Below is Q & A with Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy Authors of In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving

Q: Besides dominating the New York Times bestseller list, The Blind Side has also broken Hollywood records. Why do you think your family’s story has captivated so many people?

A: We think people love the story because they recognize some aspect of themselves there. We want to be the kind of people who really make a difference in the world, but so many people are convinced they don’t have the resources to be that kind of giver. We wrote In a Heartbeat to share our story in our own words precisely so that people will begin to realize that they can be the kind of people who help change someone’s life.

Q: Let’s talk about the problem of homeless and needy children in America. How do you believe this problem can be solved?

A: There are a lot of intractable problems in the U.S., from terrorism to health care. But the problem of children in need is curable; we can all do something about it today, individually, through the smallest acts. If every church in the U.S. sponsored one child, we could wipe out the problem of homeless children in this country. There are a million Michaels. Not every kid has the potential to become a star player in the NFL, but he or she may be the person who grows up to cure cancer, or becomes a great husband or wife to someone.

Q: How do you respond when people marvel at the risks you took as you brought Michael Oher into your family?

A: You know, you take a risk every day of your life. When you get in your car and drive across a bridge you take a risk. You don’t know if your tires are good, or if the pilings are going to hold, or if the bridge will fall in. But you don’t really stop and think about it, do you? You don’t get up every morning and kick all four of your tires. You don’t stare at the bridge and say, ‘Yeah, I think it’ll hold me.’ How did you know that bridge wasn’t going to fall? Yet you went right ahead and crossed it. Everybody takes risks, every day. You just don’t realize that’s what you’re doing.

Q: How do you define “cheerful giving”?

A: This is not giving to impress someone who may be watching, and it’s not giving because you feel guilty. The Bible says it best: “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”– II Corinthians 9:7

Q: In the book, you sum up your philosophy of giving in “The Popcorn Theory.” Tell us more about that.

A: The Popcorn Theory is about noticing others. It’s about seeing, not turning away from the immediacy of someone in need. It starts with recognizing a fellow soul by the roadside-even if he doesn’t seem to belong in your lovely red brick neighborhood and he is the biggest damn piece of popcorn you ever saw and his problems seem too immense to take on. It’s about assigning that person value, and potential. Like popcorn, you don’t know which kernel’s gonna pop. They just show up. It’s not hard to spot ‘em. The Popcorn Theory goes like this: “You can’t help everyone, but you can try to help the hot ones who pop right up in front of your face.”

Q: What if I don’t have many resources? How can I be a cheerful giver without a bunch of extra money?

A: Too often we think we lack the means to improve someone’s lot. We’re wrong. The Popcorn Theory doesn’t require you to write a large-scale check, or to take a hungry boy with eyes like leaping flames into your household. But it does require that you perceive the person standing right in front of you, and extend a hand in kindness. Consider this story we heard from a U.S. Senator during a trip to Washington for an Adoption Coalition convention:

There is a little-known Congressional initiative to give internships to young people who were so unwanted they have aged out of the foster care system. This Senator employs one such young man. One day the Senator passed by the mailroom, and paused and turned around. He noticed that his intern, fresh out of foster care, had reorganized all the old files. “This room has never looked so clean,” the Senator said. “You did a great job.” A few minutes later the Senator decided to get a cup of coffee. He returned to mailroom and found that his intern had tears streaming down his face. “Son, did I offend you?” he asked. “No,” the young man said. “That’s the first time anyone has ever told me that I did something good.” This gift had nothing to do with money. What this kid needed most was encouragement and self-worth, and that’s what he was given.

Q: As you share your story, one of the points you stress is that generosity is not just your personal value. It’s a core value for the entire family. What specific things have you done as parents to help your kids become cheerful givers?

A: One of our practices is something we call “Get one, give one,” which means when you receive something, give part of it away. To impress the lesson on our daughter Collins, we sent her to camp with underprivileged kids and on a searing mission trip to the Guatemala City Dumps, where she saw families living in lean-tos amid the garbage, yet with pictures of Christ hung amid the wreckage. Collins came to
understand how fortunate she was: “He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” (Acts 14:17)

She also learned how important it was to share some of what she’d been given. Long before Michael came into our lives, Collins and Sean Jr. learned to accept the presence of kids sleeping on the sofa or lounging around the house. Friends at the Briarcrest School whose parents worked two jobs. One afternoon 7-year-old Sean Jr. came home to find them playing with his X-box. He sought out Leigh Anne and said, “What gives?” She replied, “We’re just helping them out. Be generous.” Sean Jr. went back downstairs and watched the brothers play a video game. “I’ve got the winner,” he said.

Q: In the book, you point out that the most important gifts your children gave each other had nothing to do with money. Tell us about those gifts.

A: As Michael became a member of the family, he and our other kids gave each other two small but crucial mutual gifts-loyalty and protection. At Ole Miss, Collins and Michael went everywhere together, and they and their friends achieved a new level of racial integration at that old southern school. Even now, when our family attends Michael’s games, he remains extremely protective of his sister, insisting on one
occasion that his teammate walk her to the car to keep her away from unruly male fans. And for Sean Jr. having Michael in his family means they do more as a family-he gets much more of each of them.

This is one of the blessings of cheerful giving. We have always felt that Michael gave us far more than he received. All we did was put a roof over his head. He has given us back a stronger sense of home and family.

In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy with Sally Jenkins is available on Amazon if you Click Here

Guest House is a fictional novel that weaves together the burdens and joys of one outwardly accomplished go-getter, Melba Burns and one shy, imaginative and neglected kid, Matt Garry. After witnessing a terrible accident, Melba has retreated from the world; she’s abandoned her high-achieving life, she’s stopped driving her car, and she avoids human contact. Her sheltered world starts to crumble when Matt, a courageous and ingenious boy with troubled parents finds his way into her heart.

I recently had a chance to interview Barbara about Guest House. She also talked about how it took her 18 years to get her first book published and gave some great advice for aspiring writers.

You can read a few highlights from our interview below and listen to our entire 20 minute conversation by clicking the play button.

Matt: Your characters deal with many challenges ranging from growing up with alcoholic and troubled parents, spousal abuse, being raised in a very strict and religious household, how to comfort those grieving, loneliness, and finding love. Do you have a personal connection to the issues raised in your book?

Barbara: I do. Yes I was raised in a really strict religion and had parents who sort of ignored me…And, I think the beautiful thing about living a spiritual life is that it’s not the circumstances, but what you do with them. To me it was so important to show the humanity of all these people, even the terrible actions of parents and friends. And, in all the confusion truly there is this beautiful thread running through it that you can be free when you learn how to surrender to those who love you and to the moment which provides all the care you could possibly need.

Matt: How do you find beauty in those moments of darkness when you have such terrible circumstances?

Barbara: . . . I saw a documentary on the Holocaust a couple nights ago. And, no there wasn’t joy in the camps there. But, these people managed to locate the joy in their heart in these most difficult circumstances because they were true to themselves. If you’re true to your self, not your outer circumstances…joy is available to you every moment.

For more information on Barbara, you can visit her web site at www.BarbaraKRichardson.com or purchase Guest House on Amazon by Clicking Here.

I had a chance to interview M.J. Rose about the Past Life TV series and the challenges of turning her book, “The Reincarnationist,” into a TV show. You can read highlights of our interview below or listen to our 15 minute interview by clicking the play button.

Matt Welsh: So tell us a little bit about Past Life. What’s the TV show about?

M.J. Rose: Well, the novel, The Reincarnationist, has at its heart an institute called the Phoenix Foundation where a group of reincarnationists work mostly with children helping them work with their present day crises that are based on past life problems…Warner Brothers found the book and read it. They were very interested in the idea of the foundation that studied past lives and saw that as a potential jumping off point for a TV show. So, they optioned the book and they wrote a script….They took that foundation and changed it a little so it would work for TV and added some different characters for it and that’s what the show is about. So every week…the people at the foundation work on a different case with a different person who has present day issues that really have past life roots.

Matt Welsh: What were some of the challenges of turning your book into a TV show?

M.J. Rose: The executive producer and I worked for a little while on a list of all different past life stories. In all the research I did, what were some of the great stories I heard. You know, somebody who felt like they were being suffocated in their present life and did a past life regression and found out they had been buried in a tomb in Ancient Egypt. Just like a really long list of that to show the people at Warner Brothers just how rich a field it was. Basically you could find any problem in the present and come up with a past life reason for it existing. But (Warner Brothers) was interested in focusing on crimes and crisis problems. So, we did that list and (Warner Brothers) was excited by the potential.

Then (Warner Brothers) found this brilliant writer, David Hudgins, who had been a writer for Friday Night Lights and for Everwood. They gave David the book and they said we are interested in developing this. Would this be something you would be interested in?… And, David told me the story. It was very synchronistic or karmic because he really didn’t know much about reincarnation at the time, but his wife had just seen the show on Oprah and had just become really fascinated by it. So, when he showed her the book, she was like all “…I’m really into reincarnation and that’s so interesting.” So, he read the book and saw the potential and he became the writer and the executive producer. So, he and Lou Pitt went to work on creating the show.

In general, the challenge is that you can’t turn a book into a TV show. You can turn a book into a movie more likely, but a TV show has its own requirements. It’s going to be week after week…What was exciting was that David really took the issues at the heart of the book and was really inspired by it, but turned it into something that is very much his own and his own vision.

And, I love it. It’s really a great show. The pilot episode is something that television usually isn’t. It’s fast paced and a tear jerker and very emotional. There aren’t a lot of shows on TV that are very emotional that are dramas and that have action in them. So, I think that even if viewers are not interested in reincarnation, they are going to be really excited by the format and the quality of the writing and the acting and the story.

Matt Welsh: Where can we go for more information on the show?

M.J. Rose: For more information you can visit www.MJRose.com or my blog on reincarnation at www.reincarnationist.org

Nautilus’ motto is “Changing the World One Book at a Time,” and fellow Gold winners include William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer’s marvelous The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind about an African boy who makes a windmill out of scraps and “brings electricity and a future” to his village, Pierre Pradervand’s beautiful The Gentle Art of Blessing, and Elizabeth Grossman’s powerful ode to green chemistry, Chasing Molecules. Previous Nautilus Gold Medal winners include the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Deepak Chopra, so Jessica is in excellent “and humbling!” company. 

Spiritual Media Blog interviewed Jessica about her memoir, Roll Around Heaven, and how anyone can have an authentic spiritual experience. You can listen to that interview by clicking the button below or purchase the book by clicking here.

On the morning of November 5, 2006 Jane’s father Harry Lee Smith passed away. It was never his intention to abandon Angelika, his bed-bound wife of forty years. So, shortly after his death, he began an amazing series of communications through his daughter Jane, to comfort and inspire Angelika as she transitioned out of her body. What Harry and his spiritual helpers have expressed are extraordinary illuminations of the beauties of the after-life as well as precious lessons in living and letting go.

In our conversation, Jane shares with me how we can communicate with loved ones who have passed away, how she responds to people who don’t believe we can communicate with loved ones after they have died and how her message can be healing and empowering.

She made a few remarks that really helped me see a bigger picture such as,

“When I can work for the things that are eternally important, then there’s no end to the fruitfulness of my life.”

“Whenever I felt lost or discouraged, I’ve gone deep inside to ask: ‘Are you still here?’ I speak with the lover of my soul. This conversation has taken me to amazing places.”

You can listen to our entire 30 minute conversation by pressing the play button below.

For more information on Jane Bernhardt and how to purchase We Are Here: Love Never Dies, please Click Here

Last week Unbeaten screened for some of the military’s Wounded Warriors recovering from devastating injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In the CNN interview below, you can hear how the Wounded Warriors were inspired by the film’s message to NEVER QUIT.

For more information about Unbeaten, you can listen to an 8 minute interview that Spiritual Media Blog did with one of the documentary’s producers, Tamara Henry, by clicking the play button below below.

You can also find out more by visiting Unbeaten’s web site at http://www.unbeatenthemovie.com

Andrew Harvey and Karuna Erickson are the authors of Heart Yoga: The Sacred Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism. In Heart Yoga, Andrew and Karuna use practical teachings and richly layered poems to remind us that through yoga it is possible for anyone to become “embodied channels of illumined love, grace, peace . . . and instruments of divine creativity and service in the world.” 

I recently had a chance to interview them about their book, the benefits and differences of heart yoga and how yoga can connect you to the Sacred.  You can listen to our 30-minute conversation by clicking the play button and read highlights from our conversation below.  For more information, please visit Andrew’s web site at www.AndrewHarvey.net and Karuna’s web site at www.yogakaruna.com.  Heart Yoga is available on Amazon.com by Clicking Here

Andrew, you are an internationally acclaimed visionary and bestselling author and/or editor of over 30 books.  What inspired you to write about yoga?

Well my last book , which in a way is a consummation of my life work is called “The Hope; A Guide to Sacred Activism.”  In that book I lay out a vision for what I believe is a force that can save the planet, save the human race and save us from the addictions that are now destroying us.  That force I call Sacred Activism, which is the fusion of the two noblest fires in the human soul: The fire of the mystic’s passion for God and the fire for the activist’s passion for justice.

When these two fires fuse, they birth a third fire which is the nuclear fire of love in action and which connects directly to the evolutionary fire that streams from the Godhead to evolve all of the Universes ever more profoundly into the glory of the Divine.

When I wrote this book, I came to understand that four kinds of practices were profoundly needed now for us to become strong enough to deal with the enormous crisis that is manifesting everywhere:

• Cool practices that calm us and align us with Divine Being.
• Hot practices that align us with the Motherhood of God.
• Prayer practices that enable us to keep up a stream of remembrance of the beloved through everything and align us with the will of God through everything.
• And very importantly, body practices, Sacred body practices that enable us to embody the Divine energies that are streaming in at this crucial and menacing moment to help birth what I believe is the real secret meaning of our crisis and embody Divine humanity.

About eight years ago, I had the great good fortune to meet Karuna Erickson and she was a pupil of mine in a class that I was giving on Rumi.  And very sweetly and tenderly, she came up to me after one of my classes and said,

“Andrew, the passion that is devouring you and that you are emanating will deeply damage you if you don’t get more bodied.”

And because she said it so sweetly, I heard her and I embarked on a whole deep immersion in yoga under her instruction and through that immersion, I came to understand with Karuna’s help that at this moment yoga could be the most important crucible for the divinization of the body that we have available to us.

Yoga has very ancient sacred roots.  Yoga has always known at these Sacred roots that the Divine is present as Light Consciousness in every cell of the body…

Yoga can become a conscious way of uniting with the Divine within and without and even more importantly of calling down the Divine Light into the body so that the body can become more and more consciously the living temple of the Divine energies.

One of the most extraordinary things about heart yoga has been is its extremely vibrant reception from both the leading spiritual teachers Marianne Williamson, Caroline Myss and Deepak Chopra and also by the leading Yoga teachers such as Seane Corn, Rodney Yee and Shiva Rea.

How does Heart Yoga differ from other types of yoga, and what is its biggest benefit?

God is the sacred marriage of immanence and transcendence.  This is the way in which God is most holy and most vibrantly worshiped in all the great mystical traditions.  And the site of the marriage is the sacred heart center.  This isn’t the physical center of the heart.  It’s a little bit to the right of the chest and it’s called by many names…

And, when this heart center is open, it allows for the irrigation of the body by the Divine Light….And so the heart center functions in the spiritual body, psychosomatic body, mystical body in the same way that the physical heart center operates in the physical body.  For example, just how the physical body pumps blood around the body to keep the body vibrant.  So, does the heart center, when open, pumps the Divine Light around all of the different parts of the physical and spiritual body and allows them to come into a vibrant field of naked unity, which allows us to become more and more consciously Divine.

So, we called it Heart Yoga in this very profound mystical sense and we’ve put at the core of our book a vision of the heart center how to open it and how to stay in it while practicing the asanas and I think Karuna you’d like to say something about why you feel so important about heart yoga…

Karuna:

I think that Andrew is a living example of heart yoga because you can hear in his words how the inspiration flows, in a very grounded way flows through the body.  The light is manifesting in every cell of our bodies actually when we practice with conscious intention, as we do with heart yoga.  Our intention is to bring practice into a deeper and deeper level of actually invoking the light and feeling it radiating through every cell in the body.  This creates the type of inspiration in which Andrew has been speaking of….

I’d like to emphasize that this experience is available to everyone.  It’s not just some rare, strange experience that’s only available to a few enlightened beings. But, everyone has an experience of connecting with what is Sacred.  For example, when they look at a baby or look at beautiful flower.  This direct experience of connecting with the Sacred is something that through conscious practice that we can all, and we all have experienced.  You don’t have to be an accomplished Yogi.  You can just open your heart to the possibility of this experience.  And, here it is for everyone.

Andrew:

In our book, we really do make that very clear.  One of our great dreams for this book is that it would be a book for absolutely everyone, not only for yoga practitioners, but also for those who haven’t yet found yoga.  And the ways that we offer for opening the heart through the ancient, mystical systems are very simple.

Robert Scheinfeld is the author of Busting Loose From the Money Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies for Changing the Rules of a Game You Can’t Win and Busting Loose From the Business Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies for Recreating Yourself, Your Team, Your Business, and Everything in Between. For those who want to approach their business, job or career with hope, joy and excitement, Scheinfeld offers a unique model to help you achieve those goals. The heart of his message is to avoid separating who we really are (however you want to define that – whether that is Spirit or Higher Self or Expanded Self) from our business and career decisions. When we begin to see our business or career from the perspective of our Expanded Self, then he believes everything takes care of its self. His books offer a practical method to accomplish this noble goal.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Robert. In our conversation, he shares some personal experiences that prompted him to take a radically different approach to business and money and offers some useful advice for how we can develop a similar mindset and bust loose from the business and money game.

If you would like to listen to my interview with Robert, please click the play button below. For more information on Robert and his book, please visit http://www.bustingloose.com.

If you would like to purchase Busting Loose From the Money Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies for Changing the Rules of a Game You Can’t Win please Click Here

Rick Bognar is the author of “Wrestling with Consciousness,” a book contrasting and comparing the inside world of pro wrestling that he spent 10 years in to a spiritual awakening that he has been experiencing for the last 10 years. I had the pleasure of interviewing Rick about his experience as a professional wrestler, insights on how we can live a more meaningful and compassionate life style, and what prompted him to seek out a deeper spiritual path. You can listen to our entire 15 minute conversation by pressing the play button and also read some highlights from our interview below.

For more information on Rick and his book “Wrestling with Consciousness,”please visit his web site at http://www.razorricktitan.com

Matt: What is your book about?

Rick: An uplifting autobiographical story of a pro-wrestler forced to leave behind the only life I knew and adapt to “normal” life after the “Game”. This was achieved through the practice of Buddhism and other spiritual practice. Follow me on a liberating journey of compassion, finding self-love and love for others after walking a deep dark path. Much of my story is based on the emotional suffering as an athlete and entertainer and how I achieved a graceful transition after the fame and fortune had disappeared.

Matt: What is the message of your book?

Rick: How we, as humans, can move away from the dark side of life and spot the light at the end of the tunnel while still in despair. I suggest tools to use, which have assisted me with my mental strength and resolve as I attempted to climb my own “Inner Mountain™.” These tools will help my readers let go of old habits and thought patterns then rewire those thoughts through focusing on aspirations of who and how they want to be, setting very personal goals and working happily towards them.

Matt: What was it like being a professional wrestler who was also interested in spirituality?

Rick: At the time of wrestling, I blocked it. I felt that life could and should be different but my current life situation and environment at that time would not allow for it. I had to “play the role” in order to be a success. I let my family down and in turn myself by pushing to be a tough, uncaring stereotype. It was considered a sign of weakness to be caring and compassionate in the industry. I learned to be passive aggressive and not show my feelings, never opening up and never trusting anyone. I engulfed myself in solitude.

I had sensed there was a higher path and felt a gut pull toward reaching for deeper meaning but the competitive, superficial environment I was immersed in sidetracked me. I always had a natural gravitation towards compassion and peace in life but at this point, it was just a feeling I had not put into practice yet.

Matt: Did you find it difficult to move from a life of ego, aggression and being ‘things’ and task oriented to one of egolessness, compassion and deeper-meaning oriented as a professional wrestler?  How were you able to do that?

Rick: Yes, it was a slow process. Coming from a way of life where my value as a human being was judged by how physically powerful, aggressive and dominating I was, how many fans I drew or how much I made for others. I became an Automatron. I also became a nervous wreck. I knew I was only as good as my last match and this was my value as a human being. “What have you done for me lately?” made me strive to be bigger, better and more innovative than other competitors in the spotlight. I became very, very proud of being a top guy. A lot of Ego went along with that. I would look at myself at one point at 29 years of age and say “Is this really all there is to life? There’s got to be more.” Suddenly, my mind opened up to the possibility of the opposite. If all of this Ego stroking was making me miserable, then wouldn’t the opposite make me happy? It was something I knew but didn’t know why. I did not yet know how to practice it due to the mental gripping of “I am so important” and “People treat me like a King.” This was my daily thought routine which would steer me away from dropping Ego.

Compassion came when I realized how such a huge sense of self-inflated importance hurt others as well as myself. Currently, I know a millionaire who is deluded of the same affliction. Without money, without muscles, without being on TV would you or others think you were so important? No. No one would listen to you unless you cared about others.

During my last year of wrestling, I learned to get past myself and show interest in others. I read philosophy by Plato and The Book of Buddha afterwards and made it a practice to be interested in and show empathy toward others. This is hard to do when I was in the spotlight. It was always all about me. Not others. Age and maturity have helped progress the journey! I have also learned that getting angry is just a self-centred weapon of control. Most times it only hurts the person serving up the poison. We harbour anger within. It poisons only us. Others do not feel it. If we lash out, we time-release a toxin that eats us alive. We wallow in it for a long time. Guilt, self blame and regret follows. Damage control and endless apologies are the external side.

Matt:  How do you balance letting go of aggression, ego and being ‘things and task oriented’ with still following your passions and trying to achieve your goals, especially as a professional wrestler?

Rick: It is very hard to get a sense of letting go, while being pressured by the promoters and the fans to always out do myself. Both of these people fully expect a new improved caliber of workmanship each time I would perform. Being involved in Professional wrestling is an extremely tense and intense lifestyle. I did not have much time to relax because I was always “On” and when I did, I could not relax. I came to the conclusion “I need to get out of this business to be who I want to be.” I have seen my Yogachariya friend get pushed for quotas before and noticed how peacefully, step by step he handled these situations. I have learned how to step back but still take action in a detached manner which seems to work.

Passion is good, but anything to excess becomes unhealthy. One could become a workaholic or a sex addict for example. If passionately in love or passionately angry both are just one step across a very thin line. They are the opposite but yet so close.

Matt: How were you able to let go of your aggression and ego and still maintain the focus needed to be a professional wrestler?

Rick: It was very hard to stop wrestling and get out of that toxic environment. For every step forward, it became two steps backward.

Matt: What sparked you to try to find a more spiritual path or deeper meaning in life?

Rick: I had a deep yearning to escape the emotional suffering of loneliness, my fragile Ego and my strong ignorance. Buddhism had the right answers to my questions at the time. I felt I was on the right path and continued on it.

Matt: What advice do you have for other people who are aggressive, but would like to live a more compassionate life style?

Rick: First, practice awareness. Be aware of your inappropriate or hurtful anger. Be honest with yourself. This can be hard. Old patterns are hard to change. Pay attention to your gut. If it feels bad, it usually is bad.

Find the antidote. Try to turn negativity into something positive whether it be about a person or situation. For example, take a traffic jam. Instead of being angry and upset think of it as possibly saving you $160 on a speeding ticket!

Search, study, learn and practice. If you want to learn math, study math. If you want to learn compassion, study Jesus, Buddha, Mother Theresa, and the Dalai Lama.

Matt: How can we maintain our spiritual practice while in environments that don’t lend to keeping our emotional fitness?

Rick: My teacher had taught me years ago that spiritual practice isn’t going into a cave in the mountains, becoming a Hermit and meditating for the rest of our life until we reach enlightenment.

Spiritual Practice is using the tools we’ve learned in challenging life situations with our children, family and jobs to maintain a sense of compassion and love no matter what the exterior circumstances are. That is what it is all about. Bringing our meditation and lessons with us and maintaining our integrity wherever we go.

I was challenged recently to start training an old wrestling student again as a favour. I found myself then getting caught up in old patterns. Ego and aggression stepped in a bit and I had to step into being the ‘Observer’ and practice discrimination with myself. “Is this who I want to be, or how I want to represent myself now?” I asked myself. The answer was a resounding “No!” and I went in next time as the ‘Witness’ to myself and came out in the same state of mind after the training that I had went in with!I even used that state *during* teaching! It made for a much deeper experience in class.

I had the pleasure of interviewing her today about her background and professional experiences. In our in-depth conversation, Cynthia shared with me what it was like working as a lawyer for New Line Cinema when they released “The Lord of The Rings,” the challenges and rewards of being the legal department for The Spiritual Cinema Circle and “Conversations with God” movie and also gave some thoughtful advice for aspiring lawyers, writers, filmmakers and promoters who are interested in having a career in spiritual entertainment.

You can listen to our entire 25 minute conversation by clicking the play button (It may take a few seconds for the sound to buffer and for the interview to start playing)…You can also read some of the highlights from our interview copied below.

Matt: Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How did you become an entertainment lawyer with a niche in spiritual entertainment?

Cynthia: I always knew from a very young age when my parents first took me to the movies and I saw “The Color Purple.” I had a really deep and profound effect from that film. It was my first real emotional experience I had in watching a film. And, I walked out of there knowing that I would be working in the entertainment medium not knowing exactly which direction that would take me, but I just kept following that lead…

In college…I was taking legal study classes at the time and doing well in them…I love the whole space of putting together entertainment and law. I just knew going into law school, when I applied, that was what I was going to focus on. In law school, I tried to take as many entertainment related classes as possible like copyright, publishing law and entertainment law which is all about entertainment contracts.

I wound up working with an entertainment lawyer through law school. It was an amazing experience because he was a solo practitioner and produced his own films. I got to have my hands on doing the production work as well as the legal work for the productions and the distribution for his films.

When I graduated law school, I began working at New Line Cinema…It was at the time they were gearing up for “The Lord of The Rings” films to come out. So I was thrown into doing merchandising and licensing deals for trademark issues…New Line gave me such a great insight into what it takes to run a production company.

I worked at New Line for about four years and in my fourth year, I came across an ad that said “Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives” (for a lecture) that was being given by Stephen Simon. It was the first time it really clicked for me there was a space for mystical movies. I went to the lecture and talked to Stephen afterwards and he (invited) me to go on his telecall for people interested in getting more involved with spiritual cinema. I went on the call and really clicked with Stephen and became his personal attorney…Through that we got to do such projects such as “Indigo.” That was my first exposure to the larger world of spiritual luminaries. It was the first time I was working in that space as partners…

Stephen’s good friend is Dr. Gay Hendricks…and (Gay) came up with the idea of doing the DVD of the month club for spiritual film. It was Stephen, myself, Gay, Katie (Hendricks) and Arielle Ford..who basically got together to form the Spiritual Cinema Circle.  And, from there, my whole career and purpose came into alignment in that I knew that if I am going to be working in entertainment or at all in law, I really wanted to work in the space that was creating positive, inspiring films to put out into the world to help transform consciousness.

Matt: How has your interest in spirituality influenced the way you practice law?

Cynthia: That is a fair question…I will not say that it has been all easy. But, I try to keep myself aligned in the space that when I am doing business deals it really is to bridge people together for the greater good of whatever it is that they want to do.

Matt: Do you have any favorite projects or movies you have been able to work on?

Cynthia: Yeah, working on Spiritual Cinema Circle just in and of itself was such a feat for me…I had four years of experience working at New Line and just thrown into this environment coming from a department of business and legal professionals working on tasks together to basically being the only one handling all the legal issues (for Spiritual Cinema Circle).  It really was a time for me to get over whatever fears or hesitations because I had to do it because people were depending on me and if I didn’t get my job done right and the contracts signed, we literally didn’t have a product to put out that month. So I worked very closely with both Stephen Simon and Anna Darrah, (director of acquisition for Spiritual Cinema Circle)….We just really worked to make sure that no film got held up because of the contract….

Through (Spiritual Cinema Circle) we were able to produce “Conversations with God” movie, which is the film based on Neale Donald Walsch’s series of books, which again I was the legal department for. I handled every bit of paperwork that had to be put in place for that film to be produced. That was extremely challenging and rewarding.

Matt: Can you talk a little bit more about “Conversations with God,” not just the legal side, but being a part of that project. What was that like to work with Neale and Stephen Simon?

Cynthia: It was really amazing…You really felt like the manifestation of what we were talking about for so long and what we were helping support other filmmakers do…And watching Stephen Simon in action was such a learning experience for me.

Matt: What is the best way for someone to get ahold of you?

Cynthia: You can reach me on LinkedIN or Faceboook or Twitter at http://twitter.com/Cyntweet.