depth of experience, it is often still hard to avoid falling into
unconscious patterns of thinking and behavior that do not serve
me. Though these practices were and are helpful, I became very
excited when I noticed that it seemed easier to practice con-
scious awareness while watching a movie than it did in every-
day life situations.I also discovered that using this process
serves as a bridge to more awareness in general and deeper
understanding of myself. It therefore also helps me to resolve
issues and consequently to increase contentment in my life.
I became curious why this practice was easier in the “reel”
world than in the real world, and I came to the following con-
clusion: When we are watching a film, part of us naturally
understands that we are sitting in a seat and looking at a movie
screen or television. Therefore we usually have a little more
emotional distance from the characters and circumstances in
the film than we do with the people and situations in our real
life. It is this greater distance that makes it easier to practice
conscious awareness while watching a film compared to nor-
mal life situations. We do not get emotionally entangled and
lost in unconscious patterns as we so often do with our spouses,
friends, or colleagues.
The effect is similar to a phenomenon dramatists have long
used in writing and producing plays — a dynamic called “aes-
thetic distance.” While watching a play, an audience can be so
absorbed by the action that they temporarily forget they are
watching a play. A dramatist then would say that the person’s
aesthetic distance has been reduced to zero. For some play-
wrights, this is precisely what they want. Others prefer to use
various techniques to subtly, and sometimes not so subtly,
remind the audience that they are in a theater watching actors
on a stage. Bertolt Brecht, who wrote during the first half of the
twentieth Century, is particularly associated with inventing and
employing such techniques. He thought a good play should both
entertain and educate, but that during the 1920s and 1930s,
most plays tilted too far toward entertainment. In order to
enhance the educational — some might say didactic — aspect“A problem cannot be
solved on the level of
consciousness on which it
was created.”
Albert Einstein42 E-Motion Picture Magic