Mark Allan Kaplan: Recipient of 2008 Integral Life Award

Original Gravity founder, Mark Allan Kaplan, is the recipient of the 2008 Integral Life Award! The IL Award is an annual merit-based scholarly award given by the Integral Institute. Mark received the award in recognition of his demonstrated potential and capacity to make a difference in the world through the application of integral principles in his personal, professional, and academic endeavors.

Integral Cinema Project - Project Status

The Integral Cinema Project is currently in the theory building stage, exploring the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media development, production, and distribution, under the auspices of Integral Institute's and Fielding Graduate University's Certificate Program in Integral Studies.

Transpersonal Cinema Project on IndieGoGo

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.

Transpersonal Cinema Project Website Official Launch

The Transpersonal Cinema Project website launched at http://www.transpersonalcinema.com/

The Transpersonal Cinema Project is a groundbreaking research and production initiative seeking to investigate and advance these powerful transformational potentials of the cinema by integrating the latest theories, practices, and technologies of cinematic media, creativity, human perception, and consciousness.

Transpersonal Cinema Project YouTube Channel Launch

The Transpersonal Cinema Project 

YouTube Channel (Beta) is up and running at:

www.youtube.com/transpersonalcinema

Seeking the Heart of Darkness

Schindler's List (1993)

There is violence in the media. There is violence in the streets. My mind has been asking why… what is cause and what is effect? I have tried to rid my thoughts and actions of violence. I have boycotted violent films and the evening news. I have prayed for peace within and without. Yet I have come to see that I am in the realm of aversion and repression.

Is the violence in the media and in our streets from our collective repression of our fear of death and pain and suffering? In many cultures there are rituals around death and dying. Is our collective unconscious giving us the experiences we are not giving ourselves?

For weeks I thought about seeing Schindler's List (1993) yet the idea of the intense physical and psychological horrors I might see held me back. Finally I decided to create a spiritual practice. As I entered the theater I asked God (Higher Power, etc.) to use this experience for my awakening and healing around my perceptions of the body. As I watched blood spiriting out of a man's head I did not turn away. I allowed the waves of emotions to sweep over me as scores of naked human beings waited to be either showered with deadly gas or cleansing water. I cried as the acts of love and kindness amidst this vast darkness appeared like golden flowers rising from the mud. After the film I sat outside in front of a fountain. All the trials and tribulations of my life were gone. The beauty and impermanence of everything around me washed my mind.

Within this journey through the darkness there was love and hope and beauty. I also found both the darkness and the beauty inside my self. And for a moment they merged into a sort of sweet sorrow.

Now I am seeking a way not to condone yet not to abhor the violence around me. I wonder if I can use it to seek the violence in me and use its dark mud to grow the golden flowers of light.

I have noticed my own tendency to see Transpersonal films in terms of films of light and not of darkness. Yet now I can think of several films, which are clearly transpersonal odysseys through darkness. There are films which show the triumph of the human spirit through the dark horrors of existence (Schindler's List, 1993); films which take us to the horrors and madness deep inside us (Apocalypse Now, 1979); and films which take us through the darkness of our minds on our way to the light (Jacob's Ladder, 1990).

But perhaps every journey through darkness and violence can be consciously used for our own healing. And perhaps as we make this journey and face our fears, the external manifestations will dissolve into the golden lotus growing up from the dark mud.

(Originally published in Focus: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Winter, 2-3, 1994)

The Medium is the Transpersonal

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

What is the connection between the Transpersonal and Cinema? Perhaps the very nature of any creative media is Transpersonal. Film and video, as well as all the arts . . . are ultimately the ideas, thoughts, and feelings of a "personal" mind (or minds) being extended outward to other minds. At this level we might say that the "medium is the message."

In the particular case of film, we have a medium steeped in alchemy, mythology, illusion, magic, and transcendence. When audiences first saw the image of a speeding train projected on a screen in front of them, they leaped from their seats and ran out of the theater screaming. A French magician made films in which people disappeared, became transparent, and flew to the moon. Like an ancient religious ritual we enter a darkened place in silence. As we sit before the giant alter, a great light slices the darkness and transforms the two-dimensional screen before us into a three-dimensional world.

Beyond the transpersonal nature of the medium itself, are some films more transpersonal than others? Surely films about angels (It's A Wonderful Life, 1946), life after death (Ghost, 1990), altered states (Altered States, 1980), dreams (Kurosawa's Dreams, 1990), archetypes (Star Wars, 1977), UFO phenomena (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, 1982), mystical realities (The Last Wave, 1977) or religious experiences (The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988) are transpersonal in their content. And films that deal with shifts in temporal and spatial reality, like Field of Dreams (1989) and Groundhog Day (1993), weave the transpersonal into the dramatic structure itself. Then there are the films which embrace the transpersonal in the visual form as well as through the subject content and dramatic structure. In films like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1987) and Lawrence Kasden's Grand Canyon (1991) the camera transcends all boundaries, moving through walls and floating through the air to capture the visceral reality of these other realms. Of course these categories tend to overlap and most transpersonal films are a combination of these elements.

I believe there is also a more subtle way that the transpersonal enters the cinema. There are films that move us in ways that are beyond just the stimulation of thoughts, ideas and emotions; beyond content, drama and form. These films cause a subtle shift inside us, they touch us on the level of soul or spirit. Sometimes these films deal directly with transpersonal realms; sometimes they are simple films about love and the human spirit; sometimes they are dark journeys into the underworld.

The power of these films seems to depend on the intersection of our own life's journey with the journey of the film. When this connection is made it seems as though this film was made for us. A chill moves through us and the notion of a grand design touches our awareness. In this way any film becomes transpersonal. From great works of filmic art to pop culture escapist adventures. Somehow the divine seems to be woven into the light of the movie projector. As the images and sounds dance before us, our realities and projections meet. Sometimes we are moved and entertained . . . and sometimes we are transformed.

(Originally published in Focus: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Fall, 1-2, 1993)

Gravity Waves

I ride the waves of gravity,

surfing on the cosmic sea of light,

rippling distortions in the fabric of space-time,

rising from the past,

cresting in this very moment,

falling toward an unknown future shore.

Have to remember to ride the now,

looking back or looking ahead,

is always how I wipe out.

New Voice in Exile DVD

Announcing the release of the new, digitally enhanced interactive DVD of Voice in Exile, available at: http://www.originalgravity.com/voiceinexile/viedvd.htm.

You can also preview scenes from the film at: http://www.originalgravity.com/voiceinexile/viepreview.htm

GUN

 

GUN was created as an experiment in the application of cinematic design to capture and represent the inherent power of guns and the effects their mere presence can have on individuals. GUN is a film by Mark Allan Kaplan and was student produced at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. GUN premiered at the Los Angeles Film Exposition in 1980.

Voice in Exile - Cafeteria Scene

 

The Cafeteria Scene from "Voice in Exile,"
a cinematic vision-quest into the mind and heart of a stutterer.
Written and Directed by Mark Allan Kaplan

Voice in Exile - Classroom Scene

The Classroom Scene from "Voice in Exile," 

a cinematic vision-quest into the mind and heart of a stutterer. 

Written and Directed by Mark Allan Kaplan.

Voice in Exile - Opening Dream Sequence

 

The opening dream sequence of "Voice in Exile," 

a cinematic vision-quest into the mind and heart of a stutterer. 

Written and Directed by Mark Allan Kaplan

Alley of the Unseen Forces

My earliest childhood memory is of a haunting mystical experience I had when I was in first grade. One morning, as I was getting ready to go to school, I experienced a deep sense of panic at the thought of returning to the ridicule and laughter I was receiving from my fellow classmates because of my stutter. Walking down the block with the other kids, the dread became unbearable. I turned the corner and slipped behind some tall bushes. As I watched the other kids going to school, I started to calm down. After a while, the street was empty. I slowly got up, turned down our back alley, and walked back to my house. I snuck into the garage, took my bicycle, and rode off, feeling the urgency of escape. After riding through the neighborhood for a while, I turned down an alley and suddenly stopped.

Autumn leaves swirled around the cracked pavement of the alley, being blown in spiraling waves by the strong Midwestern winds. White billowing clouds swiftly rolled across the bright blue sky above, and the electric power lines gently hummed around me. In an instant all my pains and fears vanished and I was filled with a sense of awe and wonder. Somehow I felt the power and beauty of the unseen forces at play all around me, and I sensed a presence of something vast and deep and unknown around me and within me. A feeling of safety and peace filled me, and I stood there for what seemed like hours.

Over the years, I have returned to this memory over and over; bathing in the gravity of that experience; and remembering to open to the unseen forces at play in every moment, both within me and all around me.

*Excerpt from Original Gravity: A Personal Narrative Theology Inquiry into the Experience of Seeking, Receiving, and Following Divine Guidance by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Transpersonal Movie Leader

 

The transpersonal movie leader was created as an experiment in the application of cinematic rhythm and image juxtaposition to mediate an abstract conceptualization, representing the notion of transpersonal cinema.

Public domain images were edited and digitally enhanced in Adobe Photoshop, then assembled in Microsoft Movie Maker. Finished product was then converted to Macromedia Flash, Windows Media, and QuickTime file formats.

Various transpersonal practices were employed during the creation process to establish an optimum creative environment.

Featured Clips Include:

Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel, 1929)

A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)

Wings of Desire (Wenders, 1987)

2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1969)

An AudioVisual Meditation by Mark Allan Kaplan

Seeking Peace

My heart has wept many times over the last few years over the seemingly endless and violent conflicts between some of the worlds religious traditions and cultures. Like so many others, I have yearned to find a way to help bring about peace between the faiths. From this place of deep yearning, I began developing an interfaith daily practice to see if I could personally find and affirm an energetic harmony between the traditions. To my amazement the practices of the different faiths that I was exploring merged into one long beautiful sacred dance of movement, meditation, contemplation, chanting, and visualization. As part of this sacred dance I was guided to look up the words for peace in different languages and was further moved to develop an Interspiritual Peace Mantra which I now perform several times a day.

This Interspiritual Peace Mantra that emerged from my practice is a compilation of eight words for PEACE from eight different languages used to represent the eight major streams of world religions: Primal Traditions, Paganism, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The words are arranged in the chronological/historical order of the emergence of each of these faiths. The purpose and intent of this mantra is to nurture and amplify personal and collective peace.

___________________


The eight words of the Interspiritual Peace Mantra are:

Sipala Sith Shanti Shalom T'ai Sidi Pax Salaam.

Sipala is the Hopi word for peace and represents the Primal Traditions (Shamanic , Aboriginal, etc).

Sith is the Gaelic word for peace and represents the Pagan Traditions (Goddess, Druid, Celtic, Wicca , Greek, etc.).

Shanti is the Hindi word for peace and represents the Hindu and Sikh traditions.

Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and represents the Judaic and Kabbalistic traditions.

T’ai is a Chinese word for peace and represents the Taoist and Confucian traditions.

Sidi is the Tibetan word for peace and represents the Buddhist tradition.

Pax is the Latin word for peace and represents Christianity .

Salaam is the Aramaic word for peace and represents Islam and Sufism.

___________________

As part of this practice, I also developed the above Interspiritual Peace Mandala with the words of the Interspiritual Peace Mantra and symbols from each tradition set within a mandala pattern created by a dear friend of mine, artist Maja Apolonia Rode.

The Interspiritual Peace Mantra and Mandala can be found at the I-Peace Project web page.

Transpersonal Dimensions of the Cinema

Announcing the publication of…

Transpersonal Dimensions of the Cinema

By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT: Transpersonal dimensions of the cinematic art form are explored, including transpersonal elements inherent in the nature of the cinematic medium; transpersonal influences on cinematic content, structure, and style; and potential transpersonal effects of the cinematic experience. A preliminary classification of transpersonal cinematic effects indicates potential synchronization effects between constructed cinematic reality and various aspects of creator/viewer realities. Personal filmmaker observations and a review of theoretical, empirical, anecdotal, and historical sources suggests that the transpersonal or boundary-transcending nature and capacities of the cinematic medium make it a potentially powerful and valuable tool for the mediation of transpersonal experience and perception.

Published in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2005, Volume 37, Number 1, Pages 9-22.

View and Download the Complete Article at: http://www.markallankaplan.com/text/tpcinema.htm

Prayer for the Festivals of Light

The rebirth of the life-generating and life-sustaining sun
at the darkest moment of the seasons;
The oil of an ancient temple lamp burning beyond its limit;
A shining star in a dark sky illuminating the way;
The light of mercy revealed through prayer and devotion;
The guiding light of seven principles arising from the heart of
the Dark Continent.
This is the season of The Festivals of Light...
The Winter Solstice,
Chanukah,
Christmas,
Ramadan,
Kwanzaa
In the darkness of this Winter
during these terror filled and challenging times;
May we all find the light in darkness,
faith amidst struggle,
rebirth following change and loss,
and virtue and devotion in the face of great challenge.

Published in: Beben, M. T. (2002). New Wine: More Eucharistic Liturgies for 21st Century Small Faith Communities. Boulder, CO: Woven Word Press.

The Experience of Divine Guidance

Announcing the publication of...

The Experience of Divine Guidance: A Qualitative Study of the Human Endeavor to Seek, Receive, and Follow Guidance from a Perceived Divine Source

By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

This research study examined the experience of seeking, receiving, and following guidance from a perceived source of divine wisdom. Nine advanced spiritual teachers (5 men and 4 women) from 7 spiritual traditions participated as coresearchers in this study. Coresearchers were North American or European born, predominantly Caucasian, California (USA) residents between the ages of 52 and 74. Coresearcher participation consisted of individual semistructured in-depth interviews. The questions and topics of discussion used for the interviews were developed through a process of researcher heuristic and spiritual self-inquiry. The results of a grounded-theory-based qualitative content analysis of the interview transcripts suggested that the experience of divine guidance, as measured in the current study, is characterized by a common structuring of the experience that includes general categories, factors, and patterns which appear to manifest into various particular and contextual forms depending on the individual person, event, and circumstance. The reported common structures of the experience included: The perception of a divine source of guidance; the experience of seeking, receiving , and following guidance from this perceived source; and various contributing, impeding, developmental , and mediating factors . Additionally, each coresearcher reported a unique metaphor of divine encounter that appeared to give them an archetypal and visceral way of describing and holding the experience. The researcher appeared to experience each of the coresearcher's metaphors of divine encounter through some kind of resonant learning or mimicking process. A Guidance Experience Template, Guidance Experience Evaluation Checklist, and Synthesized Guidance Practice were developed as aids to counselors, practitioners, and researchers exploring the experience of divine guidance. The findings of this study, and the development and implementation of guidance-related applications in this research, may advance the understanding of this common and historically significant human experience, and offer a valuable contribution to the fields of transpersonal psychology, spiritual guidance, and spiritual psychology.

Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2005.  462 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- California: Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; 2005. Publication Number: AAT 3174544.

Index terms (keywords): Divine guidance, Guidance, Spirituality, Religious experience, Transpersonal psychology

Source: DAI-B 66/05, p. 2855, Nov 2005

Source type: DISSERTATION

Subjects: Developmental psychology, Religion, Theology

ISBN: 0542126788

God in Drag

"It's all God in Drag!" I first heard this phrase from Ram Dass while attending one of his spiritual retreats. All of us laughed deeply when he delivered the phrase with his perfect spirtual/comic timing. I laughed so hard I almost cried while the ripples of my laughter mixed with the chills of feeling like I was hearing a profound truth.

Over the years this phrase has often helped me to surrender into the Divine Flow of life by reminding me that whatever is happening is perfect as it is and I just need to be fully present to it.

So many times in my life I have been re-minded of this truth. So many times I have had experiences that seemed bad, horrible and/or traumatic, only to find out over time that they were part of a greater arc of experience that almost always brought about growth and blessing.

At that same spiritual retreat Ram Dass expanded on this idea of "It's all God in drag" by telling the following story:

There once was a rancher who had a beautiful stallion. He loved this stallion and pampered it with love and attention. One day there was a great storm and the stallion broke free and ran off into the mountains. The rancher and his family all sat around the hearth and bemoaned their bad fortune. The old grandfather merely sat in the corner and whispered a soft and whimsical: "ah-so."

Three days later, after the storm had passed, the stallion returned. As he galloped into the coral, three wild horses followed him. The rancher and his family were overjoyed at their good fortune. Of course, Grandpa just smiled and said "ah-so."

The ranchers' eldest son asked if he could learn to break in one of the wild horses. His father began to teach his son, when all of a sudden the wild horse threw the son across the coral. The son broke his hip and laid in bed in dire pain. The family huddled around, grumbling about the great misfortune. Grandpa gently held the boy's hand and whispered once again…"ah-so."

The next day a great army came to the village and took all able-bodied young men. The ranchers' son was spared. All eyes looked to the grandfather, who just smiled wisely and said…"ah-so."

Ah-so...Oh-Gee...It's all God in Drag!