The Vital Veda Podcast: Ayurveda | Holistic Health | Cosmic and Natural Law
The Vital Veda Podcast is a show for people who intend to live the most evolutionary life at their highest potential, while experiencing total wellness and bliss.
Our host Dylan Smith brings you the most inspiring interviews with thought leaders and experts from around the world in the fields of health, spirituality, personal development and natural law.
Dylan Smith is an Ayurvedic practitioner, holistic health educator and exponent of Vedic wisdom. He is devoted to learning, sharing and radiating this profound knowledge for everyone to utilise and enjoy.
Enliven your natural capability to tune into your own body and mind, awaken your instincts and engage in life in a frictionless flow.
Find out more at www.vitalveda.com.au
The Vital Veda Podcast: Ayurveda | Holistic Health | Cosmic and Natural Law
Super-Human Intuition: Reading & Cycling Blindfolded, Mental Health Evolution | Michael Collins #131
On this podcast episode I had the pleasure of sitting down with Emmy-nominated documentarist, Michael Collins, to discuss his upcoming film release, ”Intuition” showcasing one set of techniques to unlock the hidden potential within children, by means of a simple yet highly sophisticated practice (sadhana).
On this episode we delve into the fascinating stories of children who have gone through this ‘intuition process', as well as discuss the huge implications and impact this will have on society.
IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
🪽 The Art Of Living Intuition Course
🪽 Michael's Involvement Documenting "The Intuition Process"
🪽 What Is Intuition On A Profound Spiritual Level
🪽 The Studies Being Done On The Intuition Process
🪽 How Children Are Manifesting Diverse "Superhuman" Capabilities
🪽 The Deeper Transformative Impact Of This Spiritual Practice & Consciousness Expansion
ABOUT OUR GUEST: Michael Collins
Michael Collins is a multiple-time Emmy® Award-nominated filmmaker and the founder of Thoughtful Robot, a film production company dedicated to sharing impactful stories that inspire change and connection.
As a respected figure in the film industry, Michael served as the President of the Jury at the Flahertiana International Film Festival in Perm, Russia, in September 2018. He also participated as a jury member at the Telluride Mountainfilm festival in May 2019, where his film had previously won the Moving Mountains Award three years earlier. Michael's work continues to make a significant impact, earning critical acclaim and recognition for its compelling narratives and societal contributions.
RESOURCES:
Michael's Instagram Account (@mjc_collins) - HERE
Tax-Deductible donation page for the film - HERE
-
The Intuition Process by The Art of Living - HERE
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this fortnight in the vital rate of podcast. When you lean in and you start to investigate, you realize this is something big. I'm with one of the kids and they're helping to find a missing person and I watch them for the first time, you know, get the information and sit there and close their eyes and then come back with something which turns out to be true. And so when I sit there and I interview one of them, it's like you can feel that you're in the presence of someone really extraordinary. You know, it's like being in the presence of a saint or something like that, but yet you're in front of a child. What I was seeing in these young people was, yes, a demonstration that they can read with a blindfold, but they were moving through the world in such a connected way. They were like blossoming as their best, most beautiful self.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Vital Vader Show. I'm your host, dylan Smith. I'm an ayurvedic practitioner and holistic health educator who is very, very excited to share with you this episode, and I truly mean it. This is something that blew my mind when I heard about it. I'm interviewing Michael Collins, who's a four times Emmy Award nominee. He's been a filmmaker for over 20 years and he has Oreo has done humanitarian films, but this film he's created is about intuition, and it is based on an incredible technique taught to children which basically enables them to read blindfolded, ride motorcycles, ride bicycles, through turns and pathways blindfolded. They can detail what someone's wearing. They're even helping police find lost people through their intuition. So this podcast episode is about Michael making a film on this with the intention to spread the fact that everyone has intuition within them, and particularly children. With their innocence, they can enliven it, which is not only to read blindfolded and find missing children, but really to enhance mental health and mental harmony. So this is a really incredible episode. I witnessed this intuition technique first hand in person, and there's other ways that you can do that, so I invited you to listen on and learn more about this. So enjoy this episode, or whatever you think. Let us know. If you enjoy what you hear on the Vital Veda podcast, please subscribe. That will really mean a lot to me. It means I can interview other wonderful guests and keep expanding and I generally will commit to keep expanding if you reciprocate that energy that we put into the Vital Veda podcast and I hope you enjoy this. There's so many other episodes on this show, part of the lineage that Michael is from and where this technique came from. You can hear an episode with Swami Purnachay Tanya and that is about Japa Mantra, sound Energy, which is one of the biggest popular episodes on the Vital Veda podcast, and you can see that with Swami Purnachay Tanya, all on Japa, on repetition of Mantra and of the mechanics of sound and rites of passage. Within the Vedic tradition. A really phenomenal. Swamiji is one of the prominent exemplars of Vedic knowledge within the art of living movement and this movement is involved with this intuition project. So enjoy the show.
Speaker 2:Okay, michael, myself and a group of people who were introduced to the intuition process had our minds blown, and I really mean that. We saw children reading blindfolded in live. This is live demonstration. We saw them detailing what the audience was wearing and then in the film we saw children, finding lost children on the other side of the planet, coloring in pictures, riding bicycles through pathways and turns, blindfolded and blind children as well, being able to activate their senses and sense of vision, for example, and it sparked I can really speak for me and my family who are there, and friends.
Speaker 2:Like we had this incredible fire of inspiration. We're exposed to a lot of meditation, yoga, self-evolving practices, but this gave this big fire of confidence in the future generations, that the children of today can evolve their mental state and health and emotional health to a state of peace and balance and, as a result, I truly believe something like this and looking at the children as well will significantly contribute to collective peace and harmony. And yeah, it's something I've always looked forward to. It was like, when I see the world as it is said, I'm like, well, at least we got the next generation, because you can, even without an intuition process and even without it, the children are in line. So thanks for joining and thanks for all the work you do.
Speaker 1:Everything you just said. I'm getting goosebumps. As you're saying it, it's like you could be speaking my mind when I saw it for the first time, like why did I pick up the camera? Why did we choose to make this film? It's that spark that caused you to invite me here today to inquire more. That inspiration, that potential, that hope that you see in this, that awe, that wonder. It's catalyzing and I think for me that was the same thing. I saw this, I'm moving similar circles as you and all of a sudden I see these kids up on stages giving demonstrations and I'm like wait a second, these aren't parlor tricks, what's going on here? And when you lean in and you start to inquire and you start to investigate, you realize this is something big and this is worth. This is worth our time, this is worth sharing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so we're going to. This seems a bit mystical of what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yes, Basically enhancing the intuition from children and just to demonstrate that, we were watching live demonstrations of children, blindfolded, reading, talking about the UNO card numbers and colors in front of them, etc. So just to give a background of you you're a filmmaker. You're a four-time Emmy award nominee. Some of the films you did your first documentary, save Someone's Life. It was to reveal the innocence of someone on death row in the Philippines. It was, you say, 100% innocent or it was yeah. And you've done forest protectors in the Philippines introducing breath work or pranae arm to veterans. And you just told me about a rock band in Beirut, right with a lead gay singer and talking about, I think about their struggles of homosexuality in a country like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So all humanitarian films and documentaries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mostly social issue driven stories, but character driven Like. For me it's like the issue is probably what inspires me to pick up the camera, but it's the people that make a film. You know, it's that heart connection, I think, that that make us, at the end of the film, want to then do something.
Speaker 2:So with the current film, you work on intuition process or intuition you've called it as a title for now. I've seen snippets of it. You've showed demonstrations and what's the character driven there, because it seems pretty diverse.
Speaker 1:I mean, you focus on some characters, but yeah, this is very different from anything I've ever done. You know, I'll be honest about that. And this I'm working on with a dear friend of mine who's a brilliant filmmaker and cinematographer named Benjamin Henertig. And also I have another filmmaking partner in India, deep D Gupta, who's again a brilliant director herself and the first female director of photography in India who's.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:I couldn't be more lucky to have such brilliant collaborators. But this approach is different for me. Right, it's not just an issue that we're trying to expose some injustice. I think for me, being in the documentary industry for the past 20 years, you see so much of what's wrong with the world and we need to, we need to point the camera at this stuff so that we can see the human consequences of choices that are being made unconscious choices that are being made and then we can take some kind of corrective action together. And all the films that I make have a big impact campaign attached to them. So we're not only just showing the film, we're then saying how do we harness the energy at the end of this and turn it into change in the world? And we partner with all kinds of organizations and we figure out the best way to do that. What I started to realize is that all of these films are really kind of putting band-aids on issues that are going on in the world. Right, it feels like triage, important, right.
Speaker 1:But when I was exposed to these young people, in between my films I go off on meditation retreats, I go into silence and I'm like, all right, I need to recharge, recover and then come back out and in that space I was exposed to some of these young people who were giving a demonstration like the one that you recently saw. They were up on stage with the blindfold on. That looks like parlor tricks. And then I thought, wow, what's going on behind this? What's going on beyond the blindfold is getting to the root. It's going so much deeper.
Speaker 1:I think we're all on this path of self-inquiry like how can I be the best version of myself? How can I realize myself? How can I move through the world in a way that's more connected and giving and service-oriented and creative and all of these things? And what I was seeing in these young people was, yes, a demonstration that they can read with a blindfold Most of them have vision, so they don't need to but they were moving through the world in such a connected way. They were blossoming as their best, most beautiful self at such a young age and it was manifesting as courage and confidence and empathy and joy and wisdom and innocence. It was everything. And I thought, if there is a way to share that story with more people, if we could create a film that catalyzes more families, more children getting access to that kind of education, that's worth my time.
Speaker 2:And I love how you were speaking well at the event we went to which introduced the intuition process, a lot of the questions and I'm sure you get a lot because you're traveling around the world promoting this and starting to generate interest in it is what about adults?
Speaker 2:Because we're seeing these children develop these. Look, some people would say, see these divine human capabilities, but really it's like so fundamental and so easily accessible for this. Children and you were just speaking about you finding your piece and retreats and I think I know, for example, having just recently a child it's the children are such a strong catalyst to shifting the collective consciousness and it's like when a children's born, like in the case of our family, like the amount of blessings and harmony he has brought and things which he has done, which is beyond our comprehension and beyond intellectual analysis of how these things have changed in the family dynamics and certain things that have come into our lives. So I think and in the film you can see, like different families that you're focusing on one in Melbourne, australia, yeah, that one especially is in my mind like what it does to the parents. So I think that's such a I think, to not get people think. Well, it seems too not enough inclusive. But I think, absolutely no. I think the children are like the key, the core of society.
Speaker 1:I mean just what you said. The families that I've spent time with, the whole family shifts, everyone benefits and it's not like, oh, this kid has this ability and they're living this joyful, connected, like free life and all the rest of us are bound by our ignorance. It's not that at all it's.
Speaker 1:It uplifts everyone the family, the parents start to look to the kid for counsel, you know, and they trust them. And it goes beyond. It reaches out into the community. There's just an ease and a peace that comes. And I'll also say that I'm somewhere all intuitive.
Speaker 1:I think it's easier to see it when a young person puts on a blindfold and starts reading something you're like okay they're very clearly, something is activated in them and maybe I can't do that particular thing, but I also think it's giving all of us permission to name something that there's, you know, been a bit of a stigma around. Unless you're in the quote unquote spiritual space, we don't really, we're not really allowed to have these conversations, and that's also part of the goal of this is really destigmatizing our ability as a community to talk about things from, you know, more of a consciousness based experience of the world, more of a spiritual experience, which I think is our true nature, as opposed to a materialist view, and having these young people all around us automatically shifts that for all of us.
Speaker 2:It's just, I guess, bring more context into the listeners. So the course at the moment consists of they call a 42 day course and that's two days of learning a technique, and this is for children age five to 17. And there's some difference with between children five and seven, is that right? And then eight to 17.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they the course. You're right, it's, it's two days. The juniors course is five to seven and their practice is a little bit shorter and it's just more play involved, and then eight to 17. And over two days they have, you know, and the shape of this course can and will change. It's new, but for the most part it's two, three hour sessions where the kids are doing some body movements, some breath work, guided meditation and and then they're just taught to essentially catch their first thought.
Speaker 1:They're really taught to be able to discern the sound of their intuition versus their intellect, and the blindfold just becomes a tool, you know. So I've watched this now I've been in this in the room many, many times continues to blow my mind, even though I've seen it over and over again. They put on a blindfold, they hand the kid a card with a picture of something on it and they say what's your? Catch your first thought. And when they do that and the kid gets it, then they pick up the blindfold. It's also helping them build their own confidence. So it's just starting to strengthen muscles I would say that are really already there.
Speaker 2:Wonderful, so we'll talk more about the. Vedic view and of intuition. But where did this technique come from?
Speaker 1:You know. So I'm a part of a community called the art of living. I have a guru. His name is Guru Dev Shri, shri Ravi Shankar. He's a spiritual teacher. You know, based in India, but he's all over the world.
Speaker 2:He travels like 300 days of the year.
Speaker 1:So 21 years ago, I started my journey. You know, I was an insomniac and heard about this breath-based meditation practice that helped you sleep. I just went and took it and it's a long story, but pretty much I realized okay, I'm home, this is, this works for me, I need this in my life. Like and I've continued so that teacher, who you know, who founded the art of living, cognized there's like 50-something courses, many of them for adults, some for children, and he's the one that put forth this course in 2015 in India and then started bringing it to the rest of the world in around 2018, 2019. But, of course, the pandemic, you know, pumped the brakes on that for a couple of years.
Speaker 2:So 130,000 people children have learned this? Yes, and my question, going back to what we were discussing before, was so these children do this two-day course and they practice for 40 days, right, I believe. Five to seven years old, it's once a day, and then eight to 17, they have twice a day practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're given an app with a little. With a little, you know, it's kind of playful and easy and they just follow it along Because I think I've, you know, had learned different meditation techniques, and particularly with one tradition and it's all.
Speaker 2:And I learned meditation when I was six I think that was a bit young at the time. I think usually they teach it from seven or eight. But I had a brain injury. So the teacher said, yes, you can, he should teach him and he'll help him. And it did. I didn't have any issues with falling off a tree on the concrete Wow. But I never really practiced it consistently at all.
Speaker 2:It was there. It was wonderful. It was like a certain mantra which I had. Just well, I would pick up without thinking to do it whenever I was stressed as a child. But I love the app, I think because we know kids are addicted to screens, so I think there's a bit of a it's like, oh, hold on, is that a good thing for them to do? But ultimately it's gonna get them twice a day doing this, so that must create efficacy.
Speaker 1:And it's like for the little ones it's, I don't know, eight minutes or seven minutes or something, and for the older kids it's around 20. And yeah. I mean, I think what I've seen now is the reason why they give them 40 days is because then they'll really get to experience the benefits of it, right? I mean immediately, these kids are showing that they can do this on the first and second day, which?
Speaker 2:always blows my mind.
Speaker 1:But it's that consistency of practice that helps it really get ingrained and helps them to build the habit. And then these young people want to do it on their own often because they realize that, oh wow, I'm developing a photographic memory, it's making my studies much easier, I have time now to play, to explore talents and creative endeavors and whatever.
Speaker 2:So they really feel the benefits of it and yeah, the 10-year-old boy who was demonstrating for us at that event. I think someone asked a question what's been your favorite part of? And he said for my soccer, for my football, I can. And he described an event where he could read what the goalkeeper was gonna do and create success there.
Speaker 1:I've heard that from a lot of kids. I'm a tennis player. I met in India. Same thing she's like I can anticipate you know which way to move. And again, when you watch great athletes who are in the zone, they're doing that stuff right, like all this stuff exists. It's not like if you haven't gone through this particular course you don't have access to it. What we're realizing is that we all have it and, yes, here's one technique to really strengthen it, and the 40 days.
Speaker 2:In OVEDA is also said. It's like we call it a mandala, so it's that really holistic amount of time which can create patterns, whether it's neural patterns or physiological patterns, but I think that's great. How many people continue like kids will continue doing that beyond 48? Because there's Rahul, I think. What's his name? Rahul? I can't remember the boy's name, but the 10 year old boy. He seemed like he was going beyond 40 days and he started using it again because it would help him sleep Well.
Speaker 1:so Listen, I'm not sure, because you know as much as I am a part of the organization. That's why I have access. That's why I have sort of inside access to this and they trust me in the room. I'm not a teacher for this program and I don't really have all the statistics, but it seems like all of the kids who practice get it. It's not like one of the questions that comes up like is this just for a few special kids who are inclined towards this anyway? And the answer is no, it's for everyone. If you do the practice, you know this is science, you know these are techniques and anyone who does the practice will experience the benefits of them.
Speaker 2:I've actually seen videos of this guru. Who same thing, I'm pretty sure in the US they went around and doing kind of like conventions and demonstrating these children blindfolded doing things like this. So yeah, it's obviously certain. Of course Sri Sri Ravi Shankar cognized this technique, but there's of course it came from somewhere else and all came from traditions before and before. So I think it's-.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I've heard Sri Sri speak about it like quote the is it the Upanishads or something like that where there's something you know, you can see without the eyes, you can hear without the ears, you can feel without the body, you know. So, basically, that any one of the senses can do the job of the other senses, basically saying we have a sixth sense that can do all of them. And that becomes so self-evident when you walk into a room full of blind kids and suddenly they're reading without Braille. That was the first shoot.
Speaker 2:That I did in.
Speaker 1:India. We showed up, benjamin and I, and we go out to this blind school and listen, I had already seen it so many times and you're always a skeptic and it's kind of healthy. But also our brains are just so wired I'm thinking, all right, this is really pushing it. A room full of blind kids who were born blind and they were getting it and they're like, they're reading, they're seeing color and they have no reference for color, you know. So it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it could have also been maybe yoga sutras or Patanjali. That has Sri Sri every spoken about that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think it's referenced in all of them in different ways.
Speaker 2:Because there's a word, pratipa, like Purusha, pratipa is one of the sutras and basically the sutras of Patanjali. There's a section where it's to develop cities, develop divine human capabilities, and one of them is the sixth sense you also Pragya, pragya yoga is.
Speaker 1:you know, that was the name of this originally. It's a Sanskrit name for it, and when they were just doing it in India and they've switched it to call it intuition process. For those of us who don't speak fluent, Sanskrit. But I think that maybe came from Patanjali Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Do you think this would have worked 30 years ago? This technique Would have worked, yeah, at the scale that it's working, because, of course, this was practiced for many times. But I don't know, I feel your film is still, like, very much in the process of opening and I don't know, like I said earlier, like I feel this I don't know if I said it, but I feel this has such a potential to explode. That's why, when I was there, I was so excited. It's like because, yes, you get skeptics and you get a lot of majority of the people in this world are not into meditation, and especially in the West, like, but when you see a kid reading blindfolded, like you can't doubt that. I had friends there, and he was like, yeah, but not everyone's gonna do it. I'm like how can you not? How can that not? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but how can that not trigger curiosity and also trigger action to inquire about?
Speaker 1:incorporating this and that's the goal of the film. That's why we feel like we need to make this film is to spark that in people, to give them that experience of awe and wonder and to address the skepticism right I mean. Part of the reason why I came to Australia for this trip is the University of New South Wales is doing a controlled study, independent. They're bringing in these kids and they're putting them in a room with no teachers, no parents, nothing, their own blindfolds surrounding them with GoPro cameras and showing this is really happening. They're hoping to get some insights as to how it's happening, what's going on in the brain. I don't know what they're gonna discover there, but at the very least, I think it's pretty clear from what we've both seen that they're gonna discover that this is actually happening and as far as this happening, could this have been possible 30 years ago, I think, as you know, I think knowledge comes at the right time, at the right moment, when it's needed, and I think the world is in such a unique moment right now where there's so much focus on a materialist worldview and we see that it's leading us to such self-destruction on an individual level, on a global level, whether it's climate, or our mental health or war, how we're handling things.
Speaker 1:And I think, in response to that, of course, this knowledge that's that's innate in all of us is coming back. And you know, you could see there's lots of other paths, lots of other knowledge systems that are finding their way back into the mainstream, because that's what we need to survive right now. So I think it's the perfect moment. I think people are hungry for it, they're open to it, and those who are skeptical and afraid when they see something that doesn't make sense to the worldview that they're so attached to well, you know, what can we do?
Speaker 1:We have to have compassion for them, I suppose.
Speaker 2:It'll be interesting to see the reactions from certain people. Like that. It can almost trigger people. I see it as like it purifies them because they have this potentially narrow worldview and see something like that. It's like no, this can't be possible. How can these kids do that? And it purifies them. It's like what they see is creating this shift within them, but they don't wanna open to that. So have you had any pushback? I know you haven't even released.
Speaker 1:Well, at some of the demos there might be one person in the room who gets freaked out and sometimes it comes across as like wait a second. And then they go up and they're like wait, are there holes in that blindfold? What's going on? And you know these are kids, right? So the teachers have to be kind of protective, but there's inevitably every once in a while there's someone who is so freaked out by it and that's what it is.
Speaker 1:I noticed that it's driven by fear. It's not just that they think someone's trying to dupe them and like pull one over, like if this was a conspiracy, what it's? 130,000 people across 60 countries, like we've got all these kids to pretend that they're doing this. That's ridiculous. But for some reason, some people, it freaks them out and they'll voice it. We had a demo. They had a demo in New York a few days ago. I was speaking to Mala, who's one of the head teachers in the world. She's in New York right now and they're starting to do courses there. So, like what you experienced, they just did one out there. Someone got up in the back of the room, his face was turning bright red and he said if you can prove that this is true, scientifically, I'll give you half a million dollars. And she said he was pacing the back of the room and he was turning red and getting really angry and she diffused it.
Speaker 2:But it's triggering for some people. Yeah, it's gonna be exciting to see what comes up. Tell us the story about this neuroscientist from UNSW, because he's in the film. He looks like he's a young neuroscientist. Yeah, how does he get into it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, joel Pearson is one of the world kind of renowned scientists. He's a neuroscientist, a psychologist, but his focus is on intuition. Largely he focuses on aphantasia, which has to do with mental imaging, which also makes him uniquely qualified for this. So I might be saying it wrong, I think it's aphantasia is. I don't know if you've heard of this phenomenon where people who are unable to visualize things right, who? So they've developed a lot of research and techniques and studies around mental imaging.
Speaker 1:He's developed a lot around intuition, mostly in adults, I think is what he's studied so far, and I believe he has a book that's coming out any minute now. That's all about intuition. So, as the art of living and people like that, we're saying there needs to be more science on this. We understand that this is an easy self for anyone who has a spiritual practice, who meditates, all that kind of stuff. You don't have to convince them. But there's a lot more people who want some scientific evidence and so there are studies happening all over the world, honestly.
Speaker 1:But I would say we chose to focus on this one because he has such an impeccable reputation, because he's so uniquely qualified. So just recently he's brought in I know he has now funding, I think, for six months or one year worth, of a study where they're gonna bring in a series of kids, bring them into the lab. He's got a whole team around him that he's just organized. That's part of the reason. When I came here, I met with the team. They came out and they went to one of these demos themselves to help them as they're figuring out what kind of what they're getting themselves into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, I don't know. I would say it's called the Future Mind Labs. It's at the University of New South Wales, led by Joel Pearson, and people can go and look at his past work there.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what was his reaction?
Speaker 1:through doing similar I mean kind of similar work and seeing this, you know, I think, like any good scientist, he's very measured with how much he's sharing.
Speaker 1:So I think everyone should have a bit of healthy skepticism, but I think obviously he believes that there's something there worth inquiring. He's seeing something there. You know, all of us like you sitting here, me doing the work that I do at pick up my camera our time and our energy is so valuable how we choose to spend it. I think you know, especially when we wanna be sharing things with the world that we think are gonna be uplifting and of service. I think he's chosen to focus on this for a reason. He sees some potential there that the research that he's doing could catalyze a whole body of further research that will just go more and more, and the implications of that, I think, are beyond our comprehension right now what they would have to do with mental health care, technology so many different things when we start to make this shift collectively from an understanding of the world through more of a consciousness-based perspective as opposed to, like you know, materialist-based.
Speaker 1:The ripple effects of that are so massive.
Speaker 2:What are some of the most amazing things you've seen with this process?
Speaker 1:Gosh, you know, some of them are very sort of tangible and right in front of you. When I'm with one of the kids and they're helping to find a missing person somewhere, and I watch them for the first time, you know, get the information and sit there and close their eyes and then come back with something which turns out to be true. But there's something in that that's even more amazing, right? Because some of this stuff it can be a little bit, you know, for I'm sitting with a 13-year-old girl who is helping to find a missing person. The conditions under which that person is missing might be a little bit scary.
Speaker 1:She comes out the other side, she comes back, she says the information and then she turns and there's a smile and it's like she's right back to her center, she's in the present moment, she's joking with me, with my boom operator, all that kind of stuff, and it's like that is also amazing to me that these kids, they're demonstrating a depth of wisdom too, like that ability just to come back to the moment over and over and over again, anchored in their being while doing all this. Yeah, and so when I sit there and I interview one of them, you know when we do that, my filmmaking partners and I. It's like you can feel that you're in the presence of someone really extraordinary. You know it's like being in the presence of a saint or something like that, but yet you're in front of a child and they're joking with you. And then the next breath they're sharing with you like deep wisdom, like it's very matter of fact.
Speaker 2:Children are definitely like that and I think having a film around it and having a research project around it it really just enhances that attention, really, that we should be having with children. I think a lot of children have that saintly qualities and that deep wisdom, but we're just not prioritizing attention and energy towards it. So I think it's a beautiful thing. It's interesting how we need something like a film or for a technique or something that's creating us to be more curious and open to the fact that these children are, in line, highly intuitive beings that have amazing things to share.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like we value so much intellectual. You know, there's like there's so many smart people in the world who are in positions of leadership, but there's not a lot of wise people, and I think that's what makes me so excited about this, this project.
Speaker 2:How is it for teenagers? You mentioned she was that this woman was 13. Because I was thinking you know from what I feel, and I think a lot of people would guess it's like it's only for kids and because us adults were too polluted, it's going to be too much purification needed in order to activate.
Speaker 1:A lot more unlearning to do.
Speaker 2:So yeah, like you know from the film, I didn't see that many teenagers, so I mean I haven't seen the whole film.
Speaker 1:No, there are. You know, what's really funny is we were filming some courses in Sydney back in, like I don't know, march or April this year, and these are kids whose parents are not meditators. They're from different communities. There was a 16 year old girl who's in the class and of course in my mind too I'm thinking, oh, I really hope she gets it. I think that's the younger kids that really seem to get it a lot easier. She's sitting there, she has the blindfold on, the card is put in her hand, she gets it right, she takes off the blindfold and she herself is skeptical.
Speaker 2:She's like how did I get that?
Speaker 1:Like, that doesn't make any sense. And then she puts it on and she does it again. She calls you know. So they call over the main teacher. She's like how am I getting this? I don't understand. Her intellect was was at odds with her experience. Wow, and that's it. I think when we get more accustomed to trusting our experience and not just relying on our intellect and reason, we're all going to benefit from that a lot more.
Speaker 2:There's this city, in Yogosutras of Patanjali. He says Budi, parusha, khyati, and it's khyati is like where the word cut comes from, and it's cutting between the Budi, which is the intellect, and the Parusha, which is that deep knowing. And yeah, just to cut that distinction between intellect and deep knowing Absolutely when these. Another thing which gets brought up is like they have to make a pledge before they do this course, particularly for the parents At the end of the course, yeah, at the end of the course.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, one thing. Okay, we'll talk about the pledge. So this is things like I will not forge signatures, I will not violate others privacy, I will not predict lottery numbers or make bets, and for me, I really get this in that if they were to try this, something like that, it wouldn't work because it's like violating laws of nature. And I think because a big question which came up in the session and I was like how do you regulate these negative energies and intentions? It will be interesting when the film comes out and when this starts reaching the masses which I really think it will how much greedy or greed or manipulation tries to come into it and see what that creates within the movement.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you answered it in your introduction to this was like it will self-regulate, it is. It's not the kids that this pledges for, it's for the parents.
Speaker 2:Yes, they put their hand over their heart.
Speaker 1:They're like, like you said, I won't expose people's secrets, I won't crack pass codes, I won't go gamble. What I will do is I'll use this for the benefit of society, to enhance my education, you know, and all these good things, but it's they introduced this. This wasn't a part of it originally, because some parents were pressuring kids to do things and the kids were feeling really uncomfortable and going to the teachers. So I don't really think it's going to be a problem. I think, like you said, if it's not used in a way that is aligned, that it just kind of fades. It doesn't work as well. So I think it's going to take care of itself. Honestly.
Speaker 2:Another thing I want to bring up is and it's it's nothing much but I just want to mention because it came up with me and I'm sure come with us is the showing off aspect. It's like this fine balance of you guys demonstrating this, going from city to city, showing the bits of the film, showing the live demo, like definitely that's valuable, that is what gets people through the door to be more inquired, but it's interesting balance.
Speaker 1:Well, that's also part of the pledge is I will not show off my abilities. And again, it is second nature to these kids. They don't want to and I think that they realize that it's a precious gift and that there's something special, but they don't feel like it's. When you're in that space, when your intuition is working and you're living from that place. You aren't coming from a place of that small minded places. I need to put other people down by showing something off. So I think they hold it close as a, as a precious gift. And when they do go around and they're asked to give a demo, they see that as seva, they see that as service. Yeah Cause.
Speaker 2:I was thinking more from the point of, like the art of living movement showing off, yeah, or the teachers showing off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like that I think it comes back to this is a gift. If more people did this, you know, collectively we would have more peace in the world. So we're going to share it. Like, why am I making a film about it, right? It's not just to make people feel bad who aren't intuitive, it's to say that we're capable of so much that this is our potential.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beautiful, and I wanted to also that we've spoken a lot about the demos and things, but it really comes down to, as you said, like the mental health, the confidence that's part of the film is talking about the mental health epidemic and, certainly with children, is increasing suicides, especially with teenagers, and all this.
Speaker 2:So I just want to briefly mention, like about just the Vedic view of intuition. I want to just talk, so what I've learned and what I've experienced. This you can call it the sixth sense or it's ultimately a combination of the five senses, refined and being able to. It's like do you possess this sensory perception that gives you access to a fine level of feeling within yourself? So it's, it's this mix of, yes, the senses, and you don't necessarily have to have a physical expression like, for example, a blind person refining those and and it's like the seeds of where those senses come from, because the sense we have these different coaches in the yoga Vedantic system, like the sensory, sensory body, the pranayama, so the body of Prana, and it's really going through to the subtle bodies and like the more the experience and it's like, yeah, this, this is the, these are the true servants of our consciousness, these, these subtle perceptions. Ultimately it's all perception.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just that deepest expression of our self, right, the body, the breath like you said, sort of that bridge between the most gross element and then the mind and the intellect, and the memory and the ego. But the self is that deepest layer of us and if the more we have access to that, the more we can move from that place, the more, like you're saying, our causal body, our subtle body is, is experiencing the world from that place, which from the outside would appear that our sixth sense is is totally engaged.
Speaker 2:Great. So there's a slight sense of urgency with this film. How can people get involved in? Yeah, and will you in so many ways they can get involved?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, thank you for asking that. It is one of those films where I feel like the faster we get it out there the better. As with every independent film that we make, what I do is I get together a team who really believes in it. We tend to pull out our credit cards, even though we always say we're never gonna do that again, and we start filming a little bit to do a proof of concept, like what you saw was a work in progress Trailer that we're using to raise funds. We were really lucky, especially here in Australia. We're partnered with documentary Australia. They're a foundation here, so we can receive donations and they're all tax deductible through them, and we've gotten some from my tree foundation, from another a number of individuals and foundations here that have gotten us to this point. But, as Most independent artists or filmmakers know, you're, you're being creative and you're simultaneously filling out grant applications and Basically just looking for funding. So if people want to get involved and be a part of this project, they could go to, they could go to my website, which is the production company's thoughtful robotcom, and Then they can inquire there. There are ways that they can get involved and, of course, if people want to Put some energy behind this and support this. We're obviously very grateful for it. We really need it. And then we'll give them, you know, we'll bring them as part of the team and we'll share early cuts of the film with them. We'll give them access to things early. We'll make sure that we want to build community around this. So it's really, you know, the way that I look at it. It's an invitation for us all to do something great together in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in my early days of making films, I had that sort of scarcity mentality where I was going around because you were constantly fundraising. It's what you're doing until you have a broadcaster that's on board that just fills out the rest of the budget. You're going around with what feels like a begging bull and I no longer you know, and trying to be in that place. I'm seeing it as like I'm not making this. I'm just showing up, right, like this film wants to be made, it wants to come through. Yeah, and when I saw it, just like you, I'm like all right, what can I do? How can I play my part? So I'm playing my part. I'm showing up every day, as are all the other people on my team, and we just invite you know anyone else who wants to play their part, to bring this out into the world.
Speaker 1:We're gonna build a whole universe around this. We want to build a whole impact campaign. Short-form content. You know, a 90-minute film is a great starting point but, as you can see, it's gonna spark so much it's like well, I want to dig more into the science. How is this affecting the education system? You know so many different things. Well, we'd love to have the means and the community and a platform to just continue storytelling and just creating spaces for people to connect in ways that feel most relevant for them and Through film.
Speaker 2:I like there's not many more effective media methods than film. I think, like I'm not that much into film I don't watch a lot of films, yeah, but it's I even like. One example that sticks with me is we saw a film called birth time. It's an Australian film. Do you know about it? It's a. It's essentially sharing about the Australian birth system and about home births, and it's it was quite successful and just Just film as a media, and you obviously know this very well. But for me, is who you know not into media that much? Anyway, it it really has the power to really get people taking action on these, on these methods, on these paths. So I think it really is a humanitarian Action for someone to get involved in a film that is doing something like this. Yeah, that media.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I appreciate that. I think that's why I've been so committed to this medium for so many years is because there's a human connection element to it. Right, and and you asked in the beginning, how is this like the other ones? And I said it's a bit different, but still at the center of it are going to be people. This isn't going to be just about a phenomenon and a bunch of talking heads. We're gonna go on journeys with different people.
Speaker 1:Like you mentioned, there's a young young girl here in Australia who's experiencing a lot of anxiety, things like that. She goes through the course and we see Beyond the blindfold how this is helping in so many different ways from her perspective, her parents. You talked about the mental health crisis that young people are experiencing in the suicide rate. You know we really get to experience that. You know, in the US, the Surgeon General there has made this his mission. He's trying to explain to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there used to be a label on the cigarettes like that's gonna give you lung cancer. Now we need that on social media. We need to really take a look at what is happening to our youth right now and seeing this as a Solution to some of that. So following different people on their journeys, a teacher from the US who's on a journey, who's inspired because she lost her sister at a young age and she feels if my sister had this when she was younger, she would have had that inner voice and that inner knowing to make different decisions and wouldn't have ended up in the Situations that led to her death. So they're motivated by different things, but we're gonna be interweaving all of these stories and, interestingly, a lot of them will come together here in Australia around the science, because they're all showing up at the lab.
Speaker 2:To go through that process. So, and if people want to not wait for the film, or I mean is remind me a website, Thoughtful robot comm, so my production company's name is thoughtful robot, so can they see any snippets of yes on that website?
Speaker 1:Yeah, by the time this comes out, we'll have a public teaser. Okay, great. And again, like I said, for those who want to get involved a little bit further, of course we'll share sample scenes, we'll share things works in progress, as we're doing it behind the scenes, and those who want to even get involved Get their kids to potentially one of these courses was the best way to hundred percent.
Speaker 1:There's a, there's a website called intuition project calm and I think that's a good hub that will lead people to get more information just about this whole thing and if they want to get their kids on the courses, they can see where they're happening. They're happening all over the world. There's a lot in US, in India, in Australia, but if they find that there's not one on the calendar I think in their local area, but they express some interest will bring a teacher out there and they'll make sure that it happens.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Couple questions just to end on yourself. What's your daily routine, michael? What are you doing the morning?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, most days when I'm home you know, in my home I travel a lot, right, so there are different versions of this, but I found that my morning practice has grown a bit over the years.
Speaker 1:So I typically get up, take a shower, have some water and then I'll do a bit of yoga Just to loosen my body, have back issues I've always had back issues so I do about 10 15 minutes worth of yoga and then I do something called the Siddhasin Kriya, which is a breath-based meditation practice that I learned through the art of living and it's some pranayams and like a rhythmic.
Speaker 1:It's a purifying technique ultimately, but it's also meditative and that itself is sort of a complete technique. But Some years after I learned that I learned a month for a base meditation practice that I do. So I do the Siddhasin Kriya for about 20 minutes and then I couple that with a mantra based meditation and and these days I've, you know, like I said, over the years I've spent a lot of time in India, I've been on my own journey and dug into some other practices, so I I Went through a ceremony called Upanayanam and I, you know, was initiated into the Gayatri mantra, maybe about 12 years ago, and so part of my morning routine is also doing a little Water puja around that and then I chant the Gayatri about. You know, I do it that 108 times, which is another 15 minutes or so.
Speaker 1:So, on a good day, my my practice is about 90 minutes and then, but my non negotiable is about 25 minutes, just getting in the Siddhasin Kriya Right and do you have a favorite film or something that can, doesn't have to be favorite?
Speaker 2:It's something that comes to mind that oh man, this you know.
Speaker 1:As a filmmaker, I need to have this answer. In my, my brain it, like it, purges things.
Speaker 1:I'll just tell you my favorite films, a couple that really stick out because the Oscar nominations just came out. I Take a lot of inspiration actually from fiction, film and from books and from poetry, and you know that typically is what is Behind the inspiration or research on any of my projects, to my favorite films from last year. One of them is called past lives and one of them was called all of us strangers, and I think that they represent what I aspire to do and it's harder, I think, a little bit with documentary filmmaking is they really get to that internal space, like you were talking about, that subtle space which Is what it means to be human. You know so it's your, your spending time in the world of these main characters, their emotional Kind of beings. You just feel like you're engulfed in it in a way that only film can allow. So I would say Past lives, all of us strangers are two of my favorite recent films I highly recommend, if people can see them, beautiful.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks for coming, michael, and yeah, just put everything in the show notes. Resources will be there. Amazing, check it out, get deep into it.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for having me. I don't it's the first time I've done this, so it's really great I appreciate all the all the great questions Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. Remember to subscribe to support this and if you're looking for more podcast episodes to listen, to hit up that episode with Swami Purnashe Tanya, episode 1, 0, 2 on the vital beta podcast, japa Mantra, sound energy, rights of passage and expert guidance and there are so many other podcast episodes on this show and explore the field of consciousness, spirituality, health and enjoy.