Videos vs Books

[Rasheed]

I found self help videos much more helpful than reading books, but still I don't know which one to choose and how much time to spend on each? 

My question is:

- Which is better, books or videos? Should I spend more time on one of them?

[okulele]

I find videos often more accessible and easy to take in.

Books on the other hand tend to go much deeper. You can take your time, read slowly, reread, contemplate etc.

In my opinion, if you are just scanning the surface, go for the video. When you are sure you want to dive down to the bottom, get a book.

[Truth Addict]

@Rasheed

Books usually do the thinking for you, especially the long ones.

I now prefer videos because they give me clues and leave the contemplation for me. (Leo's videos started bugging me for doing the contemplation part).

Before I learned how to contemplate, books were better.

So, the keyword here is contemplation.

[Leo Gura]

Your understanding will be skin deep without books.

Videos simply cannot deliver that much detail and nuance.

[mandyjw]

Each has their own magic. 

High quality videos on spirituality can transmit consciousness, there's heart involvement not just involvement of the mind. Especially if you use them as a mediation and don't expect constant intellectual stimulation from them. 

Books are magical because you can go at your own pace, and and they go deep and target specific subjects really well. The author has had the ability to rethink, revise and be ultra careful to word things clearly, the luxury of which someone doesn't have when they are speaking. 

 

[Knock]

There is a really good book I read that talks about this in one of its chapters - The Shallows by Nicolas Carr.

He describes books are better for learning because they have less stimuli. The comprehending brain is like a bottleneck for learning. When you have too much stimuli, like in a video, then brain has to focus more on filtering rather than processing the content. 

Not to mention that books often have the highest saturation of quality information in comparison to other mediums. 

[pluto]

Humans tend to always drift to the easier, faster, quicker route because it requires less effort, psychedelics instead of meditation, music instead of silence, videos instead of books, video games instead of sports ect... But the latter is always far more rewarding and effective long term for rewiring/reprogramming/resetting back to the true self.

As for your question In a Nutshell, Picture explains 1000 words

[possibilities]

Good books help with correcting thinking and emotions.

Good videos help with correcting emotions and thinking.

Notice the order.

Otherwise, bad of _____ does the opposite and becomes a form of indoctrination.

How to tell how someone internally thinks and in doing so how to predict the kinds of books they read and videos they watch or have watched?

Simply observe the sophistication of their thoughts and things they emote about.

Some people pair the heights of sophistication with "specialness" as opposed to a consciousness simply making good media choices (i.e. good books and videos) and working on their work ethic there. I recommend avoiding specialness syndrome.

Edited July 23, 2019 by possibilities

[RichardY]

Books are superior. Main thing is the root, the media doesn't matter so much. I dislike when self help books use quotes from other books. Or copy a philosophy.

[pluto]

Nevertheless, some of these videos can be quiet powerful on their own like the one below because it uses both multiple forms of expression.

 

[possibilities]

A prediction: the higher the consciousness the more they will be less inclined to watch video (because there will be less need for that emotional feedback I noted before). It’s simply too slow and doesn’t shed light on the necessary scope required to generate a cohesive understanding with increasingly less time. 

Video is thus a pastime, not a serious undertaking.

[possibilities]

Another topic is films, some people like watching films on a screen I like watching films in my imagination. Far more stimulating, far more enjoyable, far more beneficial. So I can go an hour plus just watching and learning from the movie playing out in my head. Several hours in fact.

i just got done playing table tennis with T-Rex on a sun ☀️ beam located adjacent to an avalanche in a protective glass cube.

You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that goes on in my head, and your head with training if you need any!

I describe this is my previous comment in a psychedelic thread discoverable in my comment history.

[Rasheed]

On 7/24/2019 at 8:32 AM, pluto said:

Nevertheless, some of these videos can be quiet powerful on their own like the one below because it uses both multiple forms of expression.

 

This video was supremely helpful. Thank you. I can't describe with words, how thankful I am. Life-changing!