Kajenx's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fluffo]

Haha, I can tell you've been watching brackenwood. It feels a lot like it. I enjoyed it, though; great job! :3

[Apple Consumers]

I agree with your social commentary! :D

[Gaia - life and death]

O_O

This is very Newgrounds.

[Felix's Loopdeloops 2011]

Coolz!

Fun! Uh. I have nothing else to say.

[Desktop Stripper]

Woah...

It went from funny to dark in 10 seconds flat...

[Animator vs Animation III]

Have another 10

Lol, this was awesome! I don't think I'd be too sad if my computer did that, though. I just hope he backed up his essay, haha...

[SS - Meditation]

Counterintuitive

This is probably the worst one so far because it's so misguided.

At one point in your overly complex description of the human mind, you talk about how the animal brain and the conscious mind filter and distort things through belief systems. You present this in a negative connotation in spite of the fact that you're laying out one of the most bizarre concoctions of new age beliefs and science fiction I've ever seen. Why not take your own advice and scrap all the magical thinking? None of it is very relevant once you reach the end of the road and truly understand what you're looking for.

You also present meditation as if it's main use was getting interesting mental effects to happen. Honestly, it's just not going to work for anyone if they go into it hoping for that. Meditation isn't about clearing your mind of thoughts or trying to achieve different states of consciousness, it's about observing yourself thinking and removing the emotional attachment to your thoughts. If you do it long enough it will certainly clear your mind, but simply counting down and hoping for a peaceful state of mind after 100 or so seconds will just make most people discouraged. Try counting to a million and see how long it takes you to forget to count.

RiverJordan responds:

Sorry, I think your getting confused with the meaning in the lesson. I didn't say that the point of meditation was to get these mental affects, but to experience the oneness. I did want to talk about binaural beats though, not to say the purpose was to get these effects, but because they were possible. Regardless of if you think digital drugs are good or bad, they are a very interesting topic.

And just because you disagree with what I'm saying, doesn't make it crazy, it just means you disagree. It is what it is.

[SS - The Flower of Life]

Lol...

Honestly, this is so obnoxious and pretentious it's become funny. I can't believe anyone is taking it seriously.

[SS - Thoughts]

I actually sat through the whole thing...

The main problem with your arguments is that you're drawing overly complex conclusions.

It's true that animals are able to communicate with each other, but it seems much more likely that they're reacting to nonverbal cues. This is the same with humans. You don't need to invent a spiritual psychic realm to explain communication. If I draw a frowning face on a piece of paper and show it to you, you're going to understand what it represents. That drawing doesn't have any thoughts to send to you. Sure, you could say I mentally imprinted my own sadness on a piece of paper, but I'm perfectly capable of drawing a frowning face while I'm happy. If I showed it to you, you'd still understand what it meant.

A more poignant example is the actor who comes into work completely depressed, but still delivers a compelling and convincing performance as a happy go-getter. If what you're saying was true, their unhappiness would be imprinted on the film reel and destroy their intentions of faking emotion.

This would also make it impossible to lie.

While it's certainly true that people who think positive and set goals tend to be more successful in their endeavors, it's a big stretch to say this means their thoughts alone are the cause of their success. You even say in your movie that you're not going to get what you want by just sitting around and thinking about things. This shows that the work itself has to be done regardless of your mindset, and the only thing a positive mindset is going to do is make your life a little easier. People who are more motivated work harder to achieve their goals. That's the explanation.

The concept of magic is based on the idea that symbols and intentions can cause physical change in the world. "The Secret" and the law of attraction are no different from this in any way. The problem with magic, though, is that it simply doesn't hold up in any sorts of scientifically rigorous testing. It's an alluring idea that you can do things without actually expending effort and that's why people still believe in magic in spite of the overwhelming evidence against it.

I think you would enjoy looking into some of Richard Dawkins' ideas about memes. You would probably also enjoy the book "Consciousness Explained." There are more scientific ways of looking at the world that don't rely so much on speculation and I think you'll find them much more rewarding in the amount of ideas they can give you. I turned to alternative religions, spirituality, and magic to explain the world for me when I was in high school, and as fascinating as all of it was, I was almost offended at how obtuse and meaningless it became when I looked into real philosophy and realized what I'd been missing.

[SS - Keys of our Past]

Really...?

At first I thought this was a joke it's so ridiculous, but apparently it's not. 0_o If you're going to base your worldview off of science fiction, though, I guess you can't pick a better literary source than Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

As far as the animation goes, it was crude at best so 4 stars, I think...