The widespread and growing use of the term experiential entertainment shows how little we understand about the experience of being human.

Everything is an experience. My writing of this post is an experience for me.  Your reading it is an experience for you. All entertainment is experiential, which makes the term “experiential entertainment” like a proclamation from the Department of Redundancy Department. 

We’ve bought into the concept that people now prefer experiences over things. This made Joe Pine’s book, The Experience Economy, a resurgent bestseller. But the reality is that the experience of acquiring something is what gives people an experience of pleasure or satisfaction, albeit temporary. Everything is an experience. 

Everything we experience happens in the mind. Sense pleasures are processed in the mind. Thoughts emerge in the mind. Emotions are translated in the mind. We project meaning onto worldly objects in the mind. All experience happens in the mind. 

Why does this matter? It illustrates how most of us don’t understand how our minds work. We live in the illusion that experience is something that happens “out there” in a theme park, or an arcade, or an immersive movie. We abdicate the responsibility for our experience to others. We don’t understand that we are 100% responsible for our experience. 

This goes beyond entertainment. Our experience of relationships, work, politics, money…all of them take place in our minds. The mind is the only experiential venue that exists. The question is: who are you granting tenancy to?

The Squatters that Shape Your Life

Most of us go through life letting people live in our minds rent-free. If the current change happening in the world is troubling you, it’s because you’ve let it set up camp in your mind. And the only path to freedom is realizing that. Then, you can start the eviction process. 

The best way I have found to study my mind is through meditation. If you’re interested, here is a free 3-month subscription to my favorite meditation app, Waking Up from Sam Harris. It contains a diverse content set of meditation teachers and wisdom, including the entire audio recording library of Alan Watts. 

And if you’re interested in going deeper and getting clarity, I have one opening for a coaching client. If you feel a bit like Neo in The Matrix, as if something doesn’t quite feel right with your experience, then send me a message and let’s have a conversation. Maybe I can help.