God Awful Movies - 346: Eat the Sun

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

This week, Michael Marshall joins us for Eat the Sun, a documentary that asks if people really need to eat food and avoid staring directly into the sun. Because there's no question with an obvious eno...ugh answer when you're a nutter. --- If you’d like to make a per episode donation and get monthly bonus episodes, please check us out on Patreon: http://patreon.com/godawful Check out our other shows, The Scathing Atheist, The Skepticrat, Citation Needed, and D&D Minus. Check out more from Marsh on Be Reasonable and Skeptics with a K Our theme music is written and performed by Ryan Slotnick of Evil Giraffes on Mars. If you’d like to hear more, check out their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EvilGiraffesOnMars/?fref=ts All our other music was written and performed by Morgan Clarke. To hear more from him, check him out here: https://www.morganclarkemusic.com/

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Doctor's like you got a massive burn in your eye and Mason says is there any chance that that was already there? No, no, there's no Mason. Imagine that guy's dead and that you're in a hot-temo, you spend your whole fucking life being like, here's some glasses, you're some surgery. Oh, you're Tim. It sucks to be you And then this asshole walks in and he's like, so what do you think that burning back in my eyes? And you're not allowed to punch him in the balls God awful
Starting point is 00:00:39 movie Who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be who be my bad friend Eli Bosnick Eli. How are you doing this fine afternoon, sir? Fantastic Noah. Good. Energize. Oh, no. Full. More energy than I've ever had. Oh, no. I'm terrified. I was slept for 26 years. Oh, nice. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. And also joining us this week is skeptic extraordinaire Michael Marshall. Marsh. Welcome back. I have not eaten today and you can't prove otherwise guys. No, right. I've had nothing. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So tell us, Marsha, what will be breaking down today? We watched Eat the Sun, which is a documentary about how you can live entirely without food
Starting point is 00:01:35 and you can achieve peak health via the tried and trusted medium of retinal scorching. Yeah. I think is what they're going for. Yeah. And Eli, how bad was this movie? Well, if you love the absolute bat shit claims that make you never want to attend a meditation class again, but you've been trying to slowly drive Martian saying with crazier and crazier documentaries over the last year and a half. You will love this movie to be clear. And I know we're going to talk about it for however long this episode goes. This is you can to stare into the sun,
Starting point is 00:02:13 the moon. The movie. Yes, it is. Well, no, no, it's just asking questions, Eli. It's but can you just stare into the sun, the moon. Now, I have to ask, because I know that our friend Eli got suckered into an awful lot of woo, it is youth. Did you ever try to photosynthesize? No. Okay. No. I mean, I did try quite a bit of fasting and was told that sunbathing made it easier and
Starting point is 00:02:40 definitely fell for that. What I'm saying is, as with everything stupid we ever talk about, I was too conversations away from being in the movie. Well, there's the reason Eli that I thought to ask that question just because so did I. I just exactly the same thing. It's just like, oh yeah, I know you do a seven day fest, but if you sit out in the sun, all that vitamin D, well, we had come at this from very different angles. We have been on very different journeys in our lives. Oh, dude, I used to know a guy who claimed to be, he didn't stare into the sun, but he claimed that he never ate. He called himself a breatherian. Oh, yeah, no. I've interviewed breatherians before.
Starting point is 00:03:16 Yeah. I can never be reasonable as a breatherian. And she hadn't been doing it very long, and I knew that because she wasn't dead. She wasn't a liar and she was still alive, which means she was new to this. Oh, there you go. So is there anything you want to nominate? This one for being the best at being the worst at? Ah, I've got to say best, worst moving in. Okay. It's the sun. This is, I think, this may be the silliest possible imaginable three-word combination phrase, because you've got eat as an opener, and that is a silly opener, the kind of the imperative eat good, solid silly opener, and then to follow that with a definite article, so not eat some stuff,
Starting point is 00:03:56 not eat A thing, eat V. That's already pretty good. And then to end that sentence, that three-word sentence with the giant ball of nucleophile at the center of our existence. It's just a leap level stupid. Eat the sun. No way to finish that sentence, but rich without it being stupid. Yeah. So I was going to go with, because again, it's all about people who say that they stare
Starting point is 00:04:19 into the sun and they never eat. Now, we know that people who say they never eat are just fucking liars that just don't eat around people. People who say they stare into the sun are also fucking liars because that's really painful to do. So over and over again, this documentary and has to take these people out and make them actually stare into the sun for the video. And it's super obvious every time that they don't actually ever do this. Yeah. Yeah. They claim it's called sun gazing. It's called Sun Squinting. It's definitely Sun Squinting at best. Sun Blinking. Yeah, exactly. My favorite crazy person who
Starting point is 00:04:52 barely pretends to do this just plays the French horn near the sun. Yes. He's brilliant. I'm going to go with best worst excuse. I'm going to say this documentary is almost on our side. It's not, but it's almost on our side. And when it will reveal the insanity of one of its subjects, it is, I'm going to say top four funniest things that has ever happened in a thing we have watched. Yes, yeah, 100%. I'm absolutely going to agree with you on that one. So with that teased and a lot of crazy on the other side of the break We're gonna need a minute to level up, but don't worry. We're gonna be back in a hurry with all the ridiculous bullshit that is
Starting point is 00:05:35 the son And there's really no way to get the refund on the camera equipment. No, man. They said all sales are final refund on the camera equipment. No, man, they said all sales are final. Ah, bummer. Total bummer, like I don't, I don't even have anything to make a documentary about now. Hey guys. Oh, hey Mason, bad news.
Starting point is 00:05:53 We aren't gonna need you to DP for the documentary after all, the subject fell through. Oh, that's too bad. But hey, while you guys got a second, you know how my lifelong dreams were shattered last year? Um, yeah. Right. Right. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Well, the good news is I discovered an ancient magic that means I'm going to live forever and unlock the secrets of the universe right after. You, um, you did? I sure did. I built a website to talk about it. I talk about it constantly and I am doing the opposite of pretty much every medical expert I have talked to. Oh. Right. Well, I want to go staring to the sun because hey, if sungazing is not the
Starting point is 00:06:39 secret to the universe, I don't know what I'll do. Am I right? Wow, Mason seems really messed up. Yeah, I mean, do you think we should get him some help or like talk to his family or something? Yeah, we could do that. Or we could film it. You wanna film our friends? Very obvious mental breakdown. I mean, I'm just searching for the truth, man.
Starting point is 00:07:09 Right, but the truth about Walt. Remind me, what is it that Mason's into? It's um... Did he mention... Look, look, look. You want to waste this camera money or not? All right. Let's go film our friends breakdown. Feels nice to know Universal Secret. Oh, no, we know it does, buddy.
Starting point is 00:07:30 We know. Great timing for me. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha You know, we're gonna have a lot of fun today, but before we dive into just what happens with a lack of mental health care meets con men and the anonymous internet, we thought we remind you about our first sponsor this week, BetterHelp. What's BetterHelp? BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers a video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to.
Starting point is 00:08:05 Plus, it's much more affordable than in-person therapy and financial aid is available, which means you can talk to someone about your issues without burning out the center of your eyeballs. That's right. And right now, got awful movies. Listen, is get 10% off their first month of better health at betterhelp.com slash awful. That's B E T T E R H E L P dot com slash awful. Better help. Sometimes it's either that or you end up on B reasonable. Hey, not everyone
Starting point is 00:08:34 I talked to is mentally ill. Some of them are liars. No, that's true. Yeah, sometimes it's both. Sometimes it's both. And we're back for the breakdown and we're going to open up an quote from through the looking glass that basically amounts to how about believing in nonsense, huh? Have you ever thought that? Quotes from a unicorn to start your documentary? Not a great sign. Yeah, exactly. Not a great sign because this is the quote about the unicorn asking you to believe in
Starting point is 00:08:59 him. But the thing is if a unicorn asked me to believe in it, I obviously would. Right. But this movie will be a third party asking me to believe in unicorn, which is a very different thing. Quite a bit. Yeah. And we started. So we're going to have two different types of talking heads in this movie. The first is just notters and liars, mostly liars. The other is these poor actual scientists that get in there for like two fucking sentences and have no idea what they've just lent themselves to. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:27 And we've got a great one in this movie, by the way, it's not this first guy, this first guy, I have my money on. I had no fucking idea what this movie was, but there will be a lady later who's so excited to share her facts about sunscreen. It breaks your goddamn mind. Yeah, she's the best. She's the star of this fucking movie. She's pretty, yeah, I call She's the star of this fucking movie. She's brilliant.
Starting point is 00:09:45 Yeah, I call that game the crazy or courtmind thing. So, well, this guy's come up. He's got a professorial title. Is he crazy or is he courtmind? Let's play. Yeah, exactly. And he was quote mind in this instance, I do believe. But he just comes on and he's like,
Starting point is 00:09:58 Hey, you know, I'm an expert in the sun. Tanning is super fucking weird, isn't it? That's a dumb thing to do. I held people do that. Yeah, he said it's the craziest thing he's ever heard that people do with the sun. And this movie is like, yeah, hold my sunblock. We're gonna be that. I also want to point out just looking at this guy. It's always nice to see what Santa Claus is doing when he's not miracleing on 34th Street and making dinosaurs. Yeah. Yeah. Very important. Also, just a quick note on these title cards, which will come up throughout the moving.
Starting point is 00:10:29 All of these title cards appear to be actual scans, pictures or reconstructions of these people's business cards because they share, among other things, everyone's phone number and address. Yeah, email, where their work is. Yeah. I'm sure nothing but his ever come of doxing every one of your talking heads throughout. Wow. You know who I would not want to share my personal information. The Kaya network, the only available venue for this fucking movie. Yeah. Alright. So then we're going to meet the star of our movie.
Starting point is 00:11:02 This is Mason. This is a man that just exudes stupid, even before he says, so yeah, I stare into the sun as the main element of my personality. Honestly, if I could screenshot this dude's face as he stares at the sun, you would have no doubt that he is not in good mental health. Yeah. Yeah. Also, all the footage we see of him standing stare at the sun, it all looks like it's from some sort of nuclear war information film from the 80s, which is weirdly off-putting. Right.
Starting point is 00:11:34 No, it all looks like some kind of Reagan era invasion footage that they just uncovered or some shit. But yeah, so we're going to watch him stare into the sun. Don't worry, there'll be plenty more of that. And this is also where we're going to introduce the HRM sun gazing protocol, which is, and I quote, stand barefoot on bare earth at 10 seconds daily until you reach 44 minutes. Now notice, it does not say stare into the sun at any point on that. I'm wondering if that's like a legal thing, right?
Starting point is 00:12:05 Like they were legally like, I'm gonna be amazed if they've all just, everyone just misinterpreted the advice all this time. I mean, they haven't, because we will meet Ich-R-R-Eb, and he's not saying why are you guys staring at the sun? He's very much on board with himself. And he takes dumb vegan argument to the next level here, which I love, because I'm a vegan,
Starting point is 00:12:24 and a lot of the time people will be like, hey, you believe this crazy stupid thing too. And I'm like, no, I just eat the cheesy poofs that come in the different package. But at one point, he's like, cowsie grass. Grass is a more direct form of energy. And I was like, oh, that's bad taking the news like, but an even more direct form of energy is the sun. The grass is is the son. The grass is eating the sun.
Starting point is 00:12:47 It's it's brain. He says, yeah, just just cut out the middle man on energy. So yeah, mate, those cows and pigs are really taking advantage of you as the midgeman there. They're adding such a markup on that energy. But then he asks, what would happen if you just eat the sun? And the thing is, there is an answer to that question, but the answer is radically different to what he thinks the answer is. If we could just give him a spoonful of coronomass injection or something that would solve so many problems. Also, I just, I have to point this out because it just gives you an idea how lazy HRM is. He says, you know, why 44 minutes? Well, nobody really knows. I'm like numerology is the easiest possible thing. And
Starting point is 00:13:27 you guys didn't bother coming up with something. Jesus fucking Christ lazy fucks. What was HRM doing? Because we will learn that that's a person in a second. What was HRM doing the first time someone was like and what should we build up to? And he was like 44 minutes. Sounds real. Yeah. I think what it was, the bigger question is, what was he planning to do 44 minutes after someone asked him that question, which is why it's 44 minutes long? Okay. He looks at his watch, he's like, well, I've got a short to get to in 44 minutes. So yeah, you need exactly 44 minutes to know more than that. I've got a point minute, my local courierhouse, I need to get a that. I've got a, I've got an appointment at my local curryhouse I need to get a reservation. I've got a photography that I have a photography session.
Starting point is 00:14:10 All right. And then we get Marsha's best works. We get the title. And then we meet hero Ratan Manak, HRM, who we first see walking into his sacred space healing center business. So yeah, he can fuck himself all the way He's very clearly everyone has this like vitamin shop slash yoga studio slash Burthing center slash, you know, acupuncturist in their town and these guys just making the rounds Tell him not to eat food. Oh God. He's got like a wizard's beard, but for sideburns. Yeah, and he's like the Simpson's monorail guy for the sun, in that he just goes from town to town,
Starting point is 00:14:54 encourage people to look at the sun, until he basically gets rumbled. And then he fucks off to another country and does the same thing, because he had a following in India, and I don't know what happened to that, but he's an America by this point. Yeah. So I'm probably following him happened to that, but he's an America by this point. Yeah. Someone probably following him and a restaurant.
Starting point is 00:15:07 I'm going to guess. And there's a great line from Mason as well, was he got into this because he saw on a flyer that your brain can be like a solar battery and I wrote, yeah, but from what we've seen of Mason, it's more like a watch battery than a car battery. I think. Yeah. And then we get some clips of HRM at a few conferences. He's given his pitch, which is that he doesn't eat food, right?
Starting point is 00:15:31 He doesn't, he doesn't remember exactly when he stopped eating solid food, but it's been a long time. He says, I can't say exactly when I stopped eating solid food. You know what, mate? I can. It was the 12th of March 2022 when you died. Here, I'm dying. A fortnight ago.
Starting point is 00:15:44 Wow. Look at that.-nighter go. Wow. Look at that. Yeah, I looked it up. I thought, I wonder if this guy is still alive and whether he's able to answer an email to me and get on be reasonable. And he died like two or three weeks ago, the 12th of March. I can't believe he died early, not too early for me to interview him, especially when we see his business can't flash up on screen.
Starting point is 00:16:02 And I've got all of his email addresses now. Right. He has phone number and his home address. Well, they all bounced. There's nobody picking up his work from there. So if you think about it, this is the memorial episode. Yes, it is. Because I thought the good thing about them doxing every one of the guests is I was just making
Starting point is 00:16:15 notes for be reasonable. Oh, I'd be fun to invite, but so many of these just bounce now. So many people just do the emails bounce. Yeah. I wonder why. So yeah, but he claims he hasn't eaten since 1995. He also says it's a recorded fact. Like how the fuck would that be?
Starting point is 00:16:32 What he means is an unsubstantiated claim that he refuses to allow skeptics to test, but that's a different use of recorded fact that you and I are used to. Probably. Yeah. And he's also, as well as that, he makes a subtle shift to the claims that he's making because he starts by saying, I don't eat food. And then he very quickly starts saying, I don't eat solid food.
Starting point is 00:16:54 And that emphasis on solid is pretty important. If I was needing anything at all, I'd just say food. But to emphasize solid, that's a qualifier. Right. No, you could technically subsist on a liquid diet. Sure. Like some people have to do that medically. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:10 And as he will repeat, this guy's like not good at repeating his lines. He does them very rote and very bored. He's like, I haven't eaten for 444 days. I only subsist on coffee tea and buttermuck. I only use it in 444 days. Like someone tortured the script in the underground center. So I, I can only imagine that's because he's been telling the same life as so long. I think he's getting bored of the fact that people aren't finding out that he's bullshitting
Starting point is 00:17:35 them. And so he's just thinking, how obvious can I make this? Right. Yeah. And still get away with this by this. But that's the only, the only enjoyment he's got left in it. Do I have to have my heart in it at all? No, I get it.
Starting point is 00:17:45 Like there would be days at the toy store when I'd be like, come on guys, check it out. It's the magic thumbs. You can read it. But why was it sort of like half, half, half, half, half, half, it's like that except you don't get to break for lunch. What? Exactly. So, oh, and then we cut to psychiatrist, Mori Pressman, who will pseudo-corroborate HRM's
Starting point is 00:18:03 claims. This is amazing. This guy, Mori Pressman, claims to have met a guy who claimed to have studied HRM for a year under quote, very rigid conditions. That's the closest they come to confirming his claims in the entire movie. I do want to say though, if there is an actual reproduction of Mori Pressman's business card, it's nice that the logo on it really warns you. He has no fucking idea what he's talking about. It's like two snakes fucking in front of a pyramid with the eye of Horace.
Starting point is 00:18:38 Oh, we also have this deceptively edited doctor from Mumbai. Oh, yeah, right. This is suit of Shaw, isn't it? Yes. Well, he says, I thought it sounded weird that someone was claims to do that immediate hard cut to suit. Yeah. Yes. He's like, yeah, no, we tested him for over a year. And then he starts describing like monthly tests, right? Because HRM is sort of trying to convince you that he was in a hospital lockdown doctors around him the whole time so that they could make sure that he wasn't getting food. What they're talking about is he went in for an MRI once a month.
Starting point is 00:19:10 Yeah. That's what the doctor's talking about, but they very deceptively added it so that those claims all sort of bleed to gather. Right. And at one point, he's like, he has a slightly enlarged pineal gland. And I feel like this doctor does not know what he was being interviewed for. The movie is very clearly like, that's what he's eating with his son. Eating pineal gland.
Starting point is 00:19:33 Was the doctor himself, the doctor's sort of saying, yeah, he had a big pineal gland. We don't really know why or what it would mean. And I am very specifically not going to say anything concrete about it. So you can't think that I'm on your side cut. Yeah, exactly. And then we cut to we're at this community center just filled with background noise and Mason, the newer sun gayser, he's given out his sun gazing website business card to just random people who are trying to swim or something. We're watching him ray comfort people about sun gazing.
Starting point is 00:20:10 Yep. And by the way, the introductory sentence we will see of his pitches, all I wanted was for someone to tell me, um, it's gonna be okay. And I was like, wow, fucking dark. My God. Also, I know this is a weird thing to know, but his shorts are way too high up and it's weird. Yeah, it's like he's holding them up with his ass cheeks or something very weird shorts are high.
Starting point is 00:20:34 He's wearing a backwards baseball cap. Yeah. It's like an adult is playing a little kid in an anti-bullying pre-sort. And it's oh God. the police. Oh god. Okay. So then we get our first real shot of him staring into the sun for like a prolonged period of time. And it is super duper fucking clear that he doesn't actually do this at all when the cameras aren't rolling and he really wishes that the cameras would fucking leave. He is in so goddamn much pain through this entire pit. Oh, it's amazing, but you know, the only person worst at pretending to stare into the sun
Starting point is 00:21:13 than him, HRM himself, the guy who is barely facing the sun and like checks his watch every 14 seconds. Yep. And for a documentary footage of two men standing silent and motionless looking out at the sun is not searing documentary material. No, it's not huge exciting. He's also like talking to people there as well. And he's impressing them by saying that he's able to look at the sun for 37 minutes. And I thought, well, you know, I'm from the UK. If we get 37 minutes of sunlights per day, it technically qualifies as a weather anomaly.
Starting point is 00:21:47 So I would be impressed about him being able to look at the sun for 37 minutes. That's the best and safest place to pitch sun gazing. Like, yeah, no, we just have to work up to 44 minutes and it's like, all right, no danger. There's a lovely line from Mason as well where he says, you know, I'm doing this so far. Who knows where I'll be in the future. So well, you'll definitely not still be at Stargazing.com because I checked and that's a little bit of a spoiler. This is also the first scene where Mason laughs.
Starting point is 00:22:15 And I'm going to put really heavy air quotes around the words laugh because he says that sentence and he's like, ha, ha, ha, ha, I just wrote shorten my notes, ha, ha, ha, ha, I am well. Yeah. Yeah. So then we cut back to Mori Presbyn so he can go like, oh, the fuck the optimist, just know about eyes, though, right? So this is my paraphrase of what the command says here is he's like, you know, some people say that these guys claims are impossible, but if you accept their claims without evidence,
Starting point is 00:22:44 those people have to be wrong. Yeah, I think his point genuinely was nobody says you can't stare at the sun, they say you shouldn't. Yeah, right. Oh, then we cut back to Mason's son staring and honestly, I could watch that all fucking day. Yeah, right. Pretty great.
Starting point is 00:23:03 This is where he meets the women as well. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And he says to them, I haven't eaten since September the 11th. And it feels like that's the kind of date where you always have to include the year. Otherwise, you're going to really confuse people. There's a hiking women are really confused by that. Yeah. So he's not, he's in L.A. He's up on the path or whatever, staring out at the sun and shit. And apparently like three tourists wander by. And the producer of the documentary is like, Hey, Mason, you want want to tell these people about what you were doing? And it's amazing because we get to watch them all realize and we get to watch this
Starting point is 00:23:31 over and over again in this movie. We get to watch them all realize together that he's a fucking crazy person and they wish that he they hadn't asked what he was doing. They all give this like, oh anyway, kind of nod all together. Oh, we have to go. This is just our morning fun thing we do at the coffee shop. Please stop. So then we, so we go back to September 10th, right? We go back to right back when he was eating food.
Starting point is 00:23:58 If you can imagine that. And we really have the beginning of his journey via his blog posts. Yeah. He starts off, I haven't eaten in 10 days and I'm like, okay, you're a fucking liar. Yep. Right? That's what we know now. Also, he said that September 10th and he stopped eating on September 11th.
Starting point is 00:24:14 And the days don't add up either. But he's talking about how he skipped, he's going to skip Thanksgiving this year because everybody will want him to eat food. Oh. So it's so grim. He's skipping Thanksgiving because he's finally going to get all pissy about the whole deciding to stop eating completely. Yes. Right. Yeah. Then we meet Mason's girlfriend. It's like the Bible. She has no name, just a relationship to a man. Also, the movie will call her Mason's girlfriend. She very clearly is ex girlfriend. No, she ends this
Starting point is 00:24:47 little interview by going like, by the end of the relationship, he was a real asshole about all this sudden staring bullshit. Yeah. All of his family talk about how judgmental he became about the whole sun thing, which is great. But they also talk about how his backstory, this was really obvious to me. Surely this was obvious to everyone watching, right? But his backstory is he was a really massively competitive ski jumper who all he cared about his entire life was getting to the Olympics. And I thought, right, if we pause the movie here, we know two facts about Mason. One is that he never got to be Olympic level at the thing he dedicated his entire life to. And now two, he subsequently decided that human beings don't need food to survive. I think we've got all the pieces we need to understand Mason at
Starting point is 00:25:28 this point. Right. Right. Yeah. No, his best friends like, well, yeah, after he failed to get into the Olympics, his goal became looking at something since you can't really fail at that. Right. You can't not. Yeah. He made the entirely healthy decision to replace ski jumping with starvation. Right. Yeah, exactly. Like people do and they're mentally healthy. Yeah. When they introduced the girlfriend, I wrote my notes, okay, this is officially a horror movie now and she is the protagonist.
Starting point is 00:25:54 But no, she got out. She got out. Yeah, she just gave, which is, it makes me feel better about the entire movie. Yeah. But yeah, but apparently when she broke up with him, he got so depressed, he ate food, not because he was hungry. Y'all. Okay.
Starting point is 00:26:06 This is my favorite reoccurring theme of the movie. Mason will never go, I got hungry and I ate food today. He'll always be like, you know, you know what it was? It was that. I was at Trader Joe's and I fell with my mouth onto a honky. But I didn't want to. I wasn't hungry. Yes. Yeah, but we watch him be sad and alone and everything. And H. Tosh, I'm talking about how he sure wishes everybody didn't hate him for being a weird liar about shit, right? Yeah. And the intensity
Starting point is 00:26:40 of this interview, it's not a great sign that he's given this whole interview with all the intensity of Jordan Peterson. It is exactly as big a flag as it is with Jordan Peterson. It's the same flag. It's the same flag in all ways. If you start to talk about your hobby slash worldview and you cry, you should talk to a professional about your hobby slash worldview. But instead, he's like, you know what I need is to meet more people who are willing to reinforce my delusions and pretend as
Starting point is 00:27:09 though my lies might theoretically be true, right? Right. Oh, because he says about, because obviously I haven't met HRM. He said, I wasn't really convinced that we got to the call of who HRM was. And I thought, yeah, you often get that sense when you hang out with lies and comment. Yeah. As a judge, really, to get to the call. And so instead, yeah, you often get that sense when you hang out with lies and con men. Yeah, as a church, yeah, I get to get to the call. And so in said he says, I'd really like to meet some more people who don't eat meat, people close to my own age. And I thought, is he looking for like a singles app for people who don't eat, like empty of fish or something?
Starting point is 00:27:36 Oh, and then we have this little montage of happy, sun-gazing Yahoo groups members. Okay, here's the thing about the internet. It is the worst possible place to share experiences because by definition, it can be fake, right? IE, one or two people listening to this podcast are unaware that no illusion is a pseudonym. Right. Yeah. No, I wrote my notes like, ah, the comments section, we're all good investigative journalism winds up eventually. I did love this one guy.
Starting point is 00:28:14 He's like, I lost 25 pounds. I mean, yeah, keep it up. You'll lose the rest eventually. Yeah. Most of the positive testimonials here are people talking up the perceived benefits of weight loss, not about the sunshine itself, Apart from one lady who said staring at the sun made her tits get bigger. That's got to be bullshit. That's got to be a fake one. Oh, I love the pose that they accidentally capped in on this. Yeah, it was amazing.
Starting point is 00:28:38 For sure. So then we had Dalaii. He's going to go off and meet some other sun's stirers. So we meet a different liar named Julia Swanson. She's a lawyer for an auto insurance agency, a group known for their honesty, if ever there was. So yeah. And she's reporting to us from the past. 100% because 1980 stock footage
Starting point is 00:29:01 that she sent how insurbs to self-intu. And so she starts talking about how great it is to stare at the sun and look, like, I'm sure that there actually are like meditation-like benefits that you get from doing this, but like, you could get them from staring at a picture of the sun too. Brian, yes. She's talking about how at the end of a very stressful work day, she'd stand on top of the roof of her building in the open air, in the sunshine. And then she was amazed that it made her feel less tired and stressed. She's describing meditation. Yes. And she also said she was doing it for five minutes,
Starting point is 00:29:33 which is very different to what Mason was doing in his 44-minute goal. She's standing in the open air for five minutes. That that isn't sung as in that isn't mystical. You're just meditating. Love it. Oh yeah, that's just getting outside and breathing some Well, she's an L.A. So it's not fresh air, but she's breathing air and unlike everyone else in this fucking movie We do not watch her squinting into the sun. We watch her facing away from the sun practicing her fucking French Orange She says, you know, I was never worried about my eyes because I trusted the website. And I'm like, ah, that's some famous last words. Yeah, I literally just wrote,
Starting point is 00:30:07 do not trust the website. But she says, I was never worried about my eyesight, which is very bold claim for a lady wearing glasses. Like, you had some concerns at some point, I think. Well, and then, and Mason's like, so what got you into sun gazing? And she's like, I saw your website do. Yeah, it's like you, yeah. And Mason said, you know, I felt responsible at some level, like, I saw your website do. Yes, like you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:25 And Mason said, you know, I felt responsible at some level. Like, yeah, in that she directly told you it was your fault. Yeah. Right. At some level, you should feel responsible. Well, you know, I wrote my notes, you're like, Mason, I feel responsible for telling a woman to do something incredibly dangerous with no reasonable assurance that it was even survivable.
Starting point is 00:30:40 The director, hold my juice cleanse, right? Another thing that I fell for. I pretty recently too. I think I was working this job when I felt for a juice cleanse. We don't need to talk about it. What's this about me? It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. Somebody else. Okay. And then we get speaking of post, right? We get this unsourced email that, you know, technically agrees with the movies premise, and it just gets silly or insilier, and I don't think that the movie ever realizes that it's fake.
Starting point is 00:31:10 But it has to be fake. It has to be fake. It has to be someone fucking with him and no one knows. It is as though the guy is aware he's going to be on the documentary and was like, well, I'll make it really broad at the end so that it doesn't actually end in the documentary. Yeah, because the things this letter says is that, you know, they say they no longer need their parents
Starting point is 00:31:29 now that they have sun gazing to take their place, which is pure serial killer energy. Yeah, and then it goes into, and also my grades are improving, and they're improving so much that I'm considering dropping out. Yeah, what? Which is a hell of a flex. If anything, I'm too good at school and then just to be clear that this is a joke He's like I've even been doing it with my dog and he loves it except for when I stop feeding him Yeah, I'm not that boy. I mean it might as well be a picture of his gabe-to-ass hole at the end and Mason like oh Wonder what that's for The end line is do you ever feel superior to the rest of the world? I know I do. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:09 All right, and then we're going to go meet Jason and I love this so fucking much because the reason that we're going around and meeting other sun geysers is Mason wanted to meet somebody who's like him and he hears that. Oh, here's a guy's about his same age. His name even rhymes with his. And he gets to just like the stuffiest, shittiest Mormon. He's crazy. Mormon. What's great is that the only thing that unites these people is their fucking craziness. He's like, Oh, you're a sun geyser because you want to complete to yourself. I'm a sun geyser because I think the Adam and Eve story is code for the sun. And they're just like, all right.
Starting point is 00:32:48 And I love how Jason explains that he found this. How did you find? How did you hear about Sungazing? He said, I first heard of Sungazing by doing searches on the internet. It's like, but what were you searching for? Cause if you're searching for sungazing, you must have heard of it first to know to type those words in. Yeah. Well, he also like, he, he, he tried, he tries to explain how we knew it was true because when you read that stuff on the internet, it proves that it's in. Yeah. Well, he also like he tried he's tried to explain how we knew it was true because when
Starting point is 00:33:06 you read that stuff on the internet, it proves that it's not just some cookie thing you're reading about on the internet. Yeah, this isn't just the internet. It's a person on the internet. I don't think Jason knows how they're for a worse. Also just because he's a Mormon, does it mean he's closed-minded? Yeah, it does. But, yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:27 All very restrictive. Right. Not in a way, in a way, a lot of people think Mormons are closed-minded and restrictive. Yeah, they get that from your whole religion. Yes, that's right. Well, yes, as soon as I realized he was a Mormon, I'm like, well, okay, that's at least as silly as Sun Gazing. And we should point out, he's all the way Mormon, and and then by that I mean he has four children and a pregnant wife.
Starting point is 00:33:46 Sure does. Yeah. This is also where he gives us the Adam and Eve pitch. He's like, okay, so you know the story of Adam and Eve, which I think is true. Adam and Eve fell by eating. Eating is bad. Right. And what were they eating?
Starting point is 00:34:01 Food. Exactly. Solid food. Solid food. Solid food. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I also love that we see him doing the sun gazing thing and he's going to stop watch around
Starting point is 00:34:12 his neck to see how long he's beaten due to four, but I really want him to like squint with difficulty at the sun at the stopwatch because he's completely blown his eyes out of his staring at his son for so long. Right. So every watch is fucking kids. Sun gays with him for a second. Oh God, they should come and take those children. And then we get what is built anyway
Starting point is 00:34:32 as Mason and Jason meeting for, I guess not lunch, right? Yeah. There's an empty plate next to each of them. They vary, obviously, just fucking eight. They're at a diner. They are. I wanted them to just be like air eating, right?
Starting point is 00:34:46 Like mimeing eating as they talk. Or something. Yeah, why are they in a diner? They should have gone to a salarium if they really want to fill up. Exactly. Food. Well, but it turns out that Jason isn't a non-eater.
Starting point is 00:34:58 He just stares into the sun. So he's like half-ass in it. Right. He also finds a spot in the book of the doctrines and covenants, one of the Mormon holy books that says something about if you are filled with my light, there will be no darkness in you. So that's pretty much an endorsement. That's probably telling me to stare into the sun. Yeah. And Jason also says, uh, so who knows, you know, maybe I'll come to comprehend all things. And I thought, I wouldn't hold you breath Jason
Starting point is 00:35:26 Unless you also believe you don't you doxygen either Yeah, he ends up by being like maybe I'm a pioneer genius and I just take general advice podcast this term If you're ever doing a thing and you wonder if you're a crazy person or a pioneer genius I promise you're a crazy person, right? I promise maybe there's crazy person. Right. Yep. Maybe there's one of you out there who I just blew cold fusion,
Starting point is 00:35:49 but I'm back in a higher percentage. You're a crazy person. Yeah. And there is no chance Eli is not speaking from experience there. Like you've been a pioneer of several things that you've realized were just crazy, right? I didn't have a mic pointed at me at the time,
Starting point is 00:36:03 so I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm like, all right, well I'll tell you what, while we were talking that, Mormon guy had another kid, so we needed a quick break to congratulate him, but we're back in a moment with even more. Eat the son.
Starting point is 00:36:18 Okay, now this is only gonna take a second. Oh, I'm ready. Hey guys, whoa, whoa, is that an MRI machine? Yep, we're gonna get to the bottom of this thing. What thing? Okay, so you're not gonna believe this, honestly, without seeing it, but earlier, Eli had me hit a card right out of the entire deck and then he found it.
Starting point is 00:36:41 We gotta find out what's going on in his brain, man. Right, so I'm not sure the answer to how Eli did We gotta find out what's going on in his brain, man. Right. So I'm not sure the answer to how Eli did that card trick is in his brain. Uh, disagree. I think it's gonna be my pine needle, man. Totally. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:55 Look, guys, I understand that you want to be scientific, but this isn't scientific. Not to mention, using medical equipment is a really expensive and very wasteful way to try and figure out a magic trick. You think? Yeah, just look, is this the deck of cards here? Yeah, huh? Uh, don't touch it. That's my cards, you can't.
Starting point is 00:37:12 Look, look, they're all queen of hearts, you see? Oh. Um, do you want to x-ray my bad hole just in case? I mean, in the name of science, I feel like we should. Yes, for science. Why do I keep coming back here? Whoa guys, that was a scary monster like what Put the stank on it, am I right? Hey Noah. What's up here? Oh, oh Mars thank goodness. You're here. Do you know how to unsubscribe
Starting point is 00:37:43 somebody from Masterclass? What's Masterclass? Well, with Masterclass, you can learn from the world's best minds, anytime, anywhere and at your own pace. You can learn how to skateboard from Tony Hawk and prove your chest skills with Gary Kasprubb or learn how to cook from Gordon Ramsay, with over a hundred classes from a range of world-class instructors that thing you've always wanted to do as closer than you think. Well, I mean, that sounds awesome.
Starting point is 00:38:05 Why would you want to cancel it? Well because the latest class is how to stream with Ninja. Oh, oh my. Thank you, Kingster3, for your subscription. We're going to the swizzle stick. The step-by-step course covered everything from what equipment he needed to what software to use, to how to engage and build an audience and now he's He's you know that
Starting point is 00:38:29 Well, is there a master class on like stopping him only one way to find out I highly recommend you check it out get unlimited access to every master class and as it got off a movie's listener You get 15% off of an annual membership go to masterclass.com slash awful now. That's masterclass.com slash awful for 15% off masterclass. All right, well, I mean, I'll check that out. And if not, we could just, you know, put him down. Whoa, that same monster again. So scary. Yeah, that might be best.
Starting point is 00:39:00 And we're back for more of this shit. And this time we're going to open up on what I believe as a real scientist based on how quickly they cut him off and how we never hear from him again. Absolutely. All right, this is the guy he comes on. He's like, it's crazy. We found this new photo receptor in the eye.
Starting point is 00:39:17 It's not a rod. It's not a clone. It's connected to the pineal gland cut. I feel like anytime someone mentions the pine eel gland, it's bullshit. It's like the quantum of brain areas. Yeah, I mean, no, but yes, yeah, right. Just like there are people who are talking about quantum physics that aren't full of shit too, but yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:37 Yeah, like if you're an actual neuroscientist stood in front of a brain scan on your pointing, you can talk about the pine eel gland. Yeah. But if you're anything of the mat, you can't. I wonder if they have to like, try to hedge their bets on it so that they don't seem like assholes to their, they're like, it's the, you know, this area right here
Starting point is 00:39:54 in the brain, unreal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't make fun of me guys. You know, which part I'm talking about. And then, okay, then Mason goes to an FDA facility in Rockville, Maryland, where we will finally meet this movie's protagonist.
Starting point is 00:40:07 Buck yeah, we will. Yeah. So he, there's this, the scientist by the name of Diane Godar that he's, that's showing him around, right, showing him some stuff at the FDA. And one of the things she shows him is this solar simulator light. Mm-hmm. Right. And he's like, Hey, can I turn this on and stare right into it?
Starting point is 00:40:26 And she's like, no. Well, best of all, she's like, no, you can't because she has Boston lady voice. I'll see. So she totally does. So it's she's every time he talks, she's like, what I would be fucking stupid. She's so brilliant. She's so brilliant because he's like, so this little box is more dangerous than the sun. And she's like, yes, he said, but it's so little. It's that right, Mason, but you can see how you got your hand on the box and you can't put your hand on the sun. That difference might be why this is more dangerous.
Starting point is 00:40:58 It's the distancing. Right. And she's like, and there's this great moment. And we've seen this with a couple of people already in this movie, but never as spectacularly as this lady, where she's slowly realizing just what kind of bad shittery that she has stumbled into. Oh, when he tells her she doesn't have to eat or the interviewer tells her they don't have to eat.
Starting point is 00:41:18 And she's like, you fucking fags don't think you have to eat. It's so stupid. What are you eat? She had one of the moments in this movie that maybe laughed out loud. There's maybe two or three moments that really, really did. And she had the line for it because Mason said, well, how about staring at the sun? And she said, well, not during daylight hours. Yes.
Starting point is 00:41:40 That's incredible. I'm so pleased. Have the rest of the film be Mason trying to stare at the sun at night. Please let that be the rest of it. Just running towards the horizon. I saw it. Go down. I got you staring at the ground.
Starting point is 00:41:52 He's like, it should be right about to the math here. No, I should point out we're 27 minutes into this documentary. This is the first time that somebody has just been like, yeah, but that's fucking impossible though. He has to be lying to you. No, don't do that. Yes. Well, it was so funny is that she's just like, they're like, so should you stare into the
Starting point is 00:42:12 sun and she's like, nope, that's so fucking dumb. I'm not even going to address it. I'm going to talk about sunscreen. I'm going to use my time for something. Yes. And this lady was so ready with her sunscreen facts, right? They're very clearly in the pre-interview. She was like, and I can talk about sunscreen if you want me to.
Starting point is 00:42:30 And they were like, yeah, no, it's this is about the sun. She was like, oh, fuck yeah. All right. So he's the thing about sunscreen. And they're just like, we're cutting all of this. Oh, yeah, I want to hope it was like 25 minutes of her giving detailed advice on how to avoid sunburn. And then yeah, we'll get maybe 15 seconds out of that. The rest is cut room floor. So then we go up to meet forensic psychiatrist John can now that's a bullshit job, right?
Starting point is 00:42:53 Forensic psychiatrist. Yeah. That sounds like a bullshit. His version of it 100% is. Yeah, and his opening line is incredible, right? He goes, I've often suspected conspiracy, but it's almost always incompetence. And I'm like, I bet you think that somebody else is incompetence though, don't you?
Starting point is 00:43:09 Okay. John's interview was fun because he walked the line the closest of all the crazy people of like, am I a crazy person? Am I saying a normal thing? Am I crazy? Yes, he strung you along for quite a while, didn't he? He's playing the game, crazy quite a while, didn't he?
Starting point is 00:43:25 He's playing the game crazy on court mind. He knows he's in the game and he's trying to make as much of a game as possible. Yeah, but it is. It is crazy. Yeah. It's crazy. Eventually he starts talking about how you should make a dose on vitamin C by waving your dick at the sun or something.
Starting point is 00:43:40 Yeah. Because why would your body make all that vitamin D if that's not how much you're supposed to have? I wrote in my notes, if you're not to supposed to drink your pee, how come you make so much delicious, delicious pee every single day? Also, they have the camera like, like he's bizarrely way over to the right on the screen, as though the camera is trying to edge out of the room to get out of this conversation.
Starting point is 00:44:06 Oh, it's not the only time we'll see the cameraman do that kind of framing. We'll come to a bit later. Oh, with HRM, yeah. Yeah, I'm not even sure that the camera man was falling asleep. We'll get to that. We'll get there. All right. And so then we're going to meet either one of Mason's heroes or Eli trying to make up a gangster
Starting point is 00:44:24 name for an improv sk Crab's skit. Vinnie Pinto. Vinnie Pinto, whose spoiler alert is not an anthropomorphic bean mascot. So yeah, no, he's tall Wallace Sean. It's really weird. He is Wallace Sean. He absolutely is. Well, I've shown and I love the fact that Mason goes to find him,
Starting point is 00:44:45 because he's like, you know, I'm finding it really hard not to eat, but I want to try and find the person who's been doing this for longer than me, and I can't find anyone. And I thought, that should be way more of a red flag than actually, if you're the person who's been doing your thing the longest, you should be way more sure than you are Mason.
Starting point is 00:45:04 Right. No, it's fine. Vinnie Pinto is definitely the expert he's been looking for. It's absolutely fine. Yeah. Especially he seems to meet him and he turns out he's got full guinea hens that he calls them all poly because he can't tell the difference between each of them. This is the expert you're looking for.
Starting point is 00:45:17 Yeah, we watch this guy feed livestock for so fucking long. And then we see he doesn't, he fucks this son sterant. He doesn't even stare barefooted guys. He's doing this terribly. He's very obviously a crazy dabbleer. Right, like we follow video around his house. He's like, yeah, stare at this son. Sometimes he's my metronome.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Here's some raw beef I eat, which I cover in raw beef juice. Oh, God, his diet is incredible. He said, I eat a strictly paleo diet. I only eat what our ancestors would have eaten a million years ago. And I prepare it in an electric blender. Oh, as he say about his blending is not like a fucking enkelosaurus-based Flintstones blender. No, the blender does not turn to us. It go rock. It's a living And he's saying it's what our ancestors would have eaten a million years ago and even if you cripple at that number by at least one order of magnitude The domestication of the cow was only 10,000 years ago. So he wouldn't have been on robies at that point
Starting point is 00:46:17 He has this bowl cereal bowl where he pours this fucking horrible raw sauce on top of my where he pours this fucking horrible raw sauce on top of my raw nuts. This must be what Noah and he'd feel like when I send them pictures of my vegan cooking. It is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen slopped into a bowl and slopped is the only adjective that applies to this. Yes. So it was amazing is as he's sitting there eating ground raw beef with what looks like how diarrhea poured over the top of it. He goes, yes, HRM stuff. That's nonsense, though, right? That's just silly. Buck a crazy. Crazy. I love it so much. He's like, yeah, but you're a thing about not having
Starting point is 00:47:01 to eat. That's just stupid, isn't it? And there's a lovely moment while we're introduced to Vinnie. We're also get shots of another person that we're going to meet later. And it flashes up on screen, Project X. I don't think I saw that. And I thought, wow, are we going to find out that Wolverine is a sun geyser? Is this how he heals so fast? It all makes sense. Oh.
Starting point is 00:47:20 But so yeah, and they go, they go to drive away and everything. And the filmmaker is like, so is there any, anything about the guy who was eating raw blended cow shit, telling you that your thing is stupid, that you want to reflect on on camera now. And he's like, no, no, it's not. Nope. Oh.
Starting point is 00:47:43 There's this fucking incredible moment that happens in every Woo documentary we watch. And also every conversation I've ever watched a Christian try to have with Noah, where they're just like, no, no. Yeah. Project, what has happened? I'm here. Well, and now here we are 33 minutes into the movie. and the movie starts to grow a little bit of skepticism. And we should get hints that maybe HRM isn't all he claims to be.
Starting point is 00:48:14 We get a letter from HRM's bitter ex. Yeah, we start getting an HRM like hashtag me to me to story like yeah, hashtag me woo From a victim who pseudonym is sunny, which is way to one Yeah, I mean come on if she was accusing him of being a peeping Tom it would have been a little bit better, but yeah But yeah, and and so then they go to like HRM again that the the filmmakers and they're like so tell us more about How much money you make by claiming that you've never eaten. Right?
Starting point is 00:48:48 He starts listing all of the cities that he's going to go to on his, I don't eat tour. Yeah, but it's not, it's not like good. Right? It's like County Fair level tour. Oh yeah. We would go to Ontario and then there's a town outside of Ontario and then there's a there's a county fair I have a booth, but I'm sharing a booth with a Dry needle point. Yeah, very clever needle points. Yeah
Starting point is 00:49:14 And this is where the camera starts the camera very visibly is swaying backwards and forwards Like the camera is just about to fall asleep listening to HRM talk at this point and then He burps in our face. He does. Why do we need to watch him burp? Hey, what the fuck was that? I want to be very clear about what happens. He's doing his field. I only take coffee or tea or buttermilk and then he goes, well, it's not even that he says he does only takes coffee to your buttermilk.
Starting point is 00:49:41 We pause for like nine seconds and then he burps in our face and we're like, why did we do that? But then the camera people start staking him out to see if he really eats or not. Yeah, we're on a steak out. If we watch him eat some of Vinnie's beef, it'll be a steak out. Oh nice.
Starting point is 00:50:03 And also like, why is steak him out? Right? Like he could prove he's not a liar just by letting you follow him around for a few days. He chose not to do that. We already know. Right? Yeah. But he goes to McDonald's and they're like, uh, uh, is he eating? No, it's just coffee with cream and sugar. But, but fun fact, sugar is a solid food. Sure is. Sure the fuck is. Oh, and then just in case you're not depressed enough, we see an 11 year old chiming in on the Yahoo son gazing group to talk about how she likes not eating anymore, but she won't tell anybody about it. Yes, this is the only supportive place she can find on the internet. Yeah, like,
Starting point is 00:50:43 there are zero other explanations for why a tween girl would be looking to avoid eating, given how they're essentially the most primary at risk group for eating disorders. So it's gotta just be that the sun gazing thing works. It can't be anything else. Good God. So terrible.
Starting point is 00:50:57 The child of he's polishing to this documentary. Yeah, look, I know that there are a lot of people who like found their communities on the internet and it really helped them and stuff, but there does need to be a button that you can install where you just push it and it's like bullshit and the kids like, oh, okay, then. Yeah, that'd be nice. Okay, and speaking of bullshit, time for us to meet our next sun gayser. I love this guy, right?
Starting point is 00:51:20 The little skinny black dude that's the body builder guy. Yeah, right? Or the weightlifter I know. Yeah, this guy's great. He's not. Yeah, right? Are the weightlifter. I know this guy's great. He's not a body builder to weightlifter. So we got to you talk to the middle of this fucking desert. We meet this guy named Brooks, right? And he explained to us that he never did care much for this whole eating thing and never really saw the point. Normal, healthy, not a mental illness.
Starting point is 00:51:41 Well, there's so much to Brooks that is that is worrying. First of all, when we meet him, he's sun gazing on top of his roof. And he's not the first person we see on top of their roof sun gazing. And you know, you don't have to be on top. The sun can find you anywhere you're not in the shape. It's not that the sun is better when you're 10 to 15 feet off the floor. It's the same. So you're closer to the sun, though. And he even says, Brook says, and this
Starting point is 00:52:07 is this is so telling. He says, I've got so much energy that nobody could live with me. My nearest neighbor has to be several miles away. And I thought, it feels like there's a story to that. Yeah, it's a story behind that. I'm too awesome. He's why I care. I'm 67 and I've been staring at the, he says, I'm 67 and I've been gazing at the sun for a long time. That's an underwhelming fact, mate. Put a number in there or don't say it. But then we, he climbs up on his fucking roof and we see that no, the fuck he hasn't because he is probably the most like I've never done this before and now that the camera's on. I can't admit that this guy is just crying.
Starting point is 00:52:45 Yeah, it's so awful. Uh-huh. Yeah, this is very clearly a gentleman who likes attention. For sure. Far be it for me, a podcast. I'm in the magician. Exactly. This gentleman's motivations.
Starting point is 00:53:01 But like of all the bullshitters in this movie, he's the one who was like, oh, yeah, I love sungaze. I do it all the time. How often do you do it for seven hours? No. Four years. No. Will you please come to my house with the camera?
Starting point is 00:53:17 He also says he doesn't avoid eating because he needs to lower his frequencies by eating because if he didn't eat, it would increase his frequencies too high. So his argument is the reason he eats is because if he didn't eat, it would increase his frequencies too high. So his argument is the reason he eats is because if he didn't eat, he'd be too healthy. That is what he's arguing. Yeah. Yeah. So no, he actually uses the words too healthy. Here's the, I had to write this quote down.
Starting point is 00:53:35 This is amazing. He says, it's almost like for me, it's necessary not to be too healthy because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to go out and be anywhere. And you can see how that would be inconvenient. The inequality to exist corporately in the first. And then we, I cannot fucking believe this next part happens. So he shows us these newspaper clippings.
Starting point is 00:54:02 If when he was young and the newspaper clippings are like, this guy is super skinny, but he can lift a lot of weight and he's like that's right. I can lift 1,100 pounds and I'm like you sure fucking couldn't. And then we go to a gym. So this 67 year old guy he can show up and he's let me say he's every bit as good at lifting this weight as he was staring into the sun. Yeah, yeah, we went into the sun. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:26 When we went to the gym, I was like, Oh, we're going to watch a man die. Yeah. This is a 67 year old man who just made a claim that he could squat 1000 pounds. And he's so good. He's so good. Because he said, first of all, he can't stop lying. He's already given us the I only sleep one to seven hours a week. Excellent. Now he's given us the eye only sleep one to seven hours a week. Excellent.
Starting point is 00:54:45 Now he's given us, I never, ever exercise. And to prove that, he does some genuinely, comically, unconvincingly bad stretches to prove that he doesn't know what he's doing. He clearly does exercise. Like he saw Daffy duck warm up once. Yeah. He's like, oh, do I like, is it like, I think do I do that? And he's looking at the camera all kid like, dude, do my arms go down here when I do this?
Starting point is 00:55:06 Yeah, he's playing chicken. He's playing chicken with the camera, right? That can someone behind the camera was like, oh, you can lift a thousand pounds. Let's go to a gym and do it. And he was like, yeah, absolutely. Let's do it right now. Okay, I'm like, cool.
Starting point is 00:55:17 You're afraid to do. Here we are. When he lifts the weight, they put more and more weights on the side. He goes on and now the weights are already at shoulder height or just below shoulder height, which is an unusual position to lift weights from, I believe, I'm no expert, but the way he lifts the weight is he stands his entire frame, his entire back underneath the weights, yep, slightly hunched over. And he lifts them by standing up with the weights on the back
Starting point is 00:55:42 of his neck, lifted via the spine. And I don't know that that's a good way of lifting weights carrying the weight entirely on your spine to say that he squarches the weights is a lot more accurate than that he lifts the weights. Right. Because he gets it like maybe, and be a generous when I say this, an inch off the rack. Yeah. And he's like, that's as much as I'm going to do. maybe I'd be a generous when I say this, an inch off the rack. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:05 And then he's like, that's as much as I'm gonna do. And then he drops it back down and he goes, now I wasn't a demonstration so much as, just, you know, a proof. What? Yeah. He can't manage to lift it properly.
Starting point is 00:56:17 And I thought, right, quick, someone's trying to laser in his eye. He'll do this, he'll do this. He'll do this. He'll do this. They open up the shades and they're like, bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad. The bad, the bad're like bad, but bad. Yeah, I wrote my notes.
Starting point is 00:56:29 Is that a, that's a failure, right? He failed. No, and yeah, he failed. So, and he also looks like he pulled something because he's like holding his side. Yep. After he's done, and I think he stopped because he pulled something. Absolutely. He put, by the way, it wasn't a thousand pounds.
Starting point is 00:56:44 They started to put a thousand pounds and he was like, come on, you'll kill me. I'll do 500. I'm old. Now I can only a 67 year old crazy person was like, I guess the solid metal bar and he was like, please leave. I'm very hurt. And then they leave. And of course, Mason has to stop and stare at the sun for a while before they can go on. And there's this great moment where the documentarian is like, so how you feel after that sun gazing session, he's like, well, you know, I've got a unique sensation in the back of my head. Pretty sure that's a good thing.
Starting point is 00:57:15 Yeah, that can only be positive. Don't worry about that. Head is good. But then so we cut back to the Yahoo group for somebody to finally be like, hey guys, I tried this staring into the sun shit and it fucked by eyes all up just like every expert who's ever looked into this set it would. What the fuck? Does anyone know why I got injured from staring into the sun? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're old in the lab. She's so young. She's so young. So this is the assistant, not the ophthalmologist, but yes, she looks like she's about 19. It's still child labor at this point.
Starting point is 00:58:11 It's so amazing, because she sits down. She's like, okay, so we're gonna dig your eye. She talks exactly like my younger sister. And she's like, okay, so we're like totally gonna dig your eyes. Can you read the line for me? And he's like, I stirred it the sun for 44 minutes yesterday. And she's like, sound that. Yeah. I want to point out because this is going to be important later that when he's reading the thing, he can't read shit that's right in the center of his vision.
Starting point is 00:58:39 Yeah, no, he can't. He misses the letter G. Yeah, absolutely. I know that's not as well. It's the largest line. It's literally the like, hey, we'll just to make sure you're not fucking blind. Will you read that and he's like nerf? Yep, yep, it's the E. Yeah. So, and then she goes, she's like, oh, we're going to have to check this thing of your pressure in your eye. And he's like, oh, are you going to put some kind of weird medicine, some chemicals
Starting point is 00:59:00 in my eye? And she's like, you just tell me you stare at the fucking sun. You're negative qualified to offer an opinion on this, too. Yeah. You're putting poison in my eye and she's like, you just tell me you stare at the fucking sun, you're negative, qualified to offer an opinion on this too. Yeah. You're putting poison in my eyes? Like to kill me? And he makes a big deal of having those unesthetic drops in his eyes.
Starting point is 00:59:13 And look, I've had those. It's fine. If you really want something freaky, try let them cut your cornyers with a laser. That's an old eye sensation. He's doing that with the sun, man. He doesn't have to. That is true. He's just taking it much slower. man. He doesn't have to. That is true.
Starting point is 00:59:25 He's just taking it much slower. Yeah, he gets the drops and like, look, no one likes those drops, but he's like, oh, my eyes feel terrible. I guess if we find out anything's wrong with my eyes, it's probably for this. Yes. It's unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:59:38 It's unbelievable. And then the actual doctor comes in and this is another great, like, because she can't, she's a doctor. She's his doctor. So she can't just go, wow, you're fucking nuts, right? And any point so she just has to like keep looking at her, but she's filling out forms that with just, she's coloring in the o's and the ease and she's like looking box for staring into the sun for 40 minutes a day.
Starting point is 01:00:02 Yeah. And the ruck things that this, the exchanges between Miss and the Doctor here are some of my favorite things. One of them is the thing that made me laugh out loud. Sort of second most, maybe this entire movie. But there's a bit where she says, you know, are you experiencing any visual damage?
Starting point is 01:00:16 And he says, no, arguably I'm seeing more colors. Yes, that, that doesn't sound like a good thing. If you're seeing colors, the aren't there. That's visual damage. I'm actually making friends those little squiggly things that never go away I'm seeing goats on my couch lady I'm seeing all kind of yeah and in the second best moment of this interview we'll get to the best moment of the interview in a second in the second best moment of the interview she's like hey um why why are Why are you doing this? He's like, ha ha!
Starting point is 01:00:46 Great question. Right? I don't know. Why would I do that? And then they take him to like, I feel like it's some like offsite facility they have for others, right? They take him into the back and suddenly they've got all these gigantic eye machines that I've never seen before. Yeah. I thought it was just going to be that machine that you to like, poof, air in your eye, just to fuck with you. I don't think it's got any purpose other than just to fuck with you, just that.
Starting point is 01:01:12 That's certainly right. Yeah, absolutely, that's just because it's fun. Yeah, this is the next level of the poof machine. I also thought, is this whole documentary just a way for Mason to get to seeing off the Mologist without having any health insurance? Yeah. Welcome to America.
Starting point is 01:01:25 It's like, yeah, the American health care system is real bad. You've got to stare at the sun in order to get anywhere near it. And I got to. So yes, and they do all of these tests. There's this other doctor there. And he's looking at these, I don't even know what I just not X-rays. I don't know what the fuck they are. But he's looking at these images of his eyes.
Starting point is 01:01:41 And he's like, yeah, man, there's a terrible, terrible burn on the back of your retina. There's this huge long pause and Mason goes, is it, is it from the sun gazing? You think, there's no pause at all. The doctor's like, yeah, man. I wrote this down because this was one of the highlights. This is the second funniest moment in time with me. He says, the doctor's like, you've got a massive burn on your eye. And Mason says, is there any chance that that was already there? No, no, there's not makes it. I don't know, man. Do you ever dip your eyes into a frying pan? No, I think it's the sun's staring. Imagine that guy's dead. And you're hot-temo, you spend your whole fucking life being like, here's some glasses,
Starting point is 01:02:28 you're some surgery, you're Tim, it sucks to be you. And then this asshole walks in and he's like, so what do you think that burn in the back of my eyes is from? And you're not allowed to punch him in the balls. And then we sit down and hear from the doctor, the doctor's like, yes, so basically his eyes are fucked. And if he isn't experiencing any symptoms, it's because he's massively in denial. Thanks.
Starting point is 01:02:52 Yeah. Thanks for having me in your documentary. What? And they specifically explain that he's going to lose the middle field of his vision, which he could say she says this fucking retinopinament epithelials has been completely burned away wherever the fuck that means, but she just gives this long listed. Like, yeah, his eyes are all the way fucked, right?
Starting point is 01:03:11 Yeah. So then we cut to, it's the next day, Mason is just crushed. He's sitting in a wooden chair in the middle of the desert apparently. In the middle of the, of a road in the desert. Like, yeah, the best place to have a, I've been taking too many risks with my health conversation. He sat on a chair in the middle of a road. He could have learned
Starting point is 01:03:29 nothing Mason. He goes, a piece of me died when she gave me those results. I was like, was it your retinal pigment epithelial? Oh, he's having this, this like existential crisis where he's like, it turns out that everybody who's an expert in any way was right. How could I have seen that coming? I'm like, well, without retinal pigment epithelios, I have no idea how you can see that coming. There's a sad, not staring into the fucking sun montage. He's driving.
Starting point is 01:04:01 He's driving and we watch him have a hard time giving his eyes off the sun. He's driving around as though the sun just broke up with them. Oh God, there it is. There it is. Be strong, Mason. It's going to be so awkward. His take on message for this whole thing is, I need to promote this a different way because it can hurt your eyes. That's not the take on message.
Starting point is 01:04:24 Is, do it, but beware, it's going to burn your eyes. It's don't do it. Dickhead. All right, well, clearly Mason needs a minute to weeply listen to here comes the sun and a minor key or something. So we're going to take another break. But first, let me have act three the hard sell. Are we just fucking with you? Does this movie even really exist? Did we record this one on April fullstay? Find out the answers to these questions and more. We'll return for the literally blindingly stupid conclusion of... eat the sod. Hi, my name is Michelle. I'm 14 years old and I was wondering if anyone on this website has tried Sungazing. Thanks for your help.
Starting point is 01:05:06 Smiley face. And sent. Oh wow! Two replies from Kids My Age already. Three! Uh-uh-uh, not so fast. Yeah, hold up. Who are you guys?
Starting point is 01:05:19 I'm Skeptic of the Melania, Michael Marshall, and I'm American atheist game night host, No Illusions. Your sounds less impressive. Well, we can't all give ourselves awards once a year. Anyway, we're part of a brand new service called Netbreaker. What's Netbreaker? Netbreaker is a web filtering service that allows you to see who's actually sending you messages.
Starting point is 01:05:39 Let's take a look at those messages from fellow teens again. Hey, I'm a mentally ill 50 year old man, pretended to be young and interacting with children as how I play cat my deeply troubled psyche and I literally don't care who I hurt while I do it. I'm a white supremacist hoping to use your youthful gullibility to red pill you into my beliefs. And I'm an FBI agent posing as a teen to catch pedophiles.
Starting point is 01:06:02 But I'm also a white supremacist, though. Oh, wow. So have any of you actually tried sungazing? They sure haven't. My mental illness and personal experiences of bias make his Western medicine. So I've actually convinced myself I'm helping people by lying about it on the internet. Oh, okay. So what do I do if I want to find information or share experiences with my peers? Well, there's lots of informant of salsa on the internet like Wikipedia and other peer-reviewed salsa information.
Starting point is 01:06:32 And when it comes to talking to peers, you should really try to stick to doing that in person. In person, but that's scary. Tell me about it. Stick with us, kid. We'll pretend to understand you no matter what you say or feel. Have you ever heard a white replacement theory? Um, you know what? I think I'm going to stick to talking to other kids that I can, you know, see. You're lost. I'm in the peak of health and I can lift a thousand pounds.
Starting point is 01:06:59 Really? No. No. Okay. Tune for the last time! Oh, I got Ella! Hey guys, what's all this racket? Oh, hey, Marsh, it's Eli. He won't stop brushing with his new smart brush from Quip. What's Quip? Good health starts with good habits. Quip makes it easy by delivering all the oral care essentials that you're gonna need to care for your mouth. The Quip Electric toothbrush is loved by over 7 million mouths and has time sonic vibrations
Starting point is 01:07:28 with 30 second pulses to guide a dentist recommended 2 minute clean, a lightweight and sleek design for adult-san kids with no wires or bulky chargers to weigh you down. Right, an Eli won't stop brushing because… Well, on top of your brushing, you can upgrade your quip with a new smart motor to track and improve your brushing with free quip app and earn amazing rewards like free refills, products, target gift cards and more. Woo! I'm done!
Starting point is 01:07:51 He's been at an early friend hour and a half. Right, got it. Yeah, I see. So does quip only sell toothbrushes? No way. They've got a reusable floss pack that replaces over 180 disposable picks with every refill and refillable gum that sugar free has long lasting mint flavor
Starting point is 01:08:07 and comes with a dispenser. All right, well, I might not know how to stop Eli, but I'm in. Where do I sign up? If you go to getquip.com slash awful right now, you'll get your first refill for free. That's your first refill for free at getquip.com slash awful.
Starting point is 01:08:20 Spell g-e-t-q-i-P dot com slash awful quip the good habits company Oh Wow his gums are bleeding a lot. Yeah, he knows. Oh Racker And we're back for more of the shit and just in case you didn't think there was a higher gear of crazy to shift into We're now gonna go up to Nevada for what appears to be some Catholic, son, staring ceremony of some sort. Yes. Yeah. This is great. This is essentially bored, largely middle class, largely white people
Starting point is 01:08:58 having a pseudo spiritual experience in the desert. It's like, guys, just take up swinging. It's fine. You won't judge you. No one's going to judge you. Just take up swinging. Okay. I'm remembering you said that at Qed. So yeah, I'm like, Hey, look, it's the hippie Pope, but it turns out this guy, this is Gene Savoy. This is Gene Savoy. Yeah. Yeah. This is the guy who runs Project X. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about him briefly earlier. Apparently he was the Frodo Indiana Jones, according to somebody who was not Steven Spielberg or George Lucas. Oh, and God, is there anything better than watching people set up for a magic ceremony? Right.
Starting point is 01:09:37 Because there's this great thing where like Larry does have to set up the magic bells. So he's just like, ah, fuck, they're in the case. Let me get it. Sorry. That's not magic. That's just like, ah, fuck, they're in the case. Let me get it. Sorry. That's not magic. That's just me dropping it. Yeah. Well, while they're all dressed like space Catholics, and jeans to void is very clearly wearing woolen mittens, like white woolen mittens in the middle of the desert. It's a, it's a look. It's a real look. Oh, and we should point
Starting point is 01:09:59 out to the bell that Elish talking about is comically oversized. Oh my God. Guy with the giant bell is the best because everyone's mad at him every time he brings it. Everyone else has like a normal bell and then fucking bell senior has to be like, Buggong and everyone's like, really, Jerry, right in my ear. Right in my fucking ear. You had to bring one the size of the fucking trash can in my bathroom again, didn't you? The thing about jeans of oil with this weird cult they had, I look Jeans of oil and Jeans of oil actually died on September 11th, 2007. You see, you have
Starting point is 01:10:29 to add to your, when you say that, and you do it. But yeah, but they're apparently sun stirers as well. They don't do the not eating thing. But we learned that they've been staring into the sun for quite some time. We also meet his sons. Why I've done is the tweedle D and tweedle dumb of a sun gazing fat bench Shapiro. Yeah, so I had one of them. One of his definitely fat bench Shapiro. Yep. The other one is Chris Parnel dressed as Jonathan Jerry, which was a nice kind of crossover though. Interesting. Yeah, I call the other one Ben Sharp-Chetter. Okay. The nice. He goes, uh, yeah, you know, if you think about it, we were actually sungazing before we were even born because our parents were staring at the sun back then. We're fucking what? I guess you were also fucking your mother before you were born to. We also
Starting point is 01:11:21 find out that the Christian church changed when Rome outlawed looking at the sun. And I'd love to see how Rome enforced that law in Rome, in the role of all places. Did you just look at the sun? No, it was a bird. I swear it was a bird. It was a plane. It was. So.
Starting point is 01:11:38 Yeah. And then Jean tells us that the only way to truly understand Jesus is to stare into the sun and that the real message of Jesus is to stare into the sun. And that the real message of Jesus is to stare into the sun. And I wrote to my notes, honestly, better than Jesus is actual. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:11:53 Yeah. Oh, God, this woman comes up and she says, no, it is scientific though. The whole process is scientific. And I'm like, well, yeah, guys, why would they put democratic republic of in the name if it wasn't to democratic republic? Obviously, it's it's also where we find out that the techniques they use to stare at
Starting point is 01:12:12 the sun are fundamental as well as advanced. What? So like what I'm doing is both fundamental and advanced. That's all of the levels out once. It's quite a me wouldn't understand. It's the levels at once. At this point. It's quantum. You wouldn't understand. It's the pineal gland. But yeah, and she says, this is again, an actual quote. She says, it's scientific in the sense that the more energy you can take into your system,
Starting point is 01:12:37 the more you have to learn how to decode it. That's the kind of wisdom we're getting from this film. In response to that, I wrote, it's scientific in that that's not a legally protected term. Yeah, there's a lot of interesting things. The other thing he said, which is lovely, he says, the physical sun is a gateway to another sun. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:00 That's that right. And is that sun a gateway to yet another sun? Is this like one of the treasured dolls situations? So do you think that there's another son behind the sun, but you have to use the physical sun to get to this advanced sun that's advanced, but also somehow fundamental is that what's going on? Yeah, exactly. So then we have to check back in with Mason, right? He's still kind of sad about the stop not working out between him and the sun. So and apparently he's moved to Hawaii in the interim. Oh my god, he's telling us he's like, oh, what a journey. So important, so amazing. I'm just like, I would honestly prefer someone tell me about how their time of roadchage their life at this point. Also, he's cut his hair short and he's shaved.
Starting point is 01:13:46 And I am fairly sure the length of his hair is a, is a very visual representation of the state of his mental health. Yep. Like the short tree is, and he's like, oh yeah, no, Mason sound like he's in good place now. He's rationalized himself back in. He's got a crew cut. We're all good again.
Starting point is 01:14:01 Yeah. It's the metric that I used was the length of his sidebirds. Sure. Yes. Right. Yeah. How low the sidebirds, they go lower and lower than nutty regets. Yeah. They were goggles early in the movie. So we know he's in a better place now. Yeah. And what's very clear about this is like, Mace it understands it's bad for him and he wants to stop. But Mace and doesn't want to say it into a camera. Sun gazing is bad. I was wrong. I wasted my time. Yes. I need mental health care. Well, and the other thing he doesn't want to say it into a camera. Sun gazing is bad. I was wrong. I wasted my time. Yes.
Starting point is 01:14:28 I need mental health care. Well, and the other thing he doesn't want to say is, and I hurt people really bad along the way. Right. So instead, he's acting like, yeah, I mean, I could tap into the in limitless human potential and be a foodless god of spirituality. But I'm not if I've got a burn my epithelial, whatever. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:51 I don't want to. I just am not stop filming. He also says, you know, we'll see when I get to a stable place or whether I make that firm decision to get off the fence and I thought, oh, that's, that's not the kind of thing and emotionally healthy person in a good place says. No, no. I have literally never not followed that sentence with you guys should break up. And then so now we're going to meet Jacob Lieberman, who I have his profession down as I bullshit
Starting point is 01:15:24 is. Yes. Yeah. He's the quickest that you win the crazier quote, mine game with. I guess he was an optometrist up until 1976, at which point he believes his eyes were miraculously healed. And then this film is 35 years later. So he's 35 years on from that point, 35 years deeper into stuff. Yes. Uh-huh. And he's not buying this whole looking directly into the sun. It's a bad thing claim.
Starting point is 01:15:52 Yeah. Because did you know every two hours you get new blood in your eyes? Yes. 100% of your new blood volume is pumped through your eyes. Not quite sure what he means by that. And then he also says, he goes even further. Without light, no matter how much organic food you eat, it'll just go in one end and out the other. Because he thinks that food needs to interact with light inside of your eyes in order for it to work as food.
Starting point is 01:16:25 Also, it's supposed to come out the other end. That's how that's the goal, right? And also, he does this whole, like, whole no true Scotsman thing on starving people. He's like, look, if you believe that you have to eat, then you're going to have to eat. But if you're true, a true Scotsman. You'll be able to go without food. And he, he's not full of shit because he didn't experiment where he didn't eat for nine weeks. No, he didn't. And he learned he could go eight days without drinking.
Starting point is 01:16:54 No, he can't. And he never needs to eat again. No. And the fun thing is this interview is 17 years after he did that. And I thought, I wouldn't if anyone is going to ask him whether he currently eats or drinks. No, they won't do that because the answer's really obvious. Yeah. Uh huh. So we're that places in perpetual fame and never took up this whole naughty eating thing is so crazy. Yeah. Lots of places are very sunny. They had a lot of access
Starting point is 01:17:18 to the sun. Yeah. And I got to say, there is nothing I love more than an incompetent con man of this kind of deepity woo, right? Like, you never really appreciate Deepak Chopra until you hear this guy say, and look, nothing changes and everything changes and all the medium things. All right. So then we check back in on Mason's blog and it turns out that he's decided at 3 30 a.m. on August of 2000 and August of 2004 that he's going to stare at the sun after all. Yeah, I do my best thinking at 3 30 and he's back, baby. My mental illness has no power in 330 AM. Look at that.
Starting point is 01:18:07 He's walking us up the hill to like his, his triumphant sun gazing, returning. He's like, you see those white things up there? And I wanted so badly for a to pan up and there was nothing there. Yeah. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, Yeah, I'm gonna be walking up towards that big black spot right in the middle of the hill. So you guys can see it right. Quickly lying.
Starting point is 01:18:29 That's always immediately to the right of whatever you're looking at. I'm going towards it. Oh, God. Yeah. And then we watch him look at the sun for a fucking while. Oh, God. Oh, wow. Mason goes to meet with Gene Savoy and fucking tweedle D, not fat Ben Shapiro.
Starting point is 01:18:49 Yes. I love it because the guys trying to explain their theology without making a direct Star Wars reference, but he's not pulling that off at all. Yeah. No, yeah, the Gene's son has all the mannerisms of someone who's trying to persuade Mason to jump off the highest diving board, knowing full well that the pool is empty. That is the fire. I'm getting from it.
Starting point is 01:19:09 Yes. Also, where we are so far at this point is Mason said, I'm able to, I've been able to look at the sun for 42 minutes, 50 seconds. And today I'm going to go for 44 minutes. So, right, but the climax is film can't surely be Mason looking at the sun for two percent longer than he's previously. That's not a big finale. Oh, but it is. But it is 50 seconds of sun staring screen time, my friend.
Starting point is 01:19:38 Oh, I'm sorry. You like, it was significantly more than that. It was a minute plus or almost, almost two minutes. I had two minutes down. Almost two full minutes. I skipped through it and then went, hang on, how long was that? And then skip back to see how long it actually was.
Starting point is 01:19:52 But yeah, yeah, ridiculous. I watched this one. I did not skip through it. And my literally, my only note at this point was, hey, Marsh, I know that this is like, what my level of intellect is meant for, but I'm sorry we do this. You know, I'm sorry. We do this. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 01:20:05 You watched two minutes of a guy being like, ow. It's fine. It's as I skipped it. So we're all good. Okay. Yeah. I wrote my notes. Are we going to watch the whole 44 minutes?
Starting point is 01:20:16 I feel like we're going to watch the whole 44 minutes, guys. We know, though, he makes it 44 minutes to Ray. And then we go back to staking out HRM. Now as you'll recall, we did seem going to make Donald's, but damn it if he didn't just get coffee, but this time they catch him going into an Indian restaurant and have a big ass bolo fool. Oh, my God. This is the best. This is the best moment of the whole documentary. They actually catch him having a curry fucking amazing How hard is it to just not go to restaurants, right? Yeah, right?
Starting point is 01:20:53 Like all it takes is for him to have food in the back office of his bullshit fucking place that he carries in in some fucking container Or whatever every day. That's all it would take the commitment to not go to fucking restaurant and he does not even have that. Not go to restaurant the week the camera crew is there. Yeah, exactly. Just just go a couple of days where you're you know, existing on the minimal amount. I'm sure when Randy talked about doing tests on on people who claimed they were they weren't eating. The way they were getting around it was they had like a friend who was like pushing burgers through a small slit in the window when Noah was looking and they were eating them quietly in the toilet. And these days, now he's just strolling around town on TripAdvisor, yelp, finding the best Indian restaurant
Starting point is 01:21:36 and wandering into the buffet. Leaving reviews, five stars, ate so much food, love it. He's not even wearing Clark Kent glasses, what he does. It's amazing. And we should also point out again, this guy has wizard beard sideburns. He's like intentionally the weirdest looking person in any room, right? Yeah. He's also got posters of himself all over town. Yeah. That I don't eat. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So we're gonna get back to that. We're gonna come back to that in a minute. They're gonna give us a second to process that. But first, we're gonna go back to Mason
Starting point is 01:22:11 who is having such a good go of it that he's moving back in with his mom, guys. That's how high on life he is. Oh my God. At this point, I realized like, we could have saved Mason literally by just showing him the movie soul. Like, literal one viewing of a movie like, oh, I don't need to have a big magical purpose.
Starting point is 01:22:30 Yep. Tight, tight, tight. Yeah. We do also see him learning to be on him. And I thought, I hope he's going to claim that playing a certain chord will give him immortality. I'm not going to seem going that journey next. Honestly, though, but like, if you consider how weird it is that that would be an improvement over where he is, it gives you a really good indication of where, right now.
Starting point is 01:22:50 I mean, got the improvement of where he is, is that he gets an acupuncture qualification and opens a wellness center in his hometown. That is the big hero journey and it is an improvement on where he was, right? Not least because it seems to have caused permanently because I've Googled it and it's not there anymore.
Starting point is 01:23:04 Yeah, so that's not there anymore. Yeah. So that's nice to know. We see a wear and a white lab code at one point and I'm like, that you shouldn't be allowed to do that. Yeah. My note is literally they legally can't stop you from buying a lamp. I feel like there should be a lot like that guy. If we've got video of you staring into the sun for 44 minutes, there should be there
Starting point is 01:23:23 should be roles against that. Yeah. So, yeah, but, but he's back with his family. Apparently, he is eating food again, which, again, like to be clear, he was eating food the whole time we know because he's not dead, right? He's just admitting it now. It's so sad because he's having dinner with his normal family and he just has such a lovely little normal. Hey, slugger, how are you doing? You're fucking whatever the fuck you do. Who's
Starting point is 01:23:49 okay? It's pretty good. And then mom puts like a plate of spaghetti in front of him. He's like, yummy spaghetti. It's so fucking tragic. And then the producers go to confront HRM about the eating and we get to hear Eli's best worst, his excuse. It's not that he was eating that food. No, no, no, no. He was paid $100 to sit in a restaurant and pretend to eat the food. Yes. That is literally what he came in.
Starting point is 01:24:22 Then we flash cut because this is fucking amazing. We flashed it over to the restaurant where the guy at the restaurant's like, no, he just came in and ate some food. And he goes to the buffet and points to each dish individually. He's like, he ate some of that and then some of that and then some of that and like eight different things. Well, his excuse is even shitter than people might think when you think about it further, because he said people paid him $100 to sit in front of some food pretending he was eating it, but his whole stick is that he doesn't eat. $100 is such a low price to burn his entire reputation over. But that's a hell of an ad for your restaurant. Like he just couldn't resist right on the
Starting point is 01:24:59 front. All right. Now that's fair. And the fucking director even says, well, you just came back. Can I see the $100? Could you show me the $100 bill you were paid? And he goes, yep, it's right here. And he reaches into my pocket in my bag. And he can't even produce a $100 bill. It just say no to that refuse. And then he cries for a little bit.
Starting point is 01:25:22 So I know you can't see it. I'm not going to find you, okay? Don't say yes. When you don't have it on you, you can't see it. I'm not gonna find you, okay? Don't say yes. When you don't have it on you, you can't, well, you're gonna get called on that. Yeah, he goes, yes, it's in my bag and the camera lingers on him for a second and we watch him just wipe it dear away.
Starting point is 01:25:35 And he's like, I don't have a hundred dollars. Ha, ha, ha, ha. And then we go back over to Mason's acupuncture clinic and tell him that they caught HRM eating. And again, like this guy, of course, has been eating this whole time. So he has to pretend like he's shocked. He's like, oh my God, people say that they're not eating when they are. I didn't even think about that. You could do that.
Starting point is 01:25:59 Whoa. He says, yeah, that's, he's going to have to, that's for him to deal with. Because it's also a thing he's doing, right? Yes. It's a thing he's doing. It's like when, I don't know if you've ever had a buddy who you didn't realize his girlfriend didn't let him watch porn. And then it comes out and he's like, yeah, she caught me watching porn.
Starting point is 01:26:22 And there's like consequences and you gotta be like, yeah. she caught me watching porn. And there's like consequences. And you got to be like, yeah. Do you want that to be bad? That's wow. How do you feel about how she feels? I jerked off of your bathroom the other night. It came back to the end. Sorry. Sorry, you're a delicious man.
Starting point is 01:26:41 Oh God. And then the credit started. We're like, oh, is that it? But no, it's not. There's some mid credit scenes that we get this amazing apology letter from HRM where he ashamed, basically admits that yes, he did eat a food once just once. So once it was a one time wasn't that he was hungry? Yeah, that's, that's his. I know the film is coming out. This is my attempted damage limitation while I made a different country peddling the same bullshit to people who haven't seen your film yet. Right. Yeah, that's that's his I know the film is coming out. This is my attempted damage limitation while I made a different country
Starting point is 01:27:06 peddling the same bullshit to people who haven't seen your film yet. Right. Yeah, exactly it signed HRM all the fucking way from Germany And then of course just as you're like, you know, think it well at least Mason made it out fine We close at a montage of other people at the early end of the macular scorching routine of HRMs. Oh, teenage kid with the supportive dad. Teenage kid with the supportive dad. Oh, that poor guy. His teenage kid is like, Yobbin's Sunday is in for like four months now.
Starting point is 01:27:38 And it's just some hippie dad who's like, yep, we'll see. You can see this dad just being like, please just be gay instead. Oh, son, you'll see. You can see the status being like, please just be gay instead. Oh, son, you want a nice little cock or something? Your mom and I'll join the plea flag, please stop. Please stop. We come to the yoga studio.
Starting point is 01:27:56 And there's the lady who says she's relooking forward to the sun called DNA changes. She means skin cancer. That's actually looking forward to this one. Or macular degeneration, one of the other. Yeah, burning away the ep. That's actually looking forward to this one or macular to generation. One of the burning away the epithelial pigment thing. Okay, well, I'll tell you what, that's the end of the movie and normally we don't do star based ratings, but for a movie all about staring into one, I tell you burns the pack
Starting point is 01:28:17 you're fucking retinop. I feel like we can make an exception. So anybody want to offer this movie any stars? Oh, just the one big one. Okay, all right. That'll be one. I'm sure I want to give it one big star, but it's the middle star. And if you look at it, you can't actually fully see it because of all the damage you've done to your eyes.
Starting point is 01:28:32 So it just appears depending on how it's done. Sun goes and you've done. So I was going to give it one star, but it's the one that's behind the other. Like, we're always you look past the ones. So yeah, we're all agreed, though. And it's definitely a one star movie. And while that's going to do a far review of Eat the Sun, that's not going to do it for the episode just yet because we still need to stare into something less pleasant than
Starting point is 01:28:53 the sun again next week. So Eli, tell us what's on deck. Jenny is a committed Christian who lovingly serves patients as a hospice nurse, but when her unbelieving friend autumn goes into hospice care, Jenny is confronted with the weakness of her own faith. We'll be watching redemption way. Oh, that sounds very uplifting. So with that, look, we're going to make episode three, forty six to a merciful close. Once again, a huge thanks to Mars for hanging out with us today. Be sure to check the show notes for links to all of his other stuff and perhaps even
Starting point is 01:29:22 a hugeurthace to all the Patreon donors to help make the show go. If you'd like to come at yourself among their ranks, you can make a per episode donation of patreon.com slash god awful when they're by earnably accessed to an ad free version of every episode. You can also help a ton by leaving a five star review and sharing the show on all your various social media platforms. And if you enjoyed this show, be sure to check out our sibling shows, the skating a the aesthetic and the D&D minus and the skeptic grad available wherever podcast live.
Starting point is 01:29:39 If you have questions, comments or sit in a matter of suggestions, you can name a god awful moves the gmail.com legal services for this podcast provided by the law Lofts, the P. Andrew Toyers, Tim Robertson, TickSkirt, our social media, our theme song was written and performed by Ryan Slant, and the Global Jaff Son Mars, all of the music was written and performed by our audience and our Morgan Karkin was used with permission. Thanks again for giving us a check your life this week for Heathen, right? Neil Lai Bosnian, I'm Neil Luzon, it's promised to work hard to earn another check next week until then. We'll leave you with a breakfast club close.
Starting point is 01:30:03 Mason realized that all that eat the sun stuff was just silly, and now he spends all his time trying to sniff the moon. This film would go on to inspire the far more entertaining sequel, but chugging the sun. Thank you, Madam. Mason's dad is just trying to eat his dinner, man. He's just so tired. Oh, God, I just, I want to do a series of documentaries just like this one, just so that we can call it
Starting point is 01:30:34 the macular pack. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Starting point is 01:30:42 Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The only thing I used to have in Italian, I can't remember, no, was I'm sorry I'm too busy to speak Italian with you right now. Nice. Which again, it's not like Kant, I'm just way too busy. Right, exactly. No, that's a good one.
Starting point is 01:30:57 I should learn that in all the languages. Including English. Yeah, right. I'm just too busy speaking right now. Too bad. In case I ever kidding English. Me, I write it. Right, right. I'll go away. In case I ever meet Mason. All right, speaking of which, we've met Mason a bunch of times. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:31:14 And the next time I meet Mason, I lived with Mason, like I was roommates with Mason. Welcome. Welcome back to the game, Casper. Each week we sample another selection from Christians. That not, I don't mean Heath. By the way, I just want to be super clear about that. I just have to have to go back and say, I was a different roommate I was talking about. There's a little Mason in Heath. There's, he was tall.
Starting point is 01:31:43 All right, here we go. The preceding podcast was a production of Buzz on the Thunderstrum LLC, copyright 2022. All rights reserved. He was tall. All right. Here we go. The preceding podcast was a production of Puzzle and the thunderstorm LLC copyright 2022.
Starting point is 01:31:52 All rights reserved.

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