Listen

Loren Assunção
3 hours ago
3 min read

What if the most important message is simply: Listen?

Hello, I'm Loren Assunção, and today I'd like to share with you about a single word that has echoed in my mind since watching the movie Disclosure day: Listen.

At the end of the film, humanity finally receives a message from an extraterrestrial intelligence. The audience expects a revelation. A warning. A scientific breakthrough. A prophecy. Instead, we hear only one word: "Listen."

Then the screen fades to black. All I could see was my son's face, filled with disappointment... haha.

I also noticed that some viewers left the theater frustrated by the ambiguity. But I thought it was brilliant, because that ending forces us to confront a difficult question: Have we forgotten how to listen?

We live in an age of constant expression. We post, comment, react, publish, and broadcast our opinions every day. Never before in human history have so many people had the ability to speak publicly.

Yet genuine listening seems increasingly rare. And I can see it every day in the classroom, where I've been teaching for the past 15 years.

The philosopher Epictetus emphasized the importance of listening, self-restraint, and careful speech. A popular saying attributed to him states:

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."

Reference: Epictetus. Discourses and Selected Writings. Translated by Robert Dobbin. London: Penguin Classics, 2008

Whether or not the quote is historically authentic, the idea remains powerful. Wisdom often begins not with speaking but with receiving. Listening is more than hearing sounds or responding at the same time.

It is listening to another person's experience without immediately preparing a rebuttal.

It is listening to our children before teaching them.

It is listening to nature before trying to control it.

It is listening to cultures different from our own before judging them.

And perhaps most difficult of all, it is listening to ourselves.

Many of us spend years running from silence because silence has a way of revealing truths we are not ready to face. The ancient Greeks knew this. Mystics knew this. Indigenous traditions knew this. The great spiritual teachers across civilizations knew this.

The deepest insights rarely arrive in noise, but in stillness.

This is why the final scene of Disclosure day feels almost spiritual. The extraterrestrial message is not a technological solution. It is not a military strategy. It is not an economic model.

It is an invitation to Listen. But listen to what?

The film never answers, and that's what I love. Or maybe it had been answering all along.

Throughout the film, people struggle to listen to one another.

Margaret listens to her intuition, but those closest to her doubt her. Hugo listens to the unknown and discovers that empathy may be more advanced than technology. The young novice learns that faith is not weakened by questions; it is strengthened by understanding. The mathematician listens to patterns and translates a language that transcends culture, politics, and belief.

And perhaps that is the hidden message of the entire film.

Before humanity can communicate with another civilization, it must learn to communicate with itself.

As I reflected on the movie, I realized that this idea connects deeply with everything I teach and explore through Elevate your journey.

As I reflected on the movie, I kept returning to the same thought: perhaps the most important messages in life are not the ones that arrive loudly. They don't come as grand revelations, dramatic signs, or undeniable proofs. More often, they arrive quietly, waiting for us to slow down enough to notice them.

Maybe that is why the final message is so simple.

Not "Believe."

Not "Obey."

Not "Control."

Not "Conquer."

Just...

"Listen."

And maybe the real question is not what the aliens were trying to tell humanity.

Maybe the real question is: