In Summation

Closing Statement for the Truth and Lies Experiment

As an artist person I have a relationship, a kinship, a gratitude with something that is beautiful. This beauty, this recognition is profound and seems from my perspective to resonate from the source, the source that creates the sun, and brings the rains, from the source that creates everything; this author of life.

In my most elaborate works, Jeremy’s Prophecy Dot Com and The Truth and Lies Experiment, my focus, perhaps without me even knowing it, was to honor this, or share this source, or to reveal this source to those who have yet to find it.

To me being connected to this source has been natural and obvious. The more I live, the further I am baffled that others are not so connected to, or do not recognize, this source.

Now then the experiment was as an abstract attempt in revealing this source, this powerful truth. It wasn’t easy. It was laborious.

An eager observer at the experiment would have found all the ingredients via, words, imagery, sound, and interaction to indeed become conscious of this source, to resonate with this source, and perhaps experience, as I have, the communion with this source.

The experiment was always mysterious. That was its nature. Never was it intended to be a complete and utter fact; more so a hint at the sublime. I could write a long dissertation on this experiment, its purpose. But I see now, at this stage, that the time is not proper for such an endeavor.

The idea of having the experiment held at a venue that was ancillary to a Christian Church was appropriate and spontaneous. [Everyday Joe's, the coffee-house/gallery is financed by the Timberline Church.]

The Church has a long history with art. These times, now, in this simplified, post-modern, West, the Church has become a slot machine, Happy Meal, diet coke, asylum, for-the-most-part. Gone are the days of culture and Christ.

This then was why the Church was the chosen venue.

Let it be said that Christians are those who follow Christ’s teaching, they are not dominators. Methinks I’d rather find a true Christian sacrificing his Sunday in an urban shelter feeding the destitute, then perhaps in his SUV moseying on to join some flaky sing-song.

There are good people in the Church and then there are the paranoids.

For me God is real, and as an artist-type I seek Truth and Life and am seduced by all. I’ve traveled down many roads most of which, in the end, snuffed out this life I so adore.

Religion . . . It’s curious and so easily confused. I don’t claim to be of a religion, per se. I'm not of the institutional variety. I was born in a Jewish family. Culturally Jewish mostly: High Holiday’s, Hebrew school, Bar Mitzvah, education values.

But career for career’s sake never added up. I was (am) a romantic. I lusted (lust) for more than. For what it's worth I had plenty of opportunity to search. I consider the opportunity to search a consequence of American freedom and the meaning of the American Dream.

Now it can be said that the experiment was a culminating effort of nearly a decade journeying: gathering insight, seeking more, finding God. (The word God, it seems, is the most appropriate word to define this.) I’ve read many books and spoken with hundreds of persons on matters philosophical. I’ve been to 12-step groups and retreats, Kabbalah services, and Churches. I’ve seen hypocrisies and salesman, simple-minded, and paranoid, the benevolent, and the saved, the healed, and the prideful. I’ve seen Rabbis in LA, pastors in San Francisco, youth groups in Chicago, and Shabbat assemblies in Miami. I’ve met the famous and the infamous, the rich and the poor, the enlightened, and the depressed, the good, and the bad; I’ve cavorted with the candid, and dined with the delusional. In short, I observed (and interacted) with the world; its mountains, its valleys.

Why . . . ? I don’t know why. It had to be done? Maybe. Most likely I needed to, for my own sake. Grandiosity beckons that I was chosen, a prophet. I don’t like that explanation. Hindsight reveals to me that this was all research and learning and obtaining great wealth--fruitful information. If I had only known what I was doing while I was doing it.

You see, great suffering also came with this wealth. Many times I knew not what I was doing and why. My ways seemed enigmatic to those who knew me. I was attempting to get somewhere; to achieve truth; to maintain life, joy, and so on. Such that now I see that the experiment was the final piece of this puzzle. It was only appropriate and perhaps necessary to bring this wisdom (all I learned) to the people? Could I do it in a way that wouldn’t offend, and yet still be authentic? I had to somehow face the world, and have the world face me. Together we had to overcome.

Times as they are, these dependant "independents", these closed minded "open-minds", it made it especially difficult to be forthcoming in the experiment. Subtlety was the order, creating a space that would indicate wisdom, spread seeds upon the shell-shocked masses.

Perhaps one can see how this experiment had to be mysterious; it still is. I, though, am more focused.

Will there be another experiment? I can’t say. This first one was unique. It was risky. It was pioneering. It was divine. Truly I am honored to be this trailblazer, whereas we can be who we are, and defeat the fear, this beast that stymies all.

Now then, this experiment (vers. 1) will be set down, put to pasture. As for me, I shall continue; for glory and gratitude, in the vanguard, and beyond.

kEith kimmel
6/3/2005