Shift Entertainment
One of the most powerful mediums of communication in our world is the television. Most of us just turn it off these days with it's endless array of violence, degradation, fear and hopelessness. There are of course a few tidbits of enlightenment, but why do we settle for so little?
The question came to me when I was asked to review a film recently by Emmy Award winning director Jan Nickman. Long story, short: I loved the film so much, I now work for the company. As I popped the DVD into the player, I prepared for beautiful scenery filled with plenty of information about what I was seeing or perhaps a plot or a story.
I got none of that. Instead, I spent the next 45 minutes deeply immersed in sacred lands of the American Southwest. Within a few moments, my mind stopped chattering away and I discovered a part of me I thought only deep states of meditation could reveal. When the film ended and faded to black, I realized I had just experienced a stillness, a connection and a knowing that I had never experienced before.
As a creative consultant, it was my job to provide the production company with an analysis of how to properly align their film with what the industry calls a "vertical" or in other terms, a genre or category. As I sat motionless at the end of the film, I knew it would require that a new vertical be created. There simply is no genre for what this film delivered.
Several test audiences, expert reviews and weeks of research later, I discovered that what we had on our hands was an exquisite example of the power of film to quite literally heal the viewer. Audiences reported of experiencing "the closest thing to consciousness..." Experts in health and wellness like Bruce Lipton Ph.D agreed, "If you're ready for inner change in your life, press play."
The scientific studies I found showed decades of research into the power of nature, art and music - the essence of this film - to lower blood pressure, increase serotonin levels, boost the immune system and more. Dr. Mardie Townsend of Deakin University put it best when she said, "We gain life, by looking at life."
So again, I ask: Why do we settle for so little of what broadcasters are capable of delivering in the world of entertainment. As far back as Hippocrates, we have known that a significant part of our health and wellness comes from what we feast our eyes on. No different than the foods we eat or the air we breathe, what we watch has the power to harm us or heal us.
Why do we continue to allow broadcasters to poison our homes with programs that deteriorate our health and slowly degrade the minds of our children? Yes, we can turn it off in our own homes, but what about the rest of the world. What about the damage it does to the collective consciousness for those who continue to watch and be poisoned? If we are truly one, then what my neighbor watches and allows into his consciousness affects the whole, yes?
Should we turn off and cast aside one of the most powerful mediums of communication because it is not living up to it's greatest potential or should we harness the power it has to heal us on a massive, world-wide consciousness healing scale? As Deepak Chopra wrote in his book Quantum Healing, "What you see, you become." I'm sure he wasn't thinking about the entertainment industry when he wrote it, but isn't it time we do?
