Watch Powerful 4 Minute Eye Gazing Experiment That Rehumanizes Refugees (VIDEO) collective-evolution

The term refugee is thrown around frequently these days, as more individuals continue to flee their homes in search of safety, freedom, and a better life.

Unfortunately, when most of us (and the mainstream media) refer to refugees we use dehumanizing language, reducing these people to numbers and statistics. Rather than seeing them for the individuals that they are, we instead refer to them in bulk, describing them in terms of quantity and the amount of resources it will require from us to “accommodate” them.

If we ever found ourselves in their shoes, we would not appreciate having our personal identities overlooked in this way, so why do we do it so carelessly to them?

In hopes of reminding us that these refugees, like us, are real people who have families, friends, dreams, goals, and stories, Amnesty Poland conducted and filmed a social experiment in Berlin.

In the experiment, refugees and Europeans were partnered up and given the simple task of making eye contact for 4 minutes. What happened next was remarkable:

The 4 minute eye contact experiment is based on the research of psychologist Arthur Aron who, 20 years ago, discovered how powerful this practice can be, bringing people closer together within minutes. The video depicts the truth of the research, connecting complete strangers in a scenario that the filmmakers guarantee was not staged.

This isn’t the first time that eye contact has proven to be a remarkably connective tool. In September of 2015 I wrote about a global eye contact experiment (the biggest of its kind) that successfully brought over 45,000 people worldwide closer together.

I’ve also had firsthand experience with eye gazing, although in a very different context than presented in this video. My experience took place at an Eye Gazing Speed Dating event that a longtime friend organized in Toronto. While the romantic element certainly added a unique twist to this practice, what stood out for me were the similarities I saw in each of these outwardly unique women.

It didn’t matter whether they were young, old, physically attractive to me or not, all of their eyes blended into one another and were easy to both connect with and feel love for. It reminded me of the interconnectedness we all share, and that the eyes truly are the window to the soul and a powerful tool for breaking down a lot of the outward judgements we unnecessarily make about each other.

Whether you live in an area currently embracing refugees or not, let this social experiment remind you to humanize everyone. We all have stories and experiences that make us into the unique people that we are, and there is a great power to be had when we come together and share them.

A great starting point is to challenge yourself to break social norms and connect with even a single stranger daily. Getting them to agree to eye gaze with you may be borderline impossible, but show them at least a bit of humanity rather than always being lost in your phone.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iceland Knows How To Stop Teen Substance Abuse But The Rest Of The World Isn’t Listening collective-evolution

I think it’s safe to say that most teenagers have tried and/or abused alcohol or illegal drugs, yet teen substance abuse rarely gets the attention it needs. Drugs and alcohol have a more detrimental effect on the underdeveloped brain, particularly since teens lack the ability to adequately assess risk, making them more likely to overindulge in substances. It’s this same lack that explains why people tend to be braver and more open to trying new experiences as teens than as adults. But this courage comes at a cost, as teens cannot adequately assess the risks of the substances they are taking. And schools aren’t doing nearly enough to educate them. I remember seeing presentations from a program called DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, when I was in school. Although we were taught to avoid drugs, the focus was more on avoiding criminal behaviour than protecting our bodies. There wasn’t much focus on long-term effects of drug use. They always maintained that abstinence from drug u
Read more

The Inevitable Is Almost Here: What’s Going To Happen When The Whole World Finds Out? collective-evolution

Image
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have been a topic of interest for decades, and with the recent release of thousands of previously classified government documents, we now know without question that government, military, and other defence agencies have had a high level of interest in this topic for a very long time. These files indicate that objects are commonly tracked on both air and ground radar, as well as visually confirmed by the pilots who are sent out to intercept them. Everything is in a process of investigation both in the United States and in Spain, as well as the rest of the world. The nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. There is an international exchange of data. – General Carlos Castro Cavero (1979). From UFOs and the National Security State, Volume 2 , written by Richard Dolan. For instance, here is an excellent example of a defence intelligence agency report detailing what commonly happens when a UFO is
Read more

Quantum Vacuum & Zero Point Energy Access: Is “Free Energy” For All Actually Possible? collective-evolution

Image
“Free energy” is a term being tossed around these days, and not one that many within the new energy movement like to use. That’s because it’s not really “free,” or what we perceive “free” to be. It’s not like the power source for generating the energy to run these machines (discussed below in this article) is coming from nowhere. It’s coming from the quantum vacuum, which would seem to be available for our use in unlimited quantities, given the fact that it’s the invisible “stuff” that makes up our known entire universe, in which could be a sea of universes and dimensions. There is enough to go around. Sure, solar, wind, and other clean energy initiatives are great, and the more the better, but the world has been completely blinded by the fact that there are many more advanced ways to generate clean energy that could revolutionize our world in several different paradigm changing ways. “Much to my surprise, these concepts have been proven in hundreds of laboratories around the world,
Read more