Part three "toward cosmic consciousness"

In this section of the book Youngblood further pushes the reader into the psychedelic sphere considering outer space visuals and philosophy as it relates to the human consciousness in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001 A Space Odyssey and several of Jordan Belson's film artworks.

In 2001 A Space Odyssey, "the astronaut is a child of the new age, a man of cosmic consciousness". This according to Youngblood separates him from his family on Earth as he is part of a new generation. A generation which is subjected to face the reality that there are things beyond our home planet and that Technology will ultimately separate us from what we now consider nature. In an interview with Arthur C. Clarke, co-author of the film, he states "This film is about the two most important realities of the future: development of intelligent machines, and contact with higher alien intelligence. Which of course may be machines themselves".

Youngblood admires the way Kubrick merges science fiction and art almost seamlessly. He manages to keep a minimalistic vision that is strikingly captivating. Similar outer space visuals that were created in 2001 through the use of complicated inventions and big budget were also more simply created by Jordan Belson using an Oscilloscope in his piece Allures.

Belson's films are very much based off of his Buddhist practices and his concern with the inner and outer explorations of the soul. When creating Samadhi, 1967, "he severed emotional and family ties, reduced physical excitement and stimulations,(...)and focused on his inner consciousness." His inspiration and focus for this piece was our sun and how it is a process of life and death; a star being reborn and an atom which is part of a much larger, unseen structure.

I think that all of these films are extremely aesthetically pleasing. They are very different to me however. I think of Belson as more of a visual/psychedelic kind of artist and though his films are largely based off his philosophies they seem to stand without the narrative. Whereas 2001 a space odyssey brings up more psychological interpretations in my mind.