In this Digital Video Meditation, integral and  transpersonal approaches to the creation of film, video, and multimedia expressions are explored by attempting to capture the presence and atmosphere of a natural environment and the state of consciousness one can acquire when meditating on natural beauty. 

Specifically, THE POND is an attempt to capture the state of consciousness one can enter when meditating at the foot of a fish pond. The gentle movement and presence of swimming fish and the interplay of earth, water and sky, combine to create a healing and calming energy.

The Process

To create THE POND I performed an Integral Transformative Practice (ITP) and then meditated by the side of my Koi Pond. After I entered a deep altered state I picked up my Mini-DV camera, pressed the record button, and then allowed my own inner promptings and the movement of the water and the fish to guide the camera. After recording an hour of material I turned off the camera, sat back down, and did a final meditation and completion ritual.

Next I transferred the digital images to my computer and proceeded to edit it while in a meditative state. To achieve and hold this state I created rituals, meditative practices and played a special alpha-theta entrainment audio recording in the background. I opened my mind and let the material speak to me in an intuitive way, sensing which images would be included, the order they would appear, the in and out points of each shot and the type of transition needed. 

One day during the editing I felt guided to play a CD of music by a friend of mine, Robert Clark. Robert creates deeply sacred and meditative music using a stream of consciousness approach. When I played the CD, one of the songs seemed to connect directly with the visual material. When I added this song and an alpha-theta entrainment background track to the raw footage, a major shift in the process occurred and the combined audio and video material unfolded into an elegant structure almost on its own.