Zeitgeist

Production Date: 2007
Website: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

ABOUT:

The Zeitgeist Film Series is about examining the world we share, the values we hold, the problems we face, along with what we can do to make it better.

As the word “Zeitgeist” implies, we are dealing with the “intellectual, spiritual, cultural awareness of the time” and the goal of this project is to explore what makes us who we are, how we relate, what we are doing and what we should be doing if we wish to live in a peaceful, humane, sustainable and healthy global society.

The premise of “Zeitgeist: The Movie” is not what many assume. The original Zeitgeist was not a film, but a performance piece, which consisted of a vaudevillian style multi-media event using recorded music, live instruments and video. [The only known (camera phone) recording is posted here.] The event was given over a 6-night period in New York City and then, without any interest to professionally release or produce the work, was “tossed” up on the Internet arbitrarily. The work was never designed as a film or even a documentary in a traditional sense – it was designed as a creative, provoking, emotionally driven expression, full of artistic extremity and heavily stylized gestures. (For more about the evolution of “Zeitgeist, The Movie” please see the Q & A at www.zeitgeistthefilm.com )
However, once online, an unexpected flood of interest began to generate. Within 6 months over 50 Million views were recorded on Google Video counters (before they were reset for some reason). Suddenly “Zeitgeist” the event, became “Zeitgeist: The Movie”.The current combined estimates put the number of Internet views at over 300 million as of 2013.

In turn, the decision was made to make a follow up in 2008 entitled “Zeitgeist: Addendum”. (www.zeitgeistaddendum.com) Originally this was going to conclude the Series, introducing ideas of resolve for some of our ongoing social problems. Yet, this work succeeded in sparking a mass shift of attention, inspiring the development of an activist organization now called The Zeitgeist Movement. This Movement, founded by Peter Joseph, now works globally to spread information about a new social reform ideas. However, this is an aside for the Zeitgeist Film Series, while an inspiration for The Movement which shares the term “Zeitgeist”, is not to be confused with the content / views of the films in detail, which are personal to Peter Joseph alone. The Zeitgeist Movement is an economic/sustainability movement at its core and its relationship to the Film Series content is not in tandem.

On January 15, 2011, the third of the series, “Zeitgeist: Moving Forward”, was released independently in over 60 countries and in over 30 languages with over 340 screenings worldwide. Likely the largest independent documentary release of it kind in history. This more traditional, interview based documentary focuses on the very fabric of the social order: Monetary-Market Economics.

While the majority of the world today have slowly come to see some basic flaws in the economic system we share, as large scale debt defaults, inflation, industrial pollution, resource depletion, rising cancer rates and other signposts emerge to bring the concern into the realm of “public health” overall, very few however consider the economic paradigm as a whole as the source. The tendency is to demand reform in one area or another, avoiding the possibility that perhaps the entire system is intrinsically flawed at the foundational level. ZMF presents the case that it is, indeed, the very foundational mechanics of this system that generates the patterns of behavior and unsustainable methods of conduct that are leading to the vast spectrum of detrimental consequences both personal, social, and environmental and the longer they go on, the worse things will become.

In 2011, it was announced that a 4th film of the series would be create in the future, called “Zeitgeist: Beyond The Pale” However, this has been reconsidered due to newer ideas for the project and it was decided that The Zeitgeist Film Series as a form would close as a Trilogy, with Beyond The Pale turning into the beginning of a New Series in the same light, but in a different manner. This is now calledInterreflections.

In 2012, Peter also began to host his own free, online, satirical Web series called “Culture In Decline”. This Bimonthly show features interesting personality and comedic commentary which has received critical acclaim.

For information on the work of Peter Joseph, the following website are related:
http://www.gentlemachineproductions.com/
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
http://www.zeitgeistmovingforward.com/
http://www.zeitgeistaddendum.com/
http://www.cultureindecline.com/
http://interreflectionsmovie.com/
http://zeitgeistmediafestival.org/
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/
http://zeitgeistmediaproject.com/main/
http://zdayglobal.org/

DIRECTOR’S NOTE:

Zeitgeist: The Movie – Part 1: “The Greatest Story Ever Told” presents historical data relating to the astronomi-
cal/astrological origins of the Judeo-Christian theology (which can be extended to Islam as well), along with
the understanding that these respective stories, beliefs & traditions are really an adaptation-extension of prior
Pagan beliefs. In other words, evidence shows that these modern religions are really composites of earlier
religions with their stories and symbolisms “borrowed” as the new traditions evolved. Of course, believers of
theistic religions have a inherent, self-preserving interest to disagree with such a notion, for it brings their reli-
gion out of the context of the supernatural and novel – and into the context of a singular, serial intellectual evo-
lution of information where many religions begin to share a common symbolic and literary basis. From such a
perspective, naturally, the idea that “Jesus” or “Osiris” or “Dionysus” were real, supernatural figures of a larger
order metaphysic becomes a distant reality. Regardless, this section isn’t really about whether “God” exists or
any such issue – it is about the firm reality that religions have been borrowing and building upon each other,
while the central origin of these theologies almost always comes back to stellar and solar fascination, in part.
When we track these literary/ritual characteristics, we find that most religions of the world have been spawned
from the interpretation/misinterpretation of the natural world and its dynamic phenomena. Of this phenomena,
it is found that the sun, the stars and the general stellar array have been a powerful source of allegorical and
hence mythological meaning since the dawn of humanity. The term to describe this is “Astrotheology” and it will
be explained in the pages that follow.
I want to thank D.M. Murdock, aka Acharya S, for her profound and deeply brave commitment to this complex
issue. She has been very kind to review and update the following data presented here. I would like to point out
that many who disagree with the following material often work to condemn the messenger as the originator.
Of course, this is a common tactic of those in denial or those who simply don’t have the interest to investigate
thoroughly. While Acharya is an expert in her field and does generate conclusions which are extrapolated from
the sources she researches – just as any good scholar should for the sake of progress – her work is also a pow-
erful collection of scholar/historian documentation which has occurred for the past 2000+ years. In other words,
the idea that all of these ideas about comparative religion are “Acharya’s ideas” is beyond incorrect. Again,
this is a tactic used by some to avoid actually reviewing sources. Another common accusation is that all these
ideas are from an “esoteric” egyptologist names Gerald Massey. This is also nonsense. Massey is simply one
of many Egyptologists who recognized the obvious relationship of Christianity to earlier religions, specifically
the Egyptian.
At end of this section is the Bibliography for Part 1. Everyone is encouraged to examine the sources denoted
and research the nature of those scholars. The fact is, while this topic has been very controversial and “taboo”
for a very long period of time, it doesn’t change the facts apparent – as inconvenient as they may be to the cur-
rent prevailing assumptions about the origins of modern religious beliefs.

A MESSAGE FROM DM MURDOCK:

When Peter Joseph asked me to help out on this lengthy project, I readily agreed, even though the material
contained herein had already been validated repeatedly in my other efforts. In this day and age, it is obvious
that many people are not inclined or available timewise to read large tomes of scholarly writings in order to “fig –
ure it all out.” This fact of time-constraint as well as difficulty in subject matter is the major reason “ZEITGEIST”
was so successful in the first place, as it provided a short and easily digestible summary of the issue at hand:
To wit, the origins of some of our most cherished religious ideas. So, here we have put together a resource
that is hopefully more readily available to all who are interested but find it difficult and time-consuming to wade
through huge chunks of information.
When Peter first asked me to pitch in on this specific project, he was not aware of how much work it would turn
out to be, because—as many who have read my work will know—I am very diligent and meticulous in not only
my writing style but also the subject matter.
In any event, as I try to do, I have put my all into this work, so I hope you will benefit from it greatly. This effort
includes new source material drawn from primary sources as well the works from credentialed authorities in a
variety of relevant subjects. – D.M. Murdock aka Acharya S

Sources

Source: https://archive.org/details/ZEITGEIST_DVD
Website: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com