We watched this on the same evening as The Lion King. Both animated movies are about a mystical experience that was catalysed by the death of a parent, and we enjoyed the contrast of very different expressions of similar themes.
This Studio Ghibli animation felt much more yin in its depiction of the mystical, and we enjoyed discussing the themes of undefinability, moral ambiguity, and strangeness.
“Humans have both the urge to create and destroy.”
Hayao Miyazaki
We enjoy the imaginal richness that explodes out of this Disney classic and discuss how it depicts the weaving of the mystical and the physical in a timeless and beautiful way.
We watch I Saw the TV Glow, in which two characters experience a lot of imaginal resonance watching a TV program, and it starts to spill over into their lives, leaving questions about what is real.
For the episode, we also watched two TV shows:
Season 3, Episode 1, The White Lotus
Euphoria Special Episode, 'Trouble Don't Last Always'
We weave together themes and resonances from all these places into our own experiences and explorations around disconnection, connection, and what feels most real to us.
The 2024 version of Nosferatu had a transformative effect on Joost when he went to see it last year at the cinema. We watched it together and discuss how getting in touch with your darkest desires can be a transformative shadow work process.
For the second episode of Imaginal Gaming, we played some of the game Animal Well and talked about living in an alive Universe and Awakening as a giant interactive puzzle game.
If you haven’t played the game you can watch this short review video to get a flavour of it.
If you want to learn more about Rosa’s approach to awakening (that resonates with Animal Well), you can find out more here.
In this double header we discuss the richness of connecting with sovereign energy and how this relates to time and non-self.
We spend most of the time talking about the famous scenes from each of the movies. If you haven't seen the movies, or you haven't seen them for a while, it's worth watching these two scenes beforehand to get the context and the vibes.
We watched Rosa's favourite film – the ever-magical, soul explosion Moulin Rouge!
We discuss the power of love and sincerity, romantic love as an opening force and falling in love with the whole of experience through the imaginal realm.
Once again we are joined by guest David Lassiter, this time to discuss the short film that he wrote and directed – The Opportunist.
You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/74296226
We also discuss Tár and the common themes that both films portray, of psychopathy and predatory behaviour.
I mention an imaginal meditation exercise from this retreat, by Ken Mcleod: https://unfetteredmind.org/the-warriors-solution-passivity-and-freedom-4/
We went to watch Francis Ford Coppola's latest film at the cinema, with guest David Lassiter, and reflected on the creation of the movie as an imaginal journey.
We host an episode of a new podcast that looks at the deeper resonances that are in video games.
For this episode we discuss Shadow of the Erdtree and the way that it feels like a collective soul realm.
Music by Sunlight Altar
We talk about all the mythic resonance that overflows from this film and its archetypal depths. Some short videos that we discuss:
The Nouveau Shamanic Cinema season one wrap-up, where we reflect on the 14 movies we watched in season one, the paradigms they immersed us in and the revelations each one inspired.
In Paprika a machine that allows you to enter people’s dreams goes missing and everyone starts dreaming and living in the same dream world.
The film inspired amazing conversations about emptiness and form; creativity and boundaries; dream work and the animistic roots of experience.
We mentionSteve Aizenstat's dream tending, andRiver Kenna's dream return practice.
We watch the Hollywood epic, the Last Samurai, and reflect on the themes of warrior energy, psychedelic therapy and full masculine power.
We discuss evil feminine power, the many ways that it can manifest and how those ways are depicted through the horror film Suspiria.
We watched the Green Knight; we start by introducing the concepts of phenomenal opacity and transparency and discuss getting your head cut off as a metaphor for being in a non-dual flow state with meaning.
We engaged with this film as a soul-realm transmission about letting go of control and finding the courage to step into the flow of life.
We watched Sunshine, with guest David Lassiter, and resonate with the themes of life and death, opening to the full raw intensity of experience and the importance of staying in touch with humanity on the spiritual path.
We watched the Witch and explored themes of how religious beliefs can shape experience as well as evil and the many different forms it can take.
In the podcast where we watch movies as if they are dreams or imaginal practice, we watch Annihilation.
We discuss its themes of reality unravelling, refraction of experience, naturalness and the Goddess journey as an alternative frame for experience.
'Dreams and imaginal practice allow the body to speak the language of the mind,' Rosa & Joost
For this episode we watched Dune; it inspired conversations about contrasts of realities, the Dune Universe being less sci-fi than consensus reality in some ways and working with mythic content and visualisations.
Some of the things that resonated for us were walking through the fire and staying with the pain to ignite a mystical connection, exploring what the core of humanity is and existential therapy for chosen ones.
