Zeitgeist: Intellectual, Spiritual, Cultural awareness of the time

It’s One World… One Family – It’s time to grow up

by Peter Joseph

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.

Introduction – The Greatest Story Ever Told

“The Greatest Story Ever Told” is part one of the movie Zeitgeist, a summation of the real origin of christianity and a clear demonstration that the Bible’s authors plagiarized the astro-theological stories of older religions.
Is it really just coincidence that Christmas (Jesus’s birthday) replaced Sol Invictus, the Roman celebration of the sun?
Why does so much artwork depict Jesus with a solar disk behind his head?

During the Roman Empire, a festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun (or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) was celebrated on the winter solstice – the “rebirth” of the sun. In Germanic mythology this is Sol, in Vedic – Surya, and in Greek – Helios (occasionally referred to as Titan) and sometimes as Apollo. Mesopotamian Shamash plays an important role during the Bronze Age, and “my Sun” is eventually used as an address to royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have emphatic Sun worship of Inti, the ancient Incan sun god of the Inca Empire. Svarog is the Slavic god sun and spirit of fire.

The Roman Empire adopted Helios into their own mythology as Sol. The title Sol Invictus (undefeated Sun) was applied to several solar deities, and depicted on several types of Roman coins during the 3rd and 4th centuries. The birth of the “undefeated Sun” was celebrated after the winter solstice on the 25th of December.

Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun) was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In 274 the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. The sun god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them. During the later periods of Roman history, sun worship gained in importance and ultimately led to what has been called a “solar monotheism.” Nearly all the gods of the period were possessed of solar qualities. The feast of Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) on December 25th was celebrated with great joy, and eventually this date was taken over by the Christians as Christmas, the celebrated birthday of Christ.

The worship of the Sun in the Eastern world has its historical origin in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians identified the Sun with Ra, one of the major deities in their religion, and the visible disk of the Sun (known as Aten) was either seen as the body or the eye of Ra. The pharaoh Akhenaten established a monotheistic religion during his reign, with Aten as its central figure.

The fundamental sun-sky gods of ancient Egypt were Osiris, Horus and Ra. Because of an extremely large timespan these and other gods flourished in Egypt, there is a considerable degree of overlap and permutation regarding their attributes and stories. For the purpose of simplification, this film encapsulates the general characteristics of various ancient Egyptian gods under the title of Horus.

To the Zeitgeist debunkers who don’t seem to get it, the point here is to show similarities between Jewish-Greco-Roman Christianity and other ancient religions. This film is a summation of the greatest story ever plagiarized, not an all-inclusive detailed study of ancient religious mythology.

Zeitgeist – The Origin of Christianity

Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007)

Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007) is a treatment on Mythology and Belief in society today, presenting uncommon perspectives of common cultural issues.

Chapter 1, “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, presents historical data relating to the astronomical/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.

Chapter 2, “All the World’s a Stage”, presents a controversial view of the events of Sep 11th 2001. It describes how the event has been transformed into a sacred, near religious act and to challenge the orthodox view, regardless of the quality of the contrary arguments, is considered blasphemy and rejected.

Chapter 3, “Don’t Mind the Men Behind The Curtain “, presents a shotgun tour through the subjects of Central Banking, War Pretexts, Banking Panics, the Military Industrial Complex, Media Culture and ultimately the mental neurosis and deadly addiction known as “Power.” The central theme is how society is often misled when it comes to certain pivotal historical events, what those events serve in function, along with how the overall social conditioning patterns we see today function to create values and perspectives which support and perpetuate the static, established order/power structure, as opposed to fluid social change and productive evolution for the betterment of the society as a whole

Zeitgeist Addendum(2008)

Zeitgeist: Addendum, 2008, was born out of public interest in possible solutions to the cultural issues presented in Peter Joseph’s first work, Zeitgeist: The Movie.

Building upon the topics of social distortion and corruption, Addendum moves to also present possible solutions.

Featured in the work is former “Economic Hit-man” and New York Times bestselling author, John Perkins, along with The Venus Project, an organization for social redesign created by Social Engeneer and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco. Zeitgeist: Addendum was premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist’s Film Festival and given its highest award in 2008.

“Director Peter Joseph demonstrates the ability to take risky subject matter and turn it into a visually, emotionally, and intellectually compelling case for a greater point of view,” states Diaky Diaz. “Millions of people gravitated toward Peter’s first film. We are excited that this year’s Artivist Film Festival will provide a platform to once again, pique the curiosity of millions of viewers and continue the dialogue about topics concerning Americans and citizens worldwide.”

It was released online for free on Oct. 3rd 2008 and since then it has been estimated to have been downloaded over 70 million times. As with the previous release – non-commercial, open distribution is allowed/encouraged. This work can be freely screened, shared, uploaded, downloaded in both compressed and DVD form ( via torrents ) without restriction – as long as no money is exchanged.

Addendum is constructed in four chapters.

The first explains the process of Money Creation and Expansion through the Fractional Reserve System. It explains how Debt and Bankruptcy are not mere by-products of our current system, but rather are underlying realities of our existence with periodic failures guaranteed.

All money is created out of ‘thin air’ though isn’t it, even on a gold standard. Money is a contrivance, not an actual resource, and it interferes with our relationship to our environment. The criticism of the monetary system in this film is not just limited to the Federal Reserve, but the banking system in general.

Chapter two exposes various levels of international corruption via the financial/corporate system, including the manipulation of public leaders to further the interests of corporate institutions.
Chapter 3 changes gears and depicts a possible solution to the growing social problems in the world today by the introduction of a new social concept known as a “Resource-Based Economy”.
And in Chapter 4, a philosophical perspective is given in the hope to inspire change in the viewer and enable action to affect society for the better.

Zeitgeist Addendum(2008)

ZEITGEIST: Moving Forward (2011)

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, by director Peter Joseph, is a feature length documentary work which presents a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter will transcend the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical “life ground” attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a “Resource-Based Economy”.

This film features experts in the fields of public health, anthropology, neurobiology, economics, energy, technology, social science and other relevant subjects which relate to social operation and culture.
The three central themes of the work are Human Behavior, Monetary Economics, and Applied Science.
Put together the work creates a model of understanding the current social paradigm; why it is critical to move out of it – coupled with a new, radical, yet practical social approach based on advanced understandings which would resolve the current social woes facing the world today.

One of the unique attributes of this work, which separates it in style from most documentaries, is that it has a parallel dramatic/cinematic theme, with notable actors, which abstractly play out various gestures related to the overall message of the film. The work also vigorously employs numerous 2d and 3d visual abstracts/animations, while returning to the standard, traditional documentary orientation as the foundation.

The Zeitgeist Film Series

Official Website for Peter Joseph’s Award Winning Documentary Trilogy

It’s One World… One Family – It’s time to grow up

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 Zeitgeist Film Series is also a media project designed for public consumption without the inhibition of most copyright limitations. All films, while technically copyright to combat financial abuse and exploitation, are universally available for duplication, private screenings and digital distribution without the need for permission – just as long as there is no money involved in those actions. Of course, such projects by Peter Joseph are only made possible if people do purchase such media or show support the via Donation, so please understand that support is critically needed to keep future projects going. This work is difficult enough to maintain with the free distribution model and the inherent loss of revenue because of it.

As far as history, 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 called Interreflections. 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: