece of paper.

Then carrying it inside.

Placing it on the table and slapping the shards with his hand.

It turns out to be an optical illusion.

Title: What does glass taste like, a film by ToT.

What does glass taste like?

Image:

The question is black on white, neutral font, from the “.” of the “?” it shatters, forms shards, some fall. 

Voice-over,very neutral: 

“What IS the taste of glass?” (note: not the question on screen!)

Ticking clock 

Image & Sound, video:

People were just asked this question, we see them thinking, they don't answer or answer inconclusively or answering directly. These reactions are answers to the question: what do you do when faced with an impossible question.

Image: same glass pane, cracked, but a different text behind it.

Text: “It tastes like blood.”,

The answer is there quite long, in sudden silence.

Image:

Reactions of people to the answer. Some don't understand,

Image:

silence continues

plate with red cloth on stool in a recognizable place, either a very small stage or a white environment, upon the plate lie 4 glass shards, a hand picks up a shard.

Puts it in mouth neutrally. The shard seems quite sharp.(effect? ice?)

Image:

Reactions of people to the answer. Some don't understand the answer at all.

Image: (FACE, EYES TURN UP/INWARD, starts to chew) close up of mouth - Someone chewing, you hear glass/ice being crushed

video: Reactions of people to the answer. Some laugh a bit. Some find it funny, or silly..

image: chewing on glass, while blood comes out of the corner of the mouth.

Video:

Reactions of people to the answer. Some find it uneasy or are grossed out, resist it somehow.

Image:

Blood drops fall on the floor, with long intervals, becoming shorter as the chewing goes on.

Sound of the chewing of the ice-cube.

Voice-over:

Is this funny?

Why is this funny?

Is it funny, because we thought there was no answer, and then there was, and we follow the reasoning and see that it must be true?

Is it just relief of an impossible puzzle solved?

Or is it funny, because it involves pain that is not our OWN?

Is it, because we feel there is something else going on? That the question was intentionally misguiding?

That is was maybe intended AS A JOKE and we laugh politely OR just decide it is funny?

Or are we laughing at ourselves for thinking a bit of all these things at the same time and being somehow ashamed of it?

Is it because it is a verbal joke, a language joke?

Image: drops disappear. With wet cloth. Smears of blood, then clean..

image: people laughing, no sound,

pan away..

SOMEONE reading a book, cuddled up in a corner, warm lighting, close-up: turning page, face really into the story, back to total; some of the story is projected behind the reader

Voice-over:

What are jokes?

Are they just language?

What happens in our brain when we hear or read a description? (description timed with projected story)

image: person asking questions, directions in the street, carrying a map, body language, pointing, no sound..

Voice-over:

What happens when we ask a question?

Do longer words always have more complex or precise meaning?

Image:

hippomonstrosesquippedaliofobia

Behind shattered glass/ in computer game, the movie of people trying to pronounce it plays.

Voice-over:

When do we use language to name abstractions? To describe something we cannot see, or hear?

Why do we use long words when we do that?

Video:

We ask people to pronounce it, this is funny. That we ask them what it means and tell them. People find this funny.

Image:

Hippomonstrosesquippedaliofobia = Fear of long words (behind shattered glass)

video: people reacting to that, some will laugh.

Voice over:

Why is this funny?

Is it because someone was so cruel to choose this name?

What is cruelty?

Image: rotten teeth (photo)

Image: Dentist waiting room. People nervous. Hear drill. On the wall is tooth art..

Dentist, hunched over someone, close up drilling. Feet in chair going up as the drill hits.

Then... goodbyes, shaking hands with the man that just tortured you.

Voice-over:

Cruelty involves pain.

Pain is a signal.

(image: rotten teeth)

Is inflicting pain is cruel? Or are there times when it isn't. (isn't timed with shaking hands)

Do we sometimes need pain or discomfort to get better or see a truth. (repeat teeth rotten)

Image: Cruel Kind divides screen in two. (or ambigram)

We use these kinds of words,cruel/kind

Image:

Extravert/Intravert (splits screen in two)

Imagethinker /Verb thinker (splits screen in two)

animal/mineral/vegetable (3)

promotor supporter analyser controller, (4)

sensation, intuition, thinking, feeling (4)

We like to categorize.

And we judge everything by categorizing it..

Sensations. things, ideas, words, people.

Can the act categorization lead to new insights?

Does it feel better when you use more words, or more complicated words?

Does that make it more spiritual or more nuanced or scientific?

Image: Enneagram 9. (circle with relations)

Image: Star-signs 12 (chinese and european) (people holding up star sign icon?)

Image: taxonomy of trees /animals.

Image: Jungian Acrhetypes (15)

Image: lightswitch being flipped.

Or is it really just the same thing?

Does any categorization mean a simplification of what we can experience?

It is light or dark.

behind shattered glass:

How many percent 'homosexual' are you?

Image: people reacting

Image (voices continue): Instead of turning on the light, dimming it..

Image: people reacting, voices continue

Image: colored lights.. Being dimmed

Image: someone calculating,electric calculator, large list of numbers, calculator says 5...

writes down (behind “Percentage homosexual, average answer:”) 5%

How many percent 'blond' is your hair (perceived as neutral question)

Is anything ever absolute or precise?

Or is it just in our language?

In our mind?

When do we use precise, decisive, judgemental language?

Like: storm....

Image:

Man in hard wind, walking past water, umbrella in front like a battering ram. No rain visible, trees bending in the distance.. White heads on water.

Voice-over:

Could it be, that absolute language is a sign we are having trouble dealing with something and we are forcing our way forward? We are denying it? Shielding ourselves from it?

Image: man holds up hand, no rain.. folds umbrella.

So what would happen if we stop resisting/denying by using judgement, and in stead tolerate the person, idea or experience that bothers us?

What if we start experiencing it for what it is?

Image: car, driving, kid? in the back, kid is holding hand out of window, feeling the wind.

Close up of hand going up and down, pushed by wind..

hand shaking hand.. (timed with respect the boundaries)

Can we feel our way around it? Respect it's force? See when we can control it, when we can not. And what that does to us..

Can we respect the boundaries we feel? Or do we feel the need to resist (kid makes fist, than relaxes again)

Image:

Wind meter, meteorological institute de Bilt?

Can we accept it... Letting it be what it is, without feeling a need to change anything.

Measure it honestly without categorizing it?

Image: Dog with it's head out of car window.

Might we even appreciate it?

Image:

Man with umbrella toiling under the words resistance

tolerate, (fold umbrella)

respect, (waits before walking on)

accept (closes eyes)

appreciate (holds out hands, raincoat flapping),

followed by..

camera turning.. a girl playing with kite in hard wind, with windmills in the back turning

If we take all these steps: tolerate, respect, accept, appreciate..

Do we finally get the freedom to choose the thing, that bothered us before?

Would we dare make that choice?

What would that look like if we did?

Can we harness the power of it?

Possible ending or part 1.

BRIDGE TO THE BLOG.

IMAGE: light switch/dimmer next to each other.

flipping the light switch

Voice-over:

But how?

Is it even possible for me to recognize resistance, when I can only think in categories, judge?

Would it help if I continuously question my motivation:

am I doing/thinking with acceptance/appreciation?

Am I identifying?

But then.... Wouldn't I just be judging and categorizing my own thoughts?

I wouldn't identify with my own thoughts.

Image: meditation (zazen) Candle is lit, zoom out, mat, Buddha, sitting person.

Is this why people meditate?

To detach themselves from feelings and thoughts?

To look at them from a distance, honestly?

Without judging them?

Is this why people create images of absolute acceptance and call them good like Mohamed, Jesus, Boeddha, Shiva?

Is it to help them recognize the opposite of acceptance, appreciation?

The opposite of love?

But why do these images of goodness lead to symbols,

lead to rules about good and bad..

belonging or not beloning

us and them...

that lead to war, pain, suffering, judgement?

Image: lightswitch on off..

Is it because rules are easy and reality is compicated?

Is thinking about something that is 100% good, a form of resistance?

So should we abandon all religion?

Or should we look at the times when religion helps us accept?

When rituals help me acknowledge feelings, get closure, so they don't color my perceptions?

When rituals show the passing of time and anchor spiritual hard to grasp messages in the young mind.

When it helps me find the strength to forgive and accept?

When it helps me identify when I am not being 100% accepting.

Can we create a religion that does all that, but doesn't lead to judging?

What if we leave out the feeling of ”us and them”?

What if we stop resisting anything that we feel is not ”us”?

Every belief-system describes itself. Chrisians, Muslims, Boedhists, scientists, atheists.

Which means there are non-christians, non-muslims, non-boedhists, non-scientists, non-atheists.

What if we stop doing that?

We tried to bundle these ideas.

What if we bundle all these ideas and make a place for them, so that we remember them.

What if we make it a church, mosque or temple?

But what if this time we don't want to exclude anybody?

Some will be inside, some will be outside.

Unless....

We do the opposite.

What if we make a temple that fits no-one.

A temple that is so small, you cannot enter it.

And the we say the temple is inside-out.

So that everybody is inside the temple, equally a part of it.

So we need to name the temple for the first step, the edge.

The moment we stop judging, when we stop resisting..

The moment we tolerate something that we find hard.

So the Temple of Tolerance. ToT.

A symbol to remind us of that we have to take the first step:

Tolerance, followed by respect.

Respect followed by acceptance

Acceptance followed by Appreciation

appeciation followed by choice

TRAAC!

A symbol to remind us of that there is no us and them.

Please contribute to the blog.

Taste of glass game.

7 challenging tasks and questions

1)

(game only)

What does glass taste like?

Answer box..

Movie with people answering..

Button My answer: ...

Button stuck? get a hint!

You see answers by other people ticker taped under the reactions. Last accepted answers: “”,””

If you answer: blood it's correct.

You get the person chewing the icecube.

2) Take our ToT personality test. The only 100% accurate personality test!

”Take the test now”

If you click it: “You are the kind of person that likes personality tests. Do you like labels?”

“Not now”

If you click it: “You are someone who doesn't automatically do what they are told and who doesn't have time for personality tests. Are you stubborn or busy?

3) What does “hippomonstrosesquippedaliofobia mean?”

Button My answer: ...

Button stuck? get a hint!

If you answer: “fear of long words” it's correct.

4) Perfection

Instructions Arrange these stones in the perfect way.

Then press “This is perfect”,

If you arrange the stones and press “this is perfect”

You get “97% perfection achieved, keep going, almost there”

Try again, give up

If you try again the same thing happens.

Is this an unsolveable puzzle?

If you give up you see: if you give up now, you have created, but not achieved perfection. Can you live with that? “yes” “no”(no means retry, stones again)

YES.. WHAT IF WE TOLD YOU THAT THIS IS not AN UNSOLVEABLE PUZZLE. ACHIEVING PERFECTION IS POSSIBLE.. Do you want to try again?

If you give up: You gave up and missed out on an experience.

Why did you give up?

Do you do this often? How is this working for you?

The right thing to do:

arrange the stones, press continue, than you get a x% perfection achieved.

Then you retry, change nothing..

and press this is perfect

You created something perfect, because you created, decided that it was perfect, and stuck to it, no matter what others thought.

You solved the puzzle! Perfection is what you decide it is, no matter what anyone thinks of your creation.

How much time did you spend with the question?

How did you solve it?

Do you do this often? How is this working for you?

If you press “this is perfect” right away, you are accepting..

but you are not creating. Things can only be judged when they are created intentionally.

So things can only be perfect when created.

You missed out on an experience.

Do you do this often? How is this working for you?

5) How many percent homosexual are you?

Number 0-100%

0 OR 100 give you another question. 
Are you sure? This would mean you haven't got a hope of understanding what it would even feel like to be attracted to somebody, just because they have the wrong pair of genitals.
How about hermafrodites? Transverstites. Or a transgender, post-op and pre-op? Where do you draw the line? Can't you ever imagine falling in love with someone like that?
Don't jump towards sex, go for attraction, love, infatuation.. If there is really nothing there. OK..
But think..
There is no absolute vacuum even in space(lowest pressure).
The lowest temperature can never be reached, just like lightspeed. There are few absolutes in nature.. How can you be a 100% or 0% of anything? (or even a 100% sure of anything)?
And if you are, shouldn't you be suspicious of that? We are trained to think in opposits and there is a LOT of peer pressure in this question.
You want to revise that answer?

The rest gives you an average of answers, maybe a graph. I would like to add a control question for the 0% homesexuals and 100% homesexuals. How blond are you in percentages?
I suspect this would happen:

But maybe I'm biassed. It's just the vibe I get.. Maybe people are a lot more honest to themselves and don't think in absolutes as much as I think.. I mean to try it out with a large enough group.
The blond graph will look different depending on the place in Holland there you do this, so a nice spread would be needen: Groningen has 82% blond people (The gay graph shouldn't although I guess Amsterdam has more openly gay people)
But "How likely are you to become a drug-addict, burglar, murderer or pedofile" would probably give the same outcome. It's not as if somebody decided some day: "Oh I think I will become a drug-addict." Shit happens and we are all part of statistics.. I find it hard to believe anyone can be so sure about that, but I'm quite certain a lot of people are. THIS HAS NOT BEEN TESTED YET, It's my theory!!

6) Draw a temple, church or mosque that doesn't exclude anyone:

This is our design:

Why we chose this

Watch the movie and look at the blog for ToT

7. what do you think people should experience first:

The game,the movie, the blog, symbolic pendant, none.

If not none, choose share on .. facebook, tumbler. And give the link..