MEDIA PRODUCTS

• "Mindwalk" -- VHS
• "The Little Soul and the Sun"
• "The Source Legacy Workbook"
• "In the Gloaming" -- VHS
• "What the Bleep Do We Know!?"
• "Conversations with God -- Book One"

"MINDWALK" (1991)
Available in VHS Only
Starring Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, John Heard, and Ione Skye

Based on the book "The Turning Point" by Fritjof Capra, "Mindwalk" is a widely acclaimed film that brings together three very dissimilar personalities vacationing in France who find themselves inexplicably caught up in a spontaneous and life-affirming sweep of self-expression and new ideas.  A pragmatic United States politician (Sam Waterston), an idealistic poet (John Heard), and a brilliant but reclusive physicist (Liv Ullmann) serendipitously meet on the medieval island-abbey of Mont Saint Michel in France, and what evolves in the course of their day together is a fascinating walk of the mind into realms of reason, science and metaphysics that ultimately challenges each of them to reevaluate their beliefs on the existence -- and purpose -- of life itself.  This illuminating 1991 film, which had a limited first-run release in the United States, enjoyed a two-year record run in Los Angeles where it became a favorite of the intellectual elite. 

© 2006 Adam Phoenix
(for The Source Legacy Foundation)

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"THE SOURCE LEGACY WORKBOOK -- Volume One"
by Ron Brown Grayson and Shelley Oliver

“The Source Legacy Workbook” is a practical guidebook for navigating the human journey here on Earth in decidedly spiritual terms.  More than merely a “self-help” book, this definitive work is a modern-day owner’s manual which guides us step-by-step through our own lives and helps us identify with pin-point precision the root issues that have kept us bound and gagged – and then provides the tools to repair the destructive effects that these issues have had on our psyches, emotions, bodies, and souls across the span of time.

“The Source Legacy Workbook” includes over 40 clinically-tested processes that guide each of us to our own innate wisdom and divine understanding that God is not something outside us, but the very creative life-force within us.  This restored vision not only helps us see clearly the illusions we’ve created to avoid living, but awakens ancient memories and new soul codes, and renews a sense of personal power and global responsibility that reminds us when we heal ourselves, we heal reality itself.  The unavoidable result is a personal transformation that forever changes how we experience ourselves, our families, friends, the planet we inhabit, and the Universe in which we exist.  We find that we are no longer at the effect of reality in the “old” world of shadows, but the very creator of the “new” world where light erases darkness, where purity isn’t a dirty word, and where magic and joy and love reign supreme.  (For those who want to understand the mission of the Indigo Children, boy oh boy do you have a treat in store for you with “The Source Legacy Workbook”.  Not only will you understand the Indigo energy, but you’ll understand the Aqua and Crystal Children as well.)

This book has a pulse of its very own, and it’s not anything you’ve ever felt before.  The moment you pick it up and turn the first page, you will feel that pulse, and you’ll know without question that you’ve been given a map to an amazing, challenging, and transcendent inner journey that is yours and yours alone.  And while no two journeys are the same, each one ends at precisely the same place:  Divine Oneness with All That Is.  If you dare, this is the book to lead you there. 

Reader's Review

This selection is dedicated to the memory of Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, mother, actress, singer, and acclaimed and admired activist.  Dana Reeve passed away on March 7, 2006.

"In The Gloaming" (1997)
Available on Video
Starring Robert Sean Leonard, Glenn Close, David Strathairn, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bridget Fonda. Directed by Christopher Reeve.

I recently had occasion to revisit a small but wondrous little HBO film made in 1997 by the late Christopher Reeve, and it so moved me all over again that I felt inspired to share my impressions with an audience that may have previously missed or overlooked this treasure.

This astonishing little 62-minute film marked Christopher Reeve’s directorial debut following the now-infamous riding accident that eventually claimed his life, and it is in my opinion one of the most beautiful, most poetic, most artful, and most visually stunning works ever committed to film. Upon re-review, I’m thrilled to find that the nine years since “In the Gloaming” premiered have done nothing to lessen its awesome emotional wallop. Rather, with the passing of Christopher Reeve and, now, Dana Reeve (from lung cancer), “In the Gloaming” takes on a kind of staggering personal authority and wisdom that in the end proves almost eerily prophetic – the kind of tragic twists of fate that somewhere in time manage to turn superior filmmaking into lyrical, haunting works of art.

Based on an Alice Elliott Dark short story of the same name, “In the Gloaming” explores a family’s journey of healing over a four-month period as the prodigal son, Danny, returns unceremoniously home. It isn’t clear to us at first precisely why Danny has come home, and no one in the family bothers to explore it, though they seem to silently know. Instead, they wear false smiles, talk about tomatoes and museums, and deny that anything unusual is happening right before their eyes. Save for Danny, the whole family has constructed illusions of perfection to shield them from the pain of their lonely, isolated lives together, and only Danny at first seems to notice how miserable and heart-sick everyone is beneath those sad self-deceptions. But the truth of his presence is so jarring that the family’s moth-eaten veneers and pretenses begin to disintegrate as rapidly as Danny’s body, and the unpleasant reality is revealed to us: the gay prodigal son has returned home to die.

While Danny is the only “imperfect” family member, the one who has brought shame and a quiet sense of disgrace to their lives, he is also the only one who has lived his life the most openly, honestly, and without guile. And as his body deteriorates and he begins the transition from life into death, his uncompromising sense of truth that in life made him an outcast becomes in death his greatest and most profound gift to his conflicted family. From Danny they learn self-acceptance, non-judgment, and unconditional love.

The heart of the story unfolds each evening at sunset, in the gloaming, where Danny and his mother (played by Glenn Close) meet to at last share their lives with one another – openly, candidly, nakedly. And during that magical time of day when things move more slowly and you can see the face of God, “that time of longing between day and night”, mother and son heal and become again whole.

Unlike other AIDS-related films, “In the Gloaming” isn’t really about AIDS at all. And while the plot revolves around a young man dying of AIDS, it isn’t really about death, either. It’s singularly about healing. It is, in fact, a film that transcends its own genre and gracefully sidesteps the contrivances inherent to the typical gay story (the distant father and overprotective mother, etc. – stereotypes which are part of this story, by the way, but which are handled with exceptional freshness, originality, and poignancy by Reeve).

At its essence, “In the Gloaming” is a film about going home – not “home” to mom and dad, but home in the grandest universal sense – and it employs transitions throughout to fulfill this journey: It takes place in the fall, when Summer transitions to Winter; the primary action occurs at sunset when the day transitions into night; and the story itself depicts a human being transitioning from one state of life into the next (his soul even ascends at the end of the film, if you pay close attention to Reeve’s cinematography). There isn’t a single bit of fat in this economical script, not one unnecessary word, not one untruthful moment, not one artificial performance.

Robert Sean Leonard is surely one of the brightest and most gifted actors of his generation, an actor’s actor with a wide and impressive emotional range who tends to prefer theatre to movies, and he imbues Danny with an intelligence, intensity, and rich interior life that tells us everything we need to know about this young man at the very end of his life, and what his journey has held – it’s all right there in his performance to be felt; the words are not at all necessary and would, in fact, be superfluous. In Leonard’s hands, Danny is not a victim but a victor who acquiesces to death with unusual understanding, grace, and wisdom beyond his years; he has lived his life fully, honestly, courageously, with dignity, and with positively no regrets – even unto the end. His journey toward death becomes the instrument that teaches his beloveds how to live, and he doesn’t leave until all the remaining wounds have been licked. This is a performance so special that it will stop your heart.

As Danny’s mother, Janet, Glenn Close gives probably the most thoughtful, restrained, and beautifully crafted performance of her long and illustrious career. Her performance is so exposed and authentic, in fact, that Reeve keeps her mostly in closeup to avoid unnecessary distractions; he wants us right there in her eyes where her journey of discovery happens. The character arc that Close navigates in only 62 minutes of screen time is nothing short of astonishing: she begins as the “perfect” mom who must immediately face her life’s illusions crumbling all around her, then confront her own self-lies, heal her relationship with her son only to lose him moments later, mend her broken marriage, and finally reclaim her own power and move forward. And she does it seamlessly. Close earned a much-deserved Emmy Award for her “In the Gloaming” performance, and proved without question that she belongs in the firmament among the truly great film actresses. Some performances are ethereal and eternal, and this surely is one.

David Strathairn, who plays Danny’s well-meaning but uncomfortably bumbling father, Martin, is one of Hollywood’s busiest, most seasoned, and most well-rounded actors, working constantly from medium-to-medium in theatre, television, and film. Still waters run deep in Strathairn’s performances, and his embodiment here is near letter-perfect. His Martin is a good-natured sort of fellow who tries too hard and generally manages to say exactly the wrong thing, despite his better intentions. Martin has never known how to have a real relationship with anyone, least of all his son, and although he yearns to make some sort of authentic connection with Danny, especially as they move closer to the end, his humorous and heartbreaking attempts to communicate only serve to further isolate him. What’s remarkable in Strathairn’s characterization is his ability to depict Martin’s self-conscious clumsiness while simultaneously centering himself in the fatherly love beneath that fights to be expressed. It is one of the truest performances I’ve seen of a father struggling to understand his child’s homosexualty, and Mr. Strathairn’s last scene in the film is among the finest and most emotionally wrenching moments of longing and regret ever captured on film. This moment, in fact, is the shoulders upon which the rest of this glorious film sits – everything builds to this moment, and Strathairn delivers an unqualified homerun. It’s brilliant, and it will tear you apart.

Rounding out the cast are Bridget Fonda as Danny’s hopelessly yuppie sister, Annie, and Whoopi Goldberg as Myrna, the live-in hospice worker who is given to make Danny’s last days more pleasant and comfortable. Fonda is always dependable in roles where she can be uptight, judgmental, and superficial, and her Annie is exactly the right balancer for Leonard’s Danny. The interesting aspect of this brother/sister juxtaposition is that Annie’s more salient characteristics typically define death (stagnation, repression, and inertia) while Danny’s traits better describe life (progress, passage, and motion). Fonda brings the perfect flavor to this ensemble. Whoopi Goldberg has the smallest role in the film, but it’s the kind of role that Goldberg does best – she is the voice of reality whose gentle but rock-solid presence reminds everyone of the gravity at-hand. Although Goldberg can be a larger than life persona when called to be, she is an Academy Award winning actress first and foremost whose characterization here is understated, tender, and full of humanity.

As a debut work, “In the Gloaming” proved without question that Christopher Reeve could direct; as a legacy, it proves that he was an artist of the finest caliber. This film embraces the nakedness of human emotion with total abandon; Reeve seems intent to move our souls with his, and he absolutely succeeds. He takes us immediately by the hand and leads us into the guts of this family’s troubled relationship with the grace and authority of a real storyteller. From the opening piano chords through to Dana Reeve’s haunting acappella rendition of the title song at the close of the movie, Reeve seems to have wrapped his heart completely around this film, bookending it with the life-breath of his own personal experience (he even cast his young son to play Danny in the opening segment). You cannot escape this film untouched.

Sometimes the hand of fate conspires on behalf of the artist to help create something of timeless quality, and I think “In the Gloaming” could not be a more poignant example of art foreshadowing the path of the artist. The prophetic title song which ends the film, written by Anne F. Hamson and Meta Orred, and performed by Dana Reeve, says it far better than I:

In the gloaming, oh my darling
When the lights are dim and low,
And the quiet shadows falling,
Softly come, and softly go.

When the winds are sobbing faintly,
With a gentle lull of woe,
Will you think of me and love me,
As you did once long ago?

In the gloaming, oh my darling,
Think not bitterly of me,
Though I passed away in silence,
Left you lonely, set you free.

For my heart was crushed with longing,
What had been could never be,
It was best to leave you thus dear,
Best for you, and best for me.

© 2005 Adam Phoenix
(for The Source Legacy Foundation)

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"What the Bleep Do We Know!?" (2004)
Available on DVD and Video
Starring Marlee Matlin

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com

Part documentary, part narrative drama, and part visual hallucinogen, "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" is the unlikely cult hit of 2004 that attempted to blow the door off the metaphysical closet. Filmmaker William Arntz felt that there were "millions of closet metaphysicians in America just hungering for a movie like this." Movie industry insiders who feared he was committing "financial suicide" assured him there wasn't a market for this kind of innovation. Fortunately, Arntz ignored their discouraging pronouncements and this unique hodgepodge of a movie ended up becoming a box office phenomenon, largely by overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth.

"What the Bleep Do We Know!?" presents a panel of talking head "experts" (consisting of scientists, neurobiologists, quantum physicists, and mystics) to lend authority to the more confusing topics presented in the film: alternate universes, multiple realities, the nature of God, spirituality, the physics of probabilities, and the interconnection of all things. The talking heads are woven into a storyline starring Oscar winner Marlee Matlin as Amanda, a jaded photographer who falls down a metaphysical rabbit hole and is forced to confront the painful source of her boredom, anxiety and self-contempt, and chemical dependency. Using state of the art computer animation and lucid scientific explanations, "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" effectively illustrates that everything going on "out there" is merely a projection of the complex neurobiology that happens to be going on in our mind's elaborate internal theatre. The movie concludes that human beings only see what we believe is possible -- and nothing else -- no matter what reality is truly present.

Conversations with God:

An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1)

(Hardcover)

by Neale Donald Walsch

The best-selling book, "Conversations with God", propelled Neale Donald Walsch straightaway into national prominence, and thrust God onto a global stage where He/She became something of an "overnight celebrity" -- all over again. This controversial trail-blazer of a book gave God a decidely contemporary voice and made Him/Her accessible perhaps for the first time to a worldwide audience that no longer gave credence to the punishing, patriarchal god of antiquity -- an advent that shook the cornerstones of cathedrals around the globe and incited heated debates among dogmatic theologians who might have preferred to keep the Divine a little more mysterious and unreachable to the masses.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"I loved this book. I just knew somewhere deep down inside that God would not even consider roasting or barbequeing his children for making mistakes. As C. A. Lewis points out in 'In Encounter With A Prophet':  'Why would God make us imperfect and then punish us for being imperfect?'  Let the fundamentalists rave on.  I have found a God of unconditional love."

Reader's Review

"As a spiritual author and teacher myself, I am often asked to explain the concept that we are made in God's image and likeness, and that -- in spirit -- we are actually individual expressions of God.  No other book has helped me explain that concept more clearly than this one."

Reader's Review

"Blasphemy! Heresy! Who does this man think he is, claiming to speak directly to God?! Jesus did it, Muhammad did it, the Jewish prophets did it, but none of their Gods had the sardonic wit or raw verve of Prophet Walsch's God. Neale Donald Walsch isn't claiming to be the Messiah of a new religion, just a frustrated man who sat down one day with pen in his hand and some tough questions in his heart. As he wrote his questions to God, he realized that God was answering them... directly... through his pen. The result, far from the apocalyptic predictions or cultic eccentricities you might expect, turns out to be matter-fact, in-your-face wisdom on how to get by in life while remaining true to yourself and your spirituality."

Reader's Review

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