Our first virtual Screenwriting Workshop!

T woke up on Monday with the idea,

bubbling with notions, and I think it's

a fabulous way to explore the new

media potentials for a virtual classroom.

We can teach these things at UCLA

or The Learning Annex...but sharing

them with the whole world?

Wow. That's my baby!

#################

VIRTUAL SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP Nov. 1-Dec. 1:

Are you working on a screenplay, or do you

have a screenplay idea you’re not sure

how to start? Do you want input on your

screenplay or idea? Are you an author

who would like to learn to adapt your

own work to film?

For the FIRST TIME, hubby Steven Barnes

and I are offering a 30-day ONLINE

screenwriting workshop Nov. 1-Dec. 1.

Because this is an inaugural course,

we’re offering the workshop for the low

introductory fee of $200 for early

registration. Take this workshop from

anywhere. SPACE IS LIMITED. We

may repeat this workshop in early

2015, but not at this price.

Here's more info, or you can inbox me:

http://tananarivedue.blogspot.com

/2014/10/join-hollywood-revolution-30-day.html

Using the Ancient child

###

I’ve been working and testing the “Ancient Child” technique for about five years now, and what people asked for was a fuller explanation, as well as a “plug and play” approach to using it.    I’ve done that, and it will be available very soon, on the new blog I’ve been creating with Wordpress guru Lorelle VanFossen.  

Let’s discuss one application of the technique: emotional abuse.  Especially if the abuse originated in childhood, this can be devastating.  A parent who damages heart and body, or fails to provide protection for same, changes the profoundly important relationship with your core self, affecting:

1. Ambition
2. Self-love
3. Ability to find honest healthy relationships
4. Self-discipline (why bother if you aren’t worth it?)
5. Co-dependency
6. Creativity
7. Artistic success (which is a balance between “creative child” and “marketing/agenting adult)
8. Body composition issues (obesity and anorexia)
9. Self-damaging (cutting, etc.)
10. Drug and alcohol abuse
11. Sexual issues

And much much more.  The “Ancient Child” technique can have a powerful effect here, because the “child” image you create is, specifically, a representation of the child you were BEFORE the abuse began.   (Note: if you have serious abuse issues, please seek therapeutic assistance.   Your  therapist should be aware of what you intend to do here)

What you have to do is:

1. Enter a state of deep relaxation.   Meditation or self-hypnosis.
2. Connect with your own heartbeat and “source of love.”
3. Visualize the child self.
4. Connect with the child self: visualize holding, hugging, playing with.   
5. Remember the first time you held your own child, or held a baby sister, brother, or cousin.    Find the “protective” door in your mind, even if it was only for a puppy or kitten.   It’s there.  You have the wiring.  Or: remember/imagine being held and nurtured in infancy.   EVERYONE was, whether you can remember it or not.  Human beings who are not nurtured in infancy DO NOT SURVIVE.  You may have blanked it out...but it happened. Find it.  Meditate and search within yourself until you can find this strand of love, unbroken through the generations, back to the beginning of our species.
6. Commit to being your own mother/father.  To DIE before you let anyone else hurt that child again.  To protecting her dreams and hopes.    To spending every day loving and nurturing.  
7. Tell her/him.  Say the words. Speak them aloud: “You are the most precious thing in all the world.  Daddy is here, and I will never leave you alone again.”
8. Listen to what that “child” self has to say in  return.   See if there is a conversation to be conducted.
9. After you have emerged from your relaxed state, use your non-dominant hand (your left, if you are right-handed) to write a letter FROM your “child” to your current, adult self.  Read it aloud.

This process can be of stupendous benefit.  Please, please--even if you are “healthy” you will find it useful to connect to your creativity and aliveness.  But if, like most of us, you’ve been banged up by life or have issues with parents, it is close to miraculous.

The process was given to me by a succession of phenomenally wise men and women.  And now...it is yours.

Namaste

Steve

Ancient Child: Evolution

About twenty-five years ago I adapted

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey

to the process of designing your life.

 And called it “Lifewriting.”   Since

that time I’ve taught Lifewriting to

thousands of people in person and

through audio and video courses,

lectured on it at the Smithsonian, at

Mensa, on radio and television, at

universities and workshops, and

have been blessed to receive countless

letters and emails and hugs and

tearful thanks that the technologies

I grouped into that very special

pattern have changed and saved

lives.

But there was a limitation to “Lifewriting”,

something I always saw but wasn’t

wise enough to improve.  You see,

the limitation (I won’t call it a “problem”)

was that it was a mental technique,

a strategic syntax for organizing

resources into an optimal pattern.

It works, no doubt about it.

But...the greatest path in human

life is that of evolution, of awakening,

of becoming an “awakened adult”,

and my great spiritual teacher Sri

Chinmoy taught that that path can

be approached by opening your

heart OR awakening your body…

but never by creating mental models.

That was what I’d done, created

a wonderful mental model. That

meant that it was great for navigating

“the dream”, but not so much for

going beyond. What I needed was

something that did both.   Having

a great time in consensus reality

is no mean feat.   I may consider

that just the beginning, but it’s

nice to pay the bills, be popular,

win athletic awards and all that

good stuff.  

But...it’s just the beginning.

What I needed was something

that rooted there but went way

beyond.   That healed but also

supported growth. That was

simple, very simple--or rather

that was “complex” rather than

“complicated.”

In essence, something that was

smarter than I was.  And I couldn’t

“create” such a thing.  But began

opening myself to the possibility.

 Going more deeply into my

own process, listening to what

every teacher or  student taught me.    

And spent time every day for over

a decade going “into the silence”

to find something deeper and truer.

And the seed came.  I was the

beginning of the “Ancient Child”.

 Yesterday, I created the overview

audio explaining exactly how it

grew, and how to use it.  

Tomorrow, I create the visualization

that will root this in healing your

heart, and move from THERE to

loving self and others...and then

re-discovering your deepest

dreams and values...tapping

into your intuition on a level you’ve

never experienced...and using

all of this to support your daily

actions so that they have a power

and clarity that will carry you

as far as you are capable, in

alignment with everything good

and true within you.

It is my very best work, applicable

to every core aspect of human

life.  Generative, rather than

specific.   I did not “create it”,

I merely let my teachers,

experiences and meditations

point me toward greater truth.

And it is almost available.

I can’t wait to share it.

Namaste,

Steve