You Are The Key To Saving Humanity — Lessons From a Portuguese Art Studio
One simple concept can save humanity
Right now, we’re sitting in Lagos, Portugal - a small beach town in Portugal.
We’ve just come here from Lisbon, an intense city that we spent two weeks in.
Funnily enough, the biggest lesson I learned was from stumbling upon an art studio - it really made a huge difference in the way I see the world.
Today, I’ll be sharing the story of how you’re the key to saving the world. I really believe in this message, and I think you’ll love the story as much as I do.
You Are The Key To Saving Humanity — Lessons From a Portuguese Art Studio
There’s a spiritual war going on right now. If you don’t fight — we’re all doomed.
You need to keep reading.
You have something that nobody else has, something we’ll need if we have any chance to win.
A random art studio in Lisbon holds the key to winning the war. Will you take it, or will you sit back and watch our demise?
The Spiritual War Against Creation
Right now, people don’t have a purpose — we’ve lost our connection with the bigger power.
I’m not talking about the prophet Muhammad, or Jesus. I’m talking about a sense of being useful.
We know by now that money doesn’t bring happiness. The cars, the house — all meaningless.
Meaningless consumption → meaningless life.
Why does it feel so good to help someone? You’re bringing something good into the world that wasn’t there before, raising the total positive energy in the world. If you hadn’t done that random act of kindness, the world would be a worse place.
The same goes for creation.
Creating something meaningful brings happiness, and brings something into the world. If you pour your passion into creating something, the world will be a better place. That’s why the poor artist can live joyfully, but the rich banker wipes his tears with Benjamins.
Creators have a purpose, they spread the message that they’re passionate about — a message that will help the world.
But most people don’t create, they exist.
And what would the world be if all the architects of the past never learnt to design, the painters never learned to paint, and the musicians never learned to make music?
Wherever that is, is where we’re heading.
We’re consuming more than we’re creating, but it’s against our design. We aren’t made to consume — we were created to create.
Creating bring ideas to life — sharing knowledge in different mediums. As humans, our greatest skill is the ability to share knowledge horizontally (not only through family).
But how?
Stumbling Upon a Spiritual Teacher — A Day in Lisbon
Sometimes, it’s the things you least expect that teach you the most. This was one of those times.
My partner, Georgia, and I are currently in the capital of Portugal — the city of Lisbon.
After a long day of exploring, our last stop was an independent linen store — SILVO Design. We walked up and down the street trying to find it, but the address led to an art studio.
The door was painted white, surrounded by traditional Portuguese tiles — coloured blue and red.
We didn’t find Silvo, but we were greeted by a man called Valerio. He had a bald head, a blue shirt and red pants — a charismatic painter from Florence, Tuscany. He was bubbly, and his expressions were emotive and excited, but not over the top.
I had no idea, but as it turns out, Valerio was about to teach us how to save the world.
On the wall, he had two or three different kinds of art. Some realistic, some abstract, some in-between.
Usually, an artist expresses things for a reason, so I asked him what the different styles meant.
What came next was profound — the key to spiritual victory.
The Antenna Principle
One of his drawings was of an alien goddess that had the caption above it:
Transmitting a message to a man on a distant planet.
The goddess was transmitting the image of herself — the art — to Valerio.
He was adamant she existed somewhere in the universal consciousness. With a universe so big, who’s to say there isn’t an alien goddess transmitting a picture of herself to an Italian guy in a Lisbon Art studio?
If you can imagine it, it exists — he said
Valerio’s art, his whole ethos, is that the things in our wildest imagination exist — and they’re being transmitted to us via ideas. Everyone in the world is an antenna, and they receive messages from the universal consciousness.
He told a story about a comic book next.
I once read a comic book about this.
A dog was drinking from his bowl of water when — bloop — an idea dropped into the bowl from the universe and splashed onto his nose.
The confused dog turned to his owner and — zhjoom — the idea transferred the owner’s mind.
The owner was so proud of himself for having such a brilliant idea!
He laughed telling this story — we couldn’t help but join in. It represented his point so clearly.
We receive ideas through this mysterious channel — but what do we do with them?
The Weapon Of Choice
If the spiritual war is the battle, then self-expression is your sword.
I added to Valerio’s idea. Everyone is an antenna, and receives messages — yes — but we are perfect machines that interpret and express these messages in different ways.
Bravo! Exactly!
I used the word perfect for a reason there. Your way of interpreting and expressing these messages is exactly what the world needs. Without your mind, we lose that perspective.
Creating art isn’t a choice. We need you — or we lose.
We lose because your unique mind will interpret the message, and then create a way of displaying it through your medium of choice. Your unique way of expressing the idea will resonate throughout society. The people who think like you will find meaning in your “art”.
To one person, your writing, painting, film, or whatever medium you choose, may be gibberish. But to another, it might make perfect sense — the thing they needed, the song that saved their life.
That’s the secret to winning the war, to find your unique way of expression and output your ideas. The ideas you get in your head will dissipate into nothing if you don’t have a way to express them.
What Will You Do?
Bringing your unique ideas to the table is good for the world. It’s good for your mind. Without a way to express it, your personality will disappear when you die.
You don’t have to write, paint or draw. Your expression can be through education, psychology — something!
Valerio paints, others make music — what will you do?
Thank you for reading.
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Without you reading, the message I’m passionate about flows into the ether. I just want to share what I learned with more people.
PS. You can find more about Valerio here. This is not sponsored.
I wish I could’ve given past me these kinds of mindset shifts, so I’m trying to reach as far and wide as I possibly can. Please share this post with someone who you think might enjoy it too.
Until next week,
Eren
A great post. People increasingly have more free time but don't know what to do with it. They should follow Valerio's example, narrated by you in good style.