Your Inner Movies

Ah, the movies… a multi-billion dollar industry, and a fount of entertainment, politics, culture and drama. In the US, going to the movies is an important part of family time, intellectual stimulation and romantic ritual. There is such a broad spread of movies available these days that you’d think that watching them would be a fairly neutral activity.

On the surface, it probably is. However, on the energy level, movies have much more impact than you would think. Why? Because we create from pictures, and moving pictures (including televsion) offer us the most intense barrage of images imaginable. Whatever we create starts out with a series of images; we then add in emotion (positive or negative), and start to bring that reality into our lives.

That cycle of creation starts with pictures that come from your ‘hard drive’, or the area of charged particles surrounding every person. If the image isn’t in your database, it probably won’t come into your life. If you are addicted to horror movies, suspense thrillers or violent video games, what pictures are filling up your database? It doesn’t matter if the pictures are ‘real’ or not: your hard drive can’t tell the difference. If negative pictures are in there, sooner or later they are likely to come into your personal movie.

Violence is hard on your nervous system, and violent images are just as exhausting for your personal movie. We are meant to operate by faith and patience, not fear and doubt. Violent films show us incessant images based on fear and doubt. How can this benefit anyone? They certainly cannot give us light or life or inspiration on any level. They can only create focus on what we don’t want: stress, pain, fear and trauma.

Furthermore, as we become accustomed to increasing special effects, we get over-stimulated by bangs, crashes and hyperactivity of all kinds. These days I find suspense, most mysteries, action flicks and horror films are all too hard on my nervous system. Some dramas can be almost as bad: I couldn’t watch Moulin Rouge to the end because of the overwhelming deluge of chaotic images.

Even romantic films can be unhelpfully subversive, because they paint a picture of romance that is almost impossible to live up to, even with the most willing partner. How can any man compete with ‘tall, dark and handsome’ heroes, or any woman with overly-skinny bikini models with perfect hair? Even if we could, how likely are we to create the perfect romantic gestures and process leading to a wedding… and then nothing. How many movies show a happy marriage, compared to those that get to the altar and take the relationship no further?

The point is this: sure, movies are illusion, and some show us the eternal verities in a way that gives us hope and inspiration. Given that you inevitably create from the images in your mind and field, you definitely want to fill up that database with pictures that you actually want to experience rather than those you do not. In order to have room for growth and inspiration, it’s a good idea to NOT fill up that space with death and destruction.

It’s not so much that watching violence on television will teach children to be violent in turn – it’s not as direct as that. However, their minds – our minds – are getting filled up with pictures. When you want to create something, you naturally draw on what is already in your database. As much as possible, dump the unhelpful pictures and start filling up that database with images of what you actually desire: objects like your ideal house/car/computer, feelings of lightness, harmony and grace, experiences like your blessed marriage, perfect job, or having your book on the best-seller list.

Every human is here to create his or her own personal movie, and to live it as fully as possible. Any actual film is a personal vision combined with the creator’s existing stock of images, whether from life, imagination or other films. What is your personal life movie derived from? If you’re not enjoying it 100%, it might be time to take a look at how you’re filling your database. Cut out pictures, watch films that show what you desire for yourself, read magazines that show the kind of life you would love to live… and start creating from there!