The following represent a short manifesto for the year 2019, told through the lens of yours truly. Hopefully, you find it to not be so much about aspects of me, but more about aspects of you. Here are some thoughts:
ON LIFE
Like all of us, Niles does multiple things. He is a father, husband, autodidact, artist, investor, and consultant. Yet he will always be a student of the mystery of life. Much of his life and work focuses around themes of naturalism, occultism, and esotericism. However, most people don’t know what that means so you can swap it out for saying, “themes of ancient wisdom”. Applying the knowledge gained from his experiences in these areas has been astronomically helpful in his general well being and understanding of the world while fostering a willingness to share with other kindred spirits who also have ears to hear through his interactions as well as the media he creates.
SUMMARIZING SKILL SET
In terms of his résumé, he has been a Writer, Director, Designer, Cinematographer, Photographer, Editor, Colorist, Lighter, Compositor, and Podcaster. Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. Or, a more simple encapsulating summary of how he spends his time would be as a Filmmaker or Documentarian. Both hobby and professional.
ON BEING YOURSELF
Life requires balance. Niles does this by working with individuals directly and creating the projects which are the content represented in his portfolio at nilesheckman.com. Years ago, he made the decision to take his multifaceted skill set and spend a significant portion of his time becoming a creator catered to original content which fueled his passions. This came out of a knowing that when one creates authentic work from the heart, it's not work at all. Documentary photography, filmmaking, and podcasting are the channels of expression which we chosen. His path required doing an astronomical amount directly himself at many stages of the production, most of which goes unknown and unrecognized, but has made him a much more well rounded and fulfilled creator.
ABOUT PASSION
Regardless of obscurity or popularity, what Niles will never stop being interested in is creating great passion projects. Gaining his multifaceted skill set has synchronistically allowed him to create his own works efficiently instead of just exclusively being a for-hire technician on other people's projects. Going this more difficult road inevitably means periods of significant sacrifice, living through the journey and life struggles of being an independent content creator constantly pushing up against budget constraints while operating in the unknown. However, when you follow your heart and vibrate at a certain higher level, you are rewarded in rather unsuspecting ways.
His work takes him all over the world - on the rooftops of skyscrapers, film stages, flying in helicopters, occult rituals, walking the streets of mega asian cities, visiting sacred sites, lost in deep old growth forests, through the sun stargate, down catacombs, vast deserts, the sides of waterfalls, old Europe, magical initiations, high altitude mountains, into other dimensional spaces, and more. All which are worth infinitely more than any amount of dollars in a bank account and have shown him first hand the magic and enchantment of life.
IN REGARDS TO A BODY OF WORK
Being a esotericist pertains to studies and practices that happen on the inside intrinsically. Extrinsically, Niles is a documentary photographer and filmmaker, which are works created as outward manifestations of those inner subjects. Since one's inner work affects their outer work for the better because the inside is the cause and the outside the effect, he aims to combine beauty, which means high production values with substance, which means occult and esoteric content. Reality is more powerful than fiction, thus that personal work he creates is all about inspiring self-empowerment.
He will help create occasional projects for hire, which are nice because that equals money, but it's extremely rare those projects will have anywhere near the same depth of substance as the content in his own personal works. Thus most of that work is not front and center or even featured at all in his website and as a result, his official website is not your usual portfolio of client work to simply get more clients.
He will help create occasional projects for hire, which are nice because that equals money, but it's extremely rare those projects will have anywhere near the same depth of substance as the content in his own personal works. Thus most of that work is not front and center or even featured at all in his website and as a result, his official website is not your usual portfolio of client work to simply get more clients.
He will help create occasional projects for hire, which are nice because that equals money, but it's extremely rare those projects will have anywhere near the same depth of substance as the content in his own personal works. Thus most of that work is not front and center or even featured at all in his website and as a result, his official website is not your usual portfolio of client work to simply get more clients.
It's better to die having made a slow drip amount of consistent excellence, cottage industry style, than working exclusively for decades on other's mass productions. This requires you to go your own way and make your own living rather than just "getting a job". This is very difficult but is you initiating yourself, and fuels your true will. Internal individuality will outwardly manifest in your external works and inward perseverance leads to you ceasing to be a robot and instead results in you leaving a legacy.
ON BEING CONSCIOUS
One can only get so far in life until they really take a deep dive into the study of human consciousness. It's an arena which fascinates Niles and thus he has made a series of weird experimental art films of folks talking about the subject which are featured here. The voices are arranged in no particular order and more chapters may be manifesting in due course as the audio samples are collected.
WARNING: It's not in the interests of big business, big government, big religion, big science, or your ego for you to hear them.
REGARDING PROFILE
Niles loves networking 1-to-1 with other folks and is always happy to connect. Especially in regards to long-form mediums such as personal campfire conversations or excellent podcast discussions which can go deep. He does that for fellowship building and not to increase profile, client chase, or career climb. Social networking profiles are really anti-social networking because relationships are about quality and not quantity. Sadly, less folks call one another anymore to give them the good old “How ya doing?” and begin a conversation but instead just peek at that person’s highly curated feed of a shallow and illusory storefront about how their life is perceived to the public world. These interactions cause discursiveness due to their clickbait short-form nature. Worst of all they are the fuel behind the modern narcissism epidemic so Niles basically sets players to nearly zero on that and does little to no self-marketing. He might use it as a tool to post something on occasion but doesn't engage and gives the base minimum of his time. And he suggests you do the same.
90%+ of those who’s work focus in the area of self-help or spirituality are secretly really just trying to increase numbers and make money via an inflation of their ego. This is commonly seen with selfie YouTuber’s, Facebook & Instagram memer’s, or those who wear amplified headsets on stages. Real wisdom, gnosis, logos, or what you might call spiritual Jedi growth is transmitted 1-on-1 or in small occult and esoteric groups experientially so anything with audiences of large amounts of people will bring in dollars but will be inherently hypocritical and antithetical to the real process. Industries are driven by ego and Niles is more concerned with creativity than competition, thus all of his media yields very high quality content with very small numbers. He enjoys his work being seen and appreciated but recommends you do not follow him on any anti-social media platform. There is no reason to follow or like anything. Following is a tasteless and disempowering effort and it’s better to be your own leader and not someone else’s follower. Like’s are purely there for marketing purposes to rate which content is worthy of monetization via the fallacy of the majority.
Most content creators with red carpet champagne dreams try to gain patriarchal power positions in the cut-throat commercial world shilling to corporate brands and endlessly trying to collect laurels and rise up hierarchies of the entertainment business or other media creation fields. While occasionally there are great projects made by those types which bring in the dollars and deserve recognition, the vast majority of it leads to work which is visually interesting, yet is completely status quo not to mention extremely substantively thin. So if you're going to play outside that mindset, you might as well create work which is an extension of your own unique individuality. Thus it will likely be contentious, paradigm destroying, and un-commercial. You know, real.
ABOUT FINDING HAPPINESS
Because it's always darkest before the dawn... If you've read this far through this rambling manifesto, here's a secret for arriving at a happiness destination...
It happens when you have a near perfect alignment of your inner feelings with your external doings, day after day. It's very difficult and IS your internal alchemical spiritual journey.