http://digitaluniverse.50megs.com

VIRTUAL QABALAH:
An Initiatory Journey from Fool to Mastership

By Merlyn Morgan and Iona Miller, 1/2006

BASIC IDEA: Qabalah Meets “What the Bleep” Running Time: 1 hour

Imagine the elegant philosophy and symbolism of the Tarot and Hermetic Qabalah meets the paradigm shift of “What the Bleep”. This is the Qabalistic “What the Bleep”. The protagonist is the Hero/ine in the classic spiritual journey, filled with allies and obstacles, ordeals, insightts, and self-transformation into an expanded sense of what it means to be fully human: Homo Lumen.

Qabalah is the ART of being fully human. It is a tecnology for the embodiment of spirituality. The paths of the Tree of Life exemplify templates for all ways of being and becoming.

VIRTUAL QABALAH is a first of its kind animated multimedia guided tour of the initiatory mindscapes of Tarot and Qabalah. Much like science, deep mysticism goes beyond beliefs to present direct experience. The whole system incorporates not only the brain and body, but most importantly the outside world too. This view is esentially circular and dynamic, not linear and fixed. Consciousness is access to a sensorium and/or informational input. We are modified by both incoming and self-generated sensory data...a cosmic feedback device.

FUTURE HERITAGE: The Qabalistic worldview is a dynamic system, a Whole which differentates itself into parts which then integate back into resonant wholes. The Tree is a general pattern of activity in an endlessly flowing substrate. It's a process, not a thing. Using visionary art and pathworking symbolism, the viewer witnesses the Qabalistic Creation story: emanation of the Spheres of the Tree of Life. Next, through a series of multisensory guided visualizations, he or she finds personal meaning by ldquo;climbing” the Tree, in an exaltation of soul and spirit.

HIGH TECH HYPNOSIS: Using congruent yet amorphous imagery at some points provides generic metaphors of transformation as templates or blank canvas for the subjective projections of each viewer, allowing them to identify with the generic aspirant in a personalistic, yet undefined, way. Ultimately, it is our sense organs which help us interpret the world and our experience through our perceptions. They help us make a distinction between what is "real" and "unreal." The emotional part of the brain, (the right, spatial lobe), cannot analytically distinguish a symbol from a symbolic representation.

CONNECTING TO SOURCE: In imagination or virtual reality it becomes a moot point. Fantasy, in fact, animates both our inner and outer worlds, and creates meaning. The on-going imaginative process of the psyche is the ground of being. Jung spoke of the psychoid aspect of psyche as the vast non-human action of the universal forces. Aesthetic flow and harmony appeals to the emotional brain, while systematic orderliness appeals to the cognitive nature, creating holistic congruence in the viewing experience.

PSYCHOTRONICS: This video DOES things to you: it resonates with and awakens deep layers of the psyche, “rototills” your subconscious mind in an organic way, planting the seeds of transformation, Cosmosis. Self-Regulation is the antidote to Corporate and Political Mind Control.

New Media and Environments: We are entering an era of magical technologies which are relevant to the inner world of imagery and imagination. The thin line between imagination and reality is blurring. Through special FX we have expanded our ability to seamlessly manifest a visionary tale, and with Virtual Reality (VR) we can create an electronic representation of typical symbols of the psyche and interact with them. Even though these images have no concrete existence, they are influential in the process of transformation.

Self-Transformation: The practice of magick, a sacred technology, normally involves concentrated visualization activity coupled with immersion in the autonomous stream of consciousness. Since much of the training and practice in magick is based on a recipe, formula, or protocol, these can easily be programmed and standarized, using the Correspondence System derived from the traditional Doctrine of Signatures to guide an aspirant into a specific state of consciousness.

Self-Regulation: Biofeedback and brain machine technology could easily enhance that effect, facilitating Alpha and Theta brainwave coherence using binaural beat technology. Each virtual world includes a panoply of symbols related to a specific archetype. The aspirants journey through this world. In the process of positive interaction with these archetypal forms, the psyche learns to identify with transpersonal forces, but without egoic inflation. This leads to both a sense of expansion and experiential grounding, a greater sense of wholeness and well-being, a connection to Source. The objective archetypes are no longer simply intellectual concepts but a subjective experience which self-generates insight.

______________________
VIRTUAL QABALAH DVD
Philosophy and Needs Analysis

Project: Inception, February 2006; Goal, 1 hr. long animated art/music DVD;
Virtual Qabalah: An Initiatory Journey from Fool to Mastership
A metaphysical “What the Bleep”-type film on the nature of deep Reality.

Producers:

Merlyn Morgan (Producer; Director; Composer; FX): Morgan is an experienced multimedia console producer and metaphysician who sells professional equipment to the film industry and teaches same. http://www.marketec.com

Iona Miller (Co-Producer; Concept, Artwork and Narrative Consultant): Miller is a published writer/speaker in this field, professional hypnotherapist, and visonary multimedia artist with decades in “occulture”. She has a pulse on the digital artworld, new media environments, neo-tribal, new age and alternative audience and markets, and the ability to test content with other experts and target focus groups at each production stage. http://ionatopia.50megs.com

Distribution: To be determined; this is more mainstream and entertaining than a strictly instructional “Mystic Fire” type video, with mass appeal for any alt.video store customer. Also potentially suitable for cable TV, cultural events, website distribution and/or webcasting and download, network distribution.

Sequels: Potentially develops a burgeoning market of seekers and players for more qabalistic stock themes, as well as interactive gaming and entertainment options, with spin off product lines. Taps “killer apps” markets interested in paranormal, new age, spiritual technologies, sword and sorcery gaming, and developing immersive art installations, i.e. “Real Fantasy”.


1. Initial contact: what is the message and which medium is best for it?

There is a deeper reality and YOU can experience it, right now. Virtual Qabalah invites the experienced or inexperienced viewer on a journey “into the mystic”. This is a voyage into the deep nature of Reality, in the same way but not the same didactic style as the physics movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know”.

The qabalistic universe is one of Limitless Living Light, so it only makes sense to depict its message in the medium of Light itself – the digital media of Qabalah Luminata. The message of this art/music DVD implies that there is a vast realm of inner experience, which the viewer can explore, as well, through the imagery of Tarot and Qabalah. The DVD medium allows the producers to collage sound and imagery with the discrete components of this philosophical system. Combining real-time video clips, artwork, animations and special FX, we will part the mystic veil in a multimedia exploration of the Imagination and Qabalistic worldview.

It allows the viewer to enter the creative minds and universe of master visionary artists to experience the ultra-rich environment of a lively inner realm. It is an introductory look at the intriguing iconography and philosophy of Qabalah (Kabbalah, Cabala) without learning the complex vernacular often associated with this philosophy. This is a case where a picture is worth a thousand foreign words. The departure point is the most commonly known aspect of Qabalah’s Tree of Life: the Tarot, each major Trump of which corresponds with a Path on the Tree, as well as specific symbolism. The backgrounds of both producers allow them to tackle the subject with skill and authority in all described dimensions.

2. Needs analysis: what do you really want to produce?

We want to bring the vibrant qabalistic universe to life in contemporary terms and media. This DVD functions both aesthetically and philosophically to stimulate the imagination as it is carried along by the original musical soundtrack. It is pure visionary art, an instructive introduction to Qabalah, and an entertaining, imaginal and perhaps transformative psychological journey for the viewer. It is a symphonic activation and deployment of symbols from mankind’s Collective Unconscious designed to express and stimulate deeper interest in the inner realms that lie dormant in our souls. We seek to open the mind in an enriching experience that speaks to mind, body and spirit…a joyful celebration of what it means to be fully human in a self-aware Universe.

3. What is the subject and object of the program?

The subject of the program is Qabalah, introduced by its most accessible and well-known representative, the symbolic iconography of the Tarot, best known for its use as a divinatory technique. The object is an entertaining teaching tool. Tarot holds mass appeal, even for those unfamiliar with mystical philosophy and provides a bridge from the “Known” to the “Unknown” deeper areas of the psyche, which is a part of object of this program.

4. Who is the primary and secondary audience? Primary: Secondary:

Celebrity interest in Kabbalah (Madonna, Demi Moore, Britney Spears, etc.) has raised public awareness, interest and curiosity in this once arcane subject. Yet Hermetic Qabala, which is substantially different from the practice of Jewish Kabbalah, has been ignored by the media. This DVD project can be shown in concert venues, galleries, outdoor projection for multimedia and promotional events, both with and without its own original soundtrack.

The primary audience is Everybody: anyone with an interest in entertainment, beauty, art films, altered states, and the mysteries of life, in general. The primary audience is likely to be those who gather anywhere the large-screen format is used: clubs, raves, gatherings, exhibitions, seminars, and other art/music events. The secondary, though perhaps most zealous audience is predisposed to receive its message in a more focused manner: those with mystical and/or New Age-type interests – a tremendously large audience, always hungry for new content, and willing to spend on it.

5. What are the major concepts to be communicated?

The structure of this work is built around the Qabalistic notion of Pathworking, a journey through the paths of the Tree of Life as exemplified in the 22 Trumps of the Tarot and their related corresponding symbolism and godforms. The journey to wisdom from simple ignorance unfolds before the viewer’s eyes, providing a template that suggests the viewer too can achieve these same states at the experiential, rather than passive level.

6. What is the tone and style of the program?

The tone is distinctively mystical and atmospheric, yet fun and adventurous. The style relies heavily on symbolism and special FX to bring the inner world to life, but is Nonobjective enough in its representations to allow the viewer to project something of their own inner nature into the viewing experience.

7. How long?

As an introductory piece, it runs approximately 1 hour, to not exhaust the subject matter, and to leave the viewer desiring more. This also allows it to fit easily into a variety of venues, as well as commercial programming. The challenge will be to adequately present each of the 22 Trumps or Paths in the allotted 2-3 minutes each, as well as introductory and concluding scenes.

8. What are the deadlines?

This is a timely subject, which has not been addressed adequately in any professional way. The self-imposed deadline is to be first into the market with quality work, which meets the aesthetic, philosophical and marketing goals of a quality production.

9. What are the direct and indirect objectives?

The direct objectives are commercial, same as above, and the indirect objectives include the realization of life-long desires of the producers to create quality productions around this mystical theme. Perhaps one personalistic indirect objective is “secret therapy”, to plant healing seeds in consciousness.

10. Which objectives are the most important?

The most important objective is to create a universally relatable piece that speaks to the audience in a way they can embrace, in a way familiar enough and entertaining enough to hold their attention, and in a way that is fascinating enough to encourage them to dig deeper into the Mystery of Life. This type of art/music film helps the mind drop fixations on externals and boundaries until one senses oneself in a semi dream state. If appealing enough, a positive sort of subliminal cultural engineering or shamanic psychic contagion might take root, creating a cult film audience. At its best, Qabalah is a generic user-friendly human survival technology.

11. Who is responsible for defining the objectives?

At this time, the co-producers are defining commercial applications as well as the cultural and aesthetic thrust of the project objectives.

12. What skills or perceptions should be developed in the audience?

Te movie creates a doorway into the mind. Ideally, the audience can begin entirely naïve of the subject and come away feeling they have an initial grasp of the subject as well as feeling aesthetic, if not philosophical, uplift. The viewer is not challenged beyond passive viewing in this particular film, though developing follow-on projects could be far more interactive, allowing them to develop their own inner potential and imagination. It is important to realise that the unconscious expresses not only through imagery but particularly through slight and unbidden or spontaneous shifts in feeling states, in body sensations, in movements and fantasy. We jumpstart this with a collective waking dream.

The discoveries and insights of the last three decades have fueled interest and ideas, attracting outstanding young people to the tranformative field. The need for better data has driven major improvements in both technology and personal development. The combination of basic knowledge, highly motivated youth, and a growing technology base offers an unprecedented opportunity for further progress.
Qabala is a pre-scientific cosmology and spiritual science. Far from solving the nature of reality, science, with no consensus in either physics or consciousness studies, has confounded us even more. We are the first generation of human beings to glimpse the full sweep of cosmic history, from the universe's fiery origin in the Big Bang to the silent, stately flight of galaxies through the intergalactic night. Humankind continues its own journey into the future with a new depth of understanding and appreciation for the forces that shape our destiny.

13. What are the audience's objectives?

Audience objectives will depend on their predisposition, place and time of exposure to viewing. Those who find themselves viewing by accident will find it engaging entertainment. Those who seek out the DVD may be seeking deeper understanding for themselves or others they know, a way to demonstrate their own emerging philosophy to encourage understanding.

14. What problems or misunderstanding about the subject need to be corrected?

Tarot and Qabalah have enjoyed various periods of faddishness since the 1960s, if not before. Its divinatory application is well known, and celebrities have introduced and perhaps trivialized its religious dimension as a way of life. We hope to show the public that it is a fascinating realm of exploration and artistic unfolding even without lifestyle commitment. Hermetic Qabalah is the root metaphor of the Western Occult Tradition, and was a main area of study and illumination during the Enlightenment and beyond for the world’s intelligentsia. We want to demonstrate it is now accessible to anyone. Because Qabalah describes the human condition and the milestones of inner territory it is universal in the same way, for example, as Jungian Psychology. It is a systematic alternative means of exploring the virtuality of the spiritual dimension.

15. Under what circumstances will it be seen? Alone? Seminar?

The message of the movie will stand up both in individual and group viewing. A booklet of accompanying literature could easily provide the introductory context. Level of understanding is likely to be highly context dependent, and it is certainly ideal for sparking group discussion. It should be enjoyable for a young or untutored individual, or general audience, yet communicate new octaves of comprehension and enjoyment for the aspiring or mature mage. It is an invitation to go deeper and relate personally to the content presented.

16. Audience analysis: what is the sex, age, range, general educational background, type of joy, salary range, etc?

It should be tolerable and unoffensive for the conventional personality, and appeal even more strongly to the explorative and psychologically/artistically sophisticated. Interwoven themes of gender reunion make it appeal to all sexual orientations. Young children will be captivated by color, movement and effects; teens will respond to the underlying lifetheme of the heroic Quest which defines their life passage; young adults will connect with its universal message; while the mature seeker will respond to the call from Beyond. Broadest appeal will likely range from Baby Boomer new age types to Generation Y-Not, with quick clip M-TV consciousness.

Educational level is irrelevant, as it will seduce those interested in all aspects of the paranormal, from mild curiosity-seekers to dilettantes, to active participants. It may function as a way to bridge generations – for youth to demonstrate to age what direction they are taking in their spiritual lives. Joy and engagement in the here and now is a strong underlying message of the qabalistic lifestyle, and the warmth and ingenuity, the novelty of the presentation will appeal to the entire range of kinesthetic, auditory and visually-oriented people irregardless of economic bracket. Because some schools of Kabbalah accentuate expensive commitments of time and money, it is an inexpensive alternative introductory presentation of basic concepts.


17. What is the audience's major interest in the program?

Each person will bring his or her own position or agenda to the program, ranging from happenstance to curiosity to deep interest in the subject matter. Unlike arbitrary artistic elements, there is a marriage here of aesthetic and philosophic content, adding depth and mystery to the viewing experience. The traditional backgrounds of both Western Qabbalah and Jewish Kabbalah root it in Tradition, rather than idiosyncratic artistic viewpoints.

18. What is the major benefit of this program?

Clarity. It provides a multisensory introduction to the subject: Tarot or Qabalah 101, without a religious agenda. It leaves the point-of-view to the viewer, who can therefore have an individualized reaction or response to it. While it can function as a teaching tool, it can also stand alone as pure entertainment.

19. What possible negative attitudes exist towards the subject?

Only frightened parents or religious fundamentalists are likely to react to this introductory content based on preconceived notions. Those who find celebrity interest in Kabbala distasteful may react to its trivialization in a dismissive way, initially – but not upon viewing, with its aesthetically redeeming production values.

20. Why do people feel negatively about it?

Misconceptions, fear of self-exploration and the unfamiliar. Fear of “the occult” and/or locus of self-control. Religious objections for themselves and their children.


SYNOPSIS:

VIRTUAL QABALAH DVD
by Iona Miller and Merlyn Morgan

BASIC IDEA: Qabalah Meets “What the Bleep” Running Time: 1 hour

Imagine the elegant philosophy and symbolism of the Tarot and Hermetic Qabalah meets the paradigm shift of “What the Bleep”. This is the Qabalistic “What the Bleep”. The protagonist is the Hero/ine in the classic spiritual journey, filled with allies and obstacles, ordeals, insights, and self-transformation into an expanded sense of what it means to be fully human: Homo Lumen.

Qabalah is the ART of being fully human. It is a technology for the embodiment of spirituality. The paths of the Tree of Life exemplify templates for all ways of being and becoming.

MEDIA-BASED ART: VIRTUAL QABALAH is a first of its kind animated multimedia guided tour of the initiatory mindscapes of Tarot and Qabalah. Much like science, deep mysticism goes beyond beliefs to present direct experience. The whole system incorporates not only the brain and body, but most importantly the outside world too. This view is essentially circular and dynamic, not linear and fixed. Consciousness is access to a sensorium and/or informational input. We are modified by both incoming and self-generated sensory data...a cosmic feedback device.

FUTURE HERITAGE: The Qabalistic worldview is a dynamic system, a Whole that differentiates itself into parts, which then integrated back into resonant wholes. The Tree is a general pattern of activity in an endlessly flowing substrate. A whole is produced by emergent properties of interactive relationships. It's a process, not a thing. Rather than being in the brain, consciousness may be a feature of universe. Many ancient cultures took this for granted. While the notion that there is an inside to empty space is new to Western science, it is the root of mystical traditions.

Using visionary art and pathworking symbolism, the viewer witnesses the Qabalistic Creation story: emanation of the Spheres of the Tree of Life from infinite Nothingness and Limitless Light. Next, through a series of multisensory, guided visualizations, he or she finds personal meaning by "climbing” the Tree, in an exaltation of soul and spirit.

HIGH TECH HYPNOSIS: Using congruent yet amorphous imagery at some points provides generic metaphors of transformation as templates or blank canvas for the subjective projections of each viewer, allowing them to identify with the generic aspirant in a personalistic, yet undefined, way. Ultimately, it is our sense organs that help us interpret the world and our experience through our perceptions. They help us make a distinction between what is "real" and "unreal." The emotional part of the brain, (the right, spatial lobe), cannot analytically distinguish a symbol from a symbolic representation.

CONNECTING TO SOURCE: In imagination or virtual reality it becomes a moot point. Fantasy, in fact, animates both our inner and outer worlds, and creates meaning. The on-going imaginative process of the psyche is the ground of being. Jung spoke of the psychoid aspect of psyche as the vast non-human action of the universal forces. Aesthetic flow and harmony appeals to the emotional brain, while systematic orderliness appeals to the cognitive nature, creating holistic congruence in the viewing experience.

PSYCHOTRONICS: This video DOES things to you: it resonates with and awakens deep layers of the psyche, “rototills” your subconscious mind in an organic way, planting the seeds of transformation, Cosmosis. Self-Regulation is the antidote to Corporate and Political Mind Control.

BACKGROUND:

New Media and Environments: We are entering an era of magical technologies which are relevant to the inner world of imagery and imagination. The thin line between imagination and reality is blurring. Through special FX we have expanded our ability to seamlessly manifest a visionary tale, and with Virtual Reality (VR) we can create an electronic representation of typical symbols of the psyche and interact with them. Even though these images have no concrete existence, they are influential in the process of transformation.

Self-Transformation: The practice of magick, a sacred technology, normally involves concentrated visualization activity coupled with immersion in the autonomous stream of consciousness. Since much of the training and practice in magick is based on a recipe, formula, or protocol, these can easily be programmed and standarized, using the Correspondence System derived from the traditional Doctrine of Signatures to guide an aspirant into a specific state of consciousness.

Self-Regulation: Biofeedback and brain machine technology could easily enhance that effect, facilitating Alpha and Theta brainwave coherence using binaural beat technology. Each virtual world includes a panoply of symbols related to a specific archetype. The aspirants journey through this world. In the process of positive interaction with these archetypal forms, the psyche learns to identify with transpersonal forces, but without egoic inflation. This leads to both a sense of expansion and experiential grounding, a greater sense of wholeness and well-being, a connection to Source. The objective archetypes are no longer simply intellectual concepts but a subjective experience which self-generates insight.

More Io Qabalah at
http://zero-point.tripod.com
http://synergeticqabala.chaosmagic.com
http://templeoflivinglight.50megs.com