Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of the Integral Cinema Project, started us off with a deep dive into the basic patterns his years of research have revealed and then we opened it up for a deep community exploration of the topic.
Showing posts with label Integral Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Integral Theory. Show all posts
What Makes a Media Work Integral?
Transformative Media Creation and Reception Course
Announcing a new online course in
Transformative Media Creation and Reception:
Designing and Creating Transformative Media Experiences for Self, Other and World
with Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Starting the week of November 3, 2019
This is a course for aspiring and accomplished change makers who want to learn how to use media to extend and deepen their efforts to create transformation in self, other and world. It will illuminate the comprehensive toolkit for designing media to catalyze healing, personal growth and the evolution of consciousness on an individual and collective level.
Together, we will learn about the co-evolutionary relationship between moving-image-based communication mediums, consciousness, media, culture and society, and how these mediums can be used as a driving force for individual and collective healing, growth, and revolutionary and evolutionary change and transformation. We will also be exploring how to consciously create and receive moving image works as a transformative practice for self, other and world through the development of both individual and group projects. No previous media-making experience required.
For more information and to sign up for this course visit:
Admissions: https://campus-coevolve.org/admissions/
“What the Bleep Do We Know” about Tapping into the Zeitgeist?
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| What the Bleep Do We Know (2004) |
Exploring What the Bleep Do We Know (2004) as this month’s Conscious Movie-of-the-Month selection has made clear that one of the major hallmarks of this work is that it somehow tapped into the zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times. The historical data suggests that a media works’ potential to achieve financial success or major transformative impact is directly related to its relationship to the zeitgeist, or collective field at the time of its release. Even traditional entertainment industry watchers have recognized this issue, as reflected in this Hollywood Reporter article from 2015. This is a wonderful insight, to be sure, but it begs a larger question: Is it possible to create a media work with the intention of connecting with the zeitgeist? Or is this too subtle and complex a connection for us to work with on a conscious and direct level?
Using What the Bleep as a case study I think is valuable for helping us examine this question. What we have learned from the filmmakers William Arntz and Betsy Chasse, and one of the distributors of the film, Ron Laurie, during this month was that they were conscious of it happening on some level at some point during the creation process, and they attempted to ride the wave the best they could in each of their own ways and as a team. Exploring their distribution efforts, we see an example of using an integral approach to consciously tap into the zeitgeist wave and maximize the ride…which they did successfully.
I have been researching this potential to consciously tap into the zeitgeist, or as we say in Integral Theory, tapping into the “evolutionary impulse,” or the driving force of the evolving universe. From this perspective the zeitgeist can be seen as the current collective field within the evolutionary stream of a culture and society. The key to tapping into it is to become conscious of the evolutionary arc behind this wave. Becoming conscious of the evolutionary arc that has led to any given moment in the life of an individual or the collective has the potential to give us the capacity to sense the energy of trajectory of this collective wave, and in turn the evolutionary impulse behind it. While this is a very complex and subtle process our research suggests it is indeed possible to consciously tap into the zeitgeist and evolutionary impulse, and thus increase our chances of both audience reach and transformative impact.
To learn more about this process and how you can ride the zeitgeist wave yourself, be sure to join Trina Wyatt, myself and special guest, What the Bleep co-creator, Betsy Chasse for our live virtual chat on Wednesday June 26th at 6 pm PST.
Breaking the Wheel: Reflections on Game of Thrones, Selma and the Great Transition
Game of Thrones (2011-2019) Final Episode
For those of you who have been watching Game of Thrones, this is a special week...the week of the series finale. For many viewers, outsized expectations combined with mixed feelings about the final two seasons make it difficult to see the finale in a clear and deep way. Many viewers online are expressing disappointment at how the show finally turned out, while others have decidedly mixed feelings. Part of this may be due to the show’s need to wrap itself up before the book series on which it is based has even been completed. While author George R. R. Martin told the creators of the show how his saga will end, the show runners have had to create the meat around the foundational bones of the story themselves, and do it in a shorter span of time.
After a deep analysis of the series it appears that the GoT finale and the show as a whole stands as a brilliant work of integral cinema, integrating multiple dimensions of being and becoming. The series arc depicts the evolutionary transition away from the monarchy system and into the stirrings of representative democracy. Meanwhile, it lays bare the full arc of Daenerys’ rise as an authoritarian demagogue, strongly echoing the current political situation and evolutionary transition we are facing today.
For those of us who loved the movie Selma (2014) who are also fans of GoT, we can find some very fascinating parallels and differences between the transformations of consciousness explored in these two works. Selma is, of course, a story about a real-life event and GoT is a fictional representation of real-life processes and patterns. Both explore societal transitions, and both have resonances connected with the structures of consciousness that support prejudice, bigotry and slavery...and the struggle to transcend these structures. One explores the process of attempting to create a better world where violence is used (GoT) and the other, where non-violent civil disobedience is used (Selma).
Selma (2014)
The transition explored in GoT is about the shift from the traditional (mythic) to the modern (rational) structures of consciousness, where violence has been historically the most used transitional catalyst. Selma, on the other hand, explores part of the transition from the modern (rational) to the postmodern (pluralistic) structures of consciousness, where non-violence tends to be the most potent choice. Both of these methods relate to our current situation since the transition we are going through includes a conflict between the traditional (mythic), modern (rational) and postmodern (pluralistic) structures of consciousness, all at the same time.
In many ways, these types of transitions between different structures of consciousness and the cultural and social systems that have been built up around them requires one to “break the wheel” of the old system in order to make room for something new to emerge like in GoT…while there are also times when all we need do is try to fix the wheel like in Selma, there are also other times when it seems like the wheel of the old system breaks down by itself as it reaches these evolutionary transition points, like this moment we are all facing in our world today...and stories like these can help us see clearer and deeper and more expansively where we are and what we are called to evolve through and toward.
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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 the “Game of Thrones” series.
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Breaking the Wheel: Reflections on Game of Thrones, Selma and the Great Transition, Integral Cinematic Arts Journal, May 21, 2019. Available at: https://medium.com/integral-cinema/breaking-the-wheel-4fca74846a12
Announcing the Conscious Movie-of-the-Month Club
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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
2018 Integral Movie and TV List Update
So here are this last year's 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 2018 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 2018
Wrinkle in Time (2018; Now On Demand and Disk) - Wrinkle in Time is a beautiful, rich and groundbreaking integrally-informed cinematic work that uses an advanced form of feminine-communion storytelling in its use of communion-centered editorial, camerawork and production design and its nonlinear spiraling evolutionary arc of both its characters and its story. In this multilayered work the shots and cuts are focused less on the action and more on deep and layered emotions, inner promptings and catharses, as the characters and story streams move the characters and us the viewer through various stages of development that evolve through a series of cycles back in and through each stage several times, peeling away different forms and levels of challenges in those stages that ultimately lead to deep yet subtle evolutionary growth. Regrettably this great work falters at the end with a small yet fatal flaw in the story and character lines of development at a peak transition moment. Still a great work worth seeing.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018; Netflix) - This feature length episode of the groundbreaking integral series from Netflix breaks even more new ground by integrating the interactivity between multiple storyworld streams and the viewer/player experience as we are given choices in how the story unfolds in real time. The integration of story, character and viewer experience even includes the main character starting to act like they can feel us the viewer manipulating their life. The multi-layered complex interconnections between the on-screen storyworld and the viewer/player reality produces a potentially profound experience of deep integral aperspectival awareness in us as we watch and play along. This integration leads us and the main character into intellectually, emotionally and existentially questioning essential aspects of free will, choice and the nature of reality, and potentially shifting us into the integral-Kosmocentric witness state in search of the "big picture" of existence.
Altered Carbon (2018; Netflix) - This Netflix original series explores the question of what part does death play in the evolution of consciousness, culture and society by transporting us to a sci-fi world where death has been eliminated by using technology to digitize consciousness and transfer to other bodies (sleeves). In the first season we see how the absence of death messes with the spiral of development in ways that causes us to potentially loose our humanity while increasing class divides and losing the gravity that draws us toward healthy growth and development and the evolutionary impulse itself.
Childhood's End (2015; Syfy) - A flawed Syfy cable mini-series adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's classic integral evolutionary science fiction novel that struggles to find its footing while still imparting the essential evolutionary trajectory of the original work. Even though it lacks the heart and spirit of the original story, one cannot help but feel the power of Clarke's universe and the tale of how the human race will ultimately transcend its limits (with a little help from some other worldly friends) and evolve into a Kosmo-centric species. There is also some of the wonderful archetypal power of the original's transcendent use of the demon/devil archetype.
Selma (2014; On Demand and Disk) - Selma is a multi-dimensional and multi-perspectival cinematic exploration of an event in the life of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. that reveals the various individual and collective forces that moved all sides of this profound political moment in American history. During this exploration, Dr. King is revealed to be both a flawed human being on the personal relationship level and a masterful integral thinker with the capacity to see a greater depth and span in the events around him than those around him could see.
Andromeda (2000-2005; Syfy) - A brilliant, integrally-informed science fiction universe and series based on some unused material by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. This wonderful little series has a progressively unfolding Kosmocentric center-of-gravity at the center of a hybrid mythic, rational and pluralistic storyworld that includes a wondrously simple yet complex exploration of the involution and evolution of consciousness, and an expanded perceptual field of sentient life and all its potential variations of beingness and becoming. Special thanks to Mark Le Sueur for bringing this work to our attention.
Star Trek Universe (1966-Present; Various) - Starting with the original Star Trek television series in 1966, through many itinerations up to the current Star Trek: Discovery streaming series, the Star Trek universe has given us a cinematic example of what an Integral moral universe would look like. With its evolutionary-aware Prime Directive and its trans-species post-Capitalist worldview, the Star Trek franchise has been planting integral consciousness seeds for over 50 years. While the episodes of the original series and the many spin-off series and the various theatrical itineration's vary in terms of just how integral they are in form and content, the center of gravity of the Star Trek universe is decidedly integral and evolutionary in heart and spirit, with the most recent works starting with the Star Trek (2009) theatrical reboot up to the current Star Trek: Discovery streaming series becoming much more integral across all expressive domains. Special thanks to Corey W. DeVos and Cindy Wigglesworth for their major contribution to an integral understanding of this profoundly influential cinematic franchise; be sure to check out their work on the Star Trek universe at IntegralLife.com.
Andrei Tarkovsky's Collected Works (1962-1986; Russia; On Demand and on Disk) - One of this year’s major research breakthroughs was the completion of our testing of the major cinematic works of Russian filmmaker and theorist Andrei Tarkovsky. What we discovered was that Tarkovsky's unique cinematic style, which he calls "sculpting in time," pervades all of his major works and is a masterful integrally-informed capturing of experiential reality. With long simple yet complex poetically choreographed shots that allow for a multi-layed unfolding of each successive cinematic moment, along with subtle shifts between narrative, visual, auditory, and temporal dimensions of individual and collective interior and exterior realities, Tarkovsky miraculously appears to be capturing and expressing a lived experiential reality in a profoundly visceral way. In addition, he seems to have a masterful capacity to capture and orchestrate gross, subtle and causal cinematic energies to create potential transcendental experiences and deep witnessing states in the viewer. With the addition of Tarkovsky's films into the integral cinema historical/evolutionary timeline we can see the deep impact his work has had on the evolution of integral cinema in particular and world cinema in general. The works included in this analysis are: Ivan's Childhood (1962); Andrei Rublev (1966); Solaris (1972); The Mirror (1975); Stalker (1979); Nostalghia (1983); and The Sacrifice (1986). Special thanks to Eugene Pustoshkin for bringing Tarkovsky to our attention and for sharing his deep knowledge of this integral cinema master and his work. For more on the Energetic Lens see Integral Cinema Studio (Kaplan, 2012)
La Jetée (1962; France; On Demand and Disk) - An avant-garde short using all still images to explore the nature of time, memory, dreams, human nature, the impermanence of the world of form and the evolution of self, culture and world, and in the end touches on the Kosmocentric witness at the edge of life and death.
Wild Strawberries (1957; Sweden; On Demand and Disk) - Ingmar Bergman's deeply reflective film explores the evolution of one man's life through memories, dreams, interactions and self-reflections. Through this process Bergman shows us how generational patterns imprison us and cause evolutionary regression, and how becoming a witness to these greater evolutionary and de-evolutionary patterns can awaken us and help us evolve further.
The Razor's Edge (1946; On Demand and Disk) - Adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's classic tale of a young man in search of the meaning of existence and his evolutionary journey toward a higher and deeper level of being and becoming.
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As you can see this has been a groundbreaking year for integral cinema with several works going beyond what has been done before in terms of integral cinematic expression and storytelling. In addition, the discovery of several important integral works from the past has given us a much clearer sense of the evolution of the embedding of the integral structure of consciousness in the moving image medium. In a strange way it seems that as our everyday reality is facing profound evolutionary challenges we are given a banner year of moving image works that help us expand and deepen our evolutionary awareness. Perhaps the collective evolutionary impulse is sending us a message...
Structures of Cinematic Consciousness
My new Integral Cinema Project white paper on Structures of Cinematic Consciousness is now available for online viewing and download.
This paper includes a preliminary mapping of how stages of human development and the structures of consciousness that make up each stage are embedded in moving image-based artifacts such as movies, television, online and mobile video, video games, virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality mediums. These mappings are based on a meta-analysis of hundreds of moving image artifacts cross-referenced with research on stages of human development, structures of individual and collective human consciousness, human perception, creative expression, and cultural and social anthropology.
This research suggests that human beings project their structures of consciousness into their creative works. This in turn appears to create similar composites of 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.
Available at: https://www.academia.edu/37998059/Structures_of_Cinematic_Consciousness
"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"
Black Panther Marks a Major Integral Cinema Milestone
Marvel's Black Panther is taking the world by storm, raking in over a billion dollars worldwide in its first five weeks of theatrical release, garnering rave reviews from critics and fans, challenging racial and diversity biases and boundaries in Hollywood film culture and beyond, spawning numerous testimonials about the films positive impact on individual viewers and minority communities, and eliciting glowing commentaries on how the film is a milestone in these and other various domains. After analyzing Black Panther and its impact on the individual and the collective, it appears that this wonderful superhero film is a major Integral Cinema milestone as well.
Black Panther's Integrally-informed cinematic structuring beautifully and subtly mirrors multiple stages of development in all aspects and levels of its narrative, visual, auditory and temporal/editorial expressions. It also shows both healthy and pathological manifestations of each developmental stage and represents subtle ways that one can transcend the pathologies and evolve to higher stages of development. At the same time, the film tackles major psychological, cultural and social issues, from primal psychological wounding to complex issues of race, gender, class, oppression and isolationism, in subtle and deep ways. Most extraordinarily, all of this is elegantly hidden beneath the surface of a wonderful, fun and seemingly-traditional superhero genre piece.
In terms of Black Panther being a milestone in the history of Integral Cinema and the cinema itself, it appears to be groundbreaking in its advanced capacity to integrate and synchronize all dimensions of cinematic expression (Text, Image, Sound and Time) through all levels of storytelling (Textual, Subtextual, Metatextual and Transtextual). While this form of synchronization is at the heart of the cinematic expression tradition, dating back to Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s and used by many filmmakers since, Integral filmmakers like Ryan Coogler appear to be creating an advanced form that also integrates the different structures of consciousness, culture and society (Archaic, Magic, Mythic, Rational, Pluralistic, Integral). Mr. Coogler's use of this type of cinematic expression in Black Panther is unparalleled in its depth and breadth and the sublime way it hides and integrates its complexity beneath its deceptively simple surface. This approach has the potential to induce subtle yet deeply immersive and transformative experiences in the viewer, transformation that could potentially extend to culture and society as well. This potential is hinted at by the cultural impact the film is already displaying.
From an Integral Cinema perspective, our research suggests that major advances in cinematic expression like those represented by Black Panther affect other creators and their cinematic works. These advances in expression create a major shift in cinematic consciousness, which is the collective way moving images in a given era communicate with the viewer. In turn, these types of advances in cinematic consciousness tend to entrain the audience to perceive in deeper and more expansive ways. In this way the moving image, consciousness, culture and society can be seen to co-evolve.
For more on all of this check out the new Integral Cinema TEHNC podcast series on Black Panther...
3 Keys to Unlock Black Panther (Short introduction to full-length analysis) - This special preview episode introduces you to 3 important keys you can use to unlock the hidden genius of Marvel's blockbuster Black Panther. This 5-minute summation by Integral Cinema Project research associate Jonathan Steigman is a sort of Cliff Notes version to whet your appetite for the full-length examination of the keys and how they manifest in the film with Mark Allan Kaplan, ICP lead researcher and the leading scholar of Integral Cinema.
The Hidden Genius of Black Panther (Full-length analysis) - Mark Allan Kaplan of Integral Cinema Project joins ICP research associate Jonathan Steigman to discuss 3 major keys that can help viewers discover the hidden genius behind the recent Marvel worldwide smash hit, Black Panther. Mark and Jonathan believe the film holds the potential to transform consciousness the world over and they unpack some of its secrets and point to why the film could transform cinematic consciousness as well. Filmmakers and others, take note!
Be sure to also check out Jonathan's short preliminary podcast on The Subversive Brilliance of Black Panther and Mark and Jonathan's short bonus podcast exploring The Previous Films of Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler.
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 Blessing
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/
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
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
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” 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.
Advanced Meta-Movieology Course
MetaIntegral Academy is excited to offer the wonderful and ground-breaking 12-week advanced course in Meta-Movieology created and facilitated by Mark Allan Kaplan. It starts January 18th, 2015. If you are an integralist and a movie enthusiast and have already taken the basic course (Meta-Movieology I), this course is for you.
REGISTER TODAY...
META-MOVIEOLOGY II – Advanced
A 12-Week Course in Using Movies to More
Deeply Understand and Fully Embody an Advanced Integral and Evolutionary
Perspective
PUT DOWN THE BOOKS, PICK UP THE
POPCORN,
AND RE-ENTER THE WORLD OF
EVOLUTIONARY ENLIGHTENTAINMENT
From: January 22, 2015 (Thursday) at 12:00am PDT
To: April 26, 2015 (Sunday) at 12:00am PDT
About this Course
Meta-Movieology II is the second course in the
Meta-Movieology series exploring a groundbreaking meta-approach to learning
Integral Theory through a transformative moving image viewing practice. In this
course you will develop a deeper and more visceral understanding of the advanced
elements of the Integral approach by using the aesthetic and multisensory power
of the moving image for embodied learning and evolutionary growth.
Location:
This event takes place online.
Who is this Course
For?
This course is for
anyone who has taken the Meta-Movieology I introductory course. If you have
already taken the first Meta-Movieology course, this course will deepen and
expand the embodied learning and evolutionary growth from the previous course.
DETAILS
Join Mark for this advanced
level course, which explores how the six advanced Integrally-informed lenses of
zones, altitudes, energies, methods, complexity, and archetypes can be utilized
as powerful transformational practices for using any moving image work, from
movies to video games, for your own evolutionary growth and development. This
course will be taught through 12 weekly 90 minute conference calls (recordings
for the calls will be posted for participants who are not able to join a call).
We will be deeply exploring each of these six advanced integrally-informed lens,
spending two weeks on each lens with assigned practices, readings and movie
viewing assignments, along with online threaded discussions to connect with
fellow participants and deepen your understanding of this work. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity – Integral
Theory and the movies will never look or feel the same.
Dates: 12 weeks: January 18th – April 5th;
April 19th – April 26th
Cost: $495.00 USD
Number of
Participants: Up to 25
Instructor: Mark
Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Prerequisites: Meta-Movieology I.
Weekly Conference
Calls: Thursdays 1-2:30pm Pacific
Time
January 22 – Week 1: The ZONAL
Season Part 1
January 29 – Week 2: The ZONAL Season
Part 2
February 5 – Week 3: ALTITUDE
Inception Part 1
February 12 – Week 4: ALTITUDE
Inception Part 2
February 19 – Week 5: The
ENERGETIC Odyssey Part 1
February 26 – Week 6: The
ENERGETIC Odyssey Part 2
March 5 – Week 7: Every METHOD
is Illuminated Part 1
March 12 – Week 8: Every METHOD
is Illuminated Part 2
March 19 – Week 9: Complexity
Atlas Part 1
March 26 – Week 10: Complexity
Atlas Part 2
April 2 – Week 11: The Archetype
Rises Part 1
April 23 – Week 12: The
Archetype Rises Part 2
Note there will not be
a call on April 9th and 16th. This two week break is
designed to give participants enough time to watch and practice with the
complete Dark Knight Trilogy.
Weekly Movie Viewing
Assignments:*
Weeks 1- 2: "Bee Season" (2005)
Weeks 3-4: "Inception" (2010)
Weeks 5-6: "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)
Weeks 7-8: "Everything is Illuminated" (2005)
Weeks 9-10: “Cloud Atlas” (2012)
Weeks 11-12: “The Dark Knight Trilogy” (“Batman Begins,”
2005; “The Dark Knight,” 2008; “The Dark Knight Rises,” 2012)
*Participants will be required to either rent or buy the movies listed as
Weekly Movie Viewing Assignments. All other materials will be supplied by the
instructor. If you have not already seen any of these movies, it is recommended
you view them as a pure viewing experience before the course begins.
TESTIMONIALS
I was surprised at how
deep the Meta-Movieology practice goes. After completing the course, I have a
richer experience with films, which has cascaded into other areas of my life.
– Heather, San Carlos, CA
I can't say enough
good things about the Meta-Movieology course. It was delightful and profound.
This course enabled me to see integral concepts in movies that I had not
recognized before and that's saying a lot because I have followed Ken Wilber
since his first publications.
– Dennis, Silver Springs, MD
Mark is a great
teacher! I am out of my league as far as my experience with integral is
concerned, yet the materials, movies and weekly discussions in this course met
me right where I was at. I found the meditations mind blowing and key to the
shifts I am experiencing in my expanding awareness. I feel so fortunate to have
stumbled on this opportunity.
– Anne, Charlotte, NC
The Meta-Movieology
course is at the theoretical, practical, and pedagogical cutting-edge of
integral and evolutionary film theory and practice – it is a sophisticated
training in how to experience film, and therein how to deepen one’s experience
of the world within and around us. While being theoretically advanced, this
course is taught in a manner that anyone, beginner or advanced practitioner,
can readily get and do so with transformative results. I very highly recommend
this course of study.
– Michael, Augusta, GA
PRESENTERS
Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. is an independent award-winning
filmmaker and the pre-eminent theorist and practitioner of the application of
Integral Theory to the cinematic arts. Mark
has a B.A. in Motion Picture and Television Production from the University of
Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, an M.F.A. in Motion Picture
Directing from the American Film Institute, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in
Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and a Certificate in
Integral Studies from Fielding Graduate University. He has worked
professionally in the entertainment industry as a producer, writer, director,
editor, researcher, and consultant. Mark’s creative works have been shown on
television, in theaters, schools, and colleges, and at art and film festivals
and expositions around the world. He has also conducted seminal research in
Integral, transpersonal, transformative, and transdisciplinary approaches to
film, video, and multimedia at Interval Research Corporation, the University of
Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and as founder and lead
researcher of the Integral Cinema Project, an independent research, production,
and educational initiative sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society. Mark
received Integral Institute's 2008 Integral Life Award in recognition of his
continuing groundbreaking research into the application of Integral Theory to
cinematic media theory and practice.
“Mark’s work is the
first mature application of Integral Theory to any domain of art.”
– Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (Founding CEO of MetaIntegral)
“Mark is the
pre-eminent theorist and practitioner of integral cinema and his work
represents one of the most advanced and profound meta-theory’s of art and media
to date.”
– Michael Schwartz, Ph.D. (Professor of History and
Philosophy of Art, Georgia Regents University)
“Mark’s passionate
quest to explore the further reaches of film and media theory and practice is
inspiring and holds great promise.”
– Jean Picker Firstenberg
(President Emeritus, American Film Institute)Robin Williams Multimedia Tribute at MetaIntegral
MetaIntegral Foundation wanted to pay tribute to the late Robin Williams from an integral perspective, so they asked me to create it as their resident integral movie expert. I was deeply honored by their invitation and jumped at the change, since I was already exploring this loss from an integral and complex thought perspective for myself.
The experience of writing this work was a deeply personal one because the loss of Robin Williams touched me profoundly, as it did for so many. As this piece evolved it became both a deeply heartfelt and reflective work and a sort of multimedia virtual wake experience as I was drawn to and included relevant video clips of Robin.
I am deeply grateful for this opportunity and thank MetaIntegral for their encouragement and support.
Rest in peace, Robin.
ROBIN WILLIAMS TRIBUTE
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