Some things come easily to almost everybody. But most stuff we have to work at. And if you’re working at something and it’s not happening and at the same time you’re getting these demanding internal voices - then it’s very easy to say, “Forget it. Screw you. I don’t want to be a fast runner, or a good gymnast, or get all my spelling words right,” or any of that stuff. There is a certain voice that finally comes up as a defense mechanism that is healthy at the time that says, “No, I’m not going to keep living my life so you will approve of me.” But if it’s not conscious, then often that voice degenerates into, “I’m going to smoke cigarettes. I don’t care what you say. I’m going to eat junk. I don’t care what you say,” like a little kid that just wants to declare their independence through defiance. At a certain point we have to say, “I’m not going to play to that audience –desperately trying to please it, or defining myself in opposition to it.”
WTB – Which is what Marlee does in the bathtub scene in the movie. She reframes everything.
SIMON – I was thinking, as I was coming in to do this interview, about how does any of this connect with the brilliance of What the BLEEP!? And what I realized is that, the kind of Newtonian model of life, which says everything is basically material and physical and predictable and linear, has really dominated our psychology as well. As a result, people think of themselves as separated things, isolated, independent, not capable of learning new things, predictable, you know, the old “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” That is how a lot of us were raised.
In fact, even when I went to medical school, I realized we were being trained to conceive of human beings as basically a bag of molecules; a very physical thing. So if there was something wrong with you, if you have high blood pressure it’s not because you’re stressed about your work, it was just because you were producing too many angiotensin molecules. So I would give you an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, it’s not because your mortgage is too big and you’re worried. It’s because you aren’t producing enough GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). So I would prescribe sedative drugs like Valium or Librium, Restoril or something like that. If you are having heartburn, it’s not because you’ve been arguing with your teenager, it’s just that you are producing too many hydrochloric acid molecules. If you’re feeling depressed it’s not because your poor relationships are not nourishing to you; it’s not because you haven’t found real meaning and purpose in life – it’s just that you’re not producing enough serotonin. So we teach doctors to give a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
So there’s this very Newtonian approach to life based upon this idea that everything is material. But if we really begin to accept that the world is quantum mechanical, and that beyond that molecular mask there is an amazing field of energy and information and even intelligence, then what would it look like if human beings internalized that conversation? We would recognize that our intentions, and our attention have power; that ultimately we are not just a skin-encapsulated ego, but that we are this field of intelligence; that we are not predictable and linear and separated, but we embrace uncertainty in our lives. We’re creative. Next > 1 2 3 4 5
