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In today’s world us humans have developed a complex social system of rules and expectations. Children are taught from the day they are born on how they are expected to behave. They are told what is right and wrong, what is possible and what not. That is, by the standards of the children’s parents and other people in their surroundings, in other words the society they grow up in.

These seemingly endless rules and regulations lead many of us humans to live a life encaged by society. We constantly worry about what other people think. In addition, we let the limitations of our brain capacity to predict the future decide that “it’ is impossible” or “this is not okay” or “that is not how it should be done”. The old Mesoamerican culture Toltecs referred to this problem as the ‘Mitote’ – or translated ‘the smokey
mirror’.

CAST: Isabella Koester, Hyojin Kim, Sun-Ah Kim

https://instagram.com/jaystorm24.mov

Director Statement
Mitote

Small children are curios, creative and adventurous. When eating, children will eat with their hands until we teach them how to eat with fork and knife, or with chopsticks. So depending on which part of the world you were born in, you will think differently on how you should act when you eat. But what if you feel more comfortable with using a spoon upside down to eat? Is that a problem? Yes, because it does not fit into our society, but technically if that is the most convenient way for you to eat, why should you not do it? Who does it hurt if you eat like that?

These social constructs were developed in part to make living together as humans as unproblematic as possible. At the same time people of higher status to use them differentiate themselves from those of lower status. These seemingly endless rules and regulations lead many of us humans to live a life encaged by society. We constantly worry about what other people think. In addition, we let the limitations of our brain capacity to predict the future decide that “it’ is impossible” or “this is not okay” or “that is not how it should be done”.

The old Mesoamerican culture Toltecs referred to this problem as the ‘Mitote’ – or translated smoke mirror. They were known for their philosophy, artistry and religious beliefs. In Toltec philosophy all humans live in their own dream, not just when they are sleeping but also when they are awake. This refers to how the society we live in dictates how our mindset should see the world. We will always see the world subjectively, since we are subjects – human – not objects. From a negative perspective that means our mind creates endless unnecessary limitations on the possibilities of life.

In an old Toltec saying there was a man who dreamt that he was in space. In space the stars created light and he himself reflected that light. He then realized that all humans are mirrors, since they reflect the light that comes from the stars in our universe. This means that we are all the same but the problem is many of us cannot see it because of the fog in our mind. This fog represents the limiting misconceptions that we have about the world, which prevents us from seeing it in its full beauty and reaching our true potentials.

The uncertainty stemming from this subjectively distorted view of the world in the human mind is the Mitote, the foggy mirror. We all are Mitote. But once we realize the basis of our society’s subjective world view, we can change our mindset by actively training against the misassumptions in our brains. The Toltecs believed we can change the way we perceive our life and thus how we feel, how we act and how our own future will unfold. Through this piece I want to showcase how our emotional state of mind reflects on the outside world and the people around us, and that we can change it at any given time.