I watched the Matrix yesterday, first time I’ve watched it in a few years. It’s still a damn good movie!

While watching it, I realized that all my career interests rotate around the same goal: piercing and eventually deconstructing the shared dream.

I used to think this was the question:
What is real and what is not?

But now, I’m asking different kinds of questions:
Who creates our shared reality?
Who benefits?
How do humans learn what is real, and how is this process disturbed or enhanced?
How does the shared dream enhance or limit the quality of our individual and community lives?
How can we deconstruct our perceptions of and stories about “the way the world is” in a way that will empower individuals and enhance our communities?
How can alternate views be introduced?

Here’s how it came together in my head:

The media (as well as art, literature, etc) we consume informs our understanding of culture, relationships, and even the nature of how life works. This is why the arts are so important! And, with most of popular media being controlled by major corporations, our culture is being strangled. Ideas that are controversial or revolutionary, that challenge the status quo are silenced by mainstream media. People are consumed by the latest celebrity scandals, reality tv shows and national politics that they are absent from their own lives and are zombies in their own communities. The media tells us who we are, how the world works, and in return we get to “relax” by zoning out in front of the TV, a risk-free way to “live,” (after all, your TV won’t reject you, David Letterman smiles at you, you won’t look stupid in front of anyone).

National Television creates a cultural homogeneity that not only guarentees big profit for big businesses, but also quells civic activism. People are treated as consumers not citizens and act suchly, thereby enforcing the profit margin. Maybe we are not really living in little glass pods like the fields in the Matrix, but is it really so different? Corporations are making lots and lots of money off us as our local communities fall apart. Because we are so “plugged in,” we only become more and more alienated from each other. Less invested in our community and our families, everyone ultimately suffers.

I have always been fascinated by the way that people create the structures of their realities. Having dealt with severe mental illness in my early twenties, I’ve spent almost my entire adulthood deconstructing and rebuilding the way my brain works. I have nearly completely rebuilt my personal paradigm from scratch. So, I’m in a pretty unique position to examine the process of paradigm shifting. Also, I’ve learned a lot by watching my daughter, Joy, learn about the world. If you want to understand your brain, read some child development books!

So, I can almost hear the more practical of you asking, “what do you even mean by ‘reality?’”
Great question! So, I’ll ask you some questions in return! The answers are not right or wrong, but each your answers demonstrate a bit of your reality. Your reality (or I guess your beliefs about reality) generally shape your actions.

How can a person be successful in life?
Can anyone be successful?
What is success?
Is there such a thing as luck?
Is there such a thing as Karma?
What kind of other influences affect the outcomes in your life?
How important is independance?
How much interdependance is healthy?
What impact does your life have on other people?
How does your affluence (or lack thereof) effect other people?
How does your life effect the environment?
Do you feel (emotionally/energetically) connected with other people?
What is your responsibility to the people in your community?
What is your community’s responsibility to you?

So, why do I want to deconstruct the shared dream? Because I believe our culture needs to become self-aware if we are to avoid total self-destruction. I really believe that our country and culture has been hijacked by big corporations, and we need to take back our power. A few days ago, I asked how do we do that? This is my answer.

Here’s where my interests come in:

Media Literacy Education:
Teaching critical thinking skills around media messages

Filmmaking:
Through creative storytelling, challenging cultural constructs and offering alternatives (especially the alternative idea that reality is malleable, and every individual has more power than they know

Activism:
Challenging existing structures to improve

Mysticism:
Continuing to explore, through trance, meditation, ritual and other experiences of the divine, the nature of reality itself. Continue self-exploration to clear beliefs or perceptions that are destructive or limiting.

girlchasingfrogs.com:
Continue to document and explore my explorations into the nature of reality, perceptions of reality, and processes of change-making

Hope you stay tuned! I’d love to hear your thoughts about any/all of this!

Blessed Be!