Movie Yoga
How Every Film Can Change Your Life

Chapter 1

Movies have absolutely blessed my life. For me, movie theaters aren’t just popcorn and M&M hide-outs. They are temples. They are altars. They are the halls of mystery. They’ve become the sanctuary where I go to find myself, to change, to grow. And lose myself, too, to die and be reborn. Who would have thought? One of my most intense passions, movies, has given me over and over again crystal clear glimpses of a wholeness within me, and all kinds of clues about how to make the odyssey toward that wholeness.

Let’s begin with a couple of questions: First, ever dreamed of changing something about yourself that could help you be in the world in a more fulfilling way? And second, ever been turned upside down by a movie? Left the theater a different person than you were when you went in? I mean seriously moved, one way or the other: uplifted, filled with hope, energized, grossed out, devastated, transformed? When this kind of radical thing happens to us, that film, or even that scene, that line of dialogue or that piece of music, can be the key to the highway, the way we can reach that fulfillment we’ve been dreaming of. That’s what this book is all about.

Movies can be transformational. You may already know this, but it could be true in a more profound way than you imagine. Sounds revolutionary. Except it’s not that complicated. We just need to do a couple of things: Pay attention to the feelings we have in one of these overwhelming movie moments, or any kind of movie moment, for that matter. And then come up with a simple way for our feelings to transform us — to work for us, to be our allies. This book’s going to show us how to do this — and a whole lot more — all while we’re having a good time at the movies.

There’s this practice I’ve been doing for years now. I call it “Movie Yoga,” just to keep it short and simple. I don’t mean yoga like a system of body postures. That’s just one definition. I mean yoga in its broadest sense, which is any spiritual practice. The word yoga comes from Sanskrit and means to yoke or to join together.

So, think about it for a moment: if you had to be yoked or joined to something, what would it be? I don’t know about you, but for me, feeling separate or isolated — ‘unyoked’ to anything — can be awful. So I need to connect up my separateness with something — an inspiration, an idea, another person or persons, maybe even the rest of humanity, the planet, or the cosmos. I just feel better, more whole, when I’m connected or yoked to something larger than myself. This is what all psychological and spiritual practices try to accomplish. Believe it or not, it’s what watching movies can do too.

Here’s how it has worked in my life: The bottom line is that nothing is ever the same after what are, for me, those one and only films, like Bladerunner, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or any of the hundreds of movies I’ve seen that have literally transformed me, time and time again. I keep morphing. I’m just not on freeze-frame anymore. I’m like this super-hero, or, more accurately, antihero franchise, where, when we get to the last frame of the last reel of the latest installment, it says “To be continued.” And me, well, I’m grateful to just keep riding off into some new sunset one more time. And one of the main reasons I feel this way is because there in the dark, in front of the lit-up screen, the relentless sweep of some mystery I can’t name keeps on shattering me.

Truth be told, getting connected, yoked to something bigger than our isolated selves, is happening for millions of us, everywhere, whenever we feel passion and get transported. Movies aren’t the only way, either, not even for me. There’s my family and my work, which I feel has been a calling. There are trees and swans and music and many other gifts. But this book is going to take this one special thing, movies, and, by demonstrating how they can change our lives, show us a way for each of us to turn everything, all that we are and do and experience, into a journey of transformation. It will let us in on a very special way to get filled with wonder and awe, to grow, to change, and to be fulfilled.

Movie Yoga can be a big help for those of us who’ve never had a glimpse of some kind of life blueprint — a game plan for transformation that excites us, or wonder or awe in the everyday rituals we create, like hanging out in nature, listening to music, or, of course, going to the movies. This book will give us that blueprint, a game plan, and a way to use it.

It is totally possible to get that flash of brilliance, that one and only moment, which can become a thousand one and only moments. It is possible as well to have meaningful relationships, to feel full of purpose, to be passionate, and to be able to integrate all sides of our nature, the light and the dark, without having to sacrifice or repress or feel bad about the many facets of who we are. Movie Yoga shows us how to celebrate the grand sweep of life in all of its manifestations as being part of a great mystery and wholeness that we will always be moving toward. And to watch a hellava lot of movies while we’re at it. And to watch a hellava lot of movies while we’re at it.