I have just finished watching the SCOTOMA video V1.01. I've taken some notes. It's been a couple of years since I started the series and book. I started my YouTube channel quite a bit before that. I think it's been four years. I was well versed in shooting videos when I began. However, I was not familiar with or experienced with self-reflection video modeling, especially with having face time with myself on a smartphone. I am 30 episodes later.

When you start out, you may find talking to yourself a little... What's the word I want... a bit of a hurdle, especially if you have some of the spectrum giftings. Work up to extended eye contact with yourself. Shame and guilt get in the way, but with forgiveness and understanding come healing. Work at replacing old thoughts with new emotions and develop a vocabulary to fortify your weak beginnings.

I have just finished sending emails to some 3,800 therapists and licensed psychologists all across the country. I've had only one reply. That was a very disappointing response rate. I don't think it's a failing of the email. I think it's a failing of my expectation. I'm going to refer back to what I've heard from Yuval Harari. Yuval Harari believes that people don't want to know that they're hackable (1) People don't want to feel vulnerable. I don't think most people want to come to the understanding that they lack self-awareness.

I don't know whether self-awareness is an uncomfortable subject or whether it's just inherent in human nature that we don't like to admit we're wrong, or deficient, or that something's not all together. However if you're on the spectrum, and people have been telling you this your whole life, or you may have not developed social connections and wondered why that is. Okay, think of it as a journey. Three steps forward and two steps back. It ends with a good one going forward.

How did I know that there would be 30 orchestrated episodes?

When I started, how did I know that a series of chapters would emerge with episodes that would be coherent, that would be in series? This is something that you may have to address yourself. I believe the topics present themselves when you are trusting your intuition, acting on a core unction, being compelled, having faith in God, expressing your purpose, or simply allowing hope to be recorded.

Here's a truck driving into the video scene. Trucks and interruptions don't bother me anymore. This is proof of the process, method, and efficacy of self-reflection video modeling.

You may feel that you do not know where to start telling your story. You may not have confidence in how to tell your story, thinking you don't even know your story.Look over the videos of my YouTube channel to see that I didn't have a clear path, nor the Scotomaville brand for sixty percent of the videos. Near the middle, I was getting further away from the outcome than ever, being led by a deceptive wolf in sheep's clothing a good book reads.

I suggest you start. Yes, start. Just start telling it. The creative journey is like balancing a bicycle. Once you start moving, important things come into focus, and obstacles come up. Standing at base camp, you can't see the top of the mountain. Start by walking toward it. You don't know what the weather's going to be on the way up. You don't know what challenges are coming. However, shooting poor videos is so much better than looking back with memories recorded through the filters of cognitive bias and emotional event bookends.

Here's an example, that came up while I was editing this video scene:

Angelina: we have a storm today and Daniel keeps having to go in and out, and in and out of the Airstream. Daniel, how many times have you had to go outside today?

Daniel: clutching his shin.

Angelina: owie ow yowie.

Daniel: I got a gash on the shin, as I was hanging onto a rock shield with a gust of wind. (cut-away to the towing hitch mechanism and chain clanking in slow motion)

I can assure you when you earnestly commit to your journey, things will happen.

Cutaway to Scotoma 01.01 video: "okay I got you Daniel I don't see a dot big deal. It's just a dot. What's it matter? Who cares? Let me tell you, that's just the beginning. That's just the starting point. That's a physical scotoma. That's just a little blind spot that all mammals have. We also share psychological scotomas. We all have cognitive biases. We all have arrested development. We all have walled gardens. We all have beliefs that are not true."

Amazing things will happen. the most fabulous unanticipated solutions will come. I've learned that from my three Trans-Ams and all the years that we've been Airstreaming. Commit fully. Commit to your personal development. Whatever full commitment might mean to you, make it because it means you're not going to quit. Full commitment means you're going to keep recording just so that you can binge-watch your progress - if nothing more okay?

Knowing we have many blind spots to discover can infuse your expedition with attention, curiosity and anticipation. Trusting you have a journey worth telling may be an early challenge, but that will diminish as you watch the unexpected events unfold, and as your reactions calm. It's a marvelous process.

I mentioned 'walled gardens'. Listen, you're going to hear me say this about our dependence on digital media, and getting full spectrum information. In episode v2.05 (2) I'll tell you the story about my experience with the bookmobile in full, but for now, a walled garden is when you don't see the whole world because you are within a protected courtyard. As with a restaurant, you can only choose items that are on their menu, made with ingredients they chose at the market, based on their intent to make consistent meals with a profit at the end of your visit. Likewise, you can only pick from a selection of search results or suggested YouTube videos that have been pre-filtered for you. You don't get to see everything they know is in the market. You don't see 96% of what's on the internet that Google and YouTube know about. You're only seeing four percent. That is a walled garden, where you feel you are knowledgeable but are basing that on a feeling, not on a conclusion based on critical thinking of a sizeable selection of ingredients.

Of all the information online, search engines and social media companies make a profit showing but four percent. Ninety-six percent of what is online doesn't make it on the search results menu, or a recommendation list.

Dr. Paul Hegstrom does an excellent series on this. It's called Life Skills (3). I was in a formal study group with several dear friends, and Angelina was in a women's group, for weekly accountability. We went through a whole bunch of exercises together. We read materials and watched videos, and then talked about them. That was a foundation for the hope that I could help people if I were to tell them some of the things I've experienced. That's what's ahead for you.

Thanks for watching the first episode and this reflection video by logging in.

I want to commend you for your commitment. And, I want to encourage you that the journey you're embarking on is worth it.

If you are one of my grand-kids: June, Reuben, Juliet, and Ethan, this will be fun to look back to answer where the heck Granddad has been?

Thanks for watching, thinking critically, and getting your butt out of Scotomaville.

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Begin Your Personal Everest

The Greatest Expedition you'll ever undertake is the journey to self-understanding. I invite you on that journey!

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