These days I am not one for television or Hollywood movies for that matter, unless they involve love and laughter. Where my media preferences shifted in the past few years was to documentaries, and not just any documentaries, but enlightening or educational documentaries.
I think that if we look consciously at how we spend our time and money, most of us always seem to be claiming that there is not enough of either. However, assuming that time and money is limited, this would hopefully inspire you even more to use both wisely. Instead of supporting through your time and money the latest Hollywood horror for example, which usually has a direct negative impact on your energy levels and vibrational frequency, not to mention our society, why not watch something that adds to your growth and well-being instead?
Personally, I have always been fascinated to learn about the many aspects of life, including our physical and spiritual world, but never as much as in the past few years when I began my spiritual awakening. My top two ways of doing this currently are through reading books and watching movies. Books that are non-fiction and movies that are documentaries.
With this in mind, I also believe that everyone, no matter what their financial state, should be able to access material to empower them and expand their growth and learning. No one should be limited to learn due to lack of money. Hence today, I want to share with you some great sites that offer some really valuable, noteworthy, great quality and full length documentary movies for free.
Great Sites For Free Documentaries
The documentary list on this site is easy to navigate and features all sorts of titles, from health to spirituality. There is a drop down menu to pick from several categories. The videos are generated by Google video.
This is another great site, which has even more variety and is very easy to navigate. There are about 20 categories including ones I recommend like, philosophy, psychology, science, environment, health and nature. The videos are also congregated from Google video.
3. Snag Films
This site is a little different in terms of its organization, but can still be very useful for finding various documentary movies. The categories are in a tag cloud and you access the movie list in a little more complicated way perhaps to the user, but it is still worth checking out. The movies are both short and long, and cover a variety of vast subjects.
This site has more than just documentaries, so you ca just go straight to the documentary menu to check out their collection’s categories. This site also features full length, good quality movies through Google video, but I really enjoy the back drop for how they are played as if you were watching them at a theater.
This is a great site for many various titles as well, is very easy to navigate and use. They have 5 main categories and regularly update the site with new content.
So what kinds of movies can you expect on these sites?
All sorts of movies that span topics such as spirituality, philosophy, science, health, the environment and yes, I am going to mention various conspiracy theories. I personally was never interested in the past in exploring anything dealing with conspiracies, still I wouldn’t say I gravitate towards them, but I do like that they make me think that really anything is possible.
Naturally you are not going to agree with everything you watch or learn in documentaries. Maybe not now, maybe not ever. But why I really emphasize them and enjoy them personally is due to the fact that many of them push our pre-defined zones of comfort. They push us to think brand new, if not at least allow for a short moment a window of opportunity to entertain some new thoughts.
They can help to greatly expand our consciousness. They can help bring our level of knowledge to new levels. They can teach us. They can entertain us. But one thing for sure is that they make us think. And it is this kind of thinking that can push us out of the predefined norms and into a thinking that expands our consciousness.
Even if you are uncomfortable with some of the topics discussed in documentaries out there today, this is a good starting place to ask yourself, what about that topic makes you uncomfortable? Simply entertaining an idea to possibly be true can widen our sense of perception and awareness. Of course we still need to seek material that resonates with us at least on some level, and not force ourselves to watch anything that we really hold no interest for. For example I have no interest whatsoever in say the history of all the presidents ever elected, so naturally I am not going to spend my time on material of that nature, not that I have any personal discomfort with it, other than it will bore me silly.
So if you have an evening free to yourself, or a few hours to spare on the weekend, I recommend checking out some of the amazing documentaries that are available to us all today. You may just awaken to a whole new level of your being by embracing more of the world and more of yourself.
*Photograph provided by alicepopkorn – busy
About the author:Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is the founder and editor of EvolvingBeings.com – an online publication featuring various topics on spirituality and metaphysics. Evita teaches consciousness expansion and heart-centered living to help people attain deep meaning, peace and happiness in their life. She is also a nutritional science and holistic health expert for optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow her on Twitter.
29 Comments to “Awaken Through Entertainment – 5 Great Sites For Free Documentaries”
Evita, this is fantastic! I love inspirational documentaries (like Food, Inc.), and crave spiritual movies that stir my soul. I also love FREE and well organized! You’ve hit everything I look for. I have to share this with friends!
Thank you so much!
@ MEGAN – Hi Megan, yes me too! As I mentioned I love documentaries in general, but the ones that really interest me are ones that deal with health, like Food Inc. (which yes, I still have to post a review on…) and anything that deals with the metaphysical, spiritual, nature, etc.
I love documentaries. They almost always give me something that I can use at a later date. I finished watching Food Inc and it grossed me out. I’m trying a veggie diet because of it for 30 days.
I was never much of a horror flick person. I never liked the anxiety it created. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve seen a movie that is meant to scare me.
You are right. We only have a certain amount of time on this earth. May as well do things that make us happier, smarter, and healthier.
@ KARL – Hi Karl – wow that is so great to hear about your trying out a veggie diet! Please do let me know if you need any resources, or have any questions, etc. I love to help in any help department, but especially helping people adjust their diet to include more, or all plant foods.
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Evita .. what a great resource. I love documentaries (when I’m not too tired!) ..we have some wonderful tv here (some awful too!!)- I’m learning so much and pass it on. I belong a film society that puts on 12 excellent avant garde films – ancient and modern! We had a silent one on Joan of Arc made in 1925, and accompanied by an organist .. who had to play in time with the words being spoken on the screen – gosh it was evocative .. I could smell the hay, stink, flares etc .. it just staggered me –
So good to know about these sites – thank you!
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
@ HILARY – Hi Hilary, thank you for your comment.
Wow, that sounds like something really interesting for the mind and senses, being part of the film society and trying out all these films, especially the one you mentioned.
Wow this is great Evita, Thank you for sharing.
I had a fellow respond with lists and lists of documentaries about the financial situation in the world – to my Agenda for a new Economy – Korten book review post. I have been watching at least 1 each day and find them so fabulous – like I have excited my brain with a truly great course of study.
I love reading non-fiction as well as fiction, just wish I had more discussion groups to follow up with what I learned.
The Amazon.com discussion groups are fun, but they are not truly discussions mostly just comments…
I am clicking away now to follow your lead Thank you
@ PATRICIA – You are so welcome Patricia! As I said, I feel real passion for growth and learning and I love passing anything I can along! It is in my opinion one of the best ways to raise personal consciousness. Glad you found this useful too!
You know I used to love fiction and read a lot of it when I was younger….oooh adventure/fantasy books were perhaps my favorite, something like the Chronicles of Narnia were my type of world. Today I pushed those aside for the non-fiction reading due to time, but of course in all honesty we can have time for anything that is important for us or a priority…I guess the non-fiction today is my sole preference, but I will always have great memories of those fantasy worlds from the past. I have no doubt that there will come a time in my life where I will return to some of these fantasy worlds. Actually come to think of it, some of the non-fiction books I read today would be labeled by others as fantasy ;)
Thanks for sharing this Evita!!
@ GILBERT – My pleasure Gilbert! Thanks for stopping by :)
This is good to know, I had no idea these websites were out there. Again your research goes above and beyond. I appreciate it.
@ TESS – Thank you so much Tess! I love sharing what I learn :)
Wow, Evita, these are great resources, I’ll definitely check the sites out. Thanks!
@ KAUSHIK – My pleasure Kaushik! Feel free to share any of the movies in the future that you really enjoyed :)
Evita,
This whole idea of pushing our comfort zones is really what makes these great. I like to look at it as awareness. Aware of just what “might” be. And I’ve really felt that recently…this idea that there is so much we don’t fully understand yet. So, that these films make us question, this is good. And…I was not familiar with these sites either, so thank YOU!!
@ LANCE – Yes! I love the idea of thinking of what “might be”. I noticed in my early adult life that so many adults get caught up in things being one way and are very opposed to considering anything else….but what if? Don’t we owe it almost to ourselves to consider other possibilities? We know today that our researchers a) don’t tell us everything and b) don’t know everything. We don’t have to wait for them to tell us how things should be….we can think for ourselves and see what resonates with us!
Oh Evita, thank YOU!!! I sure don’t spend time watching anything on tv that is the least bit violent – heck that eliminates MOST of it – thank God for HGTV! haha! I love documentaries and will definitely be checking the sites you listed. I didn’t know they were there – duh – I do go to YouTube a lot and have found some great opportunities there to learn on any number of topics. I am currently obcessed with the whole issue of GMO’s and the food industries – in part from the documentary Food Inc and in part from reading The End of Food and Seeds of Deception. Are you aware of these? Just don’t get me going! haha!
Hugs
suZen
@ SUZEN – Ha! that is so wonderful to hear Suzen! It sounds like we have a big passion in common!
I first got into this whole GMO and chemicals in our food thing about 5 years ago when I started teaching it and it is one of major reasons for my major diet changes in the past couple of years. So yes, I have seen Food Inc. and I will be doing a review of it in the near future…
And I agree YouTube is great for a lot of things too. Glad you liked the list and hope you find some great movies to watch :)
LIke you I prefer love and laughter – recently saw It’s Complicated which had both!
As for documentaries I only recently started enjoying them over the past few years…Food Inc is the most recent one and I still want to write something about it, too. this is a great list and I can’t wait to dive in!! Thanks for the references.
Got any good movie recs on them?
@ STACEY – Yup, me too on the documentary front. A few years ago, the word documentary was just not part of my vocabulary. I always thought they were “boring”. But great lesson to me about false perceptions! And perhaps we all have to come to something or grow into it, in our own good time too.
If you liked Food Inc. I would recommend “The Future of Food” next…http://www.documentarywire.com/future-of-food
Anyway, as for good ones, well it all depends what your preferences are, but here are a few tips:
1. Health related – Sicko – http://www.documentarywire.com/sicko
2. Health related – Super Size Me – http://www.documentarywire.com/super-size-me
3. Societal – Flow: For the Love of Water – http://www.documentarywire.com/flow-for-the-love-of-water
4. Food Choices/Animal Cruelty/Environmental – Earthlings – http://www.documentarywire.com/earthlings
5. Anything on Monsanto or vaccinations is an eye opener too.
6. Anything on 2012 is good just to open our senses to new ways of seeing the changes on this Earth now
I could go on… that is just from one of the sites.
My personal favorite for anyone interested in Health matters is “A Delicate Balance” – I have not seen this one for free yet, but it can be watched for $5 from their site by PPV http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/
And the best of them all to really make you think….(one of the sites carries it, I forgot which one at the moment) – “What the Bleep do We Know?!” – probably my favorite where life and thinking, our mind and everything is concerned!
Oh that is very tempting. I will keep some links for a later date. At the moment our garden is bursting with food and that requires a lot of doing and won;t allow for a lot of watching.
It is great though to get snippets of information about documentaries and how we are becoming aware of what is going on and what NOT to do.
AND that makes me so pleased with our abundance of good healthy food.
@ WILMA – Oh Wilma I would take that garden of food any day over any kind of movie! How wonderful that you have such a capability. Here it is cold and the ground would not even grow a blade of grass at this time. I hope to go that way myself in 2010 and start growing some of our own food if only during the summer.
I like documentaries too, and your suggestions for online viewing are excellent. We will have to explore them when we move beyond the realm of dial up.
Another way of perceiving anything that is viewed on the screen, whether it be fiction or non fiction, is that it is all real and has something to teach. It is our judgements that seperate us to their usefulness. A labeled silly or stupid comedy show, will present situations where feelings are revealed to be explored. People will then resonate with it, or they won’t. So one way to view material, is to actually see what the producers are really trying to say beneath all of the actions taking place. Some material is meant to perpetuate certain kinds of feelings, and others are commentaries that show people what they are doing and what kind of scenarios they may be trapped in. More and more these days, situations are even provided where doors are shown to viewers to process unresolved feelings and issues, if one is conscious enough to see it and step through them.
Therefore, from this point of view, everything can be interesting depending upon what filters we apply to ourselves at any given moment.
Everything is useful if we open up to it. Besides, we only attract the content of our lives based on our own personal vibration of the moment. An article such as this Evita, provides the energy to channel people down new roads of discovery, which is neither good nor bad, but a unique experience on its own.
@ BERN – Oh yes, you touched upon something very good in that yes, everything has a purpose and can teach. I know that the most violent of movies, as well as the most horror filled ones, have lessons in them. I personally choose not to learn from those, but that is not to say that those who watch them won’t be exposed to chances for growth and their paradigms to shift more to a loving way of being.
And that finish you provided is exactly why we find ourselves always attracting exactly what we “need” as in what frequency of vibration we are in. Thank you!
We are also watching more documentaries these days. Our library has a huge selection and we find them fascinating.
I also gravitate to movies and shows which will enlighten and at the same time entertain me. Wayne Dyer’s “The Shift” is an excellent example of this. Thanks for sharing these links.
Thank you so much for sharing these links! I’m taking a documentary class at my university that has renewed my interest in the genre, and this will be a great resource for me. What I love about documentaries is that when they are done right, they reveal a pure and honest view of the world, and often give the viewer a completely new perspective. I can’t wait to explore these sites.
Cheers,
Margo
Looks promising; especially since I don’t watch much TV myself these days either. It seems like since the 2000′s began rolling around, that television started massively dumbing itself down. Thanks for the links!
Hi Travis
Thank you so much for stopping by. I am so with you in terms of not watching much television these days, and this is where my interests have pushed me towards documentaries and putting forth quality time in how I fill my time. If I am going to sit there, I would like to watch something, or if I am going to be entertained, may it at least add to my growth and not take away from it.