April 2020 Conscious Movie-of-the-Month

This month’s Conscious Movie-of-the-Month is Interstellar (2014).

Virtual Discussion date: April 18, 2020 at 1 p.m. PT

During the pandemic we will be focusing on specific media that can help us during this crisis by lifting our spirits and helping us gain deeper and more expansive understandings of the challenges around us.

This month we will be exploring Interstellar (2014), another groundbreaking evolutionary cinematic work by integral filmmaker Christopher Nolan, which is eerily prescient to these times while inspiring with its exploration of how to use the power of love to transcend great obstacles.

A civilization on the edge of collapse. Our species is facing possible extinction. A parent faced with the challenge of saving the future for his family and the whole human race. In the face of this great challenge people all around them respond from fear and denial…but some respond with love and courage. Which way will win? Will humanity survive and thrive or will we bury our heads in the sand until there is nothing left?

Years ahead of its time, this integrally-informed science fiction epic attempts to answer this question. It incorporates the capturing of the real physics of outer space while simultaneously concretizing the non-physical dimension of love as a cosmic level force of existence, on the scale of gravity and centrifugal force.

If you have not seen Interstellar you can stream it on most of the major streaming services. We recommend watching the film at least twice, the second time with the intention of seeing any patterns of consciousness you had not seen before. You are also invited to share your thoughts, reflections and musings about the movie in our group's online discussion forum. And then of course join us on April 18th at 1 p.m. PST for our virtual discussion of the film and how it speaks to us at this moment in human history.

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If you have not already joined our FREE Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Group/Club, you can still join us anytime by signing up for a free membership at the Conscious Good Creators Network.

Conscious Good Creators Network presents the Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Club with Integral Cinema Project Founder and Executive Director Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D., for anyone who wants to use media to raise individual and collective consciousness.

The Big Picture of the NOW

Here, by popular request, is Mark Allan Kaplan, media psychologist and founder and Executive Director of the Integral Cinema Project, explaining why "All problems are problems of consciousness" as he unpacks the current global situation: how we got here, why it's unprecedented in world history, and why media in all its evolving forms may be the best and most powerful tool to awaken us into a new paradigm of being.

If you want to take a deeper dive, Mark will be teaching "Transformative Media Creation and Reception" for Campus-Coevolve.org starting in early October, 2019. (I am a Contributing Faculty Member.) To find out more, please visit: https://campus-coevolve.org/course/transformative-media/

You can also join us for our Conscious Movie-of-the-Month discussion group hosted by the Conscious Good Creators Network and stay tuned for our Conscious Media-making certificate program, also at Conscious Good. To find out more about these offerings visit: https://conscious-good.mn.co/

Inside “What the Bleep Do We Know” - A Special Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Experience for June 2019

Our Conscious Movie-of-the-Month exploration for June 2019 is What the Bleep Do We Know (2004). This month we have a special treat for all us conscious media creators and fans, one of the filmmakers who worked on the film, our very own Betsy Chasse, will be joining us in our exploration along with some potential surprise guests from the production team, sharing some of their behind the scenes experiences and perspectives on the film with us both online during the month and in our virtual chat at the end of the month (date and time to be announced).

You are invited to watch What the Bleep Do We Know on your own and feel free to share your thoughts, reflections, musings and questions about the film in our group’s online discussion forum.

We chose What the Bleep Do We Know because it is considered by many to be a landmark work in the conscious media movement, being one of the very first movies about consciousness to penetrate the mass market. It was also groundbreaking in terms of visually capturing patterns of consciousness itself and creating what is now called the hybrid documentary style, integrating interviews with both compelling narrative and powerful visual storytelling.

This film was also created during the transition between analogue and digital filmmaking and was one of the first films to tap into the cultural creative field of consciousness. Because of this the film was traversing two major evolutionary convergence streams, technological and cultural, and is a great example of a work that was in synchronicity with the zeitgeist edge of the evolution of consciousness. We are blessed to have the opportunity to hear from the filmmakers themselves about what it was like to create a work at this leading edge, and while What the Bleep Do We Know is not an integral film, all of this makes it is a fascinating case study from an integral-evolutionary perspective.

Please join your hosts Trina Wyatt and Mark Allan Kaplan and our very special guests in this very special conscious movie adventure…

Healers in the Hood: Reflections on the Passing of John Singleton, "Selma" and the New Consciousness in African American Cinema

John Singleton at the Premiere of “Selma” (2014)

As part of the Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Club hosted by Conscious Good Creators Network, we are viewing the film Selma (2014) as our monthly selection. I was struck by the news of African American filmmaker John Singleton (1968–2019) passing away just a few days before we started. I noticed some synchronicities or resonances between our choice of film and the life, work and passing of Singleton. Selma is the work of African American filmmaker Ava DuVernay who is part of a whole new movement and consciousness within African American cinema that most likely would not exist without Singleton’s groundbreaking work.

Selma filmmaker Ava DuVernay pays tribute to John Singleton Twitter (2019) 

The history of African American cinema has been profoundly affected by the history of African Americans and their struggle against great individual, cultural, social and systemic injustices and challenges. The evolutionary journey of African American media artists and their works is like a creative mirror on our collective journey as a country. Because of this great injustice gap, the evolution of African American cinema is the story of many creative, cultural and social groundbreakers fighting against a system that was and still is in many ways rigged against people of color.

Every generation has had courageous individuals who sought to break some of these barriers and open the doors to those generations to come. John Singleton was one of the brave creative souls who raised and deepened the cinematic consciousness of African American cinema by unpacking the overt and covert effects of living within the shadows of racism. His breakout film Boyz n the Hood (1991), made when he was just 23, depicted the everyday lives and realities of African Americans, going deeply personal to tap into the universal.

Since his passing many African American film scholars, critics, historians and commentators have written about Singleton’s various contributions to African American cinema and American cinema in general, including: What Hollywood Owes to John Singleton, his Influence on African American Cinema, and how he Changed Black Culture on Film Forever.

My colleague Jonathan Steigman and I created a video podcast series called New Black Cinema for White People in which we take a deep dive into the new generation of masterful young filmmakers standing on the shoulders of John Singleton and other trailblazing African American media artists. One of the groundbreaking elements of the works by this new generation is their use of both subtle and extremely overt complex communication to pierce the veil of structural white supremacy. From broad satire to quiet drama, from big budget pop culture films to low budget independent works, these filmmakers are working at the top of their game and creating cinematic works designed to raise the consciousness of American culture and society to the hidden dimensions of racism and structural white supremacy. By exploring the personal and collective costs of the hidden dimensions of racism, these creators seek a way to transcend and heal them with love and compassion for all sides.

Ava DuVernay is one of this movement’s leaders, helping and mentoring others the way Singleton did. DuVernay and this group of the new wave in African American cinema are operating at an integral or near-integral structure of consciousness, integrating all the gifts from the previous generations of activists and artists. One of these gifts is the integration of Singleton’s collective through the personal stories approach with a higher, deeper and more expansive “big picture” perspective producing more complex and multi-layered storytelling.

In Selma, DuVernay unpacks the personal, interpersonal, cultural and social dimensions of Martin Luther King’s racial and social justice consciousness raising effort during the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches in 1965. So we have a film about the consciousness raising efforts of Dr. King and others on the individual and collective front lines, made by a filmmaker who herself seeks to raise consciousness even further around these issues through her works. In this, DuVernay and her cohort in this new generation are standing on the shoulders of those who came before them, including Singleton, and pushing the dialogue ever forward.

And so, this month, we take this moment to mourn and honor the passing of one of these groundbreakers as we explore one of the cinematic works that has sprung from the creative garden he helped seed.

References

• What Hollywood Owes to John Singleton https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/john-singleton-appreciation-boyz-n-the-hood
• John Singleton’s Influence on African American Cinema https://www.tvovermind.com/john-singletons-influence-on-african-american-cinema/
• John Singleton Changed Black Culture on Film Forever https://www.laweekly.com/arts/john-singleton-changed-black-culture-on-film-forever-10150468
• New Black Cinema for White People (Podcast Series) https://vimeo.com/album/5379791

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*Special thanks to Jonathan Steigman for his editorial assistance in creating this article and for his contributions to the research into this new movement in African American Cinema.

Conscious Movie-of-the-Month (May 2019)

The Conscious Movie-of-the-Month for May 2019 is Selma (2014).

You are invited to watch Selma on your own and feel free to share your thoughts, reflections and musings about the movie in our group's online discussion forum.

At the end of the month, on Wednesday May 29th at 7:00pm Pacific Time we will have a video conference call where I will share my reflections on the movie from a conscious, integral and transpersonal perspective and you will have the opportunity to share more of your personal reflections and ask any questions.

If you have not already joined our free Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Group/Club, you can still join us anytime by signing up for a free membership at the Conscious Good Creators Network.

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In an effort to be "conscious" of diversity as we embark on our second conscious movie exploration, we are feeling called for us to explore Selma by African American woman filmmaker Ava DuVernay, an amazing work that cinematically explores Martin Luther King's effort to elevate American collective consciousness. Selma includes one of the best montages of awakening collective awareness ever created, and directly addresses Dr King's conscious effort to affect the evolution of consciousness on the individual and collective levels.

DuVernay is a pioneer in feminine approaches to cinematic expression, as well as developing a synergy of masculine and feminine approaches, and this film offers a great representation of her contribution to this dimension of the evolution of cinematic consciousness.

Selma is also a major work from the new consciousness-raising efforts of a group of young and talented African American filmmakers that DuVernay is part of as well as being a leader for this new movement in African American Cinema.

This film is also an important work for us conscious media creators to study during these profoundly challenging times, for it gives us a glimpse of the consciousness it takes to raise collective consciousness through media and direct-action combined. And for all us media consumers it can help us viscerally connect to the process of media expression from real life events through the lens of media and into our own conscious fields.

I will be sharing more on the film during the month here online and on our video conference call on the 29th and invite you to join the conversation.

Thank you for continuing to join us on this adventure...time to get our revolutionary spirits awakened, pop us some popcorn and dive into this cinematic blueprint for elevating consciousness on a grand scale...

"The Matrix" and the Evolution of Consciousness

Or, taking the Red Pill and waking up to the coming of Winter: Reflections on meta-perspectival storytelling, The Matrix, Game of Thrones and our current global situation

According to my research into the potential co-evolution of the moving image, consciousness, culture and society, The Matrix (1999) helped to introduce a higher form of cinematic consciousness* into mainstream pop culture. The foundation of this higher form of cinematic consciousness could be called meta-perspectival storytelling.

Meta-perspectival storytelling refers to stories that unfold through both major and minor shifts in perspective that often reveal whole new ways of understanding and experiencing the storyworld unfolding before us. Think of the red-blue pill moment in The Matrix, or the self-as-ghost revelation at the end of The Sixth Sense (1999), the shifting realities of a television series like Lost (2004) or the progressive, reality-shaking awakening of characters to the true coming threat of winter in Game of Thrones (2011). All of these works use meta-perspectival storytelling to drive their stories and characters to greater levels of understanding and capacities.

This form of storytelling has been around for a while in various forms but not until the release of both The Matrix and The Sixth Sense in 1999, did this form penetrate the pop culture cinematic language in a big way. Since then, more and more cinematic works have been using this form of storytelling, creating deeper and more expansive works with layers and layers of perceptual realities that hide and reveal themselves over time, guiding us and the characters to greater levels of understanding and revelation. Meta-perspectival storytelling is born out of a specific stage of development and structure of consciousness, often referred to as Integral Consciousness. The key to this structure of consciousness is the drive to understand all dimensions and perspectives of our reality and integrate them into a meaningful whole, a "big picture" meta-perspective.

I find it beautifully symbolic that this month is the 20th anniversary of The Matrix (1999-2019), the film that helped birth this expansion of cinematic consciousness, and the start of the final season of Game of Thrones (2011-2019), the series that helped to evolve this form of storytelling to new levels of richness, depth and complexity for a global scale audience that more easily and deeply understands, embodies and enjoys this form of consciousness and storytelling.

I also find it rather haunting and inspiring to look at how this evolution of storytelling and viewer consciousness coincides with the ever deepening and expanding deconstruction of so many of our individual and collective mental, emotional and perspectival constructs within and around us. This deconstruction has culminated in the whirlwind of reality bubbles, fake news, propaganda networks and "alternate truth" in which we currently find ourselves. I have to wonder if all these meta-perspectival stories feeding our imaginations these last twenty years are an expression of our collective consciousness preparing us to make some big perspectival transition, helping more and more of us to wake up to the coming of our own global climate change and political, cultural and social regression winter, and to individually and collectively search for the red pill that will wake us all up in time.



*NOTE: Cinematic consciousness as I define it comes from my research into the relationship between the moving image, consciousness, culture and society. This research suggests that human beings project their structures of consciousness into their creative works. This in turn appears to create similar composite structures of consciousness embedded in these works. In a sense these embedded consciousness structures create a kind of cinematic consciousness that lives within the constructed cinematic reality of these moving images. And this cinematic consciousness in turn affects viewer consciousness.

Conscious Movie-of-the-Month - "The Matrix" - Live Call

Announcing the first Conscious Movie-of-the-Month live video call. This month we will be exploring this months movie The Matrix (1999).

At the end of the month, on Thursday April 25th at 7:00pm Pacific Time we will have a video conference call where Integral Cinema Project lead researcher, Mark Allan Kaplan, will share his reflections on the movie from a conscious, integral and transpersonal perspective and you will have the opportunity to share more of your personal reflections and ask any questions.

If you have not already joined our FREE Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Club, you can still join us anytime by signing up for a FREE membership at the Conscious Good Creators Network.

If you are already a member, you are invited to watch The Matrix on your own and feel free to share your thoughts, reflections and musings about the movie in our group's online discussion forum.

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From Host Mark Allan Kaplan...

The Matrix seems like a great movie for us to start with because this month is the 20th anniversary of the film's release and because it represents various different forms of what constitutes a conscious movie...

The viewing experience of The Matrix has given many viewers a consciousness raising experience, myself included. I vividly remember the first time I saw the film. I saw it opening week back when it was released in theaters in the Spring of 1999. It just blew me away and gave me a deep and profound altered state of consciousness. When the movie was over and I came out of the theater, everything seemed so much more real...the twinkling stars in the early evening sky, the subtle spring fragrances wafting through the air, the collective dance of the movie goers streaming in and out of the theater, and so much more...and at the same time I was contemplating deep questions about the nature of the reality I was seeing and the life I was living.

The Matrix was also consciously created to affect viewer consciousness. The Wachowski's studied Integral Theory before making the film and were attempting to apply the integral structure of consciousness to the narrative, visual, auditory and time-based expressive elements of the movie in order to elevate viewer consciousness.

The Matrix is also of major historical significance in that it introduced a more complex form of cinematic storytelling into pop movie culture, which has had an influence on collective consciousness by advancing the evolution of cinematic consciousness and helping to catalyze a shift in the co-evolution of cinematic consciousness and viewer consciousness.

Cinematic consciousness as I define it comes from my research into the relationship between the moving image, consciousness, culture and society. This research suggests that human beings project their structures of consciousness into their creative works. This in turn appears to create similar composite structures of consciousness embedded in these works. In a sense these embedded consciousness structures create a kind of cinematic consciousness that lives within the constructed cinematic reality of these moving images. And this cinematic consciousness in turn affects viewer consciousness.

I will be sharing more on the film during the month in our groups online forum and on our video conference call on the 25th. I will also be sharing with the group a Conscious Movie Viewing Practice for members to play with if they feel so moved to do so.

If you are interested in joining me on this adventure...it's time to login, take the Red Pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes...

SIGN UP FOR FREE

Conscious Media-Making 101

In this introductory course for the Conscious Good Creators Network, Integral Cinema Project founder Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. explores what is conscious media and conscious media-making, what are some of the different potential forms of conscious media-making, and how different states and stages of consciousness effect the media-making process. Mark also explores how these structures of consciousness within us are communicated between us, the works we create and the individuals and collectives that experience our works…and how this knowledge can be used to create deeper and more transformative media experiences for creators and viewers on the individual and collective levels. Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. is an award-winning filmmaker, transdisciplinary artist and media psychologist and researcher. As an artist and media-maker Mark has been exploring conscious art and media since childhood, attempting to use these creative mediums to help himself transcend his own communication challenges of being a severe childhood stutterer and find his "voice" and use that voice to help raise the consciousness of himself, others and the world. He is considered by many to be one of the pioneers in the conscious and transpersonal media movements and is the world's leading researcher and theorist in the application of Integral Theory to the cinematic arts. www.markallankaplan.com & www. integralcinema.com Conscious Media Creators Network is a community-driven online media platform for visual storytellers dedicated to raising consciousness. Conscious Good launched the Creators’ Network as a place where conscious creators and audiences can connect. It’s a place to interact with fellow conscious media tribe members, share resources, ideas and support one another. Use the following link to join the network: https://conscious-good.mn.co/share/7i... This talk was presented on Sunday February 24, 2019 between 12pm to 1:30pm PST on the Conscious Good Creators Network as part of their "Stream of Consciousness" speaker series.

The complete course video is available at: https://youtu.be/A5P2DmRk23w

The presentation slides are available at: https://www.slideshare.net/markallankaplan/conscious-mediamaking-101

Conscious Media-Making 101 from Mark Allan Kaplan

Integral Game-Changer - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (PODCAST)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018) is an Integral game-changer, a truly extraordinary film that transcends and includes the evolution of comics, anime and superhero films, and so many other domains, worlds, dimensions, perspectives and realities and integrates them into a wondrous, fun, classic yet Avant-garde, holistic, holonic, gestalt...integral masterpiece.

Join Integral Cinema Project lead researcher Mark Allan Kaplan, and associate researcher Jonathan Steigman for a quick and spoiler-free rave review podcast on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/V2iTkZWJhhQ or on Vimeo at: https://vimeo.com/308143096

"Integral Goes to the Movies" Slideshow

The slide show for the "Integral Goes to the Movies" presentation I gave for Bay Area Integral is now available for viewing and download... Topics include the embedding of structures of consciousness in the moving image; the co-evolution of the moving image, consciousness, culture and society; more fully understanding the power of the medium and how it can be used for transformative and evolutionary purposes; and what is Integral theory and what makes a movie "integral"

 

Integral Goes to the Movies from Mark Allan Kaplan

Integral Movie and TV List Update for 2017

2017 has been a challenging year for many of us and sometimes taking a break from all the challenges in these times is needed; sometimes we need an escape or release from the stresses and sometimes we need some distance on our lives and the world to see things from a different perspective. Great integral movies and television or streaming series can often do both at the same time. In addition, integral cinematic works can exercise our perspective-taking capacities, something that can only help us in dealing with these challenging times...plus we get to have popcorn while we are doing our integral cinematic workout...

So here are this years additions to the IMDb Integral Movie and TV List of cinematic works that tested positive for elements of the Integral structure of consciousness by the Integral Cinema Project. Some of these are new works released in 2017 and some are older works that have been rediscovered as integral gems from the past. For the complete list of Integral movies and series check out the full list at: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls074613980/

IMDb INTEGRAL MOVIE AND TV LIST UPDATES 2017

Star Wars VIII - The Last Jedi (2017; Now in Theaters) - The evolutionary arc of the Skywalker dynasty continues with a second major tetra-evolutionary cycle (inner and outer selves, cultures and systemic forces) following the Skywalker lineage and their world through their evolutionary arcs. This latest installment of the saga has some major twists in the evolutionary arcs of both the characters and the greater and deeper archetypal patterns, including the challenging of the duality between the dark and Light Forces toward a more mature and complex understanding of the ultimate non-dual nature of the Force. We also witness the healing of Luke's major regression and primal wounding from his past and his conscious transition into the Kosmocentric Witness.

Dunkirk (2017; Now On Demand and Disk) - "Dunkirk" is a masterful representation of the integral mind at work. According to integral philosopher Jean Gebser, the main impulse of the Integral structure of consciousness is to concretize all dimensions of being and becoming and attempt to integrate them into a meaningful whole. With this film, filmmaker Christopher Nolan has given us an experientially powerful "integration" of the multiple strands of existence within a specific historical event that includes the subjective, objective, relational and systemic aspects of the event and the varying temporal realities that unfold in relation to different perspectives on the event from these multiple dimensions of being and becoming. Through this process Nolan gives us a simultaneously simple and complex emotional, visceral and existential experience that concretizes and integrates the event into a whole that is way beyond the sum of its parts.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017; Soon On Demand and Disk) - A haunting and beautiful sequel to a cult classic that deepens and expands the Blade Runner universe to include elegant and complex evolutionary arcs for the main character, his cyber-lover and their relationship that transcends the boundaries of human death, digital eradication and the notion of what constitutes sentient existence.

American Gods (2017; Starz Network) - This Starz cable series personifies various stages of evolutionary development in the form of the Gods we create and project at those stages, exploring the possibility that consciousness precedes our reality and that we create our world and even our Gods. This well crafted exploration has the potential to give the viewer a potential experience of stepping back and witnessing the different stages of development in ourselves and our world.

Rogue One (2016; On Demand and Disk) - "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is a wonderful addition to the Star Wars universe, deepening and expanding it's integrally-informed evolutionary arc while also portraying a unique evolutionary arc for its main character, Jyn, who's developmental arc is repressed until re-connecting with her father through a hologram that triggers the release of the repressed forces within her and propels her forward till she faces her mortality with a glimmer of Kosmo-centric awareness.

Westworld (2016--; HBO Network) - HBO's brilliant and multi-layered remake of the Michael Creighton 1973 sci-fi movie about an adult AI amusement park gone astray. In this new cinematic journey, the nature of consciousness and its evolution is viscerally explored as the human's are forced to deal with their loosing touch with their own humanity while the AI's are on the cusp of their own great evolutionary awakening.

The Lego Movie (2014; On Demand and Disk) - A fun and surprisingly deep animated film based on the Lego universe that follows it's main Lego character's evolution from archaic unconsciousness to Kosmo-centric awareness and action as he transcends the boundaries between the Lego world and the human world.

Game of Thrones (2011--; HBO Network) - Epic groundbreaking series integrating the reimagining of deep mythic and magical archetypes, the tracing of the emergence of rational and pluralistic cultural constructs, and the mapping of evolutionary story arcs with glimpses of a bigger picture from a Kosmo-centric perspectival field. This masterfully executed synthesis creates a vast yet intimate multi-layered visceral experience of the human quest for power, for meaning and for goodness.

Black Mirror (2011--; Netflix) - "Black Mirror" is a brilliant and haunting series in the "Twilight Zone" tradition that puts the audience in the Kosmo-centric witness seat to bear witness to the evolutionary gap between the evolution of technology and the evolution of individual and collective human consciousness. Some episodes, like "San Junipero" give us a full evolutionary arc while others take us to various evolutionary inflection points in a projected not-to-distant future.

Diva (1981; On Demand) - "Diva" is a French cult film classic from the early 80s that integrates European and American cinema conventions into a hip uniquely styled hybrid Comedy-Thriller-Romance-Mystical tale. As we go along for the ride of this zeitgeist capturing film, the camera moves the audience from the deeply personal and emotional to the intellectual and philosophical to the big-picture, overview, and kosmo-centric witness position. The young male lead character evolves from ego-centric to ethnocentric to socio-centric circles of care and concern while he navigates through a maze of life threatening and existential "challenges," helped by an older street-wise cosmopolitan kosmo-centric holy man.

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964; On Demand and Disk) - This classic anthology television series explores the further reaches of our inner and outer world within a Kosmic-witnessing frame for the viewer. We are put in the observer seat at the beginning of every episode through the shows opening that includes both visuals and text spoken by the host and show creator, Rod Serling. And as we observe, the stories, visuals and soundscapes they shift us into and out of the observer, witness position and into deeply subjective experiences and expansive existential and philosophical reflections. When you combine the witnessing framing and the expansive reflections you get a taste of the Kosmo-centric Witness perspectival field; in many episodes we, the viewer, can have the sense that we are glimpsing a big picture so big it is beyond our comprehension, that there is a meaningful pattern to it all, to all the dimensions we are observing and the multiple layers of hidden dimensions just beyond our reach, and that there is a much greater intelligence at work.

Art-in-Motion Video Series

The Integral Cinema Project announces the ART-IN-MOTION SERIES, a collection of moving image meditations that attempt to use advanced audiovisual and cinematic entrainment technologies along with animated abstract art to explore the human perceptual field. The intention behind these works is to potentially induce shifts in our awareness of our own perceptual field and bring the normally unconscious perceptual construct-forming system of the human mind to conscious awareness.




APPROACH

ICP cinematic artist and researcher Mark Allan Kaplan attempts to morph one of his artworks into a transformative cinematic meditation using an adapted form of the "Cine-Sculpture" approach developed by ICP research associate James Lusero and combines it with Integral Cinematic Metadesign techniques to synchronize visual, auditory, textual and temporal expressive forms with an underlying transformative perceptual and conceptual field.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, ANTECEDENTS AND INSPIRATIONS:

We would like to acknowledge the works of the following individuals and organizations who inspired and laid the foundation for the approaches used in these cinematic works: Integral Cinema and Cinéma Pur pioneer Germaine Dulac; cinematic Montage and Synchronization-of-the-Senses developer Sergei Eisenstein; Filmic Expression pioneers Slavko Vorkapić, Lestor Novros and Bruce Block; Visual Music innovator Jordan Belson; state of consciousness cinematic induction trailblazers Dorothy Fadiman and Ken Jenkins; cinematic creation state explorers James Broughton and David Lynch; audio and visual brainwave entrainment pioneers, innovators and explorers Pierre Janet, Arthur Hastings, Robert Monroe, Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, Kelly Howell, Eric Thompson, iAwake Technologies and Subtle Energy Sciences; the integrally-informed metatheories of Ken Wilber, Jean Gebser, Edgar Morin and Sri Aurobindo; the consciousness hacking innovations of Mikey Siegel and fellow explorers of the Consciousness Hacking movement; and the integrated transdisciplinary “Cine-Sculpture” explorations of Integral Cinema Project research associate and multidisciplinary artist James Lusero.

SPECIAL THANKS

We would like to give special thanks to the folks at iAwake Technologies for their generous donation of the audio entrainment track. To learn more about iAwake Technologies visit them at: http://www.iawaketechnologies.com

You can view the whole series at the Integral Cinema Project's YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQg0cPXteHDOnD9ehSBTxHXFZ5vL93_pE

Integral Cinema Project Honored as one of the 2017 TransTech 200

The Integral Cinema Project (ICP) has been chosen as one of this year's TransTech 200, a list that highlights the key innovators, makers, researchers, influencers, organizations, scientists and entrepreneurs who are expanding the known limits of human thriving in the emerging field of Transformative Technologies.

We are deeply honored to have been recognized for our efforts to apply Integral Theory to the domain of moving image media, from film to VR, AR and other transformative Perception Technologies. We look forward to deepening our contribution to the TransTech movement as we continue to map the transformative capacities of various moving-image-based TransTech mediums and platforms, with the goal to develop content creation technologies to help enable TransTech creators to more precisely use their medium to target a particular transformative effect. These include inducing various states of consciousness, shifting perceptual constructs, assisting in emotional and psychological healing, and catalyzing shifts in stages of individual and collective human development.

For more on the TransTech 200 visit their website at: http://transtech200.com

Information about the Integral Cinema Project: http://www.IntegralCinema.com

Integral Peace Project

The Integral Peace Blessing is an integral cinematic experiment playing with an integral peace blessing I discovered. I say "discovered" because it just came out of me during the recording of one of my lived inquiry research video journals.

I have been contemplating what an integrally informed peace practice would be like for some time and this emerged organically out of that process when I began to use the phrase "peace out" that I picked up from hanging out with some young "more hip than me" folks. This unfolded into me organically using four variations on the phrase..."Peace Out, Peace In, Peace In-Between, Peace all Around." It was only after this arose out of me that I realized the four variations perfectly fit into the four quadrants of Integral Theory...Peace Out = Peaceful Actions (UR/Behavioral), Peace In = Inner Peace (UL/Psycho-Spiritual), Peace In Between = Peaceful Relations (LL/Relational), Peace All Around = Collective Peace (LR/Systemic).

After this revelation I then used an integrally-informed editing practice I have been developing to play with the section of the video journal where this integral peace blessing emerged. When I meditated on the video segment I attempted to allow an integrally-informed stream of consciousness state to guide me in the process. What unfolded was a layering of multiple visual and auditory effects to create a visual peace meditation-type experience.

After completing a first draft of the short piece I sensed a need to add audio entrainment music to take it to the next level. I played with several tracks from the iAwake Technologies' collection that seemed peace oriented and a short section from the "Healing Light" entrainment track seemed to organically fit with the visuals.

For this final draft I expanding the piece by repeating the blessing several times, changing the color tinting so that the visuals move through the color spectrum. At the same time I added an audio effect to voicing of the blessing to give the sense that the voice expands into a larger and larger spatial reality with each expression of the blessing.

Special thanks for Jimmy Lusero​ and Jonathan Steigman​ for their valuable feedback which profoundly help shape this work...and...

Deep gratitude to the gang from iAwake Technologies for graciously donating their collections to the Integral Cinema Project for use in our experiments. "Healing Light" can be found at: http://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/healing-light/

Integral Cinematic Experiences for the Holiday Season

While this has been a challenging year for many of us, it has also been a banner year for the invasion of integral structures of consciousness in the cinematic arts on both the big and small screen from major integral movies like Arrival, Doctor Strange, Voyage of Time and Star Trek Beyond to HBOs new integrally-informed streaming series Westworld. 

For those of us yearning for an integrally-informed "holiday spirit" cinematic experience, check out these two integrally-informed holiday offerings from Netflix's streaming service (if you don't have a subscription, you can get a one month free trial)...

Sense8 Christmas Special

For a deep and potentially transformative holiday cinematic experience check out the newly released Christmas Special for Netflix's original series Sense8 from the Wachowski's. The series is an integrally-informed dramatic journey that attempts to capture and help us viscerally experience the enmeshment of all four dimension-perspectives of our individual and collective interior and exterior world, as its characters and we the viewer experience the dissolving of the boundaries between individual subjective reality, collective relational reality, individual objective reality, and collective environmental reality. If you haven't already seen the first season of this beautifully transcendent series we highly recommend watching the whole season before watching the Christmas Special.

12 Dates of Christmas

If you are looking for a sweet and sappy integrally-informed Christmas movie, check out the ABC Family movie 12 Dates of Christmas on Netflix. Using the integrally-informed evolutionary time-loop formula from Groundhog Day with a Christmas spin and a female main character, this cute little movie is filled with holiday spirit and light on the outside and deep evolutionary patterns on the inside.

And for more integrally-informed movies and TV series there is always our Integral Movie and TV List on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) at: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls074613980/

Integral Cinema Feast at the Box Office

This month, November 2016, I detected at least three movies in theaters that tested positive for integrally-informed elements. During the nine years that I have been testing movies for their structures of consciousness I have not seen this many integrally-informed movies in the theaters at the same time. 

If you are interested in having an integrally-informed cinematic experience...check out one or all of these three movies currently in theaters:

Arrival

A haunting and transcendent close-encounter movie that takes us on an elegant inner and outer cinematic journey that subtly attempts to integrate and transcend the boundaries of individual and collective interior and exterior existence, and the nature of language, perception and time itself. 

Doctor Strange

A Marvel "superhero movie" that follows the evolution of the main character as a person and as a hero, from an egocentric or self-centered circle of care and concern to a circle of care and concern for the whole Kosmos. It also has some wild, beautiful and fun expressions of the transcendent nature of time and space.

Voyage of Time

A beautiful visceral IMAX cinematic experience into the evolutionary arc of existence and how holding it in our awareness can give us a deeper, richer and more integrated present-moment experience...the experience of the Kosmo-centric witness. 

For more integrally-informed cinematic works check out The Integral Movie and TV List on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) at: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls074613980/.

On the list you will find all the movies and television series that have tested positive for having integrally-informed elements to varying degrees according to testing criteria developed during research on the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media theory and practice.

According to this research, a cinematic work is deemed to be integral if elements of the integral stage of development are represented in the cinematic form, style, structure, content, and/or are embedded in the material as a presence or atmosphere. These representations of the elements of the integral stage of development can include: The exploration and integration of multiple evolving dimensions and perspectives of lesser and greater depth and span; the concretion of abstract and interior dimensions and perspectives, such as time and interiority, in the service of evolutionary growth and development; an evolutionary story, event, and/or character progression that is given greater than or equal emphasis to conflict resolution, with progression developing vertically through at least three stages or levels of development; the evolutionary impulse as a driving force or causality pattern; the valuing of truth that is qualified by evolving perspectival fields; and/or a Kosmo-centric circle of care and concern that suggests an awareness, integration, and embracing of all of existence.

For more on the Integral Cinema Project visit us at: www.integralcinema.com

Latest Updates to the Integral Movie and TV List Now on IMDb

The Integral Movie and TV List has been updated and is available on Internet Movie Database (IMDb) at:http://www.imdb.com/list/ls074613980/.

On the list you will find all the movies and television series that have tested positive for having integrally-informed elements to varying degrees according to testing criteria developed during research on the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media theory and practice.

According to this research, a cinematic work is deemed to be integral if elements of the integral stage of development are represented in the cinematic form, style, structure, content, and/or are embedded in the material as a presence or atmosphere. These representations of the elements of the integral stage of development can include: The exploration and integration of multiple evolving dimensions and perspectives of lesser and greater depth and span; the concretion of abstract and interior dimensions and perspectives, such as time and interiority, in the service of evolutionary growth and development; an evolutionary story, event, and/or character progression that is given greater than or equal emphasis to conflict resolution, with progression developing vertically through at least three stages or levels of development; the evolutionary impulse as a driving force or causality pattern; the valuing of truth that is qualified by evolving perspectival fields; and/or a Kosmo-centric circle of care and concern that suggests an awareness, integration, and embracing of all of existence.

Recent updates to the list include the following titles:

Movies New to the List:

The Star Wars Saga 1-9 (1977--): When taken as a whole and in their intended narrative order, the first 6 Star Wars films show a full evolutionary and de-evolutionary arc for the character of Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader, from egocentric to Kosmocentric with dark twisting turns and de-evolutionary undercurrents of the deep shadow creating a complex spiral of evolutionary development for the character and the archetypal forces represented by him and his journey. The evolutionary arc of the Skywalker dynasty continues with a second major tetra-evolutionary cycle (inner and outer selves, cultures and systemic forces) following Luke and Leah Skywalker and their world through their evolutionary arc, starting with "Star Wars IV - A New Hope" (1977) through "Star Wars VII - The Force Awakens" (2015) and beyond…projected to be completed with Star Wars IX. For more on this check out the "Unpacking Star Wars 1-7" podcast at: https://youtu.be/_pQ1oz2-ppY

The Last Wave (1977): A haunting mystical cinematic journey into the heart of aboriginal dreamtime and its evolutionary impact on a non-aboriginal person and the greater world at the crossroads of a great awakening (Australia).

Run Lola Run (1998): A fun and wild ride using a temporal loop to take us and the main character on an inner and outer evolutionary journey with great heart and a lightness of being that playfully holds a deeper meaning (Germany)

Star Trek 2009, Star Trek into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond (2009-2016): The rebooted Star Trek trilogy is a beautiful cross-temporal inner and outer evolutionary adventure following the developmental arc of both the young Kirk and Spock that creates both a complete evolutionary cycle through the three films and sets up for another cycle in upcoming films.

VISIT THE IMDb INTEGRAL MOVIE AND TV LIST

More movies and TV series are added to the list as more are tested so check back periodically to keep abreast of the research.

For more on the application of Integral Theory to the cinematic arts visit the Integral Cinema Project at: www.integralcinema.com.

Integral Cinema Project receives Notable Mention on the TransTech 200 Innovator List

The Integral Cinema Project (ICP) has received Notable Mention in the first-ever TransTech 200 Innovator List, announced at this year’s Singularity University’s Global Summit. This is the first curated list to highlight the key innovators, makers, researchers, influencers, organizations, scientists and entrepreneurs who are expanding the known limits of human thriving in the emerging field of Transformative Technologies.

We are deeply honored to have been recognized for our efforts to apply Integral Theory to the domain of moving image media, from film to VR, AR and other transformative Perception Technologies. We look forward to deepening our contribution to the TransTech movement as we continue to map the transformative capacities of various moving-image-based TransTech mediums and platforms, with the goal to develop content creation technologies to help enable TransTech creators to more precisely use their medium to target a particular transformative effect. These include inducing various states of consciousness, shifting perceptual constructs, assisting in emotional and psychological healing, and catalyzing shifts in stages of individual and collective development.

For more on the TransTech 200 visit their website at: http://transtech200.com

Information about the Integral Cinema Project: http://www.IntegralCinema.com

Integrally Unpacking Star Wars 1-7 (ICP and TEHNC Podcast)

What are the hidden patterns coursing through the "Star Wars" saga? Is J.J. Abrams' "The Force Awakens" just a PC remake of the original 1977 "Star Wars?" What is the best "Star Wars" film, anyway? 

To answer these questions Integral Cinema Project members Mark Allan Kaplan and Jonathan Steigman watched all 7 Star Wars films in their intended order and the experience surprised them both. From the prequel "poorly executed masterpieces" (1-3), to the seminal original Star Wars trilogy (4-6) and the recently-released first episode of the third trilogy, the Star Wars saga has shaped our culture and consciousness for nearly 40 years. Exploring the series through the lenses of Ring Theory and Integral Cinematic Analysis, Jonathan and Mark unpack new insights into George Lucas' monumental achievement.

Watch this joint ICP and TEHNC Podcast, Unpacking Star Wars 1-7 on the Integral Cinema Project YouTube Channel at: https://youtu.be/_pQ1oz2-ppY 

For a deeper dive into the application of Ring Structure to the "Star Wars" saga, check out Mike Klimo's excellent dissection at: http://www.StarWarsRingTheory.com

Information about the Integral Cinema Project: http://www.IntegralCinema.com

If you enjoyed this podcast, you may want to check out "Integral Goes to the Movies" Mark's mind-blowing exploration of the way structures of consciousness are embedded in the moving image. https://youtu.be/qPD1LsbvvpE

Integral Cinematic Metadesign and "Integral Goes to the Movies" Podcast

Join ICP members Mark Allan Kaplan and Jonathan Steigman in this joint Integral Cinema Project and TEHNC podcast as they discuss the tools and techniques they used to create Integral Goes to the Movies, a 90-minute exploration of the way structures of consciousness are embedded in the moving image. Mark's an expert in creating transformational media and they had quite a lively discussion!

This podcast will make more sense if you first watch Integral Goes to the Movies.

The following are the ICP databases shown in the podcast:

• The Co-Evolution of the Moving Image, Consciousness, Culture and Society Timeline (Click on "3D" in the lower left)
• Collectorz Movie Collector Database (Big thanks to Collectorz Software for donating their Movie Collector database software to the Integral Cinema Project)

We hope you enjoy the podcast and deeply appreciate your support! To further support the Integral Cinema Project please click here.