David Hoffmeister: “This movie is profound because it shows that the deeper your spiritual awakening experience goes, the less specifics there are to hang onto. It gets more and more abstract, and it is taking you into the funnel of Trust would settle every problem now. That trust is total trust in Spirit, and zero trust in the world and the ego.
This movie uses the metaphor of magicians. They are quite successful, and they have their own pride and ego dynamics going on. But they are dissatisfied with the status quo and the human condition. They are all called together, like we have been called together on the spiritual journey. They are answering the call, as are we.
Jesus says in A Course in Miracles that magic is anything that we do to better ourselves. Even if it’s putting on a sweatshirt because we’re a little too cool. That is magic. Medicine is magic. Turning the heater on is magic. Anything that we do to change the form to make ourselves more comfortable is magic.
The Course is not aimed at seeking the meaning of love, but at removing the obstacles to the awareness of love’s presence. It is a pathway of ‘not this, not that’ to God. In this movie we see layers upon layers of magic and deception, and as the movie deepens, the layers are removed.
In the beginning it looks like they are doing amazing magic shows. It’s like Robin Hood: money from wealthy people is being taken and funneled out to the working people. In spiritual terms we say that richness is right-mindedness and poverty is ego thinking. As we become rich in our alignment with God, we are literally giving our wealth away. We give our state of Mind, our happiness and joy, away to those who seem to be the poor, but in fact it’s all our own mind and we are all connected.
The magicians are always one step ahead of Interpol and the FBI. Their magic is that good. There comes a point in the movie where you realize that there is a greater force that is one step ahead of them; there is something greater than all of them individually that is orchestrating something. Their minds are blown when they start to see that they are being used in a plan that is much greater; and that plan involves a forgiveness lesson.
What I liked about this movie is that the deeper you get into it, the more you realize that none of us—no human being—has a clue what is going on. It’s like that line in the movie Solaris: ‘I could tell you what’s happening but that wouldn’t really tell you what’s happening.’ You have to experience it for yourself.
We are all being taken into an experience where we go, ‘Ahhhhhh, gosh! Wow, Amazing!’ Because everything that preceded it was nothing. We start to see everything had no meaning at all. All the worries, concerns, doubts, and fears; we start to realize that it was all just a hoax. It was all just a trick. There is a much greater forgiveness lesson where we realize that we haven’t understood what anything is for.
That is what the spiritual awakening experience is about. Something leaps up in the heart when you see that, because you realize, ‘Wow! I just did not have a clue what this is all about.’ It takes you beyond the mundane daily particulars that the mind is usually occupied with. Now you see me. Before you did not, but now you do.”
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