What if the whole world that you experience is just the most elaborate movie set that you could ever imagine? This might sound completely crazy, but it’s worth thinking it through. What if everybody you see, including the version of you that you see in the mirror, is an actor on the movie set while simultaneously writing the script? What if you’re simply making “Your World Movie” and forgotten that’s what you’re doing? It’s interesting to explore this some more.
Imagine that we’re all acting in this elaborate movie set but that we get to write our lines just as we say them. The tool that we use to direct our World Movie is our mind because it’s the mind that has thoughts that lead to words and actions. And what do you need to act in a movie apart from words, actions and a movie set? Of course, every other actor in the movie has a mind too and they are deciding their words and actions just as they say and do them too, so this is a weird kind of movie, like a monumental ad-lib creation.
In our World Movie, we don’t have any control on what the other actors say and do (except for the ways we might influence their thoughts and decisions), but we have full control (even if it might not feel like it) over our thoughts, words and actions. So it’s very easy for other actors to say and do things we don’t like but, in spite of that, we can always consider what we want to write into the movie.
That’s an interesting way to consider our life on Earth. At every moment we can consciously decide what we want to write into our World Movie. We don’t have to believe that all the world is against us and we have no choice in what happens. At every moment, we can stop and decide what we want to put out there. That’s an amazing power.
Parallel World Movies
The world is full of actors, getting close to 8 billion human versions of actors right now. Most of these actors will never play a direct part in your World Movie. Also, there are many private parts of your world movie that no other actor is involved in, so what you’re acting in is a special version of the World Movie that revolves just around you. Every actor is creating their own special version. Of course, other actors come in and out of your movie and you go in and out of others movies all the time. There’s a lot of overlap and there is certainly influence of one movie on others, but you are creating your own special version of the World Movie. When I think this way, I can imagine a store somewhere where someone could choose which version of the World Movie to buy, based around which individual.
Your World Movie Set
Earlier, it was noted that in order to have a World Movie we need to have a movie set. Obviously the set is the Earth, or the universe. What an elaborate movie set! So complicated, so detailed, so beautiful and so powerful. It was already here when we were introduced to create our own World Movie, but just imagine who put this set in place. What a powerful thought. It must have been a very powerful force that organised the movie set… much more powerful than we can imagine.
Who are you
One nice thing about this thought experiment of the creation of your World Movie is that we can perceive that the body, and the person we see as us in this world, is just a stage presence. It isn’t real. It’s just props, and its lines and actions and just for the purpose of the screenplay. In normal movies, the real actor is not the character seen on the screen. The real us are different people, not the characters we’re playing. What we do and say in the screenplay has no real effect, it’s just a screenplay.
Not getting trapped
So this life experience we’re having could be some weird sort of semi-personal movie. What would happen if we forget that we were just playing in a movie and we started to identify with the character we’re playing. Maybe the movie would never end, or only end with our demise. In such a case, it would be important to regather the awareness that we’re just acting in this World Movie. Who is it that could remind us of this fact? Maybe the power that made the movie set for us originally?
What do we want to write into our World Movie?
Once we notice that we’re just acting in this World Movie, we can ask ourselves what do we want to put into the movie? Who do we want to be? How do we want to affect the other actors? Nothing is set in stone as the play is written as we go.
What we want most deeply is peace, love and joy. I think this is true for everyone if we go deeply enough into our desires, everything leads to a wish for peace, love and joy. So, if we become aware that we’re just acting in this World Movie and the only way we can affect what happens in the movie is through the words and actions we decide to write into it, and what we truly want is peace, love and joy, what do we do? The only thing we can do is use our words and actions to bring peace, love and joy into the movie.
It would be insane to demand from others that they give you peace, love and joy while act differently and against those principles. Once you realise that peace, love and joy are the key things to experience, you’re ultimate power is to be able to bring them to the movie. At the same time, you bring them and give them to the movie as well as receive them and enjoy them as part of the movie.
Why might this movie set be here?
This is the big question. Why? Why would such an elaborate movie set be here? What purpose could it possible have? Here’s one thought…
The power that created the movie set must have more power than we could possibly comprehend. We know that our deepest desires are always for peace, love and joy. Imagine that the power that created the set is pure peace, love and joy. But then, the movie set it has created contains not-peace, not-love and not-joy! Why would pure peace, love and joy create something that’s not-peace, not-love and not-joy and then have us try to seek peace, love and joy in that movie? Maybe the power is experimenting or pretending. The power experiences nothing but its pure peace, love and joy constantly, which must be a greater thing than we can imagine, but maybe the power wants to experience what it’s like to not have these things and then appreciate how great they are by finding them.
You could say that the power is dreaming or imagining and this has lead to the universe and everyone and everything we experience in it. It’s a world with lots of individuals and lots of opportunity for being not peaceful, not loving and not joyous. We don’t know that it’s just like a big pretend movie set. The power enjoys our movies. It enjoys the experience of struggle and being lost, knowing that the end of the film will always be a return to pure peace, love and joy (see the work of Joseph Campbell and his Hero’s Journey) However, the power doesn’t like us getting too lost so it leaves clues and hints for us along the way, trying to get our attention so that we can realise what’s going on and make our way back home.
What to do now?
Let’s say you accept this theory as approximately true. I’m sure it’s not perfectly true but it’s a good thought process to help us realise approximately what’s going on. If it’s true, what should we do?
Consciously bring peace, love and joy to the world. Every word and action we make can bring more of these things into the world. We have that power (and wow, what a power that is).
Along the way, we can enjoy all the experiences the world has to offer. They’re all new. Something new to have fun with like Virtual Reality. But none of these experiences really mean anything. Our destiny is always to return to the power. There’s nowhere else to go.
Related Links – Your World Movie
- Finding Joe – life’s adventure – this is a movie that takes at interesting look at the work of Joseph Campbell and his study of the common theme behind all myths in the world
- The thought experiment I’ve explored above makes me think of a few movies like The Truman Show, The Matrix, Total Recall and Inception. All of these movies explore the concept that what we consider to be the real world might not be real and, how would we be able to tell what’s real and what’s not. It’s a pretty deep question to ask what is reality and does it matter? At the beginning of the Total Recall trailer, the words are;
- “Your mind, it is the centre of your life. It is everything you hear, everything you see, everything you feel. It is everything you are.”
- That’s an amazing thing to consider. Everything that we perceive is filtered by our mind.
- What’s your end game?
- Where are my emotions happening?
- Only oneness can survive
- A little story about a golden child
- The Story of the Golden Buddha
Found this interesting quote in my daily calendar…