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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Rogue Valley doctor runs for governor on climate change platform ... Our View: Learning to survive ... Techtoberfest event was a rousing success ... Rogue Valley doctor runs for governor on climate change platform ... Our View: Learning to survive ... Techtoberfest event was a rousing success ... INNER PEACE Inner Peace: Finding yourself through film Comment By Marla Estes DailyTidings.com By Marla Estes Posted Aug. 28, 2015 at 3:43 PM By Marla Estes Posted Aug. 28, 2015 at 3:43 PM » RELATED CONTENT • Inner Peace: You can change your self by reworking your ego • Inner Peace: Transmitting inner peace through touch • Inner Peace: The love hormone has many possible uses • Community Blog: Being at peace with your Inner Process » Social News “Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” — Ingmar Bergman Film as a transformational medium is nothing new. Not only recognized as a psychological tool, it is also used as a way to encourage social change and to aid in spiritual evolution. The beauty of film is that we get an opportunity to encounter in a visceral way life experiences that may mirror our own. At times, we are able to recognize psychological truths about ourselves more easily when seeing them on the screen; it can be less personal, painful, or threatening. In this way, film can present a way into our own psychological realizations and growth. On the other hand, if what we see is foreign to us, we may gain insight into or compassion for someone else’s experience. We laugh, we cry, we become invested through sight, sound and feelings with the fate and destiny of our characters. Although the transformational quality of books is unquestionable, movies can involve us more fully, with more of our senses engaged. Some films depict how and where we get stuck and can be cautionary tales. Others illustrate the arc of change and transformation. The film “Madam Bovary” shows our heroine, Emma, unable to find fulfillment of her deep longing, despite attempts to do so through marriage, children, lovers, and so forth. She is trapped, always looking externally for what she needs to find internally, and eventually ends her life as a way out, to find peace. Emma’s counterpart, Sonia, in the film “A Price Beyond Rubies,” does find her way out of the traps of her existence, and shows us the way to move from Victim to Heroine, although not without great personal sacrifice. We may, as viewers, identify with where we are on this continuum and consider these messages as guidance. What might we move away from? What might we move toward? Another way that movies work on us is on a spiritual, transpersonal (beyond the personal) level. In this way, we begin to transcend our personal stories. We begin to see the larger meaning of and purpose in our lives. The protagonist of the classic Japanese film, “Ikuru,” finds the beauty and purpose of his life only when he is faced with his impending death through a terminal illness. He builds a children’s playground with the small amount of time left to him and touches everyone with whom he is in contact. Movies like “Groundhog Day,” “The Game” and “I Heart Huckabees” show how the shifting of everyday reality, transcending our normal filters and perspectives, can help teach us the psychospiritual lessons we need to learn. In “Groundhog Day,” Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) has to live the same day over and over again until he gets it “right,” exemplifying the way in which we repeat our same patterns endlessly until we can finally break away from them. Our lives can then expand, enabling us to grow into our fuller stature. These are but some of the ways in which movies can be explored from the perspective of personal and transpersonal growth and transformation. The psychological, social/cultural, micro/macro, and spiritual are, in my view, interwoven. If we effect movement in one aspect, all the others are affected. We can’t change one thread without changing the character of the whole cloth. In so doing, we evolve. "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." — T. S. Eliot Marla Estes, M.A., will host free talks on “Fabulous Films for Finding Yourself” on Sept. 8 at the Woolworth Building in Medford; Sept. 22 at the Medford Library; and Sept. 24 at the Ashland Library. All run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Her website is www.marlaestes.com . For details, email [email protected]. Rogue Valley residents are invited to send 600- to 700-word articles on all aspects of inner peace to Sally McKirgan [email protected] By Marla Estes DailyTidings.com By Marla Estes Posted Aug. 28, 2015 at 3:43 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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