Integral Movie Nights
Every Tuesday we watch and discuss an integral movie in Zoom. Check the calendar of upcoming screenings and sign up for the next event here.
Some Movies are multi-level, some show characters at different levels clashing with each other, some show how characters are transforming from one level to the next over a longer period of time (e.g. “Groundhog Day” and “7 Years in Tibet”).
You may also recognize if characters do better integration by becoming healthier at their level, e.g. Jack Nicholson in “As Good As It Gets”, or if they truly go through a transformation which usually takes many years.
If you have additional suggestions, please share them with me in the format below (and say why you suggest them).
If you only watch two Movies I suggest “Cloud Atlas” (also a great book) and “American Beauty”.
Module 1 – her
The four dimensions of relating
“her” is a great movie to better feel into and understand why balancing and harmonizing the the interior, exterior, individual, and collective dimensions of love are so vital for a healthy Integral love relationships, and why it is also important to be at the same level of consciousness and emotional development, which we will cover in upcoming modules.
Close to the beginning, a voice asks a “simple question”. “Who are you? What can you be? Where are you going? What’s out there? What are the possibilities?” They then introduce the first artificially intelligent operating system, an intuitive entity that listens to you, understands you, and knows you. It’s not just an operating system, it’s a consciousness. It’s OS1. Subsequently, the main protagonist Theodore, falls in Love with the “intelligent” computer voice (Scarlett Johansson) who becomes increasingly conscious and (spoiler alert!!!!) eventually exceeds his level of development.
Synopsis: A sensitive and soulful man earns a living by writing personal letters for other people. Left heartbroken after his marriage ends, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) becomes fascinated with a new operating system which reportedly develops into an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. He starts the program and meets “Samantha” (Scarlett Johansson), whose bright voice reveals a sensitive, playful personality. Though “friends” initially, the relationship soon deepens into love.
Module 2 – Into the Wild
Survival, magic, and power in love relationships
Join us to watch “Into The Wild”, which is based on the true story of “Alexander Supertramp” (as he calls himself), written by Jon Krakauer and directed by Sean Penn. I chose it for Module 2, as we see the young traumatized main character regress from a (possibly) Green Pluralistic, to the Beige/Infrared Archaic pure survival stage.
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 in savings to charity, and eventually hitchhikes to Alaska to “live off the land” in the wilderness where he eventually perishes.
Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters at different levels of first-tier consciousness that shape his perspectives on life.
Module 3 – Groundhog Day
Mythic conformism and modern rationality in love relationships
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/
Module 4 – Same Time, Next Year
Postmodern pluralistic sensitivity in love relationships
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078199/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3U2LbkkkPM
Module 5 – American Beauty
Integral and transpersonal love relationships
This is one of the most integral movies and highly recommended if you want to understand levels of consciousness development. On the surface, it is about the breakdown and disintegration of a middle-class American family. We will see how people with five different worldviews (magical, egocentric, conformist, rational, and pluralistic) get into irresolvable conflicts with each other, and how an Integral person critically embraces them all.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly7rq5EsTC8
Module 6 – Gandhi
Compassionate communication
I sometimes say (half)-jokingly that if I would be King of the World, everyone would have to watch the movie Gandhi twice a year.
Steven Covey turned me on to Gandhi in the late 90’s. Reading his Biography “Gandhi: A Life” by Yogesh Chadha https://www.amazon.com/GANDHI-Life-Yogesh-Chadha/dp/0471350621 was instrumental for my transition into the Green Pluralistic stage of development. Winning eight Oscar’s, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Ben Kingsley), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing, the life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest is a deeply inspiring movie and fitting for our Module #6: Non-Violent Communication.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7I6D3mSYTE
Module 7 – The Invention of Lying
Need-Based communication
As an Integral Relationship writer/author, and my primary Love Language being words, I am naturally interested in concepts such as belief, knowing, truth, honesty, truthfulness, rightness, validity, communication, understanding, agreement, intimacy (in-to-me-you-see) and how they impact our love relationships, and their opposites such as untruths and lying.
So “The Invention of Lying”, which is a painfully half-romantic comedy that touches on these and other subjects like the primary fantasies, is right down my alley.
Some of the questions we may explore after watching the movie include:
– What would happen if we would always truthfully share what we think and feel, and never lie or be untruthful?
– What happens if we truly believe things that are not true?
– What is truth anyway and how can we know it?
– Why do people believe different things to be true?
– Why do we lie?
– Are white lies OK?
– Does lying serve some purpose, such as being kind or not hurting others?
– Do we really want others to be totally honest?
– Is radical honesty the best way to go through life and creating a better world?
– Should we only say what is true, truthful, kind, and necessary?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1058017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhRnmyBjOLs
Module 8 – The Imitation Game
Integral and transpersonal communication
Join us to watch and discuss this fascinating movie about Alan Turing (1912 – 1954), a mathematical genius who is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. In it, we see many examples of relational and communicational challenges.
During World War II, Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with the help from fellow mathematicians by building what was later called “a computer”.
Considered by some to have been autistic (Asperger’s syndrome) he proposed an experiment that became known as the Turing test, an attempt to define a standard for a machine to be called “intelligent”. The idea was that a computer could be said to “think” if a human interrogator could not tell it apart, through conversation, from a human being.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuPZUUED5uk
Module 9 – The Red Pill
Biological Differences and Learned Gender Roles
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3686998/
For a detailed article see: https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/08/bay-area-filmmakers-new-film-the-red-pill-is-a-bitter-one-for-feminists-to-swallow/
Module 10 – Little Miss Sunshine
Avoiding the Fear – Shame Downward Spiral
On one side, this is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. On the other side, it shows the struggle of the men, including their shame, to succeed professionally, and the fears of the two female characters in the movie around safety and beauty.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449059/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvwVkllXT80
Module 11 – The Tree Of Life
Feminine-Masculine Polarities
The Tree Of Life (2011):
This is one of these slow and at times confusing movies that I could not get out of my head after I saw it the first time, and I have watched it several times since then.
After some thought, I decided to offer it for movie night, because it fits our Feminine-Masculine, Spiritual, Anima-Animus Complex and other Modules.
The Tree of Life is a 2011 American experimental epic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and featuring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man’s childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the known universe and the inception of life on Earth. The eldest son (Jack/Sean Penn) witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents’ conflicting teachings.
My biggest take-aways from the movie are how our childhood experiences, especially in relationship to our close family, forms who we are as adults and the existential questions that it raises.
It also shows conflicts between the Mythic Blue/Amber and Rational Orange stage, and a “patriarchal marriage”.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrAz1YLh8nY
Module 12 – I Heart Huckabees
Spiritual Development
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356721/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eOLOmCjRPY
Module 13 – Bliss
Sexual Development
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118742/
Module 14 – Marriage Story
Anima Animus Complex Development
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7653254/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHi-a1n8t7M
Module 15 – Love Actually
Love Languages
But it also painfully shows the misguided shallow notion that all it takes to enter into a happy relationship is to muster up the courage to say “I love you”. Similar to “He’s Just Not That Into You” and other similar movies, the protagonists have nothing visibly in common such as values, interests, or passions, beyond having a (hormonal) crush on each other and being in a rational stage of development. Other things that I more critically notice now are the objectification of women, sexist references to the people’s weight, suggestions and attempts to repress feelings, and the strange “relationship” between Peter and his best friend’s new wife. The movie is also subtly Anti-American.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Z3_ifFheQ
Module 16 – Winnie the Pooh
Enneagram Types
While searching for honey, Pooh and his friends embark on an adventure to find Eeyore’s missing tail and rescue Christopher Robin from an unknown monster called The Backson.
As always, we will discuss the movie and its implications for our love relationships in depth afterwards.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1449283/
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atDrd8WQeqc
The Enneagram According to Pooh:
https://theenneagraminbusiness.com/fascinating-or-fun/the-enneagram-according-to-pooh/
The Enneagram in the Movies (and a little TV):
https://foldedandunfolding.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/the-enneagram-in-the-movies-and-a-little-tv/
Other Enneagram Movies:
https://enneagrammaine.com/the-movie-list/
Module 17 – As Good As It Gets
Attachment Styles
See how bonding with his neighbor’s dog and falling in love with Carol transforms the obsessive-compulsive, egocentric, cynic, manipulative wordsmith Melvin to become more compassionate, let down his guard, and confess to Carol “you make me want to be a better man”. In turn, we see how she struggles with setting healthier boundaries and communicating her needs.
Let’s discuss the states (from lust/desire to commitment), forms (intimacy, passion, dependence), and capacity to love that they experience, and if we think their romance has the potential for a healthy love relationship.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119822/
https://youtu.be/rrRl2QQKkI8
Module 18 – Prince of Tides
The Unconscious
Module 19 – Good Will Hunting
Healing our Shadow
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaZVjZEFkRs
Module 20 – When Harry Met Sally
States of Falling in Love
Join Martin to watch and discuss this classic, beautiful, brainy, touching, and revealing romantic comedy. We will see college graduates Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) discuss whether men and women can ever truly be strictly platonic friends, and 10 years later trying to form a friendship without sex becoming an issue between them.
Module 21 – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Personality Disorders
Though she’s never given a mental health diagnosis in the movie, Clem is a good representation of a person with a borderline personality disorder. As the movie progresses, we see that some of the “free-spirited” behaviors she exhibits are indicative of some deeper issues.
The central conflict in the movie arises from the existence of a procedure that can erase memories — a procedure Clementine and Joel undergo to forget about each other.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/
Module 22 – Quest for Fire
Sharing your Biological Purpose
Module 23 – Cloud Atlas
Transcendental Purpose
In a more subtle way, we will also notice that Robert Frobisher’s Cloud Atlas composition will be heard as an (1) initial piano performance, (2) a symphony, (3) a rendition by a jazz sextet, (4) nursing-home Muzak, (5) futuristic Korean street music, (6) a solemn hymn sung by a hoard of clones.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s
Module 24 – Grace and Grit
Soulmates
What makes couples soulmates? One experience is that they usually recognize each other almost instantly, no matter if they are biological, transformational, or transcendental soulmates. A second quality is that they have removed all barriers to love and come from a sense of fullness instead of need or lack. A third quality is that they are devoted to face all challenges in life and avoid nothing to live together/procreate, to learn, heal, grow, and awaken together, and to make the world a better place.
Based on Ken Wilber’s Book Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber (with many journal entries from Treya) the movie weaves these experiences and qualities of soulmates together through three narratives. The first voice is Treya herself, taken from her private journals that span from first meeting Ken to her death in 1989, which she insisted that Ken uses in order to tell their extraordinary story. The second voice belongs to Ken Wilber who was walking this difficult path alongside Treya, step by step, not yet aware of where their story would lead. The third voice also belongs to Ken, but as the “omniscient narrator” who is lacing these narratives together and telling the story from the perspective of someone who has lived the full experience.
https://integrallife.com/grace-and-grit-film-release-everything-you-need-to-know/
https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/grace-and-grit-review-1234987939/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/grace_and_grit
http://www.integralworld.net/visser204.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3910630/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfBxSrH5ftA
Module 25 – Inside Bill’s Brain
Co-Creation at the Seven Chakras
Let’s watch and discuss a Netflix documentary about passion, purpose, and making the world a better place in partnerships with others/with a partner. No matter what we may personally think about Bill Gates, I find this series utterly inspiring. We will see how Bill lived his calling early on (to solve problems or absent absences), how he co-created with others, how he seemingly became more compassionate, how he met his wife Melinda, how they co-create in their foundation, and how he is now driven to make the world a better place. We will see his triumphs and even more so his failures and how he deals with both. Utterly fascinating and inspiring (to me).
Join us for new insights during, and discussions after the movie.
Module 26 – Idiocracy
Path to Healthy Relationships and Why they Matter
In Idiocracy we see why co-creation and procreation in healthy Integral love relationships not only matter for our own well-being and development but even more so for a peaceful and sustainable future for humanity. Unfortunately, we now increasingly see that this movie is not a joke, but becomes reality in front of our very eyes. Let’s discuss the political, social, and ecological implications of people at post-conventional levels of consciousness procreating much less than people at earlier levels and how it impacts our future.
Other Integral Movies
Captain Fantastic
This movie fits our exploration of the Green pluralistic “sensitive self” Stage 6 this week, with all its beauty and advancements, but also with its challenges, performative contradictions, and pre-trans fallacies.
In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a postmodern father who escaped the Orange materialistic and Blue/Amber mythic law and order stages is devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education.
Eventually, he is forced to leave his paradise and face the world that he tried so hard to escape, while challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3553976/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1kH4OMIOMc
Pay It Forward
Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother’s alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward–repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor’s efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother, and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.
Sideways
Let us laugh out loud and cringe together during this painfully funny comedy (depending on your perspective) and discuss it afterwards. A week before his friend Jack is to be married, best man Miles and the prospective groom head off to wine country for a week of fun, relaxation and – of course – wine drinking. Miles is the oenophile and does his best to teach Jack a bit about the art of appreciating great wine. All Jack cares about is drinking and carousing, something he accomplishes when he meets the attractive Stephanie at one of the vineyards. Miles is something of a sad sack, a high school English teacher who is a failed writer at heart. He has yet to get over the fact that his wife has divorced him and that she has remarried and he now faces that nerve-racking wait for word from a prospective publisher. Miles has an opportunity to start anew when he meets Stephanie’s friend Maya but when he let’s slip that Jack is about to be married any hope of a relationship seems to be lost.
To see the Summer Lineup of movies until September 14, visit https://integralrelationship.com/pg/. We will then start again with the 26 movies that align with our IR Trainings on September 21.
A Beautiful Mind
Join us to watch this Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Directing, and Supportive Actress about the two biggest insights that John Nash made in his life. One “that it is only in the mysterious equation of love that any logic or reasons can be found,” and that “if we all go for the blonde and block each other, not a single one of us is going to get her. So then we go for her friends, but they will all give us the cold shoulder because no one likes to be second choice. But what if none of us goes for the blonde? We won’t get in each other’s way and we won’t insult the other girls. It’s the only way to win. It’s the only way we all get laid.
”From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over his tragedy, and finally – late in life – received the Nobel Prize.
To see the Summer Lineup of movies until September 14, visit https://integralrelationship.com/pg/. We will then start again with the 26 movies that align with our IR Trainings on September 21.
Room
Inception
Lucy
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?
Seven Years in Tibet
Stage 5 -> 1 – 127 Hours by Danny Boyle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlhLOWTnVoQ
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1542344/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Stage 2 – Quest For Fire by Jean Jacques Annaud
https://youtu.be/EOtOkNgdZTU
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082484/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk1
(Netflix) * Stage 2/5 Room by Lenny Abrahamson (Cognitive Prison)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Ci-pAL4eE
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3170832/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Stage 3 – Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVizhLGaEmk
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110632/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Stage 4 – Rabbit Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbnk8wSVMaM
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252444/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
(Netflix) * 3 -> 4 – Seven Years in Tibet by Jean-Jacques Annaud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyr_vJ5t3k
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120102/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Stage 5 – The Wolf of Wall Street by Martin Scorcese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idAVRvQeYAE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pabEtIERlic
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993846/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
(Netflix) Stage 6 – Into the Wild by Sean Penn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ArZ7VD-QQ
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Stage 6 – La Belle Verte by Coline Serreau
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiuVYBpeK-g
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115650/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Stage 7 – Ted talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/thordis_elva_and_tom_stranger_our_story_of_rape_and_reconciliation
Other suggestions from Participants
Stage 5 – The Beauty Inside by Jong-Yeol Baek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly7rq5EsTC8
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0