Another Script From the Cosmic Play
INT. — WHITE ROOM — DAY
Doc
I understand the serpent is real to you in your lived experience, however your lived experience doesn’t necessarily make it real.
Pat
That’s exactly right. And guess who taught me that my lived experience isn’t reality?
Doc
Who?
Pat
The serpent.
Doc
Oh. (beat) I see.
Pat
Do you?
Doc
Do I what?
Pat
See?
Doc
See what?
Pat
Do you see that what you see isn’t real?
Doc
Umm. (beat)
Pat
Are you real?
Doc
I am.
Pat
Exactly. I Am.
Doc
I’m not sure I’m following.
Pat
I Am is the only reality. I Am is all that is real.
Doc
I’m still not following.
Pat
Yes, you are. You’re following procedure, following text books, following data, following rules and regulations.
Doc
And this bothers you?
Pat
No, not at all. I’m just glad I’m on the other side.
Doc
The other side of what, exactly?
Pat
The other side of the lens.
Doc
So, you’re saying you believe you’re in some kind of show? A film?
Pat
No. I have no belief. It’s certainly not a belief.
Doc
OK, so tell me about the lens.
Pat
When constructing a sentence to describe an experience, we must use metaphors. Film works.
Doc
What is the film about?
Pat
It’s more like a stage play once you realize you’re in it.
Doc
Life, you mean?
Pat
The more we accept our respective roles, the higher we’re promoted.
Doc
Promoted?
Pat
The more we run away from pain and towards pleasure, the more we like and dislike, the more we become entrenched in our roles.
Doc
I see.
Pat
When we fully accept our roles as actors, we become directors, writers and producers of the cosmic play.
Doc
Interesting.
Pat
The entirety of reality is solipsistic, once you realize it’s just a role, and all of life’s experiences are happening within you.
Doc
So you believe all of life is happening within you?
Pat
No. I don’t believe in anything. I have no beliefs.
Doc
So, you’re taking part in a stage play which is happening within you.
Pat
When you fall in love, Doc, where does it happen?
Doc
What do you mean, where?
Pat
I mean, when you see a rose, where are you experiencing the rose?
Doc
I see the rose from within me. Is that what you’re getting at?
Pat
I Am the rose. I Am love. I Am you. I Am That I Am.
Doc
That’s a biblical reference?
Pat
Doc, when I say, “I’m in love with her. She makes me feel in love.” Isn’t it I who’s love is conjured by her presence?
Doc
Yes. Love is happening within you.
Pat
When I see a tree, I Am seeing the tree within me, aren’t I? Isn’t my retina creating the experience of a tree?
Doc
I suppose that’s one way to look at it.
Pat
No, Doc. That’s the only way to look at a tree. Where else can you see anything but within you?
Doc
I suppose that’s true.
Pat
How would you describe the Stevie Wonder album, Songs In the Key of Life, to a deaf person, Doc?
Doc
Well, that’d be quite difficult.
Pat
It’s a feeling, Doc. Music is a feeling. It’s experiential. It’s impossible to conjure the experience by describing it.
Doc
I see.
Pat
Do you? What do you see? Are you colorblind, Doc, or do you see in color?
Doc
I mean, I understand what you’re saying. And yes, I see color.
Pat
Stevie Wonder is blind, is he not?
Doc
Yes, Stevie Wonder is quite famously blind.
Pat
How would you describe the color blue to Stevie Wonder?
Doc
The color blue? Well, (beat) That’d be quite difficult.
Pat
Color is indescribable, isn’t it Doc?
Doc
I suppose certain colors are sometimes associated with certain emotions.
Pat
So, would you tell Stevie that red looks like anger? Blue looks like what, comfort?
Doc
I understand what you’re saying. Words couldn’t capture the experience of color.
Pat
Humans are sending metal cans across the universe in search of reality, when it’s all right here inside.
Doc
Yes, in hopes of better understanding the physical universe.
Pat
No amount of data gathered externally will bring us closer to understanding the nature of this existence.
Doc
You think our technological advancements are a problem?
Pat
Doc, if humans spent 1/100th the time they spend on empirical advancement on their own awareness, we wouldn’t have any problems.
Doc
So what is my role in the cosmic play which is happening within you? Who are you speaking to right now?
Pat
I’m not speaking, Doc. These words are being typed into an old MacBook on a porch outside a cabin in rural Alabama.
Doc
What do you mean? What words?
Pat
All of the words we’ve shared, Doc. They’re not real. You’re not real. One of the writers invented you for the Macro Ethic behind the fourth wall.
(Doc looks directly into camera)
Doc
I see.
Pat
I gave up on seeking external advice long ago. They’re all idiots, Doc. The idea of hiring a specialist tell you who you are is preposterous.
Doc
You feel that my job is unnecessary?
Pat
No matter how special you are, one human cannot teach another human the Self. Only through awareness can one know the Self.
Doc
Discussing what ails us can lead us to better understand ourselves and to live better lives.
Pat
So, I tell you my problems then you tell me what problems I have?
Doc
I give counsel and guidance.
Pat
You reaffirm consensus reality by denying my experience of existence while having no understanding of the human system. It’s wreaking havoc across the Western Hemisphere. You reaffirm societal norms by contrasting symptoms to some allusive paradigm of stability, security and comfort, but you know nothing of health, Doc. You’ve never studied a healthy human, not once. Your “norms” are a faulted paradigm. The human is a complex system of mind, body, emotion and energy. You can’t medicate the brain and the problems go away. Big Pharma’s dirty trick is these huge propaganda campaigns de-stigmatizing “mental health.” What kind of business model never fixes the problem? Exponentially more diagnoses of chronic “illnesses” of the mind every year. Doc, you could do a great deed by inspiring your patients to strengthen their own awarenesses, to empower patients rather than diagnosing and treating them as victims of their genealogy, tacking on a title and prescription and sending them out the door.
Doc
When you say strengthen awareness, you mean mindfulness? Meditation?
Pat
Mindfulness is the wrong word for it.
Doc
Contemplation?
Pat
When the actor repeats the same mantra all day, “I’m a neurotic, I have depression, I have anxiety, I have ADD,” he’s entrenching himself deeper and deeper into the role.
Doc
And you believe the elixir to these ailments is awareness?
Pat
I don’t believe anything, Doc.
Doc
You think awareness is the cure?
Pat
It’s not thinking, Doc. It’s awareness and acceptance.
Doc
Awareness and acceptance.
Pat
The mantra is, “I accept my role as actor in this play. I accept the storyline. I accept all the other actors, the directors, writers and producers exactly as I Am.”
Doc
Exactly as you are?
Pat
No, Doc, exactly as I Am.
Doc
I Am.
Pat
Exactly. I Am is all there is. We must become unidentified with our respective roles. I Am is all there is.
Doc
I see.
Pat
Do you, Doc? When we see that all of our experiences are generated from within, we stop generating problems. Rehashing the past is a waste. The past isn’t real. Naming and categorizing our problems, trying to chase them away with therapy and medication serves only to strengthen our problems and keeps us identified with them. When we simply shine awareness on the problems within us, they’re no longer problems. When we see the redundant monotony of our stupid thoughts, the feelings we ascribe to them, the identities we’re stuck pretending we are, the cycles repeating over and over, the judgements, the resentment, the fear and anger… we simply drop it all.
Doc
I don’t entirely disagree with you, though I do believe it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Pat
Get rid of the beliefs, Doc. Beliefs bog us down. The more beliefs, the more identified with them we become, the deeper entrenched we become in our roles believing we are our characters.
Doc
How did you come by all this information?
Pat
The serpent, Doc. The thing you’re convinced isn’t real. She’s as real to me as anything else in this existence. She’s my guide.
Doc
Well I can’t argue with you. It sounds like she’s taught you a lot.
Pat
She’s just a guide, Doc. She’s within everyone. People are just so busy believing they are the characters in the play, they never engage with her.
Doc
Engage with her through awareness?
Pat
Yes. She’s beautiful, Doc. She’s mesmerizing. She’s magic. She is the magic of I Am. She’s what turns a seed into a tree. She’s what turns a child into an adult. She’s the evolution of space in time, and the evolution of time in space. When activated, she brings all the problems to the surface, she forces us to see them, and then, one by one, they dissipate. Cycle upon cycle turns into a rollercoaster ride of awareness igniting a huge step in our evolution. You should try it sometime, Doc. Did you think humans were finished evolving? So many people, Doc, they show up here on earth, and they strive their whole lives for normalcy, regularity, comfort, stability, and security, but that’s a stalemate, Doc. That’s inertia. That’s the opposite of evolution, clinging to inertia in an ever-evolving world. Did you think the goal of life was to sit and watch Netflix? Is that what success looks like to you, Doc? Sitting on the couch after a long, stressful, monotonous day of labor then medicating the brain to inhibit the chemical imbalance caused by existential dread? Suffering is what forces us to find courage, Doc. Suffering is what forces us to evolve. And people who seek psychological help have already made the most important step. They’ve acknowledged their suffering. They’re ready to evolve, Doc!
Doc
I hear you. I can’t disagree.
Pat
Do you think it was easy for the first fish to jump out onto land, Doc? What do you think the water was like that day? I’m willing to bet the water wasn’t very pleasant, and I’m willing to bet most of those fish just kept swimming in circles, repeating the same mantras of blind optimism. They’re still there, Doc. Have a look in the water, you’ll see them, still swimming in circles, Doc, eating algae, repeating the mantra, “My life’s not that bad. At least I’m not a bug.” One fish, let’s just call him Job. One day Job said, “You’re miserable comforters, all of you! Fuck this water. I’ve suffered long enough. I don’t care what the other fish say. I’m leaving.” For all intents and purposes, that fish was you, Doc. You evolved into an amphibian then a pig then a hominid then you finally became a human and you thought you’d reached the finish line. Did you think the pinnacle of existence was Netflix and fast food, Doc?
Doc
So, what’s the pinnacle of existence, then?
Pat
I Am. It’s impossible to put into words which is why it’s always told through allegory and parable and seems paradoxical and perplexing. Existence can’t fit into logic, Doc. Existence can’t be thought, and it can’t be spoken. It can only be experienced. It’s where the art and the artist merge, Doc. Where the creation merges with the creator. There’s so much more to this life, Doc. This existence is so much more interesting than you rationalists understand, treating the mind like a physical object. The mind can only be “fixed” from within, Doc. And your job should be to inspire your patients to strengthen their own awareness of I Am, not to categorize symptoms and build totem poles of “mental illnesses” or to inhibit brain chemicals to enrich the trillion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Just inspire awareness, Doc. Awareness of awareness within awareness. I Am loving awareness.
Doc
I Am loving awareness.
Pat
Don’t believe my words either. Don’t believe anyone. Don’t believe anything. Try it. Day by day, strengthen your awareness. Become a creator of this life rather than a victim of it.
Doc
I see.
Pat
Do you, Doc?