Chapter 1 – Traveling into the past and back home again.
All of our memories about the past, at least the ones that are still available to us, can be recalled audibly and replayed visually within our minds, but only to the extent and accuracy that our minds will allow us to remember them. All of our memories have been colored by our personal perspectives, preferences, and the emotions we were feeling at the time the memory was stored. It seems to me that excessively painful, or exceedingly pleasurable, memories take longer to fade, but they are also more likely to be distorted by the emotions we were feeling when we experienced the actual event. Another person who was present and experienced the same event may have an entirely different recollection of what happened. In my opinion, that is one of the most wonderful things about memories – they are not an objective portrayal of the event, but instead they are mental constructs – reenactments that have been specifically designed to help each of us process our life experiences in the most effective way possible. If we learn to seek insight through the painful memories and then willfully release them, knowing that we have gained all the potential for understanding locked in those memories, we can set ourselves free from the pain of our past and bring ourselves closer to being present in the current moment. On the other hand, we can choose to nurture and hold on to the memories that bring us joy and remind each of us of who we truly are. We can learn to archive and selectively preserve memories that serve us well whether they are painful or pleasurable but grounding ourselves in the present moment is the key to using our memories for intentional time travel.
“An Object in Motion”
This is the first chapter of a three-part series describing An Abstract Theory of Intentional Time Travel. Skeptics, cynics and critics, feel free to speak your minds. These thoughts were brought to you by the collective consciousness of humankind.
Update: I’ve added a second film to my YouTube channel. It’s a promotional film about the “Return to Hope” bronze sculpture that I recently repatined and put up for sale. Here is the link in case you’re interested – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyS4elkdsyg&t=46s
Traditionally, concepts of time travel seem to be centered around movement of a physical form, namely the human body, from one specific moment to another along a timeline. The timeline imagined may include multiple dimensions, but more often than not, the concept is simplified by its adherence to a widely accepted belief that there is only one timeline, the timeline of our shared human history. The most common imaginings of time machines have included dials and switches that allow the time traveler to select a specific time, either in the past or the future, that they would like to move their physical form to within the time-space continuum. Usually, this movement cannot technically be equated to movement at all, considering the fact that the time traveler is consistently imagined as arriving at another point along the timeline in the exact same location as they were when they initiated the travelsequence. At this moment in time, I invite you to imagine a whole new theory of time travel – one that is as simplistic and realistic as it is complicated and extraordinary. Based on the concept of a continuous now, this new theory of time travel is available to every human being who is willing to explore the connection between our conscious awareness and what happens next on the timeline of our individual and collective life experiences.
There was a time in my childhood when I thought this was a magic river. Every time I visited its banks, I would be filled with giddy anticipation as to what color the water would be this time. As I matured, I realized that the colors were waste dyes from the textile mill upstream. I revisited this river when I was shooting scenes for the film “Return to Hope” (see link at the bottom of the page). While shooting this photo, I remember feeling both saddened and hopeful simultaneously. It made me sad to see all of the rubbish thrown in the water over the years, but also hopeful, noticing that nature was reclaiming the river itself – restoring the quality of the water and reviving the abundance of life that inhabited these waters before they were polluted by the irresponsible acts of a few misguided individuals.
In this moment of now, a moment that we are all experiencing simultaneously, yet experiencing it in as many different ways as there are human beings on the planet, there is a constant and undeniable movement of energies. We are each perceiving these constantly moving energies from our own limited perspective and through the limited capabilities of our five senses. If we allow ourselves to be adventurous enough to include a sixth sense, that of our conscious awareness, we immediately broaden our perspective, and we effectively open our third eye to the true nature of the energies in motion during each and every moment of now. When we witness these energies in motion, and we recognize that we are indeed traveling with time itself, then each moment of our lives becomes much more meaningful. If we learn how to read the energies we are experiencing as we move from the past into the future within the moment of now, then we can more accurately predict what is going to happen next on our timeline. As the moments pass, while we are retaining a conscious connection with the energies in motion, and we also remain present and aware, it becomes apparent that we are traveling through time involuntarily, and we always have been. With our new understanding of the abstract theory of time travel embraced, it becomes so much easier to relax and enjoy the ride.
This contemporary philosopher, William MacAskill, penned a decidedly positive prediction about what our collective future has in store for us. I truly enjoyed the book because it was helpful in relieving basic fears about our tendency to destroy more than we preserve.
Update on my own perceptions of the current moment: I’m a bit discouraged and frustrated by my own inability to raise the funds I need to travel from St. Pete, FL back up to Hope, RI during July and August. I’ve been focused on earning money while I’m here at Mike’s studio, but I’ve also been making promotional videos for each of my bronze sculptures in an attempt to make a sale (see headliner photo “Return to Hope” the bronze). So far, my marketing attempts have fallen short of a sale, but I refuse to give up hope. If you would like to support me in my creative journey there are a number of ways you can do just that – there’s the Donate * Contact page on this website – the GoFundMe campaign for the “Florida to Maine Expedition to Gather Film Content” https://gofund.me/9285192b – or you could communicate with me directly through the YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh2eSJsfi9K63NiLp6Tuhxg or Facebook Messenger https://www.facebook.com/scottjoseph.moore/
I am sincerely grateful that you’ve taken the time to read this online journal. Thank you for being here in the moment of now!
Chapter 3 – The Future is a Succession of Present Moments
The first time I attempted to be mindfully present, I was only able to stay in that state for a few seconds and then my mind returned to its usual whirlwind of habitual thinking. But, for those few seconds, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Instantaneously, I realized that life wasn’t as serious or complicated as I had always believed it to be. I came to the understanding then, that the present moment was not nearly as intimidating when it was emotionally detached from the past and the future. Previously, every moment of now had been engulfed in regrets from the past and fears of what might happen in the future. Now that I could see the present moment in its simplest form, without all the weight of past and future, I found it much easier to accept whatever each consecutive moment had to offer. As I became more practiced at the act of staying present, I also learned how to separate and evaluate the pains and the pleasures as I was experiencing them, during each passing moment. This made both the pleasurable and the painful experiences easier to appreciate emotionally. Knowing that a hardship in the moment does not need to be compounded by dredging up and attaching every similar moment from the past, gives us an opportunity to treat ourselves with empathy and compassion, even during our most traumatic or tragic moments. There is an amazing feeling of peace that comes when you learn how to unburden yourself of regret and worry, especially if you’ve been carrying around the weight of that emotional baggage for most of your life. In my life, even pleasurable moments were often spoiled by past and future. If I was feeling pleased about anything at all, I would seek out memories of past failings to justify why I didn’t deserve to be happy now. If that didn’t bring me down enough, I would look forward in fear to when the feelings of pleasure would end. Because, eventually, they always end. Or that’s what I thought back then. Now, the act of being present has become a choice that I make over and over again, in each passing moment, not because it’s habitual, but because it is a much more enjoyable way of life. And that’s not all. The moment of now has the potential for a much greater payoff than just making our lives more peaceful and enjoyable than they were when we were filling them up with all of that bad mojo from the past and future. The present moment can also aid us in the fulfillment of our goals and promote the manifestation of our most treasured dreams.
“Beach Gnomes in Paradise” sculptures by S.M.art Castings & Sculpture Services, LLC Photo by Kevin Moore.
The more you live in the now, and consequently, the less you live in the past and the future, the easier it becomes to perceive the causal nature of your thoughts and actions as you work through them. Practicing mindfulness in the now, we can learn to watch ourselves as we live out our life stories. If we want to achieve a particular goal, we understand that we must move in the direction that has the best potential of getting us there. Before we can even move though, we must decide that we are willing to face certain challenges along the way. Is it worth the effort? Bringing that question to our past experiences to help us decide whether it may have a favorable or unfavorable outcome is certainly a valid course of action. As long as you are not looking back to find excuses not to move forward. So many times, I’ve talked myself out of something, because I’ve either failed to achieve it in the past or looking back I see that I’ve never had the courage to attempt it in the first place, so I decide to abandon the goal and settle for less. Looking to the future, while staying firmly grounded in the now, we can make wise choices and take the appropriate actions to get us where we want to be. The more goals we achieve, the more practiced we become at seeing the road signs of success as we are painting them. The present moment becomes a time machine, having the potential to transport us into a more predictable future. And still, the only time we really ever have is now. I’ve chosen to be present, right here, right now.
Presently letting go of the “Anonymous Self-Portrait” (1994). Speaking of excess baggage from the past, I’ve been carrying around this handsome fella for almost thirty years. If you would like to know more about this piece and hear the story behind it, just click on the link to see the short promotional film I produced in an effort to market this sculpture. I’m motivated to make this sale!
“Anonymous Self-Portrait”
Thank you for spending your now, here, on the “Grand Providentia United” blog site. Stay tuned for some extraordinary manifestations in the moments to come. I haven’t yet been able to raise the funds to embark on the “Florida to Maine Expedition to Gather Film Content”, but within the coming week I’ll be heading north, to Savannah first, and then hopefully toward Hope to spend the final weeks of summer with friends and family in Rhode Island. The fall is just ahead, and coursework will begin in early September at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I am extremely excited about what comes next! For now, I will continue to march through this life transition with patience, persistence and flexibility, from one moment to the next, until the future is now.
A sudden flash of bright flame and then a slow burn – that’s the way I’ve perceived events to be unfolding over the past four decades while pursuing my life’s higher purpose. Sometimes it appears to me that patience and perseverance are the only character assets I possess, especially during slow burn seasons. In slow times, when it feels as though my will to press forward is being nullified by circumstances and situations which are seemingly beyond my control, I know from experience that it’s time for me to turn inward. I turn my perspective within for a while to touch base with my mind, body and spirit. By taking an honest look at my motivations and desires – by appraising the level of self-esteem I have in the current moment – by making sure that I’m not feeling superior or inferior to anyone else, but instead just being my truest self – I can usually conclude whether I’m off on a tangent or still on the right path. And when, eventually, I turn the focus outward again, I find that there never really was an impediment, and that the only thing that was slowing down the fire had been my own self-defeating thoughts and actions. Then, right on cue, there’s another flash and the life-force burns brightly once more.
These past three months in Saint Petersburg have been a whole new level of slow burn, but in an entirely positive way. If you’re a new reader on this blog, you may not know that three months ago, just as I was just starting out on a cross-country road trip, I was involved in a car accident that relieved me of my only vehicle. My dear daughter Victoria picked me up on the east coast of Florida and transported me to the west coast. I’ve been holed up in Mike Elwell’s warehouse studio ever since that fateful day. It has been an absolute blessing being here near my son Christopher and all his friends. We’ve all shared some great quality-time together. Chris and I even managed to work together (creatively) on a couple of projects. But now it’s time to be moving along. I’ve procured a new ride and I’m preparing to depart St. Pete, probably next Wednesday morning. There are still a few things that I need to accomplish before I get back on the road. Hopefully that road takes me back to Hope during late June and all of July this summer. I am intent on making the “Florida to Maine Expedition to Gather Film Content” a reality (please visit the GoFundMe page I’ve set up if you feel it in your heart to support me on this extremely important trip – https://www.gofundme.com/manage/crosscountry-expedition-to-gather-film-content). The trip will be as low cost as I can make it. I’ll be sleeping in the van most nights or pitching a tent, while also relying on friends and relatives for an occasional civilized (indoor) sleepover. Some of you may know that I have secured the funds for tuition at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I will be entering the Graduate Film and Television program as a Fellow to the college this fall. The fellowship award was one of only two offered to graduate students each year. It will pay for half of the tuition and federal student loans will pay the other half. Rather than going back to Savannah now, to rent a room and pay board throughout the summer, I am planning to spend June and July on the road, gathering documentary film content (mostly in Hope, RI). From the road, I intend to secure a room in Savannah via the internet, preferably for August 1, and return south during late summer to get ready for classes. This transition I’m now making between fine art and film has been a long time coming. I started dreaming about a career in the movie industry well before I left Rhode Island in 1996. In fact, that was the whole point of moving our young family to Florida to attend the Ringling College of Art and Design. Pamela and I decided that I should pursue a BFA in computer animation and then I could make a lateral move into prop design or animatronics where I could put my sculpting skills to good use in show business. In the now, I’ve set my intentions on becoming an independent filmmaker. I am to become a writer, director and producer of surreal documentary films, the most elaborate of which, will be a factual documentary on the creation and installation of Grand Providentia Projections around the world. There will be a fictional version of the story produced simultaneously. The two stories will run parallel, merging plotlines and characters until the audience is unsure what is actually happening in the real world. It may seem like I just released the ultimate spoiler for this surreal documentary, but I can assure you that if it is done with the right amount of filmmaking finesse, the intrigue will only be enhanced if the audience knows that it is on them to figure out what is real and what is movie magic. That’s just one of the beautiful things about making pictures move.
Still frame from “Return to Hope” If you haven’t already seen it, please do. If you have seen it, please return for another trip to Hope.Just scroll down a few journal entries and you’ll find a link to the Grand Providentia Projection -YouTube channel.
My first film, titled “Return to Hope” is on YouTube. I will be adding a new film during the coming weeks that is focused on the bronze sculpture featured in the film. The new patina is nearly complete (one of the finest patinas I’ve ever produced) and I’m putting together a promotional short film to show off the process and end result of the repatine. I will sell this one-of-a-kind bronze casting to pay for the road trip and help me to pay for books and living expenses at SCAD in the fall. Once I publish the promotional film, I’ll return here to announce it and leave a link.
I’m back! Introducing “Return to Hope” the bronze! Featuring time-lapse photography of twelve hours patina work, simmered down into 5 minutes of film. This is a promotional film with the intention of selling this one-of-a-kind bronze sculpture, but it is also a lot of fun to watch. Enjoy!
Thank you for reading here! I am truly grateful for your presenceand for your support.
When I retitled the American Dream Catcher bronze as Providentia, I arrived at the choice intuitively. I made an intuitive choice based on the limited knowledge I had at the time. I was looking for a title that was synonymous with English definitions of providence. Having lived in the village of Hope, in the state of Rhode Island for many years during my young life, I’ve always taken comfort in the fact that the state capital was named Providence, therefore I’m sure, at least subliminally, that I favored providence for nostalgic reasons. But the conscious choice was ultimately made because of the high ideals that the word conjures in my heart and mind. In truth, I almost used Providence as is, due to a particular definition that I found as soon as I started searching – “timely preparation for future eventualities.” ~ Oxford Languages. I then searched for the Latin origins of the word providence and found what I thought to be an eloquent alternative in Providentia. Three quarters of a decade later, spellcheck is still underlining the word in red, whenever, and wherever, I am writing about the work of art digitally. Since the application of a new patina and the retitling of the piece in 2015, I’ve learned more about the name I had chosen so long ago. Providentia Augusta was the Roman Goddess of forethought, foresight, and a maker of provisions for the eventualities She alone foresaw. The spirit of the Grand Providentia Projection is all about looking ahead collectively, and adjusting some of our lifestyle choices now, to make wise and ample provision for a promising future.
Adding the adjective “Grand” to Providentia in all discussions about the enlarged version of the sculpture may seem obvious, or even juvenile to some, but I considered other qualifiers for a good while and kept coming back to grand. From conception, the 42″ bronze sculpture was intended as a working model for a much larger piece. A monumental bronze, envisioned at 16′ tall, it would include all of the natural elemental forces of our environment – earth, air, fire and water – with the added elemental force of collective human consciousness. Spectacular was another word that I remember considering as a replacement for grand in the title, but I thought it sounded forced. I stayed with grand.
In recent months, I’ve turned away from the idea of the Grand Providentia being described, even in passing, as an art project. It has become so much more than that. To call it a “projection” instead, was also an intuitive decision – just like the name Providentia, except this time it was arrived at during a series of transcendental meditations wherein I envisioned the Grand Providentia projected onto the face of the Earth by the collective conscious intentions of a multitude of like-minded human beings. Consciousness acting as a celestial slide-projector. Just as it is believed in many contemporary spiritual traditions, we would collectively attract light energy from on high, beckoning Universal consciousness down to us, while we were simultaneously performing the groundwork of physical manifestation. The projections would be materialized objectively, of course, with the hard work and creative persistence of many courageous individuals, but they would also be manifested metaphysically through the power of positive intentions. The Grand Providentia Projection is currently experiencing a growth spurt unlike any other it’s had since the inception of the American Dream Catcher project in 2008. The materialization of this dream is imminent.
“Providentia”
I’ll keep the focus of this overview set on the physical end-product of the Grand Providentia Projections in order to afford you all a better description of how these Grand Providentia will be presented to the whole of humanity. It is likely that the first one will need to be produced in the United States on the mainland. Funding will need to be in place before the site is chosen, but already I’m sensing that it would be well received in Colorado. The Projections will be more than just sculptures placed on pedestals. Part of the broader vision is that they would be encircled by meditative gardens with water features and plantings of native vegetation. Local stone would be used for any structures or paved walkways within the footprint of the Projection. I would also want to incorporate a modest learning center where people would find more information about the scope of the projections once they are being manifested globally.
The sculptures themselves will need to include stainless steel support armatures for strength, and the reflective orb in the lower portion of the piece will also probably be produced in stainless steel (high polished and custom cast at 30″ in diameter). While the main structure is likely to be cast in bronze, it is just as likely that much of it will be fashioned with other materials such as stone or glass. I am not attached to the design of Providentia, or even its basic shape, those considerations are open to change by the creative crew that will be assembled to produce the artwork for each location. I’m sure there will be ten or twelve professional artists and architects involved in the planning and producing of each projection. Beyond that, there will be a support crew – technicians, administrators, patrons and any other ancillary help as needed. I firmly believe that once the intentions are set and the resources are in place, each projection will be raised up and promoted by the positive energy being attracted to the enthusiasm of the group. We’ll be relying heavily on positive vibrations. Not only the vibrations of active participants, but also the high vibrations of people from all over the world who are interested and invested in our success. Yes, I’m sure there will also be those who are trying to impede our progress, in fact I am fully expecting formidable resistance, but let’s not get into that here. You can trust that I’ve already been practicing counter-resistance techniques for more than a decade in my own life, so I don’t expect there will be much negative impact on our efforts in the long run. The Grand Providentia Projection will be made manifest. The time is now, the place is here, on the surface of our one and only planet – Earth.
I’ll return within the coming days to make an account of how I will proceed from here. All is well. In fact, it is exactly what it is meant to be, so how could it be anything other than well. Thank you for reading here! I truly appreciate your time and attention.
"Grand Providentia United" 