Who Gnows? Episode 3: Celebrity enlightenment: a look at Bill Hicks, Bill Murray & Jim Carrey

Who Gnows? with Matthew E. Smith

What does it mean to be enlightened? Is it a place where you arrive or is it a state that comes and goes? Why do such moments of clarity, insight and lucidity not always last? Is it possible to wake up but not become permanently enlightened? Is it a good idea to try to pry open your 'third eye' without setting an emotional foundation first?
In this episode, I ride solo, exploring the phenomena of awakening, enlightenment and third-eye opening experiences as observed and described by celebrities and comedians: Bill Hicks, Bill Murray and Jim Carrey as a means of understanding our own experiences in these realms.

The week before he died, Hicks penned the following:

“I was born William Melvin Hicks on December 16, 1961 in Valdosta, Georgia. Ugh. Melvin Hicks from Georgia. Yee Har! I already had gotten off to life on the wrong foot. I was always "awake," I guess you'd say. Some part of me clamoring for new insights and new ways to make the world a better place. All of this came out years down the line, in my multitude of creative interests that are the tools I now bring to the Party. Writing, acting, music, comedy. A deep love of literature and books. Thank God for all the artists who've helped me. I'd read these words and off I went – dreaming my own imaginative dreams. Exercising them at will, eventually to form bands, comedy, more bands, movies, anything creative. This is the coin of the realm I use in my words – Vision. On June 16, 1993 I was diagnosed with having "liver cancer that had spread from the pancreas." One of life's weirdest and worst jokes imaginable. I'd been making such progress recently in my attitude, my career and realizing my dreams that it just stood me on my head for a while. "Why me!?" I would cry out, and "Why now!?" Well, I know now there may never be any answers to those particular questions, but maybe in telling a little about myself, we can find some other answers to other questions. That might help our way down our own particular paths, towards realizing my dream of New Hope and New Happiness. Amen. I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.

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