Who's Asking? Notes On Cinemorphics

WHO'S ASKING?
Notes On Cinemorphics

By
Charles Webb

INTRODUCTION


There's a well known story, sometimes told when philosophers, the village elders and, less often, when the clergy gather, that finds a terrified young student of metaphysics rushing into her professor's office in tears pleading, "Professor, professor...please tell me...do I exist...do I exist?" To which the wily old sage responds, "Who's asking?". The same question is being posed here...let's see who we can find...

I come from a long line of eccentric southern doctors. I "assisted" my father in surgery when I was ten. I was supposed to be the next eccentric southern doctor in the family, but decided against it. I broke the mold for the first time, I guess, by refusing to play the part...the next "Dr. Webb"...into which I had been cast at birth.

My academic background is first in philosophy then experimental psychology then research psychobiology. After receiving my M.S. and completing Ph.D. coursework, I began to find the prospect of a life in academia stifling. I had been using film techniques and a motion picture camera in my research and had really gotten into the medium in its own right by that time. I took the camera home, made a small film based on a short story by Kafka, and never really looked back. I was invited to join a newly formed film and TV production company, which I did. This was in the late 60’s. I have been involved in one aspect or another in film and video production ever since, operating my own company since the late 70s.

I had dabbled with the idea of using method acting and other cinematic and theatrical techniques as a way to "re-create" someone in "real" life and deal with individual problems, both psychological and physical, for years…since the early 70s when I took part in an ongoing actors/directors workshop and really began to see the power of cinematic/theatrical manipulation. By the early 90s this approach had gone through quite a gestation period and it was time to use it. On myself.

At this point, although I was still quasi-functional and financially successful, I was grossly overweight and addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cigarettes. Then a close friend, business associate and big time drinking and coking buddy of mine dropped dead of a heart attack. This woke me up. I decided to re-write and re-direct myself. I checked into hospital to de-tox and walked out a different character. I got a new wardrobe, dropped out of film for awhile and got involved in a restaurant-nightclub project, ate differently and "acted" differently. I knew I had to do this or die. I was able to write the booze and coke out of my character description...15 years ago...and do the same with cigarettes, which was much harder, a few years later.

My wife, especially, and close friends provided the support group/audience/cheerleader/coach component of the equation which is so important for the success of a major re-write.

The name Cinemorphics™ became an obvious choice for this approach.

Since that time I have developed and effectively practiced Cinemorphics™ with a number of individuals and small groups. Quite a bit of informally assembled material having to do with the development of Cinemorphics™ may be found at: http://cinemorphics.blogspot.com.

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THIS BOOK

The material presented here is a collection of notes and references that relate to the theory and practice of Cinemorphics™. It is in no way exhaustive or linear. It is intended to circle around the subject and afford views from different points of view. It provides a taste - not the whole meal. A fragment of the map - certainly not the territory. Reading and thinking about Cinemorphics™, listening to CDs or watching DVDs can be very suggestive of direction and effective in many cases, but is not the same as doing it, and the best way to do it is to work with an experienced facilitator.

Also, all information in this book should be considered NON-MEDICAL

With that in mind...

***




CINEMORPHICS™ FAQ


"Life is a movie. The world is not made of atoms, it is made of characters and their stories. Between pictures, there is no Lon Chaney.”
Lon Chaney

WHAT IS CINEMORPHICS™?

Cinemorphics™ is the science and art of changing, transforming, transmuting the construct known as the ego, persona, self...what someone thinks of when asked to describe himself or herself...one's idea of oneself...from one form into another, by making use of the methods and techniques of acting and movie making. Bodily changes may also be addressed or result from this change in the psyche. Emotional and physical health may be improved.

"If you think you are and everybody else thinks you are, then you are."
Jean Genet



WHAT CAN CINEMORPHICS™ DO FOR ME?

Such changes may be sought for a number of reasons...to fix some problem either physical or psychological...for serious personal growth or just as a form of play.

When someone asks, who are you?, your response may include your name, age, sex, race, height, weight, hair and eye color, where you live, whether you are married or not, whether you have children, what you do for a living, your hobbies, your likes and dislikes, your religious beliefs, your hopes, fears, hang-ups, skills, etc. If pushed, you could produce an exhaustive "character" description of all of the things that, when combined, make up what you take to be you. You identify with this description, this construct.

This description of who you take yourself to be...your ego...includes genetic, biological and physical components as well as culturally conditioned, learned and psychologically "shaped" components. Most of these components have been assembled over a long period of time without your intervention. (e.g. you were born with black hair and learned to speak Spanish growing up.) Some you believe you have intentionally cultivated (e.g. you decided to learn to play the guitar and make your living as a musician). In many cases the distinction between which of your attributes were come by intentionally and which were thrust upon you by nature or nurture is very blurry.

In any case, this description of who you think you really are, this construct with which you identify, can be looked at in another way. If written out, your description of yourself reads like a character description in a movie script, play or novel. Consider yourself a fictitious character that has been devised by the haphazard, natural forces of ordinary life in the world but which you have believed is the real and only you.

Now that you realize that this "you" that you can observe and describe is very much like a character in a movie, consider the possibilities. If your life is a movie and you are the star, lets have a look at how your character was written...to a great extent not by you...and how you are being directed...also in many cases not by you. If you don't like what you see, demand a re-write. Your character...your self...is not written in stone. It is malleable and can be re-written, then rehearsed and performed by you...at first with the collaboration of and direction by a professional and then by you alone. You can also learn to be your own best, most discerning audience, write your own reviews...decide what is working and what is not. You become the producer, the star performer, the critic. You learn how to take charge.


HOW DO I DO THIS?

Either through a series of one on one sessions, or one or more intensive workshops. What follows is an overview of how these sessions and workshops are conducted.

You will be asked to provide a brief medical and psychological history and a summary of what you want to accomplish by using this process. The director of the sessions or workshop will describe the types and levels of change that Cinemorphics™ can provide, outline the procedures of, as well as the dangers inherent in the process.

You will then write a short character synopsis of "you"...your character as you now see it...which will be reviewed, discussed and then re-scripted, rehearsed and then performed, first in the private session or workshop environment and then in ordinary, day to day surroundings. Videotape may be used as a feedback device in these rehearsal and performance stages. During the course of the sessions you will possibly have assignments to do which relate to certain components of your new character. (e.g., if you decide that your new character speaks French, you could be directed to take a course in French. Or, you may simply be directed to go shopping...finally buy that intriguing hat you always thought would make you look mysterious, but always put off getting.)

Following the rehearsal/performance/audience stage, you and your director will evaluate the effectiveness of your re-written character and your enactment of it...whether it "plays" or needs more development.

YOU MENTIONED LEVELS OF CHANGE?

While one level of change is not inherently better than another, there are different kinds and amounts of change that are possible depending on what you want to accomplish. Some levels are more detailed and elaborate than others.

For example, your character synopsis may include shyness which you eliminate in your re-write. This may be the only thing you want to change and the only thing you work on. When you are successful, of course, this one change can affect everything else in your life.

Or, your character synopsis may include obesity and shyness which interact. Your new character is thin and flamboyant. You must work on both aspects of this in order to be able to play the part. In this case physical change must accompany rehearsal and "method" acting of flamboyant scenarios.

Or, you may want to make a more comprehensive change... be re-written and directed in identifying with and performing a character very different than the one you are playing at the beginning of the process. This could involve changing your name, your hair color, your wardrobe, your job, your routines, your skills, your "image", the way you conduct personal relationships, etc. You turn yourself into a work of art. Also, studies have shown that behavioral changes can result in physiological changes…heart rate, blood pressure, neurochemistry, etc.

So, as was alluded to above, one change can affect everything else in your life - or many changes can result in the "manifestation" of a single thing (or situation - it does not have to be a "thing") which you have desired that is now written into your script... This aspect of the process of manifestation is discussed very effectively by David Spangler in his book "Everyday Miracles: The Inner Art of Manifestation" - much more effectively than in the more recent "The Secret" or the many other books about the Law Of Attraction. Cinemorphics™ allows a sideways approach to manifestation which can be explored in detail in the one on one sessions and workshops.

Additionally, after realizing that who you think you really are is simply a construct that you have identified with, a fictitious character that can be altered and performed, a tool that you use as you live your life, you may begin to dig deeper and ask more basic questions. Who am I really...who or what identifies with this fictitious character I have taken to be myself. Who is the observer...the witness to all this...who is making the changes in the character I am playing now? These are extremely significant questions and looking at them may result in a "waking up", a dropping away of the husk of persona altogether. In this respect Cinemorphics™ allows another sideways approach - to Zen, Advaita, Taoism and the other nondual traditions which can also be explored in advanced sessions and workshops.

"The ego is just the dream of the Witness, the film that the Witness creates..., simply so it will have something to watch at the movies."
Ken Wilber


WHAT ABOUT DANGERS?

Individuals with certain medical conditions and diagnoses of certain types of mental illness should not use Cinemorphics™ alone as a tool for change. Conventional medical approaches and psychotherapy need to be used prior to and in conjunction with Cinemorphics™ in these cases.

Also, when someone significantly changes even one aspect of themselves and their life, everything else changes as well (for good or bad - see above). A prudent consideration of this must be taken before you decide to re-construct yourself.

"Be careful what you're dreaming...soon your dream'll be dreaming you."
Willie Nelson


CAN YOU POINT TO EXAMPLES OF THE CINEMORPHIC EFFECT IN EVERYDAY LIFE?

As we look around our increasingly post-modern culture...particularly via the media...we can begin to identify powerful examples of the effect. Many movie stars and other celebrities have very effectively gone through this process. Character creation techniques are utilized extensively off the screen as well as on. The process is evident in the political and business arena and is used by con-men, criminals and spies to great effect...and pro-wrestlers. Post-operative transsexuals take the Cinemorphic process to one of its extremes...physical sex change as well as persona identity change. Thousands use aliases and conjure up alternate personalities in internet chat rooms and role playing games. Hundreds of thousands make a geographic change, introduce themselves with a new nickname and experiment with being a new person in a new location. You, yourself, have probably experienced becoming a "different person" on vacation, particularly in a foreign country.

As you become aware of the effect you will begin to see it everywhere, applied unconsciously and unsystematically in most cases.

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CINEMORPHICS
and the
PSYCHOLOGY OF SELVES


Recently, I've been having a look at the applicability of the transformational technique of Voice Dialog, developed by Hal and Sidra Stone, as a supplement to the primary Cinemorphic methodology. This approach works well in some cases but not in others. For the best introduction to Voice Dialogue work and the Psychology of Selves and the Aware Ego I strongly suggest a visit to the Stone's website -

http://delos-inc.com/index.html.

In the meantime one can get a sense of the Voice Dialogue work from the following descriptions by J'aime ona Pangaia and Astra Niedra which appear on their websites -
http://www.voicedialoguework.com/ and -
http://www.voicedialogue.com/what_is_Voice_Dialogue.htm
- excerpted below:

VOICE DIALOGUE
J'aime ona Pangaia
One extraordinary approach to transformation is a method called “Voice Dialogue” work. This is an energetic and conversational process developed by Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone. It is a practice that stems from their body of work called the Psychology of the Aware Ego.

“Voice Dialogue is a technique for the exploration of subpersonalities and the expansion of consciousness.” - Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone

A Voice Dialogue facilitation works with three aspects of the psyche: Awareness (also known as our non-judgmental witness state), Ego, and the energetic sub-personalities, or Inner Selves. Ideally, our ego is our capacity to choose or decide. In traditional psychology, the ego has been known as the “executive function of the psyche.” Before a consciousness process begins, our Ego usually gets to make decisions based on the perspectives of whatever inner selves we are currently identified with. In other words, there is no true free will as long as a person is identified with any particular Inner Self ( or system of selves). Being identified with a self means that at that moment, you are absolutely convinced that that is who you are, and the picture of reality which that self gives you IS actual and full reality. This is the self (system) who has been running “the show” and who will continue to run your show until either another inner self takes over or you have an Aware Ego Process available.

Voice Dialogue Work always begins by identifying and honoring the Primary Selves.

Voice Dialogue begins with a unique interview process between a facilitator and a subject that supports a keen, non-judgmental experience of the particular feelings, beliefs, history, mannerisms, motives and essential feeling of the inner self being explored.

This facilitation of an inner self includes:

- the subject moving over to sit, stand or move in a new physical location

- usually, an attentive verbal dialogue based on respectful inquiry between the facilitator and that part of the subject

- a clear energetic rapport between the facilitator and the subject

- an genuine acknowledgement of the living, valid reality of this part of the person

- it can even take place in complete silence, if that's how a particular inner part expresses itself

- support in maintaining a congruent energetic expression of the self being facilitated, without the interference of other inner selves

- a return to the original position with the aim of keeping a separate ego awareness of the inner self just facilitated.

- training this newly aware person to learn how to separate from and engage, by choice, the inner selves discovered in facilitation.

This is a process and it takes practice. It's like learning to play a musical instrument. Learning all the music theory in the world doesn't make you a master musician. Learning and practicing playing your instrument does. As Sidra Stone, one of the formulators of this work once put it, Voice Dialogue is like becoming a master of your own instrument, in this case, of your conscious awareness in life.

WHAT IS VOICE DIALOGUE?
Astra Niedra
Voice Dialogue and its underlying theoretical base, the Psychology of Selves and the Psychology of the Aware Ego, have their roots in Jungian psychology. The Stone's discovered that not only are our personalities made up of many different subpersonalities, or selves, which other psychological models accept too, but that these selves are real, with real needs, opinions, and perceptions about the world, and that it is possible to dialogue with these selves and to unhook from being totally identified with them. By unhooking from the selves that have been part of your identity, you make space for another aspect of consciousness called the Aware Ego. The Aware Ego is a process where your usual ego becomes aware of itself, or rather of the selves that are a part of it, and is then able to choose which selves to express, rather than have the selves choose for you.

Starting an Aware Ego process is an incredibly empowering and freeing experience as it enables you to unhook from and stand between opposite parts of your psyche, and not be identified with either of them. The choices that are opened up for you in such a state are real choices as you are not being carried along with the beliefs and rules of a particular self.

Voice Dialogue is an experiential technique which involves having a facilitator engage in a dialogue directly with the various parts of your psyche. The aim is to discover which parts of your psyche you have been identified with, to gain awareness of these parts and of how they have been affecting you and your life, and then to separate yourself from these parts so that you can start to be in charge rather than having one of your selves or subpersonalities being the decision-maker. So the facilitator can ask to speak with your Inner Critic, your Perfectionist, your Pleaser, your Responsible Parent or whichever self or selves you are identified with. After you have separated from the selves in you who have been 'you' (called primary selves), and you have what is now a more Aware Ego from which to make your decisions from, you can meet the many other aspects of you psyche which you might not have had access to before.


HOW MANY SELVES?
A question that naturally arises when one is introduced to this work is how many selves are there? The answer is - probably unlimited, but an individual typically only identifies with a few Primary Selves. One of the main objectives of the work is to identify these Primary Selves as well as the Disowned Selves an individual has lurking in the background but having an effect on their lives nonetheless.

In her article, Me! Me! Me!: Subpersonalities Tug Of War (Yen Magazine, Australia, 2003) Astra Niedra provides a list of some of the selves who may be encountered in Voice Dialogue sessions:

Rulemaker
Someone identified with rules will follow the rules of their family and social group. They will choose a lifestyle that fits in with family and cultural expectations and they will do well in that field. Identifying with this subpersonality leads to acceptance by your family and the wider community to which you belong.
Rebel
The rebel breaks the rules! This personality does the opposite of what is expected by their family and culture. Rebels find their own way of doing things and often rock the boat. The rebel likes to think of itself as having no rules but it does have one golden rule which is to break all the rules.

Cautious Observer
The observing and cautious self likes to suss out a situation before it takes action. It needs to understand how something works before it participates. It stands back and observes and can be seen as shy but really just likes to know what is going on.
Spontaneous
The spontaneious self jumps in and participates and then thinks about what it has done later, if at all. It engages with people instantly and takes action quickly. It does not plan or consider consequences of its actions. It is a very 'enjoy the moment' self.
Pleaser
The Pleaser is a great personality for others to have around because it makes other people feel so good. It is considerate, kind and helpful. However, it does not get its own needs met and can feel drained from all the energy it gives to others.
Selfish
The selfish self considers only itself. It makes sure its needs are met - it always comes first. It does not care about other people's needs and has no qualms about stepping over others for its own interests. The selfish self rarely becomes tired or sick because it makes sure its needs are always met, and it does set great boundaries.
Pusher
This is the force which propels us to action. Someone with a strong pusher will get many things done. The pusher is constantly on the go and is always thinking about what needs doing next. Nothing is ever finished - there is always more to do on its list. It leads to high achievement and high energy but unchecked leaves a person stressed, tense and unable to relax. Pushers are unable to enjoy their achieve-ments because they never stop long enough to do so.
Perfectionist
The perfectionist makes sure everything is perfect. Perfectionists look over everything they do countless times and they keep improving. They can stand in front of the mirror for hours doing their makeup and they can get stuck on one task at work, re-doing and revising until everything is just right. Perfectionists find it difficult to finish things and can take so much time doing one small thing.
Slob
The slob does not have any standards. Everything is fine as it is. Mistakes are not a problem, mess is not noticed. You would not want this self performing brain surgery but it is easy-going and relaxed compared to the uptightness of an absolute perfectionist.
Critic
We all have one an unfortunately most of us become victim to our own inner critic. The critic points out our weaknesses, flaws, mistakes, and generally anything less than perfect about us - yet perfection, even by its own admission - we can never achieve. A great friend of the perfectionist and pusher, the critic keeps us trying harder and harder. then directed outwards, this self is a judge. The judge looks on others and does to them what the critic does internally to us.
Shy
The shy personality is not confident with other people or in groups. It is quiet and soft and more sweet. They shy self is introverted and feels as though it is hiding. It is often perceived more negatively than the outgoing self in our culture but it has the qualities of sweetness and sensitivity.

....etc...etc...etc...


The Stones discovered that these selves are real, with real needs, opinions, and perceptions about the world, and that it is possible to converse with these selves as if they themselves were individuals with complete personalities and to disengage from being totally identified with them. Additionally, quoting Sidra Stone, "…as people enter different selves their blood pressure changes, and so does the color of their skin. When you talk to the vulnerable child, the brow will flatten out and wrinkles often disappear. Some selves stutter because they're insecure. After a while, you get adept at identifying the selves and their different energy fields."

As far as the relationship of these multiple selves/personalities to mental illness is concerned, a common fear when one first encounters the Voice Dialogue work, Sidra Stone explains, "Psychotics have a full amnesiac barrier between the different selves, and none of them connect. Healthy individuals have a strong ego that allows them to communicate with all these personalities and come away with new experiences and new insights." (The above quotes are from Multiple Selves: Expanding Our Notion of Identity by Valerie Andrews taken from Intuition Magazine, Issue 20, February 1998.)

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USING VOICE DIALOGUE WITH CINEMORPHICS™

Most people in today's global culture have a basic knowledge of how movies are made and are familiar with the players and their roles, if only through familiarity with Academy Award and Golden Globe categories or the tabloid media be it paper, TV or online. The terms producer, director, agent, writer, star have appeared with such frequency that they are in some ways pop archetypes. In adapting Voice Dialogue to the Cinemorphic model a whole new cast of characters (selves) is being brought to the stage of the individual's "Theater of the Psyche", so to speak. (Please pardon my mixing movie and theater metaphors. I may even bring some references in from the music business, carnival and circus. All kinds of Show People are archetypal in some way, I think.)

It should be reiterated that Voice Dialogue is only one of the tools that may be used in Cinemorphic work. Its use may enhance the effectiveness of the overall Cinemorphic approach in some cases, but this use should only be viewed as an adjunct, not the primary method.



Some of the selves that may be addressed via Voice Dialogue in a Cinemorphics session are the Executive Producer, Producer, Line Producer, Director, Writer, Editor, Star, Supporting Actor, Extra, Casting Director, Critic, Exhibitor, Audience Member, Make-up & Costume Designer, Art Director, Manager, Agent, Entertainment Attorney, Union Representative, Publicist, Paparazzi, Caterer…etc.

(Please note that movie and theater related selves are not the only ones addressed in Voice Dialogue Cinemorphics sessions. The other, more typical selves - e.g. Protector, Controller, Vulnerable Child, etc. are also addressed. The movie/theater selves just expand and enhance the possibilities and provide a different point of view.)

Addressing one or another of the selves from the movie/theater population of selves may be particularly effective in certain situations. e.g. Input from Make-up & Costume, possibly a self not considered important before, could greatly enhance one's presentation in the world. The Line Producer self may provide a similar contribution. Conversely, some movie and theater related selves may be irrelevant. The idea is to identify selves from this population that have something unique to add to the mix, some aspect that opens a new window on the world.

(For those not familiar with the basic roles of movie and theater people a good reference is the Internet Movie Database's online film glossary at: http://www.imdb.com/Glossary/
Here, you will find definitions of terms and phrases frequently used in the world of movies, film, acting, and cinema-going.)

The ontological status of the selves addressed is not called into question here. i.e. they are not referred to as "fictitious" as in Cinemorphic re-write sessions. Their existence is not threatened in any way which would lead to them "not wanting to talk". Which selves are "put in front of the camera" by the Aware Ego, however, is a factor, particularly among the actor selves (jealousy!). The Aware Ego is a process not an entity. Most people confuse this with operating ego or one of the selves and its characteristics.

In addition to re-writing the characteristics or features of a "fictitious" persona, new selves that can become a part of the mix, the "stew" that is the whole person, are evoked/addressed. The recipe is adjusted but nothing is left out. In movie making, as in a stew, collaboration is vital.

The facilitator should consciously activate, call out, recognize, call to center stage the selves or characters that are causing problems or that want to talk. Maybe they have been disowned but are still troublemakers. Call out the Troublemaker self itself. Address it directly. Make a deal with it. Negotiate with the selves who need attitude adjustment - ask the Manager, Agent or Entertainment Attorney to negotiate deals between the other selves.

The client/subject may write a detailed description of each of the Primary Selves identified with and practiced. This is not a re-write of one particular self/character designed to change things, but rather a behavior description of a self that the Aware Ego wants to evoke in the real world a part of a new configuration of selves.

Another approach would be to have the client/subject describe the self - The Star Self - that they would like to be...write it out like a character description, then ask to speak to this self and ask the self its Name.

Triggers may be used to activate specific selves/characters in the real world. (This is what moving to a new position or chair does in a session.) Use a Name as a trigger. The self with this Name has certain characteristics and behaviors based on its detailed description (above) and can create a performance - based on these - in actual situations. The self with this Name becomes a performance Ally. This process is similar to an actor evoking an archetype during character building and performance.


THE ARCHETYPE CONNECTION
To emphasize the effectiveness of this approach and its significance in the present context, I am including here an excerpt from an article by Jason Bennett, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELVES, ARCHETYPE WORK AND VOICE DIALOGUE.
"Some of this work is taught at The Jason Bennett Actor's Workshop, in advanced workshops. The pioneering work of Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone has profound implications for acting."

http://www.jbactors.com/

Archetype Work helps you develop consciousness of, and access to, the vast world of archetypes in you -- instead of being powerless over and unaware of this process, like most people live their entire lives. It allows you to reclaim the archetypes you have disowned, so they are available to "bubble up" when you act. Archetype Work can solve many acting problems traditional acting methods can't, liberating you from blocks and allowing you to access new kinds of "characters" and "points of view" that you didn't think you were capable of or could even imagine.

Using Archetype Work:

- You can rapidly access specific physical, vocal and emotional states-of-being -- from a calculating, sex-crazed, killer one minute -- to a playful, extremely sensitive child the next.

- You will explore a diverse library of "characters" for use in your work – with different ages, philosophies, emotional realities, voices and body language.


- You will "connect" with all kinds of new characters and understand their relationships on entirely new levels. This means you may be castable in many more roles and your work will be more dimensional and unpredictable.

Archetype: An archetype is a basic "unit" of the human psyche. Archetypes are universal "ways of being" or looking at the world programmed into your psyche. There are dozens of archetypes that make-up your personality. Archetypes have very unique thoughts, values, abilities, emotions, voices, energies and physicalizations. The internal manifestation of archetypes are images and fantasies. As an adult, you are able to access many kinds of archetypes, but many you have deeply repressed since childhood.

Archetype Facilitation: An Archetype Facilitation is the process of directly accessing archetypes in you -- including the ones you have repressed -- so you can use them for your acting. The more you do this, the more you develop a library of "character traits" for use in your work. But they are not "characters," they are real parts of your psyche.


SAMPLE VOICE DIALOGUE SESSIONS
Please check out -

http://www.voicedialoguecalifornia.com/?q=samples

- to get some idea of what typical Voice Dialogue sessions are like. These samples were not conducted within the context of Cinemorphics and, therefore, do not address the Cinemorphic population of selves per se, but they do allow one to begin to get more of an actual feel for the process.

***



OBSERVATIONS & OPERATIONS

These Observations and Operations should not be interpreted as either a complete overview or comprehensive method. They are not presented in, nor are they intended to be applied in any particular order. I suggest that readers add their own observations and operations to this list. Once you "get it", improvise. Its like riding a bicycle.


OBSERVATIONS

YOU'RE ADDICTED
Look at the attachment to the ego/persona/ character you have haphazardly become over the years as an addiction. It is a habit that is hard to break. There is resistance and fear of change, for which falling back into old patterns...the old character...is a narcotic.

SHIFTY MEMES
There has been a fluid, shifty identity meme proliferating in the last decade...with many manifestations. Identity theft. Extreme make-over TV shows. Popularity of cosmetic surgery. Nip/Tuck a hit. But all of this is physical enhancement (not ID theft of course). Cinemorphics is psychological and psychic as well as physical.

UNSTICK YOURSELF
Cinemorphics is one tool, not a panacea. It is a way to look at and handle reality. One angle on things...that can lead to insight and "freedom of movement."

SHOW ME THE MONEY
This is a production not a daydream. What is the budget? Like a movie, it costs money. It can be either low budget or blockbuster but consciousness of the projects interaction with financing is important...all the way from cost of "effects", e.g. new "costumes", cosmetic surgery, flying lessons, a trip to Rio...to day to day living expenses. Is your new character commercial or a low revenue producing art house offering? You are the producer. You have to raise the money.

Another take on this same question: This type of project is much easier and more effective if money is not a consideration. If your new character involves having to do something new for money...e.g. art not fixing cars...the new character has to be marketable. This is part of the character description. This is a different game indeed.

THE WORLD IS A MIRROR
The reaction of the world (friends, lovers, etc.) will interact with re-invention of the persona. It may not always be good. If you change one significant thing, you change everything. Be careful what you wish for. The world will be a mirror that you observe yourself in. You may not like what you see.

Also, once you change the world will treat you like a different person...which is what you want...you think. This may be expressed in unexpected ways which you cannot control. To this extent, you are as much shaped by the world as by yourself. Good thing though...you become more aware of the dynamics of the process and are not so much at its mercy.

ALL THE WORLD'S A SCREEN
Each Cinemorphic "project" should include all the elements of a film production...from conception (of new character), to story conferences, writing, financing, development, "crew" (show runner, director, acting coach, make-up, wardrobe, special skills/physical training, etc.), rehearsal, grand opening, performances (going live), promotion, distribution (playing in the real world), criticism/reviews, sequels, ancillary products, etc.

IT'S A WRAP!
It is much easier to "do" your new character for short set periods at first...a couple of hours...then a day. A time period with a beginning and an end.

Like actors do in a play or film. They identify with the character for the duration of the production, then have no trouble dropping that character and taking on another. They give over the executive/directorial function. When the director says "its a wrap" they can move on...the production is over. Drop one character and move on to the next.

This does not happen in "real" life. There is no end to the identification with the character you are more or less stuck with...your ego/personality. Hence, if you try to change there is baggage that is carried around like an unwanted sack of shit. There is nobody outside...a director...to call action, cut and finally wrap, so you can drop the sack of shit and move on. The conditioning kicks in. But you can drop the conditioning for well defined short periods with less anxiety.

You have to learn to do it yourself...
be your own director. Drop the old character, at first, for only a day. Take the risk of "doing" the new character for defined short periods at first...without anxiety. Make the transition gradually.

This effect can often be noticed on vacations. Especially in a foreign country. You don't "feel like yourself". You can drop the old you for the duration of the vacation, then when you return home the sack of shit is there again.


ON B.S.
The ego/persona, the character that you have become over the years, is really nothing more than a belief system, or B.S. as Robert Anton Wilson calls it. So messing with your B.S. is messing with your persona, your identity, which as religious wars have shown us, can have serious consequences. It also implies that the fluidity involved in engaging in a project like Cinemorphic alteration of "you" can result in an openness, wide-eyed disbelief and hair-on-end wonderment at the nature of things which engages life in a way that allows one to break out of the prison of B.S.

Belief systems are constructions...just like egos. They are tools to be used to maneuver through life and should not be confused with reality itself. Nietzsche wrote that belief systems are like windows and that one should "look out of this window, now out of that" but never get stuck looking out of only one. This is what the Cinemorphic malleability of ego/persona construction can accomplish.



OPERATIONS

VEGAS
Take a "vacation" and be someone else while you're gone. Possibly use another name. Make up a new personal history for yourself. This is a version of the Astonish Yourself! experiment described elsewhere in the book. Don't use this as a period of debauchery...act "normal" (relatively)...just act like like someone other that the habituated everyday you.

As they say...what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Observe carefully how it feels to now be the old "you" when you get back home. Which "you" is the "real" you?

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Start consistently writing well put together letters to the editor of at least one daily newspaper "in character"...the character being the new persona you are developing. Sign a new name or altered version of your current name to these. Don't look at this as a joke or spoof. Take the things you say seriously...try to form the opinions your altered persona would express. Experiment with points of view different from the ones you typically hold as the "old" you. If your opinions are challenged...your new persona attacked...by either the editor or other readers, notice the protective feelings you now have for this "fictitious" character...which you are beginning to identify with.

BRANDO & MADONNA
Spend the day "as" a well known personality. i.e. pretend you are...say...Marlon Brando or Madonna all day...identify with and play an array of different personas. Don't just feel it from the inside...act it out. Do impersonations. Variation: Be an animal for a day...a gorilla, say...or a cat.

THE SIMS
Play the Sims game. Practice becoming another character in virtual reality before "taking the show on the road" in the "real" world.

THE SIMS GAME (Ordinary Life Computer Simulation)
From the Manufacturer (as found on Amazon).
In the The Sims 2, you direct your Sims over a lifetime and mix their genes from one generation to the next. You set your Sims' goals in life; fame, fortune, family, romance or knowledge. Give them a long, successful existence or leave their lives in shambles. Take them to extremes, from getting busted to seeing a ghost, from marrying an alien to writing a great novel. Unleash your creativity with the all-new Create-A-Sim feature, new building options, and the new in-game movie camera. Get ready to mix their genes, fulfill their dreams, and push them to extremes. What do you want to do with your Sims' lives?

TOMBSTONE
Write your own obituary. Take notes on how this makes you feel. Put it away. Have a look at it several weeks later...after starting the process of re-conceiving, re-writing and re-"doing" yourself. Make notes on how you feel at this point. Consult your obituary from time to time.

RE-BLOG YOURSELF
Set up a blog for your new character (and name?). Post to it regularly. Tell stories. Use it as a tool to flesh out the new character.

CHANGE ROUTINES
Change the routines in your daily life. Your habitual ways of doing things outline a footprint of "you" in the world. If you want to alter your persona you should alter this footprint. If you drive to work via the same route every day, go a different way. Or take the bus...or a hot-air balloon. Shop at different stores. Eat at different restaurants. Hang out in a part of town you are not familiar with. Become a regular at a new coffee house. Shake things up.

PAPARAZZI YOURSELF
Get someone to follow you around for a couple of days taking your picture in public...at places you usually hang out...as the "character" you are now "doing".

Pose. Have the photographer direct you. Now...adjust yourself a bit. Create a new look. New hair style, grow beard if you are a guy. Different costume. Get photographed again in places you don't usually go. Compare the two sets of pictures. Note reactions of people watching you get your picture taken.

SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE
Begin to learn a foreign language. Speak it in your daily life instead of English (or the language you usually speak).

OPEN MIKE
Get in front of an audience and perform...do stand-up, read poetry, sing, play an instrument...show up dressed like a clown and try to juggle. Even if you can't really do any of these things well...take the risk...the stretch. Feel what its like to perform in front of a live audience in a nightclub.

TATTOOS
Think of several things that are "just not me" and do them. e.g. put on some music and dance alone in your living room (unless you make a habit of this), talk to yourself (while alone)...does your voice sound strange to you, talk to yourself in public...embarrassed?, panhandle, speak to strangers as you walk down the street, wear something outrageous...out of character, sit and meditate (if you don't usually meditate), just sit...alone...in your living room for twenty minutes...doing nothing...

If you don't have any tattoos, get a large one (temporary at this stage) and show up at a bar or café where you are a regular. Dress as you usually do except for the tattoo. Do not turn this into a joke.

"VENUS"
Write a detailed character description of yourself. An inventory. Maybe as a list down one side of the page. Make another list on the other side of the page with changes opposite each item. (Obviously, some items will not be changed.) Based on this new list, write another, more general character description of yourself. Give this new character description a nickname. Practice associating this new character description and nickname. Practice thinking of yourself in the third person as you do things during the day. e.g. If your new nickname is "Venus" and you are going to the grocery, think "now 'Venus' is going to the grocery" and act like "Venus" would act while on this errand.

***



BOOKS, ARTICLES, WEBSITES & NOTES

A THOROUGH READING OF THE QUOTED MATERIALS COLLECTED BELOW, AS WELL AS THE COMMENTARY, WILL YIELD INSIGHTS FAR BEYOND THEIR CINEMORPHIC APPLIACTION.

A. C. T. - AGE CONTROL TECH
There is an interesting book, NEVER ACT YOUR AGE, by Dale L. Anderson, M.D. that takes a Cinemorphic approach to physiological as well as behavioral changes.

http://www.acthappy.com/

THE EDGE EFFECT by Eric R. Braverman. M.D. also suggests that psychological "exercise" has physical effects.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=2123

A good example of one area (and there are many) in which Cinemorphic techniques can be effectively used is "age control" (chronological vs. functional age). You can't change the year you were born but it has been documented that you can alter your functional age by as much as fifteen years by "never acting your age" in combination with other healthy lifestyle changes.


CHAMELEON TECH
Edmond A. MacInaugh's book DISGUISE TECHNIQUES - Fool All Of The People Some Of The Time, is as practical and street-wise as THE FUTURE OF THE SELF is analytical and abstract. I highly recommend reading both...both approaches are necessary. MacInaugh's techniques are not thought experiments or film/stage acting tricks (although they could be used as such). They are aimed squarely at the "real" world. In his view all the world really IS a stage...and a playground. I quote directly from DISQUISE TECHNIQUES, below, to give the reader the flavor and a glimpse of the power of MacInaugh's work:

"If you have mastered the basic techniques of disguise, learned to recognize the image you present to the world as well as how to alter it at will to suit your own purposes, and if you have developed the ability to see others
accurately, then you are ready to test your skills on an unwitting audience.

Start small; for your first disguise attempts, an ordinary, non-threatening persona is best. You will find that in the early stages brief excursions into a different identity will be
enough to get your adrenaline flowing. Practicing in the privacy of your room is one thing, taking your new self into the street quite another. Don't worry if you feel foolish or shy
in the beginning, and don't be hard on yourself if you stammer or find yourself seized with uncontrollable laughter. Other people won't think too much about it; they are more concerned about themselves than they are about you. Unless
someone has just seen you rob a bank or hijack a plane, he won't be inclined to study your appearance.

After you have paid the utmost attention to every detail of your disguise, you will probably be amazed, possibly even disappointed, at how unobservant the average person is. The
new you will be accepted at face value; people will tend to see you just as you present yourself, and act accordingly. Let's say, for example, that you generally dress and act like
a respectable member of the community, then you disguise yourself as a bum. You will feel strange as pedestrians look the other way and make plenty of room for you on the side- walk, as if your penniless condition were contagious. "Wait
a minute!" you may think. "Can't you tell this is me?"

The answer is no. Of course they can't. You are used to having people react to you as a respectable sort. That is how you have presented yourself, albeit unconsciously, by your choice of clothing, manner, and speech. When you present
yourself as a derelict, why shouldn't people react to you as a derelict just as naturally?

Experience will increase your self-confidence. Just like the new kid in school, your disguise personality will slowly open up and find his own footing, gradually feeling more comfortable in his new world. Your experiences will bring
you many surprising revelations, not only about the art of disguise as such, but also about the way others think, feel, and act, about how society operates, and about yourself and
who you are. Putting yourself in the shoes of a different kind of person will teach you a great deal about what it is like to actually be that person, and this knowledge will help you to
further develop your skills.

Ironically, as you become unrecognizable to others, you will come to know yourself. Through diligent practice of the art of disguise, you will embark on a voyage of self-discovery
that will continue throughout your life. Even after you have become a master, there will always be more to learn. So have a good trip—and good luck!"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0873643070/qid=1131168432/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4231387-8311261?v=glance&s=books


TWO EXPERIMENTS
1. Drop personal history and self-importance. Costume yourself in some beat-up old clothes and become a homeless person/panhandler for a day. Take notes on how this makes you feel. Don't just think about it...write it down.

2. Un-occupied and un-employed. Stand in a relatively busy place and do nothing. Be un-occupied and un-employed for ten minutes. Don't pretend to be waiting for someone, relaxing, "people watching", or the like, if someone asks what you are doing. That would be "doing waiting", "doing relaxing" or "doing people watching". You have no job and you are doing nothing. Take notes on how this makes you feel.

These two exercises yield very different results, but both begin to expose who "you" are. The first, although not exclusively so, is discussed extensively by CARLOS CASTANEDA in his books about his apprenticeship to the (interestingly enough, fictitious) Yaqui shaman Don Juan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda

The second is included in Bernard McGrane's THE UN-TV AND THE 10 MPH CAR which I highly recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1878020056/102-1233313-1152112?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance


ASTONISH YOURSELF!
Roger-Pol Droit is a French philosopher, researcher at the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique and columnist for the French daily Le Monde.

He has written a fascinating book, ASTONISH YOURSELF! 101 EXPERIMENTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVERYDAY LIFE, which he calls an entertainment but which is much more than that. I highly recommend that you buy the book and try the experiments.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142003131?v=glance%20-%2074k-

Since Chapter 27 speaks directly to matters central to Cinemorphics, I present it below...for your entertainment, of course.

CHAPTER 27 Invent Lives For Yourself
Duration: a few months
Props: none
Effect: disturbing
You only live once, as they say here. Others, elsewhere, Will assure you that you have already lived out several previous lives. No matter. You can multiply your own lives yourself, and feel them proliferating. To do so you need to carry out a relatively long and fairly demanding
experiment, but whose effects are well worth the effort.

During a period of several weeks, try systematically inventing lives for yourself. Tell your new barber you were a taxi driver in Detroit before you delivered pizzas in New York. Recount your years of teaching in Australia
to a distant cousin. To your nephews spin yarns about places you never saw, livelihoods you never made (who's to know, after all.), great and small adventures, of fox hunts and fogbound ports.

Do it properly. Don't just tinker. Recount the same stories several times. Spice up the anecdotes, add new details, fill in the blanks and eliminate implausibilities. Tell the same stories to the same people. Take care not to
get muddled up. If need be, take notes, fill out cards, do research. Persevere.

After a few months, you'll be familiar with these
alternative lives. You'll have answered a lot of questions, and explained a good deal. You will have described, narrated, taken up, and repeated the key episodes of your various parallel autobiographies. Above all you'll have
implanted your fabrications into the minds of people who
believe what you've told them, and who will pass them to others in the version you made up for them. They believe it.

Why don't you? The point you need to reach is when you start to doubt whether it's all false, and when you can't quite tell what belongs to fiction, and what to your real life. Or when-it comes to the same thing-you can admit to yourself (without forcing or sudden delirium)
that what you used to consider your "true life" is really, in fact, just one fiction among others. No more, no less.

and...ALWAYS ASTONISHED...
Like ASTONISH YOURSELF!, here is another fascinating book and author. Fernando Pessoa had all of the personas he inhabited write their own poetry and prose "in character". The works are all very different from each other.

ALWAYS ASTONISHED: Selected Prose by Fernando Pessoa is an excellent introduction to this esteemed Portuguese poet's work, including his influential essay, "On Shakespeare." Pessoa is of special interest in the authorship debate because his fame is linked to the "heteronyms" (Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, and Alvaro de Campos) under which he also wrote and published. He has described "heteronyms" not merely as "pseudonyms," but as other characters/personalities that live inside him. "After looking for him in the poems, we search for him in the prose. The pursuit of the Other in Pessoa's work is never-ending," writes Edwin Honig (the translator and editor of Always Astonished) in his Introduction. In Always Astonished Pessoa and his several selves (Caeiro, Reis and de Campos) discuss one another's work, revealing how Portuguese modernism was shaped. "To pretend is to know oneself," Pessoa once wrote.

ALWAYS ASTONISHED is published by and available from City Lights.

http://www.citylights.com/


ZEN PHYSICS
When you create a new character for yourself and you begin to work with it, you will find that your old, habitual character/construct has a life of its own...does not want to be "killed off". Do not kill it. Set it aside. Use it.
But there can be sadness. You have "lost" a loved one...your old persona. There can be periods of grief the more the old you fades away. An intriguing meditation: Think of Cinemorphic change as death and reincarnation.

To take this one step further, check out ZEN PHYSICS by David Darling.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060173521/102-0855485-3920142?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance

Here's a description of the book from Publishers Weekly:

"With the catapult of logic, astrophysicist Darling (Equations of Eternity) lobs a barrage of scientific data against death's door. But he-and we-never quite gain access to the ultimate mystery. The title notwithstanding, Darling's prime ammo is psychology, not physics, and Zen enters his plan only in the endgame. His main thrust involves presenting cases of amnesia, multiple personality disorder and other afflictions, as well as facts of the brain-mind connection, to demonstrate that our sense of self is not steady, as is generally supposed, but fluid, even temporally discrete. Darling then announces a not quite convincing and emotionally unsatisfying theory of "reincarnation" based on this ever-changing self, in which successive incarnations of "me" retain no personal link from one to the next. With great elegance, he next uses findings of quantum physics to show that consciousness is primary to matter. This contradicts Western scientific orthodoxy, but Darling makes a strong case. Both the fluid self and the primacy of matter accord with Buddhist principles, which is where Zen comes in."


WANT A SECOND LIFE?
SECOND LIFE is more even relevant to those interested in Cinemorphics than The Sims (see above). You can check out the SECOND LIFE website at -

http://secondlife.com/.

A VIRTUAL LIFE
A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice

As I step onto the polished wood floor of the peaceful Chinese country house, a fountain gurgles softly and a light breeze stirs the scarlet curtain in a doorway. Clad in a stylish blue-and-purple dress, Anshe Chung waves me to a low seat at a table set with bowls of white rice and cups of green tea. I'm here to ask her about her booming land development business, which she has built from nothing two years ago to an operation of 17 people around the world today. As we chat, her story sounds like a classic tale of entrepreneurship.

Except I've left out one small detail: Chung's land, her beautifully appointed home, the steam rising from the teacups -- they don't exist. Or rather, they exist only as pixels dancing on the computer screens of people who inhabit the online virtual world called Second Life. Anshe Chung is an avatar, or onscreen graphic character, created by a Chinese-born language teacher living near Frankfurt, Germany. And the sitting room in which Chung and my avatar exchange text messages is just one scene in a vast online diorama operated by Second Life's creator, Linden Lab of San Francisco. Participants launch Second Life's software on their personal computers, log in, and then use their mice and keyboards to roam endless landscapes and cityscapes, chat with friends, create virtual homes on plots of imaginary land, and conduct real business.


ROBERT ANTON WILSON'S QUANTUM PSYCHOLOGY
I recently re-read Robert Anton Wilson's QUANTUM PSYCHOLOGY. Wow! If the subject matter of Cinemorphics interests you at all, at all you must acquaint yourself (or re-acquaint yourself) with R.A.W. and his world. You can check out the book at -

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561840718/qid=1145338635/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-3897443-8717448?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

and check out R.A.W. himself at -

http://www.rawilson.com/main.shtml.

I have included a book description and some comments below.

Throughout human history, thoughts, values and behaviors have been colored by language and the prevailing view of the universe. With the advent of Quantum Mechanics, relativity, non-Euclidean geometries, non-Aristotelian logic and General Semantics, the scientific view of the world has changed dramatically from just a few decades ago. Nonetheless, human thinking is still deeply rooted in the cosmology of the middle ages. Quantum Psychology is the book to change your way of perceiving yourself --- and the universe. The book for the 21st Century, complete with exercises. Picks up where Prometheus Rising left off. Some say it's materialistic, others call it scientific and still others insist it's mystical. It is all of these --- and none.

Philip K. Dick, author of Blade Runner:
"Wilson managed to reverse every mental polarity in me, as if I had been pulled through infinity. I was astonished and delighted."

Publishers Weekly:
"Erudite, witty and genuinely scary".

Tom Robbins:
"Dazzlingthe most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway of higher consciousness."

Sounds, London:
"The man's either a genius or Jesus."


YOUR LIFE IS A MOVIE
Below is the opening paragraph of a piece by Nichloas Rombes entitled ENTERTAINMENT, which has interesting implications for the practice of Cinemorphics and may be found at -

http://www.webdelsol.com/SolPix/sp-nicknew.htm

"Today, a second-order reality threatens not to replace the Real, but to expose it as a threat. The final threat. We have been prepared for this by movies like eXinstenZ and The Matrix and Minority Report, which have helped to transform fear into desire. "Big Brother" is no longer a source of anxiety, but of fascination. The Department of Defense's central research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) maintains a web site that speaks of "truth maintenance" and "story telling." In an older version of the website, there was this sentence: "Total information awareness of transnational threats requires keeping track of individuals and understanding how they fit into models."


The HISTORY of acting…
The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 B.C. (probably on 23 November, though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first person to speak words as a character in a play. The machinations of storytelling were immediately revolutionized. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were told in song and dance and in third person narrative, but no one had assumed the role of a character in a story. In honour of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical myth to this day maintains that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes blamed on his ghostly intervention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor


EXTREME PERSONALITY MAKEOVER
Below is an excerpt from a WIRED article that somebody turned me on to. This stuff is way beyond Cinemorphics and the "Method"…

"Sick of your lazy, cheating spouse? Ready to dump your nagging girlfriend? Don't give up - they can be changed. A growing list of personality traits has been linked to individual genes, and scientists are finding ways to tweak them. Yes, this stuff is largely experimental, but someday DNA could save your relationship. So, young lovers, are you ready to skip couples counseling and go straight to gene therapy? Here are some behaviors ripe for reengineering…"
Check out the article at -
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/start.html?pg=9


NANO VOGUE
An associate of mine reminded me of a futuristic TV series proposal that I wrote a number of years ago that included an episode summary entitled NANO VOGUE which hints at what a Cinemorphic technology might be like a hundred years from now (or maybe sooner). Here's the summary:

"A Parisian designer debuts his new collection. By using his cutting edge neurochemical/nano-shapeshifting technology the ultra-rich can select from his new generation of persona/body/sex design configurations, which enable physical and psychological malleability, changing these configurations as they would clothes. The world military and covert operations coalition attempts to suppress and commandeer the designer's innovation, but since, by this time, the fashion industry is more powerful than any government or military group, they loose."

And here are some excerpts from an article that appeared last year at -

http://www.primidi.com/2004/06/09.html

Frederic Zenhausern, director of the Applied NanoBioscience Center at ASU, has joined with Ghassan Jabbour, a professor at the University of Arizona, to develop two prototypes of "biometric bodysuits" that contain embedded sensors, power sources, microfluidic devices and other gadgets not normally associated with the latest Paris fashions…
...The civilian one can monitor your heart or blood pressure, deliver interactive games or simply work as a wearable computer. You will even be able to download new colors and patterns from the Web to change your appearance...
...And it could all be made to look stylish by blending the electronics with high-fashion designs, he said.
Persona as fashion...


CHARACTER ADDICTION
Someone emailed asking if I have ever encountered what might be termed "character addiction", i.e. someone who either "falls in love" (love an addiction?) with a character they are playing in a movie or play or creating a new persona for themselves which may be addictive in an unhealthy way. I addressed this very briefly above in: YOU'RE ADDICTED. To elaborate a bit...

I know some actors REALLY like to play certain types of characters because of the attributes of these types. An example would be a powerful character, e.g. a king or a mob boss or cop. The power of the character being acted feels good to the actor and becomes very seductive. I "real" life, I can see how this could create problems. (This is not the same thing as creating a persona who drinks becoming addicted to alcohol. The addiction is probably to the alcohol, not the persona.)

If you create a persona that really "works", really "plays" it makes you feel good...in the groove. If this groove habituates and you find that you have to exaggerate the aspects of this persona to continue to make it "work", the persona could be creating a dependency. We are probably all "addicted" to our egos to begin with. The ego can be very demanding. It kicks and screams if not attended to properly. This is what could be considered one of the "subtle" or invisible addictions referred to in the excerpt below from the article DRUG ADDICTION VERSUS DRUG WAR ADDICTION. Interesting stuff...addiction to "reality"?

"Addiction comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. The major ones include: alcohol addiction, tobacco addiction, caffeine addiction, drug addiction, pornography addiction, sex addiction, gambling addiction, and computer addiction (including on-line gaming addiction). Then, there are the so-called "subtle" or invisible addictions, which include addiction to work (workaholics), addiction to power (megalomania), addiction to money (miserliness), addiction to approval ("people pleasing"), addiction to reading (bibioholics), addiction to spirituality (the "silent" or taboo addiction), addiction to beauty ("attraction"), addiction to obsessive thinking (rumination), addiction to emotion (anger or tears), and addiction to certain foods (chocoholics)."


ART DIRECT YOURSELF
As in planning and shooting a movie...locations...sets...where you live and work...what bars and restaurants you hang out in. Your car. "Props"...cell phone, eyepod, briefcase...a cane? How you decorate and light your house/apartment...

All of these are extensions/expressions of character/persona/self, and should be taken into consideration…changed around as you re-write and re-act yourself.



COLLABORATION
Motion picture production is a collaborative effort. There is great power in collaboration, between and among producer/writer/ director/actor/cameraman/editor, etc.
This is not movie making by committee.
At its best, it can foster a potent alchemy of creativity and imagination...and the synergistic power of a "third mind" (see below) emerges. The movie just finds the groove...like jazz improvisation...and plays itself.

The same is true of the practice/play of Cinemorphics.

THE THIRD MIND is a book by Beat Generation novelist William S. Burroughs and artist/poet/novelist Brion Gysin. First published in a French-language edition in 1977, it was first published in English in 1978.

THE THIRD MIND is a combination literary essay and writing collection showcasing a form of writing popularized by Burroughs and Gysin in the 1960s called "cut-ups". Cut-ups involves taking (usually) unrelated texts, literally cutting the pages up, and then combining and rearranging the pieces to form new narratives and often-surreal images. This form of writing can also be adapted for filmmaking, as demonstrated by Burroughs and director Antony Balch in their early 1960s short film, The Cut-Ups.

The book contains numerous short fiction pieces demonstrating or related to the cut up method. Also included is poetry by Gysin and an interview with Burroughs. Some chapters had previously been published in various literary journals between 1960 and 1973. (from Wikipedia)


WILD TALENTS
At this point we should probably ask an important question. How is it that human beings are even capable of using procedures like Cinemorphics? What "wild talents" do we possess that afford us this option? Too often these attributes may be taken for granted...until someone gives us a Zen-like whack on the head and wakes us up.

Indeed, cosmographer and speculative scientist Charles Fort (1874-1932) published a book entitled WILD TALENTS in which he does discuss the extravagant natural abilities of human beings, but, as enlightening and amusing as Fort can sometimes be as he whacks us, it is probably wise not to travel down that road in this discussion.

Instead, I suggest we take a long look at THE CREATED SELF, REINVENTING BODY, PERSONA AND SPIRIT by psychologist Robert J. Weber, who reminds us that we are now at a stage in our evolution where our self-awareness, imagination, intelligence and "wild talent" are developed to such an extent that we can go about consciously re-constructing ourselves.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393321215/102-1233313-1152112?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance

Kenneth Gergen says of THE CREATED SELF:
"In today's culture, the self is considered largely a work in progress. Our bodies can now be altered and extended in ways previously undreamed of; our personas are constantly assuming multiple roles in the course of our daily lives; and we seek spiritual fulfillment in myriad traditional and nontraditional cultures, both sacred and secular. Yet as we constantly reinvent ourselves, how do we balance freedom and flexibility with integrity and unity? Using the insights of William James and evolutionary psychology as a springboard, the innovative psychologist Robert J. Weber explores the new, shifting self."


ROBERTA BREITMORE
Check out the Sunday, November 27, 2005 issue of the NEW YORK TIMES for an article about artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, part of which deals with her notorious Roberta Breitmore project. I have included a brief excerpt from the article below:

"…she conjured up Roberta Breitmore, her most sustained character study. From 1974 to 1978, while Ms. Hershman Leeson was a wife and mother trying to make it in San Francisco as an artist, Roberta was a divorced woman new to town, trying to make it on her own. The artist brought her to life by wearing a blond wig, applying heavy makeup and adopting a set of rather depressive tendencies.

Other performance artists in the 1970's were also creating characters to untangle the knots of identity and gender, but Roberta was no one-act wonder. She had her own slumped posture, slow gait, colorful outfit, loopy handwriting, odd jobs and romantic encounters. In time, Roberta acquired a driver's license, two credit cards and her own apartment.

"Everyone thought I was crazy," the artist said. "But I rented Roberta an apartment across the street from my house. I just didn't feel her life would be complete without her own space."

Interesting take on bringing a fictitious character…or a new persona…to "life".


ACT NOW!
ACTING TECHNIQUES FOR EVERYDAY LIFE: Look and Feel Self-Confident in Difficult, Real-Life Situations
by Jane Marla Robbins
Here's another very useful and practical book, about which Talia Shire says,

"Destined to become the classic handbook for using acting techniques in everyday life."
A different but complimentary approach to the "Cinemorphic effect".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569245541/102-12333131152112?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance




DREAMING IN CHARACTER
As part of the process of creating a new character for yourself try to dream as if you are that character. Meditate on this for a few minutes before going to sleep and see what happens. This is like learning a foreign language and dreaming in that language.

Here are some of the responses to the question "Have you ever dreamed you were someone else?" asked in a discussion group on BELIEFNET.COM -

http://www.beliefnet.com/boards/message_list.asp

"Many years ago, I had a dream that I was someone else...it has always intrigued me and I've wondered if it is a possible vision of a past life. Has anyone else dreamt of being someone other than yourself?"

"All the time. I am rarely myself in a dream. Usually it's completely made up dream-characters I identify with, sometimes I also change identification during the dream. It also happens that I dream I am a character from a movie or book, even non-human ones."

"Interesting...I have also dreamed that I was a character in a cartoon, but I was still me. The other dream was very bizarre because I knew it wasn't me physically, but I knew all the thoughts and emotions of this old woman. And I saw things through her eyes...like tunnel vision almost. Glad to know, though, that others have had similar dreams."
- etc.

Check out the site for more and, remember, as I have already quoted Willie Nelson as saying above, "Be careful what you're dreaming...soon your dream'll be dreaming you."


DREAMING IN CHARACTER (cont.)
If you Google "dreaming in character" all sorts of interesting stuff turns up...lots of situations where actors start "dreaming in character" while doing a part, or gamesters start dreaming from the POV of their game character. Here's one example from an article about the actor Peter Krause -

http://www.theage.com.au/news/People/Mr-Misery/2005/06/02/1117568312005.html


"That Krause's work bleeds into his personal life is no surprise given how deeply he immerses himself in his roles. In the past he's been so preoccupied with Nate's plight in Six Feet Under that he's found himself dreaming in character. The strain of portraying these troubled souls has even manifested itself physically. "My lowest point was probably right before We Don't Live Here Anymore," Krause says. "I had this really bad case of hives all over my body from the stress."


UNIFORMS EXPOSED
A significant piece of the puzzle when "trying on" a new character can be the way this new character dresses. What kind of "costume" should they wear to enhance and reinforce the presentation. Most people adopt some kind of habitual uniform whether they identify it as such or not.

UNIFORMS EXPOSED by Jennifer Craik explores the phenomenon of the uniform very effectively.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1859738044/102-1233313-1152112?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance



BOOK DESCRIPTION
There is nothing uniform about wearing a uniform. This one article of clothing has arguably had a greater impact on the world than any other. From fascists to fashionistas, Uniforms Exposed looks at this most extraordinary of ordinary garments and its cultural meaning in our everyday lives. Tracing the troubling connections amongst religious orders, the military, schools and fetish clubs, Craik shows how uniforms alternately control bodies and enable subversion. What does it mean to wear one? Why do certain professions require them? Do they really tell wearers how to act and others how to respond? Answering these intriguing questions and many more, Craik shows how the uniform inspires fear and love, conformity and subversion, and why it has continued to fascinate across cultures and throughout history.


THE MECHANIC & THE ARTIST
How extensive a change are you going for? Do you really need to drop one persona and adopt another? To what extent are you defined by a role?

e.g. if you work on cars and are known as “the mechanic” to what extent does this identity define you? Could the same “you’ also paint pictures and, at times, identify with the idea of being “the artist”. Are “the artist” and “the mechanic” mutually exclusive?

Are you so sick of being identified as “the mechanic” that this identity must be dropped? Is money involved? Will those around you allow you to not be “the mechanic”? Does this freak them out? What bearing does this have on you? Have you gotten to the point that you don’t care. To feel honest with yourself...feel “authentic”...is it important for your audience, i.e. your relationships, to embrace the new you?


BOOZE & BODYMIND
A brief note on a huge and obvious topic -

I was in a bar the other night meeting some friends. It was later on in the evening and everybody was drinking pretty good. I was not...anymore. (see Introduction) Something I am very well aware of, and is certainly not new news, really grabbed me for some reason on this occasion. I know many of these people in non-bar situations. In this setting (on this stage), at this time (11PM on a Friday night) they were all "different people"...strikingly so.

When you drink or do drugs you can "become a different person" very easily. This can either be a very effective tool or a highly suspect short-cut. Prescription, "designer", personality/performance drugs can have the same effect (e.g. anti-depressants, tranquillizers, steroids, Viagra, pot). Changing biochemistry changes behavior…changing behavior changes biochemistry (and physiology). See e.g. THE EDGE EFFECT below. Do you laugh because something is funny or does your laughing make something "funny"?

It is important to be aware these interactions, but it is usually not a good idea to use substances as the primary means for re-inventing yourself. Conversely, it is critical to realize how you are able to change your biochemistry and physiology via behavior. These effects can also be beneficial or harmful...and they are always present. Everything you ingest is a "drug" and every behavior effects your inner "physical" ecology. You are a BODYMIND…not a Body with a Mind or vice versa...not two...

Also...the issue of control. One goal or side effect of Cinemorphics is the apparent heightened ability to consciously form and control who you are and what you do in the world. Learning to control substance intake to create a desired effect...and being able to maintain this edge...walk this tightrope...is a demanding art.


TULPA TANGO
Another email suggested that we have a look at Tulpa creation and the adventures of Alexandra David-Neel in the context of Cinemorphics. I guess the idea is that if you can create a free-acting "being" or "character" using only imaginal means, that you should also be able to create a new persona for yourself which could ride around on your bodily matrix. I realize that we are heading in the direction of Over The Top here, but this is provocative stuff. I quote from www.tulpa.com:

"The word Tulpa is from the Tibetan language and refers to any entity that attains reality solely by the act of imagination. The entity is created entirely within the confines of ones own mind, not drawn out, written down or even verbally described.

If its creator wishes, this 'Tulpa Creation' may become physical reality through intense concentration and visualization. However, care must be taken to only bring to reality what is beneficial to the world, lest it's destruction becomes more problematic than its creation".

http://www.tulpa.com/explain/alexandra.html

Some groups have also performed experiments in Tulpa creation which are fun to read about.

http://tribes.tribe.net/34riu34r1781


BEING BATMAN
The theme of this note...the superhero and their "ordinary reality" alter ego was suggested by an email from a reader who will remain anonymous for the moment. (If you would like for me to mention your name in association with this let me know.)

This idea is explored in a fascinating article in Forbes entitled BEING BATMAN -

http://www.forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2005/06/20/batman-movies-superheroes-cx_de_0620batman.html

- which examines the logistics and cost of literally producing yourself as Batman. The cost factor, which is sometimes not fully considered when imagining a new "you", is at the forefront here rather than acting or re-writing methods...an entertaining angle for an article in a business magazine.

Another consideration here, of course, is the "chicken/egg" question. Clark Kent did not invent Superman. Superman maintained Clark Kent as a cover. Bruce Wayne invented Batman. Acting out multiple personas or expressing different aspects of the self happens to all of us in our day-to- day life in less calculating and extreme forms. e.g. There is very often a "different you" at home and at work. An interesting approach would be to intentionally use this as a form of play. Design, produce and act a specific character that has been invented for use only in designated situations. Give this character a name...say, Bob or Juanita...and be Bob or Juanita on Saturdays only.


GREAT IMPOSTERS
Two more movies, THE GREAT IMPOSTER -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6300185338/102-0855485-3920142?v=glance

and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN -

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/catchmeifyoucan.php

- based on the exploits of real people, Fred Demara and Frank Abagnale Jr. respectively, come to mind in this discussion.

Although the fictions these "characters" created is further fictionalized by Hollywood, the movies are worth checking out and the source material (two novels...again fictionalized versions) is worth exploring. These guys were the real pretenders.


THE PASSENGER
Just saw Michelangelo Antonioni's THE PASSENGER again after thirty years -

http://www.sonyclassics.com/thepassenger/index_content.html

Talk about abandoning one "character" and picking up another! The movie illustrates that dropping personal history is sometimes not so easy...even when it seems that the "you" you are dropping is dead. You somehow follow yourself around and come back to bite yourself in the butt. Be careful who you switch identities with...if the "new you" turns out to be a gun runner, you might wind up dead twice. I highly recommend checking out the re-release of the movie, which Nicholson owns, and, finally, the release of the DVD.

Anyone interested in a more in depth analysis of THE PASSENGER than was offered by my off hand comments, above, should read "Antonioni's THE PASSENGER as Lacanian Text" by Jack Turner. I present the first paragraph below with a link to the entire essay -

http://www.othervoices.org/1.3/jturner/passenger.html

"In Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 film The Passenger, the main character, David Locke,[1] portrayed by Jack Nicholson, impulsively "trades in" his own life for that of another man who resembles him and who dies in an adjacent hotel room in Africa. Locke is attempting to escape the painful prison of his own life and enter the realms of possibility and enticing mystery represented by the life of another; in other words, he is trying to create reality from a common fantasy. He is trying to rewrite the narrative of his life, and he is hoping to "become" someone else, just as many moviegoers do vicariously while in the theater. Unfortunately he lies to himself and ignores the fact that any such trade, outside the seemingly magical environment of the cinema, is going to include the sometimes startling sensations associated not only with risk and change but with a different perspective, based on the history of the life one is stepping into; his escapism is also analogous to suicide, a rejection of one's own history and possibilities. Locke's story shows that lying to oneself by trying to live in what Jacques Lacan referred to as the Imaginary (a fantasy world) is even more perilous and self- destructive than lying to others."


JOAQUIN PHOENIX AND JOHNNY CASH
JOAQUIN PHOENIX on getting into a character, on drinking and Johnny Cash:

The problem, he says, was work. Or, rather, not working.

"When I work, work becomes my sole focus, and when I would finish a film I didn't know what to do with myself," he says. "It's always a difficult period leading up to a film, because when I get into a character I step away from everything that is part of what makes me me. When I go away on location, all I have that really reminds me of myself is a pair of boxers -- I get rid of clothes, everything, show up with basically nothing in a strange city where I don't know anybody. Then you start getting the props that you use in the film, you start getting the wardrobe, and you start developing these traits and things that make you comfortable as the character.

"And then the film is over and you have to give back the props and give back the clothes and I can't spend four hours of my day working on a song. So you have this period of 'What'll I do?' So it's a difficult period when it's over. There's always a period in which I don't do anything, just the bare necessities, breathe and eat."

After filming ended on "Walk the Line," Phoenix noticed he was, "drinking more than I was happy with. So I just decided that I would stop. I don't know, maybe I'll start drinking again in a couple of months, but one thing that John showed is that sobriety is not synonymous with being boring. His best work was done before he was addicted and after, when he got clean."



FUTURES OF THE SELF
From a philosophical/theoretical standpoint, I highly recommend that anyone seriously interested in Cinemorphics read Walter Truett Anderson's book THE FUTURE OF THE SELF. I have included the last few paragraphs of the book below:

The great discovery of the postmodern era — indeed, the one that
defines postmodernity — has been the discovery of this other function of
language. It is the discovery that language does not merely represent
reality, but constitutes it. Our social orders, for example—the ones we
identify with, such as nation-states, ethnic groups, races, tribes —
could not exist without their words and visual systems. Our personal
identities would be hard to locate without the network of symbols
within which we are defined and the internal monologue with which
we continually remind ourselves who we think we are.

This discovery can be terribly frightening, but it is ultimately
liberating. It is liberating because people begin to use their symbolic
tools instead of being used by them, begin to have their identities
without being had by them. We are no longer hopelessly in the grip of
what William Blake aptly called "mind-forged manacles."

So identities continue to exist in the post-identity society, just as
industries and nations do — but in a different context.

It would be nice to be able to say, in these closing pages, that we
are making an evolutionary transition beyond the self, but that isn't
quite the case—not yet, anyway. What we are doing is catching a
glimpse of the self, recognizing it as a fiction, yet continuing to have
selves, identities, public personas, internal "I" narratives, and, yes,
egos. You will note that I have switched from the singular to the
plural, because that is what we all do as we become multilocality,
multicommunity, flexible, changeable beings. We move in and out of
different symbolic universes, defining ourselves and experiencing
ourselves differently as we do.

A postmodern person is being invented, but not out of any clear design, nor in one place, nor by a single creative genius. The modern self was not invented by a single individual either—not even Descartes in his Bavarian bungalow.

The postmodern person is in part the product of other inventions—such as the personal computer—that were not conceived as agents of psychological change. He is in part the product of research in fields such as cognitive science that give us a new understanding of our own thought processes. She is in part the result of improvised, often difficult adjustments to new conditions, when she finds it no longer possible to be as she was.

The postmodern person is by no means a finished product; we are
evolutionary work in progress. We all are being required by the
changes in the world around us to become more open systems—taking
in new information, making new connections, moving our boundaries,
and even reexamining our ideas of what a human being is. As we do,
we become in some ways less than the modern self—less permanent,
less centered, less separate—and in some ways much more: Each of us
is more than a self, and also more than a postmodern progression of
multiple selves; each of us is also a marvelously complex, highly
evolved, and somewhat confused apparatus through which the
universe becomes aware of itself, admires itself, and tries to figure
out what it is.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0874778816/qid=1131168285/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-4231387-8311261?v=glance&s=books


SHAPESHIFTING, METHOD ACTING & CINEMORPHICS
The first few paragraphs of Chapter Seven of Serge Kahili King's book URBAN SHAMAN -

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671683071/002-4231387-8311261?v=glance

- provide such an excellent introduction to a discussion of SHAPESHIFTING -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapeshifting

- and what is generally considered METHOD ACTING-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_acting

- as these techniques relate to Cinemorphics, that I have quoted them here rather than trying to summarize them -

Shapechanging, sometimes called shapeshifting, is one
of the most natural and strange things that humans
can do. Those names refer to the extreme development of a
talent that all human beings share, the talent of kulike' which means "to be like the ku." In other words, to take on the characteristics or pattern of another ku, whether human or not. The minimal development of this talent is the ability to mimic.

Many animals also have this ability, which implies changing
one's pattern of appearance or behavior, rather than just
using what you already have. A tiger blends in with its
surroundings because of its natural coloring, but a chameleon changes its color to blend in with its surroundings. That's active mimicry. There are insects that act like sticks, fish that act like rocks, healthy birds that act as if they have broken wings, and chimpanzees that act like people. There are also people who act like animals, birds, fish, and insects. I read
a review once about a play in which Zero Mostel was supposed to turn into a rhinoceros and charge across the stage, without using a costume. The reviewer said that it was not Zero Mostel acting the part of a rhinoceros charging across the stage, it was a rhinoceros charging across the stage. In the movies, an actor took on the role of a bird in Birdy!, and Don Knotts even played the role of a fish once. In a play called The Metamorphosis Mikhail Baryshnikov did an excellent job of portraying a beetle. There is almost nothing in the known universe which humans have not tried to mimic.

People can mimic anything, with greater or lesser skill. It's probably the secret to our incredible learning capacity, and it's so natural that many people don't even realize they are doing it. I have a friend from New Jersey who has lived in New Mexico for a number of years. In New Mexico he still sounds like he's from New Jersey, but when he returns home his family says he sounds like he's from the Southwest. Once I took a bus trip and shared a seat with a woman from Canada for several hours. After an hour and a half of conversation she said, in a British-type Canadian accent, that I spoke more clearly than any other American she'd met. In the same accent I thanked her, only then realizing that I'd begun to copy her style of speech. A blond, blue-eyed, very fair woman friend of mine was dating a black man during one period of her life, and she spent a lot of time in his neighborhood with his friends. One day they were sitting ina restaurant in a black neighborhood and some white people
walked in. When a black friend of this woman nudged her
and pointed out how funny the white folks looked, she
realized that she had unconsciously assumed the speech and
behavior patterns of the blacks to such an extent that her
black friends didn't even think of her as white anymore.

It is one thing to mimic unconsciously, or for the purpose
of learning how to do something that someone else can do,
or for the purpose of blending in with your social or physical environment, and quite a step up to do it for the purpose of influencing others and gaining powers. This was the shamanic innovation, and the first stage of it is called acting. Our whole acting industry comes from a shaman tradition. Makeup, costumes, staging, musical scores designed for the performance, and even special effects were invented by
shamans. All of these were, and still are, used to influence an audience, but the shamanic idea went farther than that. In many traditional societies shamans acted out the parts of gods, demons, heroes, villains, and animals not only for teaching and entertainment, but for magical influence.

In traditional American Indian tribes, a shaman of the dry
Southwest might have donned the garb of the thunderbird
and danced a special dance in order to bring rain to his
people; or a shaman of the Plains might have put on the
horns and pelt of a buffalo and performed a ritual to find or attract the herds for his people. In Africa I have seen shamans act out archetypal roles of gods and animals to remove evil spirits and bring about healings.

Our modem conditioning makes us scoff at the idea that
the behavior of a person, costumed or not, filled with belief or not, can actually influence the environment. And it's a valid attitude if you accept the first-level ideas that reality is outside of us, everything is separate, and energy acts according to its own laws. But if you accept the second-level shamanic ideas that the world is what you think it is, that everything is connected, and that energy flows where attention goes, then of course the behavior of a person can influence the environment. The only constraining factor then is the degree of belief, connection, and energy. Shamans have specialized in ways to increase the amounts of each of those. In this chapter we'll be mostly concerned with increasing the degree of connection.

First though, let's talk a little about the extreme end of
kulike, the art of changing from one form to another. This
is an ancient idea that has never ceased to fascinate human
beings. Gods, of course, are expected to be able to do it. Zeus became a bull to woo Europa, Odin became a serpent and
an eagle to win the mead of inspiration, and Pele became a
beautiful woman to seduce Chief Lohiau. Our own modern
literature gives this power to certain human beings, either
as a curse or a blessing. So we have Count Dracula who
turns into a vampire bat, Dr. Jekyll who turns into Mr.Hyde
a scientist who turns into the Hulk, and Billy Batson who
turns into Captain Marvel, to name only a very few.
Shamans, also, are expected to partake of this power. Tales
abound of shamans who change into various animals for
different purposes, and in Hawaii the skill was supposed to
include changing into rocks and ropes. The president of an
African country I lived in was reputed to be a shaman who
visited the northern areas in the form of an antelope.

No doubt many such tales are of experiences in Po (the
inner world) rather than in Ao (the outer world), but not
necessarily all of them. Think a bit. If everything is broad casting its own pattern and if you could match and re-broad-cast the same pattern, then you would take on the appearance and qualities of the thing you were matching. It's theoretically possible within the system we are studying, and many shamans believe it can be done. If this were an extension of the talent under discussion that could actually be developed, it would be very dependent on the skill of concentration. It really isn't any different from the intention of certain mystics who meditate on God so they can become one with God. I'll let you take it from there.


THE PRETENDER
From 1996 - 2000 THE PRETENDER -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pretender_(TV_series)

- aired in prime time. Cinemorphics meets TV drama...on many levels...
A narrator at the opening of each episode sets it up...

"There are Pretenders among us.
Geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be.
In 1963, a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their research.
Then one day, their Pretender ran away..."

Interesting illustration of the concept.


DISROBE THYSELF!
Philip H. Farber re-tells this Nasrudin tale as part of a book excerpt THE PERFECTED SELF -

http://www.hawkridgeproductions.com/media/index.html

One wonders what would happen if the esteemed Mulla were turned loose in Hollywood.

A hermit came into town from the forest, where he had been wandering naked for a long time. In the forest there had always been enough to eat, and enough places to hide when the storms came, if you didn't mind squatting in a hollow tree, eating small rodents. But the hermit grew tired of his solitude and longed for what he remembered of the stimulating quality of human interaction.

The gravelly road on the outskirts of town was too much for even the calloused feet of the hermit. Fortunately the hermit could see a fine pair of shoes lying in the rocks beside the road. He immediately put them on. They were a bit tight, but the leather was beautifully worked and, most importantly, the hermit could now walk upon the road with greater comfort.
As he came into the center of the village, the hermit began to grow hungry. With no game in sight, the hermit sought out a soup kitchen. Just as he was about to push open the weathered wooden door, he realized that couldn't enter the soup kitchen without a pair of pants. Fortunately, just outside, the hermit found a fine pair of pants. They were a bit short, and not quite his style, but they were a much finer pair than anything he had owned before becoming a hermit. With that, he went inside and enjoyed the soup, which of tasted of beef, not rodent.
Back out on the street, the hermit thought to visit a bank and ask for a loan to set up a small shop, so that he could provide for himself. He realized, though, that he couldn't go into the bank without a shirt. Fortunately, lying in the street was a fine shirt. It was a bit loose on the hermit, and not quite his favorite color, but it got him into the bank, where he easily talked the manager into giving him a loan.

He began to shop in the marketplace for the things he would need for his shop, but realized that the merchants would give him no respect without the vest of a guild member . Fortunately, in an alley, he spotted a fine vest. True, it bore the markings of the blacksmith guild, and the hermit had hoped to open a bookstore, but it got him the respect he needed and he was soon operating a respectable blacksmith shop.
The shop did well, but the hermit soon realized that unless he allied himself with one of the town's religions and was known as a pious man, he would never draw larger numbers of customers. Fortunately, he found the turban of a Mulla on the street outside his shop. He put it on, and while it wasn't the color of the sect he had belonged to before becoming a hermit, it was a fine Mulla's turban, and he was immediately given great honor by the other villagers.

The villagers plied him with tasty food, paraded their daughters before him in hopes he would take a bride, and attended his every word. At one gathering in his honor, a naked man was hanging back with the beggars and lowlifes. This naked man was none other than the esteemed Mulla Nasrudin, who had recently been seen to dash out of the blacksmith shop where he had earned his living, shouting, "And these damn shoes are too tight!"

One of the lowlifes recognized the Mulla. "Say, Mulla, isn't that your turban that the new Mulla is wearing?"

"It's no matter," Nasrudin said. "I just came back into town to tell my wife that she can have the donkey... I was in the wrong sect, I hated blacksmithing , I owed money to the bank, and everything costs too much money. I'm going to live in the forest! Maybe when I come back in a few years I'll find some better clothing."


STORY FIELDS
The STORY FIELD concept is very useful in thinking about the Cinemorphic manipulation of one's "reality"...the telling and re-telling of personal history...the creation of Tales of Power... A very effective treatment of Story Fields and related ideas may be found at -

http://www.co-intelligence.org/I-powerofstory.html

excerpted here -

Stories are more than dramas people tell or read. Story, as a pattern, is a powerful way of organizing and sharing individual experience and exploring and co-creating shared realites. It forms one of the underlying structures of reality, comprehensible and responsive to those who possess what we call narrative intelligence. Our psyches and cultures are filled with narrative fields of influence, or story fields, which shape the awareness and behavior of the individuals and collectives associated with them.

Story-reality is the reality that we see when we recognize that every person, every being, every thing has a story and contains stories -- and, in fact, is a story -- and that all of these stories interconnect, that we are, in fact, surrounded by stories, embedded in stories and made of stories. When poet Murial Rukeyser tells us "the universe is made of stories, not atoms," she's describing story-reality. Ultimately, story-reality includes any and all actual events and realities, but experienced as stories, not as the more usual patterns -- objects-and-actions; matter, energy, space, time; patterns of probability; etc. Story-reality is made up of lived stories.

Lived stories are those real-life, actual stories that are happening in the real world all around us all the time. The actual unfolding events relating to any one actual entity or subject comprise that entity's or subject's lived story. Everything that exists has, embodies and participates in many lived stories. The way to co-intelligently engage in story-reality is to become sensitive to lived stories... to learn about the lived stories of people, places, things... to share our own lived stories... to discover how all these stories intersect, who or what is in the foreground and background of each other's lived stories. Ultimately, this provides the guidance we need to find our own most meaningful place in the universal story.

While analysis is good for control and prediction, story-sensibility is good for understanding meaning and role.

Narrative intelligence is the ability (or tendency) to perceive, know, think, feel, explain one's experience and influence reality through the use of stories and narrative forms.

Story fields are fields of influence or patterns of dynamic potential that permeate psycho-social space and influence the lives of those connected to them. They are made up of many mutually-reinforcing stories (myths, news, soap operas, lives, memories) and story-like phenomena (roles, metaphors, archetypes, images). A story field paints a particular picture of how life is or should be, and shapes the life within its range into its image.

The American Way of Life is a powerful story field, which includes everything from principles like freedom and the pursuit of happiness, to stories of cowboys and rags-to-riches heroes, to metaphors like the melting pot and the safety net, to images like the Statue of Liberty and the flag. It is communicated by movies, men in business suits, advertisements, college catalogues, and mall displays -- among many, many other things. It takes immense effort to resist or change it. Anyone or anything which doesn't live within this story-sea and move with its currents doesn't seem quite American.

Psychological, organizational or social transformation is usually preceded or accompanied by a change in the story field governing that system. It is therefore usually non-productive to try to change forms and habits without changing the story fields that hold them in place. Once the story field is changed, subsidiary patterns tend to realign rapidly.

(This process is part of what has been called a paradigm shift.)

***




BIG MIND, etc.


Before wrapping this up, I want to offer a bit of material that illustrates how some of the insights presented above may be extended beyond the contexts in which they were originally formulated.

BIG MIND
For example, an adaptation of the Voice Dialogue method to Zen practice by Genpo Merzel Roshi with his Big Mind process illustrates the depth and power of the technique. I have included a brief summary of this application from -

http://www.genpo.org/

How easy is it to experience this Big Mind? The question is: How difficult is it to put aside the controlling self? It can take years, or with the right preparation, a few minutes. There is a breakthrough process leading directly to Big Mind. It's a technique I've developed out of Hal Stone's Voice Dialog therapy. Through this approach we become acquainted with the different functions--the voices--of the small self; appreciate them and then ask them to step aside for awhile, to allow the original mind to emerge.

One of the first voices to explore in this process is the voice of the Controller. Take a few minutes to experience this voice; appreciate its value in your practical life. Could you function without it? Now ask it to rest awhile. You may have been thinking the Controller was the real you, but get to know some other dimensions of yourself. There are many voices to explore on the way to Big Mind. The truth of the voices lies in their expression, their being. Be the voice of the Vulnerable Child. Sit with it. What is your vulnerable child like? Speak as the Protector, the Damaged Self, the Skeptic, the Seeker. Many on the spiritual path are already acquainted with the Seeker. It's the mind that brings us to the path. Yet, can the Seeking Mind ever be what it seeks?

Now shift to the Non-Seeking mind. Let all objectives simply drop away and experience this space. One participant at a recent workshop described his own experience this way: “Here [in non-seeking mind] is a sanctuary, entirely in the present, yet part of a continuum extending to the ends of the universe, incorporating birth and death. Here is 'Big Mind' encompassing everything.”

Whether you're in that space or not; Big Mind is your mind.

Also check out -

EMBRACING OURSELVES: THE VOICE DIALOG MANUAL by Hal and Sidra Stone for a discussion of accessing the Higher Self via Voice Dialogue.

http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Ourselves-Voice-Dialogue-Manual/dp/1882591062/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195880828&sr=8-1

And -

CONNECTING WITH THE FIELD
By Jerien Koolbergen,
Who, after conversing with an "Awareness field" that soothed her in a down period, wrote:
"I wanted to see if there was a possibility to use this experience in the context of the Psychology of the Selves.

Robert Stamboliev did the suggestion to write it down and also I talked about this with my friend and colleague David Grabijn, a Voice Dialoguer from the start.

Let us suppose, we said to each other, that our life-energy is also a quantum-energy, as for instance Light is, and that it can also exist either as a wave or as particles. We could then translate this to our selves, either being in an energy-state or manifesting in different selves.

In our awareness, our aware ego, we could then have a further choice of either balancing our selves or going into this being-state of pure energy. And from there it might be possible, if the right way is found, to connect with the living energy-field around us and feel its Presence.

I wanted to share this with you to see if you have any suggestions to find a way to give it a place in our Transformational work, either in a Voice Dialogue session, or in a separate setting, in order to try it out. Robert and I decided to experiment with it.

Clients don’t have to believe in this energy-field (although reading Lynne Mc.Taggart’s The Field and Erwin Laszlo’s Cosmic Vision may help).

Some clients didn’t believe in sub-personalities either and thought Voice Dialogue was mere role-playing. Until they experienced the energies of the selves. Then there was only amazement.

It will be the same with the energy-field. It will itself make present when we ask for it from our inner being, aware of our belonging to it. Then there will be more wonder."

at -

http://www.en.transformationalpsychology.com/index.php?cmd=page&id=39

This transformational psychology site has quite a few other articles about a variety of applications of Voice Dialog and is worth a visit.



BODY DIALOGUE
Another important offshoot of the Voice Dialogue work was developed by Judith Tamar Stone, the daughter of Hal Stone. The introduction to Body Dialogue on her website states:

"Body Dialogue is a profound communication experience inspired by The Voice Dialogue Process and Judith's personal experience with a physically disabling illness. The Process offers a unique opportunity to bridge the chasm between Mind and Body offering the Body and it's numerous selves the unifying experience of Voice.

Within each of us there is a reservoir of information. By tapping into this reserve you create the opportunity for conscious communication and the possibility of healing at a very core level. Hearing and appreciating the Bodies own knowledge base is essential in having a healthy relationship with our bodies."

http://www.voicedialogueconnection.com/dialogue_about.htm

"Body Dialogue is a technique for accessing the body's knowledge about itself. Body Dialogue allows the client a first person experience of their own body. We are generally, in Western society, dependant on a third person perspective - we take our bodies to all sorts of practitioners who view us objectively and we ignore the wisdom of our own experience. The body will tell us, if the right questions are put to it, and we listen carefully, what it needs so that it can be more at ease and heal from injury or disease or stress. Our minds often deceive us but our bodies never lie."

"This easily read book outlines the use of Body Dialogue, which is an approach that allows investigation of physical ailments within a Voice Dialogue context. It provides a good overview of Voice Dialogue and the unity of the body mind. There are clear instructions that an experienced therapist can follow and a detailed variety of case studies illustrating the process. I also like the concluding chapters which focus on the values of the therapist and views about illness."

Dr. Sue Jeavons (An E-Book)

http://delos-inc.com/prostores/servlet/Detail?no=742





IN A SIMILAR VEIN...
In the Introduction to MIRACLES OF MIND by Russell Targ and Jane Katra, Targ discusses how Katra approached his diagnosis of metastatic cancer partially by having him "change the host so that the disease could no longer recognize him". This included changing daily routines, adding unfamiliar behaviors, buying a new wardrobe, etc. She made him into a "different person".

http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Mind-Exploring-Nonlocal-Consciousness/dp/1577310977/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196100870&sr=1-2

Dean Montalbano elaborates on this approach at:

http://www.hypnodean.com/changingthehost.htm

"So… what happens when a serious dis-ease sets in to the body? Things such as: cancer, Aids or other such ailments?

In these cases, the body is still hosting them. They are NOT natural to the host, but rather are visiting. These dis-eases are not a PART of the body, but still foreign to it, just as the unwanted house guest who never leaves STILL does not “belong.” The host has, for whatever reasons, set up conditions that allow this unwanted guest to set up house keeping and move in. Usually, a person “diagnosed” (you could also use the word sentenced the way most MD’s do it.) with a serious ailment can then accept the programming, and hard wire it in, allowing the guest to install a permanent change of address card with the metaphysical postal service and take up a permanent address within the host.

Suppose you had such an unwanted house guest, unemployed cousin Billy for instance, who refused to get a job. Now, let’s say you had unlimited resources and could rename the street, change the outside of your house, alter your families name and appearance. Eventually, Billy wouldn’t be able to find his way home. His host’s house would have changed enough that he would be forced to go elsewhere. Well, the same is true of dis-ease, and I even include the idea of obesity in that. If you make enough changes in the Host, the dis-ease will not no where to go/be/do. Of course this is a childlike metaphor for a complex series of internal adjustments, but it is accurate at the same time."

The relevance here, of course, is that one "side effect" of Cinemorphic re-writing, re-acting, re-directing, etc. of the persona is a changing of the host. Certainly, no claims are being made...just food for thought...
***



AND, SO...

The information, speculation, other people's ideas and opinions, random notes, etc. presented here, hopefully, will contribute to an ongoing discussion about contemporary human beings becoming equipped to self-consciously manipulate their bodies, personas and spirit.

How this can be effectively and elegantly accomplished operationally, as we have begun to sketch and will continue to explore, is another matter...

...And so, back to our professor and the stammering young woman standing before him, not knowing how to answer his reply to her frantic question concerning her very existence,

"...who...who...who's asking?" she parrots back to him.

"Well, young lady, you're not an owl, although you certainly sound like one. And another thing...you burst into my office without knocking. How rude! Let's try it again. Go back out into the hall and close my door. Then knock three times as etiquette demands."

The young metaphysician does as her professor has instructed...carefully closing the door until the latch clicks, then knocking loudly three times. Silence. She cocks her head in anticipation of the professor's raspy voice.

Finally...his response rattles the door and resonates down the empty hall...

"WHO'S THERE!?"



***



AFTERWORD

Who's there?...indeed. After completing this manuscript, I read SPIRITUAL WARFARE, the third book in "Jed McKenna's" enlightenment trilogy. (http://wisefoolpress.com) Presented as non-fiction, it is fairly common knowledge that "Jed McKenna" is a fictitious character. In this case, this is different from using a pseudonym... maybe... "Jed McKenna" does not exist, and in the text itself this is stated by "Jed McKenna" because "Jed McKenna" is no longer operating from the POV of ego or persona. But the book's narrative is about a slice of "Jed's" life. It is presented as having actually happened, so here we have actual events happening to a fictitious character. Of course, "Jed" also asserts in the narrative that we are living in a "fictitious universe"...the Dreamstate...his term for ordinary reality...(The universe is made of stories not atoms...also, see story fields, above)...so I guess that calls into question the "reality" of the events described. But not the truth or validity of the events described. Whether the "events" "really" happened is not important. "Jed McKenna's" trilogy, SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT, THE DAMNDEST THING, SPIRITUALLY INCORRECT ENLIGHTENMENT & SPIRITUAL WARFARE, take the approach of Carlos Castenada in the Don Juan books (THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN: A YAQUI WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, A SEPARATE REALITY, JOURNEY TO IXTLAN, etc.) to a whole new, and in my way of thinking, very interesting, level. The Don Juan books were presented as nonfiction, but it has come to be generally accepted that the Yaqui shaman, "Don Juan" was a fictitious character and that the events described in the books were probably not "real" in the literal sense. The term used to describe this type of presentation is fictive (Daniel Noel, SEEING CASTENADA) or, as I have stated elsewhere, imaginal i.e. not literal but real...valid. So, in SPIRITUAL WARFARE, we have an author who does not exist, writing with real words about, apparently real people (whose names have been changed to protect the innocent) whose egos/personas also do not really exist...are an illusion. Entertaining collusion of form and content. I recommend reading the books.

If you "connect the dots" suggested by the practice of Cinemorphics, what emerges is a slightly different version of McKenna's Human Adulthood...

FURTHER


***




WHO'S ASKING?
A Cinemorphics™ Sourcebook
By
Charles Webb

Property of Charles Webb Productions
WGAw Reg. No. 1241491
© 2007 Charles Webb


For information regarding Cinemorphics™
sessions, workshops and seminars contact:

Charles Webb
at

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415.956.1844

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