Storyboarding and Editing the Film of Your Life

Cinema is a vast hint from the Higher Powers that your life is a film. Perhaps, just as you enter a cinema to watch an interesting film and settle comfortably into your seat, Someone Else enters a cosmic cinema, settles down... and watches the film of your life. Naturally, the viewing technology there is far beyond 3D and Dolby Digital.

Your life is a film. It is so realistic that you forget this. Yet some people have awakened from that forgetfulness. They say you are in a film, that everything you know is an illusion. A film is not reality. Reality lies outside the film.

When you awaken to this understanding and Knowledge, you can do whatever you wish with your film. That is the subject of this practice.

Know that if you want the film of your life to be happy, it will be. There is only one problem: you give in to the influences acting upon you. They make you turn your film into a nightmare. How often have you said something like: "What a fool I was! What was I thinking?" Each of you has thought this in one form or another, more than once. You realise that something constantly influences you, prompting particular actions and thus creating particular frames of your film. Let me stress again that you perform those actions yourself. If you do not act, the event will not happen. If you do not attend a party with dubious company, you will not be raped or beaten there. Yet the influences acting on you urge you to go. You create these frames yourself. The director merely guides the process, while you have the right to act or not act. The issue is that you are not awake: you are inside the film and cannot see it from outside as the director does.

Description of the Practice

1. Take any comfortable position. Comfort is all that matters. Even if you are busy, you can do this practice while queuing in a shop, sitting on a tram or travelling by plane. You simply need circumstances that allow inner work with imagination, memories and thoughts.
2. Break your life down into frames. Recognise it as a film composed of frames. For simplicity, let one day equal one frame. You do not need to visualise every detail; imagine it in broad terms. You are here today: picture "today" as a frame of film. To your left, literally to your left, extends the filmstrip of your life, as in the animation above, with each frame representing a past day. To your right extends a similar strip of future frames. Those frames are still empty, at least for you, since they remain unknown. Nevertheless, imagine them bright and sunlit, filled with the energy of happiness, good fortune, love and so on.
3. Now let your consciousness step back and try to see the filmstrip from outside: today's frame, and those to its left and right. The strip extends infinitely in both directions. Fill it with frames as far as your memory and powers of visualisation allow.
4. This is essentially the first part of the practice. I recommend practising it for several days before going further. Go about your day thinking: "I am in a film. Today is one frame of that film." Think of the strip of past frames on your left and the strip on your right. When you feel yourself within a film, you will be almost one step away from Enlightenment. At certain moments, the world may seem like liquid glass, the material from which illusory reality is "moulded". Experiences vary, but this understanding changes your attitude to life, so give the first part the time it needs.
5. The second part involves editing the film. Do not be surprised that I replace the word "life" with "film" and use the technical term "editing". What matters is that it makes the idea clearer to you; there is no difference in essence.
6. Decide which frame of your past contains the energy you want to bring into the frame called "today". Let us begin with a neutral example. Suppose you simply want today's frame to be happy. Remember a day when you were happy throughout. Then, as shown in the animation above, bring that frame into today's frame, placing all its energy there. Do not make the mistake of reliving the past frame; that is a different practice. Specifically transfer the happy frame from the past into "today". Recall a frame in which you were exceptionally happy and draw it into today's frame.
7. Once you have mastered this level, move to the next. You can then draw in several past frames rather than just one: recall many happy days and bring them all into the frame called "today".
8. You can draw in any frames. Perhaps you have an important meeting today that will determine your promotion, or a crucial date with someone you love, and you feel uncertain and need good fortune. Or there may be another situation requiring luck. Do the same thing: recall a past day when you were extraordinarily lucky and draw it into "today".
9. You can already see that there are no limits. I have given only a few examples, but you can transform today's frame into any kind of frame. If you need greater capacity for work today, do this practice. If you need more charm, presence, sexuality, intelligence, strength or wisdom, do the same. There are no limits.
10. Practise for as long as you feel you need. The time differs for everyone. The longer you practise, the more your life will change, becoming as responsive to you as pliable modelling clay.

Notes

1. Let me repeat the possible mistake: you do not need to enter a past frame and relive it. Your aim is to remember it and transfer its energy into today's frame. Some may not perceive the distinction, so I draw your attention to it.
2. If you need good fortune on a particular day, it is naturally best to practise that morning. You can repeat the practice immediately before the key event.
3. Do not be surprised if your life changes sharply through this practice, becoming happier, luckier and more joyful. But never forget this very important Truth: you are in a film.

© Author: Sergey Veretennikov (Om Shanti)
(Practice given on 10 October 2010.)

Questions and Answers

Q: I cannot remember a single day when I was completely happy. I have none. What should I do?
A: Every person is allotted a certain amount of happiness energy "by default". Everyone must have such days. Recall whatever you can, even dreams. Perhaps you have had wonderfully happy dreams in which you were happier than anyone on Earth. Bring that energy into the frame called "now". Dreams can also be used. Beautiful Beings visit many people in dreams, teaching them or simply bringing joy through their presence. Bring all of this into "now", and it can happen again. If Higher Beings taught you in a dream, they may return to teach and work with you. If you were happy, you can be happy again.

Q: Could all my happiness energy run out, followed by a period of bad luck?
A: No. By "default", I meant the amount of happiness allotted to this life if you do nothing to increase it, as though on autopilot. This practice allows you to fill your entire life, every frame-day, with happiness. Understand that you live neither in the past nor in the future, but only today. By transferring happiness energy into today's frame, you can always be happy, because that energy will always be in the frame called "now". I hope this dispels your doubts.

Q: I have been trying to cure my psoriasis for a long time. A friend gave me a link to this practice. Your website is very good; thank you. I will explore it further. But I have a problem: I have been ill since childhood, so I do not know which "frame" to choose.
A: Choose one in which at least some problem was healed. For example, perhaps you developed an acute respiratory infection and then one morning woke up free of it, or its remaining symptoms disappeared before your eyes. Use that day. There are many possible examples; choose one that fits your situation.

Q: I want to have a child. My life-film has no frame of me as a happy mother. I love children, play with them and care for them, and I am happy in those moments. What should I do? May I use the energy of those frames to bring the birth of my own child closer?
A: As I wrote in the practice description, at an advanced level you can take several frames and insert them into "now". By combining them, you can create something resembling what you desire: a frame of "being with children and happiness", one of "good fortune" and one of "a wish fulfilled", for example.

Q: I found this new practice very interesting, but discovered a problem: I cannot imagine a single happy, positive day. To me, my past is a nightmare whose frames sometimes return unbidden, and I struggle to forget them. My present began only recently, about a year ago, when I happened to find your website.
A: I am very glad the website has helped improve your life. Look further back, into childhood. I am sure you can remember days when you were free of outside bustle and problems, simply happy about some "little thing". Bringing childhood frames into "now" is very good. In childhood, there are as yet no vices or desires that lead to problems. You are pure and innocent; your body and mind are as healthy and full of life energy as possible.

© Author: Sergey Veretennikov (Om Shanti)
(Questions and answers published on 13 October 2010.)