I have always pondered what universal human experience really is. It’s easy to get caught up in our own little physical worlds, inside of our own little bubbles. But what really exists under the surface?
Before we get to exploring that question though (things get deep in the video), let’s first try and make sense of what most consider to be a universal human experience for most of us (shallow experiences perhaps?)
When we think of universal human experience, what springs to mind for you? I can sum up a handful of experiences that you could class as common universal experiences;
Emotional Terms
When we think of love, anger and jealousy, we all have a common description of what each of them means. Regardless of language or translation, the people of the world have a universal understanding of what each of the human emotions are.
But even looking a little deeper into this, some languages relate ‘anger’ to ‘envy’, whereas some other languages and cultures linked anger more with ‘hate’ or ‘proud’. In fact, there are many differences that languages convey emotions when we look into this further.
So, really, the only universal experience of emotions would be whether it is a positive or negative experience.
Sensory Perceptions
Surely the works of our own bodies sensory system shares a universal human experience? When we listen to music, we would have to agree that the fundamentals of pitch and tempo would stay the same universally for each listener, regardless of genre, language or beat.
What about vision and smell then? Well, there has actually been some research to reveal that while we all possess the same hardware and instruments to experience these perceptions, culture can actually influence how we experience each of them. So, perhaps our sensory perceptions isn’t a universal human experience after all?
Personal Space
Personal space, or the space around you that you consider to be your own, is ‘your’ space which you don’t like people entering without becoming confrontational or stand-off-ish. Although space varies quite widely depending on your culture, the acknowledgement of personal space perhaps could be considered a general human experience most of us can relate to.
And in case you’re wondering if you’re from the UK like me, our personal space on average is around the 80cm mark. Same with the US. If you’re from Italy or most other Latin countries, you’ll likely experience a smaller personal space, coming in at 20cm less or so.
Universal Human Experience…Reimagined
But….are any of these experiences actually real? You’ve watched the video now, right…so are you any closer to being able to define what a universal human experience is?
Jim Carrey has been looking for answers to these types of questions for a long time now, and he does a pretty awesome job of summing things up here in this video. Are we all ‘actors’ in our own lives, marvellously skilled at playing the many roles and parts life, friends, family and society expects?
Are we so lost in our own affairs, entangled in the maze of our own making, stunted by our own lack of spiritual growth, that we can’t even glance outside of this conscious world we’ve built?
This is the universal human experience reimagined. The ability to see ourselves for what we are – a blank canvas with a personality of our own making. Seeing, living and experiencing each day as we have crafted through our own skewed and tinted glasses, but consciously aware that nothing is really ‘real’.
Well, that’s what I think Jim carry is trying to get across in this inspiring video anyway.
What do you think?
