It’s a Wonderful Life 
Another valuable message of his film is the importance of the love between family and friends, both seen and unseen. During George Bailey’s (James Stewart) dark night of the soul, he looks over a bridge and contemplates suicide. At that moment a guardian angel in training, Clarence, enters into his life. This reminds us that in our darkest hour, the power of love — even from sources unknown to us — is transformative and can bring us out of our moments of despair.
If you have ever wondered what role your choices, love and free will have in shaping your destiny and romantic relationships, then you have gotta see Adjustment Bureau.
The movie stars Matt Damon, a rising politician who falls in love with a talented ballerina…
The only catch is that right after he meets her, an Angel comes to him and tells him that it is NOT part of the Chairman’s “PLAN” for Matt Damon’s character to see her again. The Angel explains to him that if he violates the plan, then there will be negative consequences for both him and the woman he has fallen in love with.
Matt Damon adamantly questions the Angel’s logic that his “plan” is set in stone and asks him:
“What about free will? All that I am is my choices!”
This sets the stage for a metaphysical love story where Matt Damon’s character spends the rest of the movie questioning whether he should follow some divinely orchestrated plan and never see the woman he fell in love with or if he should follow his heart and use his free will to chase after the woman of his dreams, even though the “PLAN” tells him not to.
This movie is very inspiring because it prods us to ask what role we have in shaping our destiny while simultaneously acknowledging that external forces beyond our control, whether that may be Divine Guidance, uncontrollable events or serendipity can have an influence on our life. However, this movie seems to be indicating that our choices and free will have a far greater effect on our life and romantic relationships than we may realize. If you are interested in getting direct advice and counseling on how to improve your relationships, please visit https://www.regain.us/advice/therapist/couples-therapy-cost-is-it-worth-it/ for more information.
More importantly, this movie suggests that while there may be some Divine Plan for us, our “Plan” is fluid and that there may even be multiple “Plans” for us depending on the decisions we make. We can change our “Plan” moment by moment through our freely made choices. Adjustment Bureau also seems to point out just how important it is to honor and act on what we believe in our heart to be true rather than just playing the part of a fatalistic puppet who is at the mercy of some preordained plan.
I really like this idea because I happen to believe that our lives can be shaped by serendipitous encounters, moments of grace where we feel a transcendent presence of love reaching out to us, and that it is even possible to receive inspired intuitions that can help us make life-affirming decisions. However, ultimately we are responsible for how we respond to these forms of external guidance. And, more importantly our response to these external forms of inspiration can then influence what seems to be some preordained plan beyond our control.
This article is a Guest Post about the spiritual insights in Finding Nemo
contributed by Larry E. Coleman.
“Watch Finding Nemo and then journal about the pain and suffering in your life,” my instructor said.
I was taking a spiritual development course and couldn’t understand why my instructor would tell a fifty year old man to watch an animated film, but she was masterful, intuitive, and she saw things my ego wouldn’t allow me to see—and that’s what we were working on at the time—my ego, my shell for covering up all the hidden fears I had.
Yes, there was a reason why she wanted me to watch Finding Nemo, a reason why the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, and why the film has gross nearly $900,000,000 worldwide. Yes, there’s a reason why it still remains one of my all time favorite spiritual movies—and the animation is only a small part of it.
Finding Nemo’s worldwide appeal is the story, and hidden within the story are so many wonderful spiritual insights that it is nearly impossible to watch the movie and not take hold of at least one of them. Let me give you a few examples of how I interpreted some of the messages in Finding Nemo. But first, let’s supply a little backdrop of the movie in case some of you have forgotten it or have never seen the movie before.
1. Nemo’s mom and his unborn siblings were eaten by a barracuda.
2. Because of this traumatic event, Nemo’s father, Marlin, promised that he would never let anything happen to Nemo, who was the lone survivor.
3. The trauma of losing his family caused Marlin to be overprotected (fearful).
4. Marlin’s overprotection was compounded by his view that Nemo had limitations
because Nemo was born with one short fin. (Nemo call it his ‘lucky fin.’)
Here’s what I personally came away with by watching this wonderful inspiring story, and the lessons I believe my instructor wanted me to glean from it.
1. The ego perceives limitations by what it sees in this physical reality and couples this belief with fear. The fear then acts as a catalyst to bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In other words, Marlin’s fear that something might happen to his son came to fruition. He got exactly what he tried so desperately to avoid; his son being captured.
My instructor was trying to get me to understand that I was drawing many negative circumstances into my life through my own expectations, and my expectations were shrouded in fear.
2. The ego is often energized by fear. It does this under the guise that it knows what’s best for itself and other individuals.
That is to say, Marlin tried to project his own fears into the life of Nemo but Nemo rebelled against his father’s notion of fear and limitation. In other words, Marlin attempted to use fear to control his son’s journey by pointing out his limitations, but Nemo chose to follow his own course instead.
Again, my instructor wanted me to see that my attempt to control situations, events and the people around me only made life more difficult. In other words, ‘strength sets up resistance.’ She was telling me to relax and learn to go with the flow of life—a lesson all of us could learn.
Perhaps the moral of the story in Finding Nemo is this: Peace can only be achieved by following your own current downstream. Dory, a wonderful fish character in the movie, puts it this way: “When life gets you down just keep swimming.”
I think I’ll follow her advice.
This article was written by Larry E. Coleman.
CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR INFORMATION ABOUT LIFECHANGING EVENTS
–
Spiritual Warriors
From a cinematography perspective, this is no easy task. But, the filmmakers boldly use stunning visuals and exquisite special effects to demonstrate such ideas as the transcendence of the soul, past lives, destiny, light versus darkness, and spiritual awakening. Using words to accurately describe these concepts is difficult enough. However, the movie successfully uses remarkable images to capture the essence behind these deeper realities. Additionally, since the film primarily takes place in Los Angeles, there is enough subtle humor and contemporary examples of everyday life to provide a fun, exciting and relatable context to examine some of life’s most important questions.
The cinematography provokes the viewer to ask their own questions as opposed to the dialogue simply giving answers. For example, the movie asks what role darkness and evil play in our own spiritual quest. What impact do our past lives have on our current relationships and circumstances? How much of our destiny is predetermined?
My favorite message from the movie is that when we begin to view life from the perspective of our soul, our life and eventually our destiny take on a much more fulfilling meaning. This is echoed in the beginning scene, when the following quote is flashed on the screen,
“Spiritual Warriors are people who confidently make choices about where to focus their internal attention, even when the external realities of their everyday lives are chaotic, troublesome or just plain annoying.”
You can purchase Spiritual Warriors
I had a chance to interview the filmmaker and star of Spiritual Warriors about the challenging and rewarding aspects of making the film. You can listen to that interview on Spiritual Media Blog’s iTunes podcast by visiting:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/interview-jsu-garcia-producer/id308845604?i=55905371
In the interview, Jsu talks about:
– Where the idea for Spiritual Warriors came from
– What he has learned about himself throughout his participation with the film
– A big fight he had with the director while shooting in a desert in Jordan
– Advice for writers, actors and producers on how to make movies with spiritual messages.
The post below is a guest article written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of christian college online . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson83@yahoo.com.
I’m not a diehard fan of the movies, but I do enjoy an occasional date with my television, DVD player and a big bowl of popcorn. I am a diehard romantic and sentimentalist though, because my eyes automatically fill and spill when movies are sad or hopelessly romantic. Some movies have a profound effect on me though, sometimes not in a positive way – I was around 8 or 9 when I first saw Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and suffered nightmares and a fever for two whole days. But there are some experiences that I treasure, because of the impact they have had on my life, like Bruce Almighty for one.
Now not everyone would agree that this flick with Jim Carey is a spiritual movie, even by a long shot, but for someone who was so used to complaining loudly with the words Why me God? every time she prayed, this movie seemed like the perfect answer to that often-asked question. To put it in a nutshell, Bruce Almighty tells the story of a journalist (Jim Carey) who blames God for all his misfortunes in life. God then appears in front of him (Morgan Freeman), grants him his powers, and allows him to literally play God.
It’s a rollercoaster ride from this point on with Carey using his powers for personal gain, advancing his career and personal life and playing havoc with that of his rivals. When God reminds him that he needs to take answer other people’s prayers as well, he says yes to all of them, without even knowing what they are. And the result is pure mayhem.
Carey finally realizes the error of his ways when he sees that his girlfriend has sent in a prayer to God asking for the strength to forget him because she does not want to hurt any longer. He repents and admits that God is omnipotent and omnipresent and that no one can replace him or even do a fraction of his job.
The movie made me realize that God does answer our prayers; we only have to be patient and wait for the right time for our prayers to reach God. And if they are not answered, there is a very good reason for God choosing not to do so. In short, the movie taught me that there is a reason why things, both good and bad, happen, and that we must accept God’s destiny for us. It is of no use ranting and raving at him for all the misery that we think we are being put through, because God knows what is good for us.
In short, Bruce Almighty made me realize that the Almighty has a tough job on his plate handling the entire world’s problems and that I must not add to them with my constant complaints.
You can purchase Bruce Almighty (Full Screen Edition)
Jonas Elrod was leading an ordinary life until he woke up one day to a totally new reality. He suddenly could see and hear spirits of dead people, angels, auras and extraordinary energy fields.
The documentary Wake Up follows this fascinating story of an average guy who inexplicably developed the ability to access other dimensions. Initially skeptical of his own extrasensory perception, Jonas feared he might have some psychological, physical or emotional impairment that was causing him to apparently see beyond science’s current three dimensional explanation for reality. However, after visiting with doctors, physicians, and psychiatrists, Jonas received a clean bill of physical and mental heath and also reassurance that he was not suffering from delusional thinking, schizophrenia or some other type of psychological disorder.
So, what was it? Why was it happening to him? One thing was certain for this 36-year old man — life as he had known it would never be the same. With his loving but skeptical girlfriend by his side, Jonas crisscrosses the country as he searches for answers and delves deeper into this thrilling world of the phenomenal and spiritual. Along the way, he encounters an amazing group of religious teachers, scientists, mystics and spiritual healers who help him piece together this intricate puzzle.
Most people who claim to have the type of experiences that Jonas has usually hold them self out as something special or as some type of glorified sage, mystic or prophet. However, Jonas is clearly a regular guy who takes a very nonchalant and inquisitive approach to trying to figure out why he has been gifted or possibly cursed to see spirits, angels and beyond our three dimensional perception.
This is refreshing, entertaining and inspiring to watch. While we may be hesitant to acknowledge these unusual experiences to other people or even to ourselves, I think most people have spiritual experiences similar the ones Jonas had — whether it is feeling the love of a family member who has passed away, gaining insight from unexplainable sources of inspiration or simply experiencing an unmistakable moment of synchronistic grace. Wake Up is an invitation to accept that these type of phenomenon do occur, while still being grounded and attentive to the activities of our normal, everyday lives.
For more information, you can visit the film’s web site at http://wakeupthefilm.com/
A powerful film directed by Emmy Award winner Janet Grillo (Autism: The Musical) FLY AWAY narrates the story of Jeanne and her autistic teenage daughter, Mandy. Jeanne has cared for Mandy since the day she was born, growing closer every day to a child who is charmingly offbeat one moment and nearly impossible to manage the next. In the dog park, Jeanne encounters Tom, an easygoing and accepting neighbor who sparks a romantic interest, but she finds juggling Mandy’s care and her own career leaves little room for a new man. As the pressures of work and her child’s needs increase, she must decide whether or not to enroll Mandy in a therapeutic residential facility. Over the course of a few weeks, Jeanne is confronted with the most difficult decision a parent can make: to let go, allowing her child to grow, but also grow apart; or to hold on tight and fall together.
Fly Away is the type of movie that makes you feel better about being alive because it shows the kindness and goodness that we are capable of even in the midst of the most trying situations. As I watched it, I was also deeply touched by how the movie honors the humanity and innate spirit of the autistic daughter and shows that the mother and daughter’s loving and very real bond transcends the difficulties that autism can create between two people.
I recently had a chance to interview Janet about her film and here is what she had to say…
Matthew: Why did you make Fly Away?
Janet: I wrote and directed a short film about a single mother of a son with mild autism getting through the day. As I toured film festivals with it over the course of a year, many parents of kids on the Spectrum saw it and invariably asked if I was going to make it into a feature. I started to understand they were asking PLEASE make this into a feature. To share our experience. There is a fundamental human need to be validated, heard and seen through storytelling. I knew I was the one who COULD tell this story, and came to feel I had a responsibility to; those who can, must.
Also, I needed to validate myself as a mother, person and filmmaker through this project. FLY AWAY is the only fiction feature film about parenting a child on the spectrum of autism to be written/directed by the parent of a child on the spectrum. Although my own son is very mildly impacted (and after over a decade of intense intervention is emerging out of the diagnosis), I chose to depict a teenager with severe autism.
First of all, that level of the range of autism has never been dramatized in films or tv. Until now, Hollywood has depicted mild autism or Aspergers. But according to the CDC, more people with autism in US are moderately to severely impaired. These are the people for whom autism is a disability, preventing them from functioning independently. They will need full time care through the course of their adult lives, after their families and caregivers have passed. What will happen to the 800,000 people with currently diagnosed with autism when they age out of school systems but can not live on their own? It’s a tsunami wave of need. If we don’t share the dimensions of that need with our society, how can we expect them to meet it? To advocate and support our population?
FLY AWAY dramatizes the day to day life of those who live with the challenges of autism in an unflinching, unsentimental way. We tell the truth in hopes that moving hearts will move minds will move money! And provoke compassionate, committed support and acceptance for all people on the spectrum, and those who live with, care for and love them.
Fly Away Trailer from Fly Away on Vimeo.
Matthew: What sort of response have you received?
Janet: We have had an overwhelmingly positive embrace from both critics and the autism community. We were very fortunate to have all the major journals review us: NY TIMES, LA TIMES, HUFFINGTON POST, NEW YORK OBSERVER, etc.. And gave us wonderful praise, including suggesting Academy Award Nominations, which was a kick! But more importantly, other parents have rallied around FLY AWAY, expressing gratitude for and identification with the film.
With hope, FLY AWAY is providing a service for our community, and in some way building community. We have also been embraced by people whose lives are not touched by autism; they relate to the film as an authentic and engaging drama of the human heart. As a film on its own terms. Which is very gratifying to me as a filmmaker.
Matthew: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about you or Fly Away?
Janet: Although FLY AWAY is an intense journey, it is not a downer! Critics have called it:
“Gripping…engaging…entertaining…funny… inspiring.”
Ultimately, FLY AWAY is a love story. Between a parent and a child. It’s about what love calls us to, and how we rise to the occasion because the heart is infinitely large and flexible. So the film is, likewise, filled with love, fun and joy. As well as struggle. It ends on a note of hope. In other words, audiences don’t have to be afraid of watching it! It will NOT bum you out!
For more information on how you can watch Fly Away please click here.
Conviction
Well, after 18 years of one legal and personal setback after another, Betty finally gets her brother, Kenny Waters, freed from prison…Please let me repeat that:
It took Betty 18 years of working towards her goal to free her brother, Kenny, from prison for a crime he did NOT commit! Imagine working 18 years working towards a goal while experiencing one ‘failure’ after another…
To me, this is an inspiring example of what many great spiritual teachers describe as being TOUGH MINDED and TENDER HEARTED…
Betty was committed to freeing her brother from prison no matter how long it took and no matter what obstacle she had to go through. This type of commitment requires a very tough-minded individual –- someone who will remain committed to their goal NO MATTER WHAT…
My favorite scene in the movie is when Betty’s then husband tries to tell Betty that it is okay that her brother is in prison and she should stop wasting her time trying to free him. Betty’s then husband says to her: (after Betty had spent close to 10 years trying to free her brother):
“Why don’t you accept that your brother will be in prison for the rest of his life and there is nothing you can do about it?”
Betty fires back with fierce determination in her voice and says:
“I WILL NEVER ACCEPT THAT!”
This is often the necessary level of commitment and tough-mindedness that it takes to achieve our goals and carry out our destiny. In order to truly accomplish our life missions, we must cultivate a mindset that we MUST accomplish our goal and NEVER accept anything short of that….
What drove Betty to have this type of strength and determination?
I believe it was the ability to infuse her tough-mindedness with a tender heart and the innocent love she had for her brother. Throughout the movie, we see that Betty’s desire to free her brother is pure, innocent and comes from the love that she has for her brother. Betty and Kenny have a bond of love between them that drives Betty to continue to help her brother no matter what setback presents itself.
This is very impressive to watch and helped me realize that when we infuse a tender heart into our mind, then it becomes much easier to remain committed to our goals and mission in life, especially in the face of adversity. Watching the movie prompted me to ask myself:
What is really motivating me to move forward and pursue my dreams?
If we can shift to a space of innocent love for others, our self and our God-given missions in life, then that unadulterated love can help us develop the necessary tough-mindedness, spiritual power and personal resiliency to persevere through any challenge and carry out our life missions.
I went to the theater with high hopes and low expectations: A movie about the afterlife from mainstream Hollywood? How much could I expect? I loved the movie. It was almost more than I could have hoped for: a solid cast, brilliant director, and understated realism. Hereafter
The astonishing thing is that we put up with this conspiracy of silence. The experiences of forgiveness, hope and healing that emerge from contact with the afterlife deserve to be shouted from the roof-tops. This is the good news we long to hear: My brother who has died forgives me from the Other Side; I can still say the things I need to articulate to someone I love who has passed on.… Our lives do not end with the death of the body. Why have we been keeping silent about these things?
I have a little theory that the conspiracy has been brewing for a long time. Yes, we are a materialistic culture whose system of consumerism depends to a great extent on fear and dissatisfaction to fuel the addiction for more. But there’s another thing that happened right around the Second World War. We baby boomers can remember. Our fathers didn’t talk about their war. They’d gone from the Great Depression to the Great War and when it was over and our nation was faced with a new future, the veterans and their generation wanted to create something entirely new. The Madmen of Madison Avenue, Donna Reid and My Three Sons…. They were on a fast elevator to a world with endless new gadgetry to bring ease and pleasure, and nobody wanted to look back to the sad days of depression and war. Who needed ancient customs and beliefs when the television gave us a magic reality of happiness and plenty?
What I’m driving at is that between the miracles of technology, newfound affluence and mass enculturation we lost something BIG. We lost the ability to relate to loss and see it through to the other side. In fearing that the grief would envelop us we lost the gift of healing into wholeness. We learned to compartmentalize. Death was the unspoken. Grief was hidden; the old and infirm were institutionalized. We could create eternal life and happiness right here in consumer heaven.
But we’re still not satisfied: that’s the thing. The remedies aren’t working. We’re still longing for our lost wholeness. All we need to do is to sit by the bedside of a dying friend or elderly relative and see, in the midst of the grieving, a special light, and a warm presence, to be reminded that there is really nothing to run away from so fast and furiously. Death, the Bogey Man, can be a portal into unspeakable wonders and unimaginable frontiers.
So I’m really on board with this new movie. I’m forgiving Clint Eastwood his formulaic ending because he’s given us back a vital piece of ourselves: the knowledge of the wonders that await us beyond this life. My only objection to Hereafter, the movie, is that it could go so much further. Maybe there will be a sequel – one that will draw from the thousands of stories and descriptions that have come from the Other Side. Those are the stories the world is hungry to hear. For those who’ve experienced communications from the afterlife there’s an endless fascination. Here’s the secret: the Holy Grail is right under our noses after all.
This article is a guest post written by Jane Smith Bernhardt. Jane is an artist, performer and writer. She is a graduate of the interfaith Guild for Spiritual Guidance. Her book, WE ARE HERE: Love Never Dies, chronicles an extraordinary period of three family deaths and many miracles of joy and forgiveness. This “Beyond Hereafter” piece was originally written for the ABC/Good Morning America spirituality web page. For more information see www.janebernhardt.com.
I recently had a chance to interview Robin Wilson about her new movie, Revelation. Revelation provides an historical account of good and evil, and how a young woman must regain her faith in God as the world’s population braces for the Armageddon war. It took Robin close to three years to write the script and now she is in the process of submitting her screenplay to movie studios. There are two upcoming sequels she is planning on writing.
I asked Robin how she believes her movie will affect audiences and her answered offered some inspiring insight:
“I would really like for the audience to be impacted in a way that they know that God is real and that there is a purpose for why things are the way that they are today…and that there is something larger taking place than our own small worlds.”
During the rest of our interview, Robin shared with me:
– What inspired her to create Revelation
– Advice for her other screenwriters on how to write a movie script
– Some of the challenging and rewarding parts of writing a screenplay
You can listen to our entire 15-minute interview by clicking the play button below:
If you would like to get in touch with Robin or learn more about her movie, you can email her at wilsonrl31@gmail.com.
Subscribe to our Newsletter on spirituality, psychology, and inspirational entertainment and receive a free report on how to be authentic when you are feeling imperfect.
