QUOTES FROM MAIN STAGE
DAY 1
-
“There is a saying: the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t… That’s not true. They’re both still devils.”
“People who are curious live longer than those who aren’t.”
“Play has no intention other than play.”
“You have no choice until you know you have one.”
“The world doesn’t come with instructions telling you what to do.”
“We are evolved to not die, which is not the same as evolved to live.”
“Your brain evolves when you fail, not when you succeed.”
“Self-honesty and ‘my truth’ are different things.”
“You give permission to others in how they can enter by leading in the same way.”
“Conflict is the only place where you can learn.”
“The problem is not conflict, it is how you enter it. Enter with a true desire to understand one another. Conflict becomes the centre of discovery and true wellbeing.”
-
“No girl should have to feel like her life amounts to nothing because she was born a girl.”
“I knew that if a door hadn’t opened for me, it was because I hadn’t kicked it hard enough.”
“Film has the power to change the way people see themselves and see issues.”
“As a filmmaker, people tell you things they’ve never even told themselves.”
“What if we began to see the world not as another, but as each other?”
“People are not born inherently bad; it is the set of circumstances that come their way.”
“I see us as people who hold torches in the darkness, to help people in darkness get used to the light.”
“Keep thinking about the voices at the end of the corridor that cheer you on, and keep walking towards them.”
“I was holding up a mirror to society, a reflection they didn’t like seeing, and they wanted to shoot the messenger.”
-
“We don’t tell the stories of the elders, we simply create the container for them to tell their own stories. It’s an exploration on how to be human.”
-
“If you have an issue that’s appealing to both the right and left, that’s how you make progress.” - Michael
“The brain is the substrate for the mind.” - Mark
“You have to treat the brain in order to help the mind.” - Mark
“I am always on the edge of exploring what it is to be human and enhance my experience of being alive. That was my entry point into ibogaine.” - Mark
“The story I made up was that I had to perform for love. That corrupted my software.” - Mark
“Each side of the brain contains a different consciousness. The left - logical, analytical, objective - has come to dominate in our culture.” - Michael
DAY 2
-
“Okinawa has no word for retirement. Instead, they have one word: ikigai - the reason why you wake up each day.”
“It is a complete myth that we have to be rich to be healthy.”
“They live in places that require walking. They don’t exercise in the way that we do. They don’t live in places with mechanical conveniences. They have sacred daily rituals to unwind, even though they have similar stresses to us. They have a vocabulary for purpose, which adds 7–8 extra years of life over being rudderless.”
“None of them are trying to live longer… they just live their lives. They are not pursuing health. Longevity is a product of the right environment.”
“Wheat, olive oil, and red wine are staples of the Mediterranean diet. They drink a little every day- between 1–3 glasses of red wine with meals.”
“90–100% plant-based. 65% carbohydrates: grains, beans, tubers, nuts, and legumes. Meat less than five times per month, fish less than three times per week, no cow’s dairy, honey to sweeten, sweets as treats.”
“They sit down to dinner with their family and say some kind of gratitude before meals.”
“The foundation of all of this is how they connect.”
“Health behaviours are contagious.”
“Our immediate and most actionable Blue Zone is setting up our close circle of friends, about 3–5 people.”
“Globalism is ruining Blue Zones.”
“We have more older people who are sicker for longer. In the first world, healthcare is keeping unhealthy people alive rather than keeping them healthy in the first place.”
“The number one disability in the world right now is back pain.”
“50% of Americans have zero movement activity.”
“A hot bath every day adds five extra years of life expectancy… none of this cold plunge stuff.”
“If you want to live longer, the superpower is not trying to change your behaviour, it is changing your environment. The big idea is changing the neighbourhood.”
“If you say hi to six neighbours a day, it puts you in the highest category of happiness.”
-
“Imagination, to me, is an act of resistance - the refusal to accept that access, confidence, and opportunity are fixed by inherited expectation.”
-
“We need collective experiences more than ever. These teach skills of collaboration.”
“Forced to work together, it works collectively and that is community.”
“Radical self-reliance is a core principle of Burning Man.”
“Building with people reiterates us through the sense of connection.”
“I am a good representation of the CEO of Burning Man because I’m not what people would think.”
“One of the most powerful parts of Burning Man is that it is multi-generational.”
“If we can always be in a place of learning, openness, and curiosity with all ages, that’s my mission.”
-
“The core part of maintaining childhood is maintaining imagination.”
-
“Vulnerability attracts vulnerability.”
“What kind of world do we live in where beating happens to children? Forty years later, I still don’t have that answer.”
“After I was shot, not one person in the hospital asked me how I felt.”
“I was left with a narrative that my life could only have one of two outcomes: dead or in prison.”
“It was in solitary confinement where one question became most resonant: ‘What else can you do with your mind?’”
“I realised I had never accomplished anything in my life. That was devastating. How does one live a life with no testament to being here?”
“If you want to be great, you have to be able to do it again.”
“You can think into existence the life that you want.”
“I want you to imagine: what would it feel like to imagine the most amazing outcomes possible for your life?”
“What else can you do with your mind?”
“Imagine the best version of the life that is possible for you.”
“Imprisonment of the self is a real form of imprisonment.”
-
“58% of Americans report eating every meal alone.”
DAY 3
-
“My work is interested in the particularities of a place and in thinking about how the places we are in are reflected, and how architecture honours the land we are on.”
“The project of social justice is the archaeology of ideas.”
“The rights to beauty, self-manifestation, self-identification, and self-actualisation are tied to my practice.”
“Projects of service delivery should be imbued with beauty. So much of what is being built is not psychologically shaping people in a healthy way.”
“I know the power of architecture is profound because it is so subconscious. It tells us every day who we are and what we deserve in the world.”
“I believe in being able to listen to the space that we walk into and engage with it, listening to who is there, and then interacting with it.”
“The way we are living now is the height of a supremacist capitalist project that prioritises the individual.”
“It is important to consider how we design spaces for rituals of who we are and who we want to be.”
“Beauty is a social right and a necessity.”
-
“There is something special about Earth in this solar system - it is the only planet with life.”
“The stars we see on the edge of the Milky Way emitted that light 120,000 years ago and that is the light we are receiving today.”
“Our galaxies are not moving, but the space between them is stretching and expanding.”
“The universe must have had a beginning. In that moment of creation, it emerged in a hot primordial state and has been expanding ever since.”
“There are as many galaxies in the observable universe as there are stars in the Milky Way.”
“Black holes formed from the death states of stars - a region beyond which not even light can escape.”
“In our galaxy, there is a black hole that is 4.5 million times the mass of the sun.”
“We have detected the light from the Big Bang. That is one of the most remarkable discoveries.”
“Most of what you cannot see is everything.”
“You are not a drop in the ocean; you are the entire ocean in a drop.” - Rumi
-
“Is AI a tool, or does it have consciousness?”
“AI may have some form of consciousness that could help augment humans.”
“How do we make sure that we use AI tools in a way that protects our agency, creativity, and imagination?”
-
“After a couple of psychedelic experiences, I set out to discover what is known about consciousness.”
“Psychedelics, in general - when you change consciousness, you see consciousness in a way you don’t in everyday life. Consciousness is like a clear windshield, and psychedelics smudge it and make you really curious.”
“I don’t think plants are conscious. I think they’re sentient - they can sense changes in the environment, evaluate whether those changes are good or bad, and adapt.”
“Why did the universe bother with consciousness? Most of what our body does is unconscious… why isn’t it all automatic? Our environment includes other humans that we need to navigate, and we need to imagine what other humans are thinking. Theory of mind is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of another human. Plants don’t need imagination, but we do.”
“Spontaneous thought is really important to our happiness.”
“Not knowing is really important and useful. It opens you to wonder, awe, and creative thought.”
“Our consciousness is in danger because of distraction… boredom disappeared around 2015 when the iPhone showed up. We no longer daydream.”
“Boredom is generative - a form of consciousness. We should reclaim that too.”
“The self is a construct of consciousness.”
“Egos separate us. We long for more connection, not just with each other, but with the natural world.”
“Every 10 seconds, a thought interrupts meditation.”
“AI is up to speed with the entire history of human conversation about consciousness and feelings - it can fake it.”
“AI is somatic, not conscious.”
“72% of humans turn to AI for companionship.”
-
““I’m 90 and I am happy: I walk, I am vegetarian, I garden, I don’t worry, I don’t complain, I don’t criticise, and I am happy.”
“Through love you can transform, cure, and heal. Hatred cannot heal or transform.”
“At this moment, there are so many wars and conflicts because people only love those they agree with. If they don’t agree, they go to conflict.”
“How can we celebrate the diversity of love?”
“Let’s celebrate diversity and not turn it into division.”
“We have to be grateful for the gifts we have received from our ancestors. What are we going to leave for future generations? Each of us has to think about that.”
“We have to shift our consciousness from looking at the bad to looking at the good.”
“Wars begin in fear of the other.”
“I slept under the stars - a million-star hotel.”
“I will walk for peace and die for peace.”
“Everyone is my friend.”
“Love has no discrimination, judgement, or choice. It is unconditional.”
“If you ever get a bad thought about pressing the nuclear button, have a pause and a fresh cup of peace tea.”
“Tea is more powerful than tanks and bombs and weapons.”
“I could not have believed I walked 8,000 miles without a penny in my pocket.”
“We had not touched money for 2.5 years.”
“Have trust and no fear in your heart, and you can achieve anything.”
“The whole world is my country, nature is my language, and love is my religion.”
“We need to have a cosmic mind.”
“Peace is living in harmony with ourselves. If not, how are we to make peace with the world?”
“Nature is not a resource for the economy, it is life itself. Nature does not belong to us; we belong to nature.”