We were recently invited to be in a couple of events of the
kind we don't usually participate in. One of them was Comic-
Con in San Diego, where Whitley signed and talked about his
graphic novel The Nye Incidents. The other was a film about
life after death being made by independent filmmaker Nick
Mendoza called "Quantum Wisdom." As usual, I learned
something totally unexpected from both experiences.
In order to do the film interview, we went to a studio in
Burbank (which is a part of Los Angeles that is filled with TV
and movie studios, many of which you can rent by the day).
It was the usual scenario: a large dark and dusty room with
high ceilings and huge klieg lights everywhere, tape "markers"
(in the form of X's) on the floor in various spots where the
previous crew had filmed, craft service (that's movie talk
for "snacks") laid out on a table in the next room.
Maybe I shouldn't say that being filmed was an unusual
event, since this subject is in the air lately. I say this
because this is the THIRD such interview we've been asked
to do. I helped executive produce the first film, which is being
made by Paul Davids (who made the film Jesus in India), and I
met the other two filmmakers through our friend, hospice
physician John Lerma, whom we have also interviewed on
Dreamland.
The English author Rupert Sheldrake has proposed the theory
that ideas are "in the air," which is why so many similar
concepts seem to turn up at the same time in books, films
and TV series. I think the fascination with this topic can also
be attributed to the fact that people are feeling free to
search in many different religions and traditions as they seek
their own particular spiritual path. This is happening at a time
when the new Pope is stressing adherence to traditional
dogma, but even Catholics aren't listening to him anymore.
There is wonderful spiritual wisdom out there for the taking
and people are grazing on it as if they were at a gourmet
craft service table, trying out different ideas and discovering
which ones fit them best.
I'm no exception: I call myself a Christian Buddhist with an
interest in Wicca (or I could be a Christian Witch with an
interest in Buddhism). Why would traditional religious leaders
have a problem with this? The answer is simple: it dilutes
their power over us. When we start thinking for ourselves, we
might notice that sometimes these emperors are wearing no
clothes.
One of the things I most enjoyed about the filming was
meeting Dr. Jack Turner in person, whom I interviewed for
subscribers on Dreamland. I expected to see our old friend
John Lerma as well, but he didn't show up: it turns out he
had met the female director of the THIRD (as yet unfilmed)
life after death documentary and we suspect that he found
her?very attractive. Since she had traveled to the US all the
way from Australia, I guess there was no time to lose.
The filmmaker was a bit frustrated by all this, but since I'm a
big believer in love of ALL kinds, I actually thought it was
rather delightful.
The following weekend, we went to Comic-Con in San Diego,
where Whitley signed his graphic novel The Nye Incidents,
and was on a panel consisting of film directors and graphic
novel writers and artists, where they discussed horror films
and horror comics. They all took this subject very seriously,
which I found amusing at first, but then it got boring: you
can't really equate a horror comic, no matter how good it is,
with something like "Gone With the Wind." I was sitting in the
front row and Whitley said to me later, "I thought you were
going to fall asleep right in front of the panel."
One wonderful thing came out of this event, however. When I
mentioned this trip to our newest Dreamland host, Marie D.
Jones, she said she'd been frustrated because her eight-year-
old son had wanted to attend, but there were no tickets left.
I told her I couldn't get her a ticket, but I could send her a
copy of "Nye," and I did. Whitley autographed it "To Max,"
and since her son is a bright kid who was born with cerebral
palsy and thus walks with a tiny limp, I suspect he gets
bullied a bit at school. Possessing a treasure like this should
help. Marie wrote back to thank me for it and said, "Max just
keeps look at it and saying, over and over, "Wow, this is so
cool?Wow, this is so cool."
There isn't much else in this world that could have made me
happier than that.
Related Entries:
10-Nov-2009: On NOT Going to a Movie about UFOs
20-Oct-2009: The Laughing Buddha
11-Oct-2009: The Red Coat
22-Sep-2009: Four Days
07-Sep-2009: Portents, Synchronicities (and Coincidences?)
27-Aug-2009: Two Birthdays
12-Aug-2009: Held Hostage by Hummingbirds
05-Aug-2009: The Irish Milkmen of the Dog World
29-Jun-2009: Trickster Coyote
08-Jun-2009: Tool Users
