What many are calling spiritual cinema may actually be some-thing else, a re-birth of the booksellers’ pot of gold from the 80s: Self Help.That’s not necessarily bad, it’s just not necessarily spiritual.
There is little to be said about spirit, its presence or the power of the mind to tap into it that has not been said before. Whether it was written ages ago in the Upanishads, the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Essenes’ Lost Art of Prayer; great thinkers, healers and shamans of antiquity told us that thoughts are things and that we are active participants in creating our reality through the way we choose to use them.
I am reminded of this as I view another entry in the current crop of “spiritual” films designed to reap the earthly rewards of understanding quantum physics and practicing the biochemistry of belief. This movie is called The Secret. It features an occasionally incongruous blend of motivational speakers, pop spiritualists and seekers of the quantum grail talking about mind, matter and what we can accomplish in life.
Much of this talk centers around getting (manifesting) things: usually money, a car, a better job or love. Tales of motivational author Napoleon Hill are told and others point to their own personal experience of quantum physics in action. They are individually bold and brilliant, but collectively it sometimes feels like a motivational tent show and you can’t help but feel that you’re being pitched.
Each speaker is set before a luscious custom backdrop while inspirational stories are re-enbackdrop while inspirational stories are re-enacted ala Court TV dramatizations. While receiving plenty of press (several of its participants were recently on Larry King Live), this movie has no collective heart and none of the fun or eccentric intelligence of the ground breaking What the Bleep films. It does inspire one to ask, however: if most “spiritual” films and books are just old wine in new bottles, what makes old wisdom feel new and actually inspires us as if it were?
In film, as in other arts, neither the passion of the speaker nor the facts according to science make the difference. The difference is in the art of story telling. It takes talent. It is not enough to have an idea or a hundred million dollars.
"If most spiritual films and books are just old wine in new bottles, what makes old wisdom feel new, and inspire us as if it were?"
Talent is close to God. Art, beauty, soul and transformation are always and inextricably linked. What begins in one person’s soul and is expressed through the perfection of their craft resonates in another person’s soul at the same frequency from which it sprang. Movies are spiritual because they have at their heart a vision and someone with mastery over their craft.
When it comes to films that uplift, inspire and even transform, there are thousands of them. These films may overtly have little to do with God or the spiritual path. But their very existence is proof of the powers of manifestation. They embody a sense of artistry and art and a striving for perfection that is boundless and supreme – a film like Chinatown comes to mind.
As I understand it a real spiritual film, as opposed to a self help film, is a quest for beauty and perfection – whatever the subject. In general they share these qualities:
They are original. They are the first to dance out on a limb, but the limb never breaks. They demonstrate incredible acts of faith. They use the technology in a new way or they dramatize a commonly held but little expressed belief. (Blair Witch Project and What the Bleep did this.)
They are beautiful even in their horror. They show us God in all of God’s unseemly disguises. The beauty of the image is a quest for perfection. Everything by David Lynch and Daron Aronofsy (Requiem for a Dream, Pi, etc.) convey this sense of holiness even in the most bizarre and saddest of situations.
They are complete, seamless. You enter their world and are held there through continuity of character and consistency of their actions. It’s a trip, like the one you’re on watching Momento or the first Star Wars movie.
They’re courageous. The sheer size and shape of the thing defies flight, like Titanic or Lord of the Rings yet they are light as a feather and you go off with them into their world.
They are fun. They take unexpected leaps (just like Quantum Physics anticipates) and they bend the rules. They understand how close God is to play. Someone is really having fun with this, like Mel Brooks and the Marx Brothers did in their films.
There are thousands of great spiritual movies in the vaults of film making, very few of them are overtly spiritual. They are spiritual because they had at their core an artist: a seeker with heart, ability and a finely focused practice.
Those monks, centuries ago, that spent life times painstakingly copying the Bible or illustrating its stories, were close to God not because they were close to spiritual stories but because they were practicing being perfect themselves. It is no “Secret” that it is in acts like this, not jumping up and down and pointing at the moon - that we can inspire others and become transformed ourselves.
The Secret is available directly to members of the Spiritual Cinema Circle’s DVD club. www.spiritualcinemacircle.com/secret
