MAKBLOG

The Integral Cinema Project has received the generous donation of SHARM Studio 4 Software from CyberTeam, Ltd.

SHARM Studio is a professional transformational audio tool that provides the capacity to create transformative audio entrainment soundtracks including the creation of original ambient scores along with the embedding of brainwave entrainment binaural, monaural, and/or isochronic tones.

The Integral Cinema Project is using this software to create transformative soundtracks for our cinematic experiments, and preliminary research suggests that the integration of this type of sound with integrally-designed visual and textual elements can significantly increase the immersive and transformational capacity of cinematic media.

We are deeply grateful for the support of CyberTeam, Ltd.

Dorothy Fadiman is one of the pioneers in Transpersonal Filmmaking and her film “RADIANCE: The Experience of Light” is considered a classic in the field. RADIANCE is both a cinematic expression of Fadiman’s own personal transcendent experience of Divine Light and a visual/poetic exploration of the spiritual significance of light and “radiance.” Here, in Fadiman’s own words, is the story of how this great work was born:

My husband and I create a simple ritual, we take turns drinking from a goblet, gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes, and each take some excellent acid. It’s the 60’s… We know our dealer, and we trust that we have taken good quality (legal at that time…) LSD. As our inner worlds expand, and deepen, I lay down, l close my eyes and start to breathe deeply, as my heart opens and… I hear a voice…inside my head, speaking to me:  “May I fill you with Light?’

I have no idea who or what is speaking to me and in this moment, it doesn’t matter.

Whatever it is, I trust it. When you are in this state, where everything is connected to everything…whatever is happening seems right… and I say YES.

With the word “yes” my entire body begins filling with LIGHT, A BRILLIANT CASCADE …of light. A waterfall of radiance flows through me, every cell of my body is filled with this light. As the brilliance becomes almost unbearably intense…then, Jim reaches out and touches me… Suddenly, it STOPS… His touch pulls me back into the room…. I remember saying “What are you doing?????” It’s a moment I refer to now, affectionately, as “Illuminatus Interruptus,” but, in THAT moment, THEN, I am shocked.

Looking back, I know now that I was not ready to receive any more of light than when it stopped after Jim touched me…I realize now that the intention of this cascade was not only to infuse me with light… which it did, but also for me to be able to bring this light back, into my own world….like I am doing now, to tell people about it.

I spend the next ten years raising two daughters while trying to write a book about light. The dirty laundry piles up for days at a time, the dented grey file cabinets fill with my research about light, when the girls are in school, I sneak away to the basement of the art library at Stanford and spend hours under glaring fluorescent lights searching for images of radiant saints and glowing angels as I struggle to write my book.

Finally, after ten years of trying to complete my mission to tell this story with pictures and words on paper, there is a knock on our door. Literally, standing there, is a filmmaker. He says, “I heard what you’ve been trying to do, to write a book about light. Did you ever think of making a movie???”

With his help, I make my first film RADIANCE: The Experience of Light. Since then I have produced more than 25 films…each, in its own way, infused with the “light”. The guidance which appeared to me during the experience of light more than 40 years ago, is with me today, every day.

RADIANCE: The Experience of Light can be viewed online at: http://dorothyfadiman.com/radiance-the-experience-of-light or downloaded at: http://www.archive.org/details/Radiance_The_Experience_Of_Light

ABOUT the FILMMAKER

Dorothy Fadiman has been producing award-winning media with a focus on social justice and human rights since 1976. Most of her films have been shown on PBS and in Festivals throughout the world. For more about Dorothy and her work, visit her websites at: www.concentric.org and www.dorothyfadiman.com

There are two uses of the term “transcinema.” One is used to refer to films about transgender issues and is usually spelled “trans-cinema;” the other usage, spelled “transcinema,” refers to creative works that use cinematic expression as part of a hybrid creative work, usually a combination of live performance and projected cinematic imagery.

The transcinema movement can be traced back to avant-garde art movements in the 60s and had a resurgence back in the late 90s and early part of the 2000s. This later expression appears to be connected to the introduction of digital media technologies and a greater cultural movement of convergence in media platforms. This movement can also be correlated to Integral and transpersonal cultural and creative trends in that it is boundary transcending (transpersonal) and represents a striving toward an integrated multi-dimensional mode of expression (Integral).

During my research into this area I discovered several patterns that appear to be unique to this form of hybrid cinema. It seems that once you start combining live performance and imagery and sound, audiences gets hooked on it and the absence of one or more of these elements must be used with extreme purpose and prejudice.

There is also a natural expectation of a “third and fourth story” beyond the story of the performance and the story on the screen; there is the story of their convergence (the convergence story) and the container for this convergence (the spatial story).

In addition, the audience tends to expect and anticipate a build in convergence between the live performance and the cinematic projections as the piece unfolds; they also tend to anticipate a convergence climax. Of course, the transcinema artist/team, have the choice to fulfill this pattern or consciously play against it, either subtly or overtly.

I have been researching what I call transformative creation-states for several years now. By this I mean the use of spiritual, transpersonal, and integral approaches for creative expression to induce altered states of consciousness in order to intentionally convert the creative act into a deeply transformative experience for both the artist and the viewer.

During my research in this area I have discerned several discreet transformative creation-states including creative inspiration-states, catharsis-states, visioning-states, witnessing-states, resonance-states, integration-states, and states of creative grace. I also observed and experienced various group creation states including creative group fields and I-Thou creation states in which members of the creative environment become the “sacred other.”

In addition, during this inquiry I also found a confluence of both structure and flow in the transformative creative process, manifesting within, around, and between any and all of these various transformative creation states. There also appears to be a process in which these two state typologies converge, leading to a transformative creative synthesis of structure and flow.

For example, in my own creative work (film, writing, drawing, etc.), I have found that I can approach the transformative-creative act from a pure flow approach (mindfulness/beingness approach) or from a pure structure approach (e.g., applying sacred rituals and practices or esoteric spiritual structures like Kabbalistic Divine-creation patterns). When I really click into either one of these two creation-state typologies a synthesis appears to occur: The flow-process produces previously hidden structures, and the structure-process leads to a kind of structure-flow experience in which Divine energy appears to move through the structures and, if I am open to it, takes me into a flow through the structures along with it. These experiments have led me to play with a synthesis approach, consciously marrying flow and structure in a sacred-creative dance.

Looking at this triangulation pattern through the masculine/feminine typology lens, the flow-process can be correlated to the feminine, the structure-process correlated to the masculine, and the synthesis of the two can be seen as a union of the deep masculine and feminine.

A little over ten years ago I had my first encounter with what might be called “integral filmmaking.” I had been studying Ken Wilber’s Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995) and practicing George Leonard and Michael Murphy’s Integral Transformative Practice (ITP) on a daily basis. One day I performed my ITP Kata (a set of integrated body, mind, and spirit exercises) right before running a camera test on my new digital video camcorder. Still being in a post-practice transformative state, I had a profound cinematic experience. As I moved through the house with the camera on, I appeared to be fully aware and conscious of my inner experience, the camera in my hand and the space within which I was moving. I exited the house and was drawn to our koi pond. Once there, I felt drawn into the world of the pond and entered a deep state of pure presence or witnessing. My camera became my eyes, and my body, my awareness and the camera danced with the fish, the gently rippling water, the shimmering sunlight, the caressing wind and the material forms of the pond and its surroundings. I spent hours at the pond, lost in a deep cinematic meditation process. Afterwards I felt a profound sense of gratitude and grace.

When I viewed my footage I was amazed at what I had captured. There before my eyes appeared to be a cinematic example of the four dimensions/perspectives of Wilber’s Integral Theory (Subjective/I Space; Inter-Subjective/We Space; Objective/IT Space; and Inter-Objective/ITS Space): Besides the physical reality of the pond (IT Space) and the environment within and around it (ITS Space), I had footage of the individual koi fish in which I could sense their individual presence (I Space) and footage of the fish in pairs and groups that seemed to reveal a collective and inter-relational presence (WE Space).

I decided to continue my accidental experiment, spending the next few days editing the material while in a post-ITP state. I would basically perform my ITP Kata (Leonard & Murphy, 1995) and then sit down at the computer and edit in that state. It was a wondrous experience, and once I finished, the viewing of the final work sent me into the very state I experienced while shooting it. When I showed it to a few people they all said the same thing — that the video put them into a very relaxed state and gave them the experience of actually being at the koi pond.

References

Kaplan, M. A. (2002). The Pond [Digital Video]. http://www.markallankaplan.com/cine/pond.htm

Leonard, G. & Murphy, M. (1995). The life we are given: A long-term program for realizing the potential of body, mind, heart, and soul. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Wilber, K. (1995). Sex, ecology, spirituality: The spirit of evolution. Boston, MA: Shambhala.

Over his illustrious 60-year career, Bob observed that the perceptual consciousness of the cinematic audience appeared to advance along with the cinema in the ability to communicate more information, in more abstract forms, within shorter durations of time. He explained that when he first started in the film industry the motion picture audiences required very clear linear story structures, and that gradually throughout his career, the audiences seemed to develop the ability to more readily and quickly project meaning across discontinuous and non-linear cinematic structures.

To illustrate one aspect of this evolution, Bob used the example of a cinematic sequence that has a character driving to another character’s house for a meeting. In the old days filmmakers had to show the person driving the car, stopping the car, getting out of the car, walking up to the house, knocking on the door, and then going inside. Gradually over time, the audience has advanced to the point of being able to accept a direct cut from a person driving a car to them suddenly being inside someone’s house. Wise believed that these advancements in both cinematic expression and the perceptual consciousness of the cinematic audience were the product of an interdependent and co-evolutionary relationship between the cinema and the audience. This observation appears to concur with Jean Gebser’s (1986) contention that artistic movements and trends have a tendency to influence and be affected by the evolution of consciousness.

At the end of our time together, Bob was called away quickly, but before he left the editing room, he paused to compliment my work and then sweetly and genuinely said, “I hope I helped you a little bit…” Of course, I profusely thanked him and sincerely assured him that his help was beyond measure. As Bob walked off, I thought about his last words to me and felt a mysterious shift inside me. In that brief moment, it seemed as though I had received a kind of shaktipat, or life-lesson-energetic-transmission, from this amazing man. After all the awards, honors and accolades, Bob Wise was still a sweet and deeply humble human being, and his living presence and example penetrated me in ways I still cannot describe. I will never forget that moment, and every moment I was blessed by his presence. In my heart and mind, I believe Bob Wise was a true Cinematic Bodhisattva.

REFERENCES

Gebser, J. (1985). The ever-present origin (N. Barstad & A. Mickuns, Trans.). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. (Original work published 1949)

The Transpersonal Cinema Project IndieGoGo fundraising site is now open for funding:

http://www.indiegogo.com/transpersonalcinemaproject?iggref=CAGN_PJLC

The Transpersonal Cinema Project is now on IndieGoGo at: http://www.indiegogo.com/transpersonalcinemaproject

Once complete, the TCP IndieGoGo site will act as a project funding, promotion, and social networking hub for those interested in supporting and/or participating in The Transpersonal Cinema Project.

Progress, 1974

All through my childhood, I struggled with finding a way to communicate with others. My stutter made verbal communication difficult and emotionally painful, and I searched for others ways of expressing myself. I began to draw at an earlier age, studying at the Art Institute of Chicago between the ages of nine and eleven. Gradually expanding into painting, still photography, and architectural design, I received numerous awards for my work. When I was sixteen I took a film class in high school. I teamed up with a friend, and we made a super 8 film together for our final project (Progress, 1974). I loved creating the film, and felt a sense of joy and purpose. When we showed the film in class, people laughed and cried. I felt a chill shoot up and down my spine as the flickering light and dancing celluloid images touched the hearts and minds of others. Time appeared to stand still, and I experienced a feeling of deep connection with everyone in the room. I also had a sense of great mystery, as though I had become a channel for something greater than myself. Suddenly, I knew that this was my path, my gift, my calling.