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.

Announcing the Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Club

A Monthly Exploration of Consciousness and the Movies

Conscious Good Creators Network presents the Conscious Movie-of-the-onth 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.

About the Club 

Join fellow conscious media creators and media enthusiasts each month for an in-depth look at conscious cinema with host and facilitator Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. Together we will explore how consciousness is expressed in and through the movies, and how we can use movies to help us evolve our consciousness.

As a member of the club you will have access to the club’s online forum and the entire Conscious Good Creators Network. At the beginning of each month we will announce the movie of the month for us all to watch on our own and then explore together in the online discussion forum. On the last Thursday of the month we will have a video conference call where Mark will share his reflections on the movie from a conscious, integral and transpersonal perspective. Participants will also have the opportunity to share personal reflections, questions and musings.

As a member of the club you will also be invited to experiment with some of the conscious media viewing practices Mark has developed over the years. These can help you to deepen and expand the viewing experience and help you develop your own transformative media viewing practice if you so desire.

About the Host/Facilitator 

Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. is an award-winning filmmaker, transdisciplinary artist, media psychologist and researcher, and the founder and executive director of the Integral Cinema Project. 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. He uses his conscious art practices to 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.

For more on Mark visit: www.markallankaplan.com, and to learn about the Integral Cinema Project visit: www.integralcinema.com.

Details

• Dates/Times: 
• Movie of the month announcement, first of the month, starting April 1, 2019 
• Online discussions, ongoing 
• Video conference calls, 7pm PST, last Thursday of the month, starting April 25, 2019 
• Cost: Free (requires free membership to the network) 
• Host: Conscious Good Creators Network 

About Conscious Good Creators Network 

Conscious Good Creators Network is a community-driven 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.

SIGN UP FOR THE NETWORK AND THE CLUB

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 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.

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 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

On the Transpersonal with James Fadiman, Ph.D. (1997)

Video interview with transpersonal psychology pioneer James Fadiman, PhD where he explores the nature of the transpersonal, the field of transpersonal psychology, its history and its potential to effect individual and collective consciousness.

Recorded in 1997 in Menlo Park, California as part of the production for the short "What is the Dream Dreaming Me" (http://www.markallankaplan.com/cine/atpvideo.htm)

A production of the Transpersonal Cinema Project
http://www.transpersonalcinema.com

In association with the Association for Transpersonal Psychology
http://www.atpweb.org

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 Goes to the Movies on YouTube

Now featured on the Integral Cinema Project YouTube channel, Integral Goes to the Movies, a 90-minute presentation from Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D., the creator of Integral Cinema Project, in which he illuminates the structures of consciousness embedded both within various films and within the medium itself. This could change the way you look at film...and just about everything else.

Acclaimed filmmaker and Integral Cinema Project founder Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. presents a mind-blowing new way to look at and think about the moving image in all its evolving forms. This March 16, 2016 talk for Bay Area Integral at the Rudramandir Center in Berkeley, CA has been turbocharged with dozens of visual aids and nearly 100 film clips to create a multi-dimensional visceral experience of the evolution of cinematic consciousness.

Video directed & edited by Jonathan Steigman
With Integral Cinematic Meta-Design by Mark Allan Kaplan
Special thanks to Bay Area Integral and the Bay Area Integral team

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:

Citizen Kane (1941) - This cinematic masterpiece has hints of the emergence of integral cinematic style and structure into a more main stream form as it traces the evolution of an individual life and explores how our primal wound can both propel us up the ladder of human development while also undermining and regressing us at the same time. While the film's main character falls far short of the higher stages of development, the filmmaker, Orson Welles, potentially elevates us the audience into a higher level of perception as we are cinematically raised up into the integral dimensions of a deeply integrating and witnessing consciousness.

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) - Beautiful animated trilogy of shorts that explores the journey of an individual life that dances across the thin line between life and death, time and timelessness, and form and the formless. The film is both raw and elegant and wondrously captures the main character's evolutionary dance from egocentric (self-absorbed) to Kosmocentric (unitive) levels of existence.

The Giver (2014) - A heart-felt integrally-informed psycho-social science fiction film that dramatically explores a post-catastrophe society that has tried to engineer a better world by suppressing the human shadow and de-evolutionary forces from the developmental arc. This suppression ends up also  burying many positive and higher emotions and the heart of the evolutionary impulse itself, and an old man who holds the memories of what the world lost gives a young man those memories in hopes of helping him evolve into the catalyst for the re-awakening of the heart and soul of the world.

Share (2014) - "Share" is a subtle and elegant integrally-informed dramatic short film exploring the impact of transcending the boundaries between subjective and intersubjective domains across multiple dimensions of being and becoming. The film's creator is a long time student of Integral Theory and one of the early integral practitioner's who have been attempting to apply Ken Wilber's Integral theories to media.

The Cobbler (2015) A deeply flawed but cute mystical comedy with an integrally-informed undercurrent of the main characters evolution from egocentric to Kosmocentric circles of care and concern.

TV Series New to the List:

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) Wonderful and deep yet light-hearted integrally-informed animated TV series that explores the evolving and spiraling dance between the separation and the union of the multiple dimensions of our being and becoming.

The Legend of Korra (2012-2014) - Another integrally-informed animated TV series from the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender, set in the Avatar universe many years later with a new, this time female, Avatar, expanding and deepening their exploration of the evolving and spiraling dance between the separation and the union of the multiple dimensions of our being and becoming.

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.

The Archetypal Lens: A Presentation for an Integral Approach to Archetypes and Archetypes in the Cinematic Arts

The Archetypal Lens by Mark Allan Kaplan

“The Archetypal Lens” is a presentation exploring the preliminary application of an Integral approach to archetypes and archetypes in the cinematic arts. Presented at MetaIntegral Academy for the Advanced Meta‐Movieology Course on April 16, 2015. (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3885.0724).

The presentation is available at SlideShare.

New and Updated Integral Movie and TV List Now on IMDb

The Integral Movie and TV List has been updated and moved over to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) at: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls074613980/.

On the list you will find all the currently tested movies and television series that have 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:

About Time (2013) - An integrally-informed Kosmic love story about a time-traveler who attempts to use time to fix mistakes and problems in his everyday life, love life, and in the lives of those around him and ends up evolving himself and others in ways beyond measure.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) - A viscerally-charged temporality-loop-based evolutionary science fiction journey about a soldier stuck on repeat going through the same battle over and over, forcing him to develop as a warrior and evolve from an egocentric to Kosmo-centric human being and ultimately find a Kosmic love.

Frequencies (2013) - Strange, wondrous and intimate integral-evolutionary parallel-present-reality science fiction film exploring free will, fate, attraction, and the Kosmic power of the frequencies of being and becoming.

Her (2013) - A beautiful, subtle, and imaginative integrally-informed exploration of the co-evolution of humanity and technology and the evolution of artificial intelligence toward a Kosmo-centric reality.

Interstellar (2014) - The beautiful and groundbreaking integrally-informed science fiction space epic that attempts to both accurately capture the real physics of outer space and concretize the non-physical dimension of love as a Kosmic level force of existence.

Lucy (2014) - Hip and pulp-styled integrally-informed parallel-present-reality science fiction action flick whose female lead goes on a wild drug-induced physical, emotional, perspectival, and ultimately Kosmic evolutionary ride to the further reaches of being and becoming.

Man Facing Southeast (1986) - A mysterious, magical, Christ-like, integral-esque and perhaps "alien" patient in an insane asylum acts as the evolutionary catalyst for the residing psychologist and all the other lives he touches.

Oblivion (2013) - A haunting and layered science fiction exploration of the evolution of awareness and consciousness within and beyond the traditional corporal forms of humanity.

TV Series New to the List:

Awake (2012 TV Series) - An imaginative short-lived TV series that attempts to use temporal and spatial shifts in reality in the service of the main characters evolution toward a Kosmo-centric level of being.

Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV Series) - Epic integral-evolutionary space saga that takes us on a developmental journey that slowly becomes deeper, richer and more complex and ultimately evolves into a profoundly transformative time, space and mind-bending adventure where villains evolve into heroes, pasts become the future and the future become past.

Da Vinci's Demons (2013 TV Series) - A fun, imaginative, and deep reimagining of the life and times of Leonardo Da Vinci portraying him as an integrally-informed genius way ahead of his time.

Heroes (2006 TV Series) - A wild, superhero-esque integral-evolutionary exploration of the struggle between humanities higher and darker potentials. While network pressures caused the creators of this show to veer off their intended course, the integral-evolutionary foundation of the work is still present through to the end.

Sense8 (2015 TV Series) - "Sense8" is a beautiful, brilliant, and groundbreaking integrally-informed dramatic series that attempts to capture and help us vicariously and viscerally experience the tetra-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.

Touch (2012 TV Series) - A beautiful short-lived TV series about the interconnectedness of all things and an integrally-informed level gifted child who perceives and acts from this complex web of connection and profoundly effects those around him and the fabric of reality itself.

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.

Sony Donates to the Integral Cinema Project

The Integral Cinema Project has received the generous donation of Vegas Pro 13 Suite video editing, disc authoring, and visual effects software package from Sony Creative Software.

Vegas Pro 13 Suite is an intuitive and integrated suite of applications for advanced video and audio editing, deep visual effects processing, and disc authoring with total workflow customization, The suite is comprised of Sony Vegas Pro 13 as its core application along with a host of additional tools from Sony Creative Software and its key partners including DVD Architect 6, Sound Forge Pro 11, Vegas Pro Production Assistant 2, HitFilm 3 Pro, iZotope Nectar Elements audio effects package, and NewBlue Video Essentials VI visual effects package.

The Integral Cinema Project is using this software in its cinematic research experiments on the application of Integral Theory to cinematic design and creation practices through various experimental video productions.

Our initial testing of the Vegas Pro 13 Suite suggests that it can be a useful and powerful tool for in-depth cinematic research and experimentation and for integrally-informed post-production processes and practices.

We are deeply grateful for the contribution of this software suite, and for the support of Sony Creative Software.

Integral Cinema Project Receives Donation of Movie Collector Software

The Integral Cinema Project has received the generous donation of Movie Collector movie cataloging database software from Collectorz Software.

Movie Collector is one of the most comprehensive movie cataloging software programs that makes it easy to create your own movie library catalog and database complete with automatic downloading of movie data, images, trailers, etc. It includes cataloging of movies on DVD, Blu-Ray, Videotape, computer video files and online video services and direct links to online resources like the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). In addition, the pro version offers complete customization with the capacity to add your own data and data categories. The software comes in PC and MAC versions along with mobile apps for both Android and Apple devices,

Screenshot of Movie Collector Program

The Integral Cinema Project is using this software in its research on the Co-Evolution of the Moving Image, Conscious, Culture and Society; as part of the Basic Integral Cinematic Aperspectivalism Test (BICAT) testing of cinematic works; and for the development and application of Meta-Movieology practices.

Our initial testing of the Movie Collector program suggests that it can be a useful and powerful tool for both personal and professional use, including in depth cinematic research.

We are deeply grateful for the contribution of this software program, and for the support and inspiration of the creators of Collectorz software.

The Co-Evolution of the Moving Image, Consciousness, Culture, & Society Interactive Timeline (Beta)

Announcing the Beta launch of

THE CO-EVOLUTION OF THE MOVING IMAGE, CONSCIOUSNESS, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY (Interactive Timeline)

An Interactive Web-Based Multimedia Research and Theory-Building Timeline

The Co-Evolution of the Moving Image, Consciousness, Culture, and Society Interactive Timeline represents a preliminary mapping of the co-evolution of the moving image in all its evolving forms, and consciousness, culture and society using a transdisciplinary and Integrally-informed cinematic analytic meta-approach to explore the history of cinema, self and world from 1878 through the present.

The current version includes a high degree of mapping from 1878 through the silent and early sound period with ongoing mapping taking place from the early sound period on.

Preliminary research suggests that the moving image in all its evolving forms, including movies, television, and video games, act as co-evolutionary catalysts for the development of individual and collective consciousness, cultural worldviews, and social change. In addition, it appears that the moving image medium itself goes through evolutionary cycles of the embedding of structures of consciousness from archaic to magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral cinematic structures; with the recycling of this evolutionary cycle as each new form emerges. For example, the silent film era begins at archaic and peaks at integral, then with the introduction of sound, the medium appeared to revert back to archaic forms momentarily before progressively cycling through these stages of consciousness again, but this time with the sound film form.

Beta Version of the Timeline Available at: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/126075/The-Co-Evolution-of-the-Moving-Image-Consciousness-Culture-and-Society/

iAwake Technologies and Integral Cinema Project Partnership

Announcing the Integral Cinema Project's newest research partner, iAwake Technologies, creators of advanced Brainwave and Biofield audio entrainment tools and pioneers in the emerging field of spiritual technologies.

As part of this partnership, iAwake Technologies has graciously donated their entire library of leading edge transformational brain/mind audio tools to support Integral Cinema Project research into using the iAwake audio technologies with the advanced transformational visual technologies that the Integral Cinema Project is developing and experimenting with.

Stay tuned for the results of this cutting edge research...and in the meantime check out iAwake's amazing tools for transformation at: http://www.iawaketechnologies.com/