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.

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…

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...

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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 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

The Birth of Trans-Opera: The Convergence of Cinema and Opera

A new form of opera emerged recently. For this year’s production of the Barber of Seville, the Florida Grand Opera company blazed new territory by using an animated digital screen backdrop for their production, adding depth, movement, and cinematic immersion to classic opera. This animated digital backdrop added evolving background environments replete with changes in location, light, and weather. It also added shadow characters that interacted with the live actors on stage, from groups of musicians and soldiers to a lone alley cat. Beyond these dimensions, the animated background also appeared to add greater symbolic and thematic depth to the relatively simple story of the Barber of Seville. Then, in the final moments of the opera, something even more wondrous occurred. The actors climbed up the steps of the central set piece and in the digital background, giant animated wings unfolded and began to flap. The juxtaposition between the animated backdrop and the live action actors and set pieces created the effect of flying to the heavens. The audience let out a collective gasp and for a few brief moments the stage was transcended and the audience, actors, and set pieces soared.

This convergence of opera with digital cinematic elements created a new multi-dimensional form of entertainment that could be called “trans-opera.” The birth of this new opera-cinematic hybrid is the work of French Director Renaud Doucet and Canadian Production Designer Andre Barbe, with the technical help of Miami’s Lava Studios. The impetus for the birth of this new approach came out of current financial constraints, and from these limits an artistic phoenix has risen. I feel honored to have personally witnessed this event.

Eli Stone and Transpersonal Television

There have been many wonderful television shows dealing with transpersonal themes over the years, including The Twilight Zone (Alternate Realities), Quantum Leap (Time Travel), The X-Files (Alien Encounters), Touched by an Angel (Angels), and Joan of Arcadia (Divine Guidance). There are also several superb transpersonal television shows currently on the air, including Lost (Metaphysical Realities), Life (Zen), Life on Mars (Time Travel), Heroes, Kyle-XY (Exceptional Human Capacities), and Eli Stone (Divine Guidance).

While all of these shows are excellent transpersonal television journeys, I believe Eli Stone must be singled out as one of televisions transpersonal masterpieces. The reason I believe Eli Stone deserves this mantle, is that it not only explores a transpersonal topic with great depth, grace, wit, and integrity, it also has the capacity to give the viewing audience a powerful experience of higher and illusive states of being. How often does a TV show induce a deep sense of grace, hope and faith in the face of life’s haunting mysteries? This is very rare…so I say, BRAVO to the creators of Eli Stone! But I also have to give a big BOO to the network (ABC) who never gave the show the chance it deserved and canceled this gem of television enlightentainment.