Integral Cinema Studio: The Energetic Lens II

Altered States (1980) and the Transmission of Cinematic Energies

In part one of the Energetic Lens I introduced a preliminary taxonomy of the cinematic energy spectrum. My initial research on the process of how these cinematic energies are transmitted suggests that cinematic energies are transferred from screen to viewer through several different potential and simultaneous energy transference modalities:

Gross/Direct Energy Transference. At the gross cinematic energy level, the transmission of cinematic energies appears to be fairly direct and obvious as the often palpable sensory-kinetic frequencies are transmitted through the projected images and sounds to the viewer. More precisely, light and sound frequencies are being captured and then transmitted via cinematic light and sound cinematic technologies (cameras, projectors, computer screens, etc.), which are then received by the sense organs, translated into bioelectric impulses, and transmitted to the brain, nervous system, and various other physical organs and systems, producing a mirroring of those same frequencies in the viewer.¹⁵ I received a powerful lesson of this type of cinematic energy transmission in one of my filmic expression courses when the instructor projected a series of images that used the juxtaposition of opposing color and shape frequencies (white/red, square/circle, etc.) to induce physical effects…basically all of us in the room felt dizzy and nauseas just from watching these images to the point of nearly falling off our chairs. Cinematic artists can use this type of gross energy signature for both extreme and more subtle effects. For example, in the image below from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Kubrick uses the juxtaposition of color, shape, texture and form to create a subtle yet palpable sensory-kinetic separation between the character and the space around them.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the Creative Use of Gross/Direct Energy Transference

Subtle-Causal/Direct Energy Transference. On the more subtle and causal energy levels, it also appears that the energy signatures of various individual and collective emotional-sexual states and mental, higher-mental, and over-mental states and structures of consciousness may also have the capacity to be directly captured, embedded, and projected energetically from the cinematic work to the viewer. While the means/mechanisms of this transmission is still up for debate, there are significant research findings to suggest that energy systems, bodies, fields, frequencies, and signature patterns can capture, contain, and transmit some of the elements and dimensions of consciousness to varying degrees, including energetic and informational dimensions associated with subtle emotional, mental, and perspectival patterns, and potentially even causal, witness, and non-dual states and state-stages as well.¹⁶ These same findings strongly suggest that these consciousness-to-energy signatures have the potential to be embedded in material objects, including the materials used in artistic and cinematic works.¹⁷ This potential link between individual and collective consciousness (UL/LL) and energy bodies and systems (UR/LR) suggests a high degree of tetra-enmeshment in all quadratic dimension-perspectives on the Integral map (see Diagram below).

Mapping of the Tetra-Enmeshment of Consciousness and Energy in all Four Quadrants 18

Semiotic-Mirroring Energy Transference. In addition to Gross/Direct and Subtle-Causal/Direct energy transfer, there also appears to be a semiotic-based transfer of energy occurring whereby captured and projected signs and symbols (words, visual symbols, musical metaphors, etc.) ignite their corresponding potential gross, subtle, and causal energy signatures in the viewer’s energy bodies as the signs and symbols are translated by the brain into their meaning patterns, producing an energy mirroring effect. For example, in the area of text, word meanings have their own unique energy signatures; the author and/or communicator feels these energy signatures of the meaning behind their words; the words, either spoken or written or represented (symbolically, visually, sub-textually, etc.) contain the meaning code that is then communicated to and translated by the receiver (listener, reader, viewer, etc.) whose brain then decodes the words into their meaning patterns, which at the same time produces the original energy signature of that meaning code in the receivers energy structure. This process is relatively complex in that the original meaning code of the text creator/communicator is translated through the construct lenses of the receiver (mental, emotional, cultural, etc.; memories around words, symbols, etc.), so the energy signature is often altered to some degree from its original intent.¹⁹ In the image above from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in addition to the transference of Gross/Direct Energies, we can also see an example of the Semiotic-Mirroring Energy Transfer process in the area of visual symbols, in that we the viewer assign various meaning patterns to the different colors (red for danger, white for purity, etc.), and to the different shapes and forms (a modern scientific-related spacesuit versus a more antiquated environment along with all their various connotations) depending on our personal, cultural, and social constructs, which in turn produces a certain energetic response in our bodies.

As stated above, all these potential modalities of cinematic energy transmission are most likely occurring simultaneously in every moment of a cinematic work to a greater or lesser degree. In the adjacent clip from the film Altered States (1980), we can see an example of this type of potential multiple and simultaneous expression of cinematic energies (see Table 3 below and the previous article for a more detailed description of these cinematic energy fields and frequencies).

While we can potentially analyze and chart these multiple simultaneous energy patterns in a cinematic work, the process appears to be much more elusive as we get further into it, as the micro-energetic signatures of every emotion, thought, perceptual field, and existential and transcendental concept radiating between the cinematic work and the viewer synchronously light up, and then intermingle with the viewer’s own accumulated gross, subtle, and causal energy structures and correlated developmental altitudes, states and typologies. In addition to this complex web of cinematic energy transmission and reception, the mapping of this process becomes more challenging when we remember that while every thought, emotion, and perception has a correlated energy signature, they cannot be reduced to purely these energy structures. However, working with the Energetic Lens does appear to get us closer to understanding and reproducing this more elusive dimension of creative expression and reception, and potentially lead us to a greater understanding of cinematic altitude embedding and the sensory-aesthetic experience itself. ²¹

Table 3. Table Depicting Some of the Multiple and Simultaneous Energies
Potentially Being Transmitted in the Above Clip from Altered States (1980) ²²

According to my preliminary research, it seems that some cinematic artists, including most if not all of those who are considered to be masters, appear to have an almost intuitive capacity to sense and work with these cinematic energies. It also appears that this capacity can be trained to some degree. Back during my film school days I was graced with some of this type of cinematic energy training. In my editorial training with Robert Wise, he talked about being able to feel or sense where a shot transition (cut, dissolve, etc.) needed to be. He spent hours with me helping me learn how to sense the energy patterns within the shot; in essence teaching me how to “trust the force” of a shot; to look beyond content, structure and form, and to feel the energetic flow of the shot as a whole. Then he taught me how to combine this energy sensing with analysis of the other elements; for example, in a dialogue there is a space between one characters expression and another that technically is there, but within that space there is a precise moment where the transition is perfect, where the energies of the interaction are taken to a whole new level and the transition itself becomes experientially invisible. With this type of practical application of the Energetic Lens, cinematic artists can potentially create more subtle, deep, powerful, multi-dimensional, and energetically immersive cinematic works. In addition, advanced understanding and use of this lens appears to have the potential to unlocking some of the secrets to what makes a cinematic masterpiece.

NOTES

¹⁵ Light photons and sound waves are recorded, manipulated, and projected to the viewer who then receives and translates the light and sound energies into bioelectric energies which are then translated into various mental, emotional, and physio-sensory experiences. To get a sense of the amount of energy and information being transferred in this process, a single pixel within a single frame of film can carry millions of photons (Click here for more information on this process).

¹⁶ For more on the research showing significant findings that suggest that energy systems, bodies, fields, frequencies, and signature patterns can potentially capture, contain, and transmit some of the elements and dimensions of consciousness into the matter/material domain to varying degrees, see Masaru Emoto (1999; 2001; 2005); William Tiller (1997; 2001; 2005; 2007); and Ken Wilber (2002). As for the potential means/mechanisms of energy transmission between consciousness and the matter-energy domain, Tiller postulates a magnetic information field bridging the two domains, acting as an information exchange conduit (2007). Sheldrake’s work on Morphic Fields may also shed some light on this type of information/energy exchange (1995).

¹⁷ The embedding of consciousness into material dimensions is indicated by the work of Masuru Emoto with his experiments of embedding dimensions of consciousness into water crystals (1999; 2001; 2005); and the work of William Tiller with his explorations of embedding dimensions of consciousness into an electrical device and then using that device to condition a spatial environment (1997; 2001; 2005; 2007).

¹⁸ According to the research referenced above, there does appear to be a high degree of multi-dimensional interaction or tetra-enmeshment between individual consciousness (UL), collective or relational and cultural fields of consciousness (LL), energy bodies, fields, and frequencies (UR), and energy systems (LR). This tetra-enmeshment appears to be omni-directional in that interior (individual and collective consciousness) and exterior (energy bodies and systems) domains appear to interact in such a way that every domain has the capacity to be both a receiver and a stimulator for the other. For example, it appears that energies can stimulate consciousness and consciousness can stimulate energies. Note that I use the term Tetra-Enmeshment Fields in the above diagram, wherein fields refers to an open and permeable domain that allows omni-directional movement through it from and to surrounding domains. As noted in note 16 above, there are various postulations as to what this field actually is.

¹⁹ It is important to note that the meaning codes captured, transmitted and received in the Semiotic-Mirroring Energy Transference process are profoundly conditioned by individual, cultural, and social constructs that includes everything from basic linguistic meaning patterns to concepts of truth, beauty, art, etc.  This process is relatively complex in that the original meaning code of the text creator/communicator is translated through the construct lenses of the receiver (mental, emotional, cultural, etc.; memories around words, symbols, etc.), so the energy signature is often altered to some degree from its original intent.

²⁰ The above clip from the film Altered States (1980) is significant in many ways to the study of cinematic energies in that it appears to contain virtually the full range of potential energies while also having a major narrative theme about the exploration of the connection between the subjective and inter-subjective dimensions of consciousness (UL/LL) and the objective and inter-objective dimensions of matter and energy (UR/LR). YouTube clip of Altered States (1980) also available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLYWDYxuKSY&feature=player_embedded

²¹ The above exploration and corresponding research suggests that the Energetic Lens may shed some light on how the embedding of individual and collective interior and exterior altitudes, states, and typologies is potentially mediated to a varying degree by Sutble-Causal/Direct and Semiotic-Mirroring Energetic Transference modalities. The harmonics between cinematic altitudes/energies and viewer altitudes/energies may also hold the key to further understanding and quantifying the sensory dimensions of the aesthetic experience. From this perspective, we can see that while the pathway to the aesthetic experience depends on the personal, cultural and social constructs held by an individual (i.e., definitions of what is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing varies by culture and by altitude/worldview, etc.), the energetic experience of beauty or the sensory-aesthetic moment may be something more universal in that a work of art that lights up all the personally, culturally, and socially aligned aesthetic constructs through the various energy transmission modalities might then ignite a universal state of beauty, or the “ah” moment when we are one with the artifact/phenomenon/experience. Energetically this state may have correlates to what Tiller suggests as consciousness-to-energy supersymmetry and/or superluminal states (2007). 

²² Table 3 depicts some of the multiple and simultaneous energies potentially being transmitted in the above clip from the film Altered States (1980), along with their possibly corresponding Energy Bodies, Energy Transference Modality, and Cinematic Energy Fields and Field Spectrums. Note that both the Subtle/Direct and Causal/Direct Energy Transference Modalities appear to operate in parallel with Semiotic-Mirroring Energy Transference.