Journeys to the Edge of Consciousness

2019

Adventure / Animation / Documentary

1
IMDb Rating 7.5/10 10 186 186

psychedelic

Plot summary

Take an animated journey into the depths of the human mind, exploring three psychedelic trips that changed Western culture forever. Sixty years later we sit down with twelve leading current thinkers to ask: "What can expanded states of mind teach us about ourselves, the world and our place in it?"

Director

Rob Harper Photo
Rob Harper

Top cast

Rick Doblin Photo
Rick Doblin as Self
Graham Hancock Photo
Graham Hancock as Self
Tim Read Photo
Tim Read as Self
William Roberts Photo
William Roberts as Self - Timothy Leary
720p.WEB
804.02 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
25 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by 10 / 10

A road map of the mind body and spirit

'Journeys to the edge of consciousness' , could have equally been called, 'a road map for healing mental and emotional trauma' or even 'how to navigate the mind, body and spirit of the self'. The film looks at three wonderful animations, documenting a quick snapshot of the experiences of Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary. What follows are the lucid perspectives of the best of today's thinkers. The film educated me, (the quality of the information is in depth and referencable), this film challenged my perspective on social issues surrounding human behaviour and human rights issues. This film comforted me to know that there are individuals and groups who have solutions to troubling social issues of today. Psychedelia this film explains but the wider truth is that of the reconciliation of the human spirit is within our grasp if conscientious disciple and a dollop of humour is employed,....for All! A wonderful, wonderful documentary, and because of the mature delivery will become a reference of the genre and indeed for all who want to be whole.
Reviewed by 6 / 10

Beautiful movie severely let down by a Political rant ! Why ??

This is a lovely short documentary about a subject which is well known, popular and very much the topic of conversation for some of us.But right in the middle of it, Dr Gabor Mate for some bizarre reason goes on a political rant about a President completely destroying the tone and message of the movie. There's so much hate still in Gabor and possibly the Director who chose not to edit this rant - it becomes difficult to believe these guys know what they're talking about or have glimpsed a view of the unknowable! How can you talk of Buddha and still be consumed with so much hate and spout so much nonsense? Wasn't the whole idea of awareness and consciousness to go above petty things AND understand the different choices people make? The politics,etc is not that important and it's all make-believe anyway like everything in this world. Obviously not for Dr Gabor Mate and I've heard similar politics spouted even by Jon Kabat-Zinn in some of his talks and I'm stumped. So these guys have never reached a better place at all? Why are they talking of mindfulness, awareness, consciousness and the lot when they're still wallowing in hatred? Let it go. Don't just preach follow your own advice. Be a better person.Importantly why destroy a beautiful meditative piece of filming with filth which takes the viewer out of the reverie? Baffling indeed.
Reviewed by 6 / 10

Interesting but a mixed bag that undermines itself

Part narrative exploration of written accounts of psychedelic experiences (what I expected going in), part polemic, part advocacy and part education. I suspect that for the message to truly resonate as intended a very specific worldview and cultural context is necessary (contrary to its universalist presentation), so its ideal audience is rather small. It's unlikely to change any minds and, to someone whose worldview only partially overlaps with that presented, its content ranged from the insightful, through the obvious, through the totally backwards and through some unfortunate patches of thin nonsense.However that does not ruin any experience, there's beauty in it and some valuable messages. Even if you are not fully aligned with the worldview espoused of psychedelics as an gateway to the external and spiritual more than the internal and obscure, as I am not, there are things to appreciate or learn from this and I would recommend a watch. Parts will need discarded but other parts are of great value.My lukewarm rating comes primarily not from my disagreements in spiritual worldview but from a sense that the components of the film work against each other. The narrative exploration is undercut by long discussion segments that veer off far from the texts. The education is undercut by needing to make room for other content, for example setting is often mentioned but not elaborated on in depth. The advocacy of drug liberalisation, a cause I support, is built on twin justifications of (sadly underexplored) medical merits of psychedelics and of laying out a spiritual faith-based view of reality as revealed by psychedelics. Naturally these do not complement each other and, indeed, undermine each other. This film is effectively several other potential films crowding each other out and stunting what they could have been. A shame, but take from it what you can, and enjoy the process of doing so.
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