Movie Clips
To support our Healing, Tipping Point Recognition and Coming Home to Self.
Do you have any additional movie suggestions?
Yes Man
(Yes as our nature)
Notice that Self’s nature is a Yes to absolutely everything. In contrast, the nature of parts, is at least a subtle resistance or a No. Jim Carrey’s Yes is from parts. Can you disccern Being Yes from doing Yes. Can you feel your Self’s Yes? You are the Yes Man!
Hook
(Freedom & innocence)
Can you remember your freedom and innocence before the should’s and the parts blended and obscured your true nature? True nature never left. Peter as a forty-something attorney, husband and father forgot. He returned to the Lost Boys in Never land to remember qualities of his intrinsic nature.
I Heart Huckabees
(all is the blanket)
In this scene from a favorite Self-leadership comedy, Dustin Hoffman describes “Once you get the blanket thing you can relax because everything you could ever want or be you already have and are.” Fulfillment is here.
Phantom of the Opera
(The Self & Part duet)
Self as Lover: “I’m here, nothing can harm you, let me be your freedom, let me be your shelter, you are safe, your fears are far behind you, let me lead you from your solitude.” Part as Beloved: “All I want is freedom and a world with no more night, share with me one love one lifetime, hold me, say you love me, promise me that all you say is true.”
Groundhog Day
(Love)
In this final scene of Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character, having explored every option for fulfillment, pleasure and meaning in his never ending day that he could imagine, discovers that the most fulfillment or perhaps only true fulfillment comes from abiding as the Self quality of Love. If you were to experience a Groundhog Day, what’s your movie conclusion?
Star Wars
(what is The Force?)
What is this power, this undiminishable presence, this connectedness, this aliveness, this is-ness? How is it most present in you?
Inside Out
(What are your 5 primary parts?)
In this quintessential IFS movie, Inside Out depicts the human inner world as consisting of five primary parts. If you entered this animated scene, which five parts would best be representative of your inner world? Though Self is absent in Inside Out, how would Self be present in your version? Which character’s inner world would your five parts most resemble?
Good Will Hunting (Discernment)
So much of our difficulty and suffering is not of ours and “it’s not your fault”. If we each could just discern where it’s not ours — rather, in IFS lingo, it’s of a cultural burden, a legacy burden, an unattached burden. Through such discernment, we more easily unblend from the burdens and return to intrinsic natue of peace, love and fulfillment. Burdened parts identification is just innocent confusion. And, “It’s not your fault”.
Lord of the Rings (my precious)
This is a scary 8 seconds. Gollum is possessed by parts or thoughts of desperation, urgency and necessity. When we, our parts, believe we have found what will give us fulfillment, we often develop a singularity of focus. A Gollum aspect might even appear grasping for dear life and fully eclipse our true nature.
Pleasantville
(beauty colorized)
Bud argues his case in court for “You can’t stop something inside of you” as the aha’s pop and the Self quality of beauty appears, we become colorized.
The Matrix & Little Buddha (Clarity)
In both movies, Keanu Rides the “Bike of Being” discerning Self and parts, the sky and the weather, and recognizing All is of Self. Keanu follows the white rabbit, chooses the red pill, doesn’t leave the bliss of Self under the Bodhi tree and trusts his knowing. All is of Self recognition is also highlighted in both movies when “the other” as a perceived threat is realized as inseparable from ourselves, ending the battle between Self and parts and representing the happy ending in returning Home.
Field of Dreams (knowing)
As we hear the whispers of Self qualities, like Ray, at first we often ignore. Eventually, something seems to become compelling. Ray heard: If you build it they will come, Go the distance, and Ease their pain. What whispers from Self do you hear? Like Ray, do your thoughts or protective parts try to convince you to ignore the whispers, to ignore that still small voice? How do parts in others react when you follow the whispers? Is your system like Rays where the whispers become a knowing? Do you have a sense of where the whispers are directing you? What is your Field of Dreams?
The Truman Show (Freedom)
Truman hears “the creator” (perhaps fear internalized as protector parts) who tells him he can’t leave and that he is afraid and belongs here. Truman ultimately responds from knowing, clarity and freedom: “In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night.”
The Wizard of Oz (home)
Dorothy realizes that it had all been a dream and that she is home. As long as we have parts that have not been welcomed home, the parts will project drama outside of us and our lives will mirror whatever lack remains within our burdened or unintegrated parts. In reality, we never left. Self is here now. There is no place like home.
The Princess Bride (Devotion To Self -“As You Wish”)
Rumi’s poetry is almost only of love, devotion and surrender to the Beloved (Self). The Princess Bride is the same. Wesley’s life is a poem of love, devotion and surrender to the Beloved (Self), in the form of romantic love towards Buttercup, essentially expressed in “As you wish”. Can you find romantic love as devotion to Self? Can you find your “As you wish” in your love, devotion and surrender to Self?
A Beautiful Mind (Discerning Me from parts/voices)
Genius John Nash developed the ability to discern himself from his overwhelming inner voices/parts. Dick Schwartz has spoken of the movie’s ending as tragic because John “succeeds” by ignoring, tuning out or re-exiling his loud “problematic” parts. This re-exiling occurred because a part, rather than Self, responded to the loud parts. If instead Self responded, there would be an eventual unconditional welcoming home of all arising parts.
Twilight Zone Movie (Returning To Essence)
When given the choice, all the seniors except one choose to remain identified as their parts. One chooses essential timeless essence, which in the magical scene returns his body to it’s childhood form, but it’s not about the body or youth. He exclaims tally-ho and embraces life/essence/innocence/pure you.
The Abyss (knowing)
For years this clip represented the greatest fear of my protective parts. Bud tries to inhale liquid but his protective parts freak out grasping for air until ultimately they realize that they can breathe the liquid. Similarly, our parts desperately grasp for fulfillment through acquiring objects, experiences, relationships and substances until they realize that fulfillment is intrinsically here in or as Self.
Avatar (Nature)
Jake is innocently confused in viewing other as enemy. Neytiri responds calling him a baby. In Effortless IFS, Nature is a Self quality expressed in flavors such as harmony, contentedness and peace. Eventually, Jake becomes intimate with nature or perhaps as nature.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
(precious essence)
What does Mr Rodgers represent to you? For me, he sees and celebrates Self or precious essence in every one of us. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Powder (Humanity)
Celebrating true nature, our Self, as simply our essential humanity and highlighting the sometimes difficulties in being this innocent beauty within a world of protective parts.
August Rush (the music)
August found his way home through the music. August’s last line: “The music is all around us — all you have to do is listen.” What is your music? What quality of Self is your ever-present pointer, foundation or home?
Beauty And The Beast (Falling In Love With)
Which of your parts appear as a beast? Is this “falling in love with” limited to our beloveds, our children and those closest to us? Or may we, as Dick Schwartz demonstrates within his own system, fall in love with our parts, what Dick calls our sacred little beings?
Moulin Rouge (Love as True Nature )
Do you ever feel like Christian in your earnest devotion to and pursuit of our nature of love, connectedness and unity?
The Empire Strikes Back
(Fear vs Love)
Yoda helps Luke discern fear from love or IFS burdens from Self. What best helps you discern burdens from Self?
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (Embodying Lightness Of Being)
What is life like when Self, Beingness or Self-Leadership has shifted from the background to foreground in you? For some of us, this art film may provides a glimpse of that beauty.
Every Day (Shared Self/Same Same)
In this love story, one teenager wakes up in a different teenage body every day and his/her lover is in love with him/her regardless of the form of the day. The movie is made for teenagers yet the seeing through the ever-changing forms can be a beautiful celebration of our Shared Self or Shared Being.
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory ("I Want It Now")
Does this annoying scene of fixation with “I Want it Now” within the magic and fulfillment of Wonka’s chocolate factory depict for you parts in their extreme wanting in contrast to Self’s fulfilment here and now? Where do you “Want it Now” even when it is here? How would you react to Wonka’s reply, you can’t have one? Can you hear that as a Zen pointer?
City Of Angels (Preciousness Of Life)
This scene is about the inverse of most our other selected scenes: Rather than focusing on the love of or aspiration for Self or ever-present Being, this scene is a celebration of our humanity. The character was formerly an angel, abiding 100% as Being, and chose to “fall” into humanity and subsequently became hedonist of this human life experience. Ultimately, is it not a balance or both/and of being Self and fully enjoying our precous human lifetime? Some speakers call this full both/and “Zorba the Budda”.
Jesus Revolution (Love)
Ministering to the marginalized (Self to our wounded parts): “If you feel you are misunderstood and judged, you will find forgiveness and freedom right here”. Welcome home. What do your parts long for and are they being met?
The Lion King (Perfect Harmony)
Are nature and perfect harmony outside of us or a quality of Self? Is perfect harmony limited to brief glimpses? “Can you feel the love tonight, the peace the evening brings? The world for once in perfect harmony with all its living things. Can you feel the love tonight? You needn’t look to far. Love is where we are.”
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
(Beauty, Nature, Love)
Saint Francis opens perhaps to Self as beauty, nature and love. Can you touch such knowing? When you do, is there a tension with parts?
Aladdin
(Celebrating Our Parts)
The Genie (Robbin Williams) celebrates the magnificence of the parts of Prince Ali. As Self realizes more space within us, Self’s nature seems to be to see, love and celebrate each and every part. Is it a possibility to fall in love with all of us, with all of our parts… “You are going to love this guy!”
The Kid (Healing & Updating)
40-year-old meets his 10-year-old self and realizes the opportunity to heal and unburden while falling in love with the innocence of it all. This is often considered a quintessential IFS movie.
What Dreams May Come
(Fulfillment & suffering)
Experience “heaven” as fulfillment and “hell” as being blended with a part, wtih a “resistance to what is” part obscuring everything. Experience love’s devotion that would join you in “hell” to help you remember Self. How deeply into “hell” will your parts allow you to travel to meet, welcome, or love other parts that are still stuck in fear and attachment. What’s your capacity to be intimate in the darkness, the fear, the “hell” with your parts that need you?
Shallow Hal
(Beauty)
Shallow Hal was a imprisoned by some culturally defined intepretations of beauty. Accordingly, his life or search for fulfillment was a tragic joke until Tony Robbins freed some of his seeing. Beauty became much more accessible. Love became more accessible. How are we “Shallow_____” limited by our culture’s beauty myths or what we call in IFS legacy burdens? What do you see here as Shallow Sid?
ET
(Longing For Home)
Innocence supporting and celebrating the longing to return home. “ET phone home”, how does the longing for home arise in you? Even from those parts of us that might seem alient or distorted, can we see their innocence and their longing for home?
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Flow)
Do you know the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull? Jonathan appeared to be an ordinary gull, but as other gulls lived to eat, all that mattered to Jonathan was flight… to realize the essence of being a gull that of perfect flight…perfection. At first, it was to fly higher and faster. Then flight transcended height and speed. What’s next for you in realizing your perfection? If wanting more of Jonathan, for full audiobook read by author Richard Bach: https://youtu.be/ozcsD_3D8Ag or a movie set to Neil Diamond soundtrack see on YouTube from which this video is taken.
Mary Poppins
(Playful Love)
Are your parts met by unconditional love? For your young parts,who in the world best represented unconditional love that they could fully receive? Do your parts have an external Mary Poppins? What’s most like Mary Poppins that’s here now as the playful, free, love as Self of your nature?
The Sphere
(inside becomes outside)
This science fiction adventure depicts the inner world creating an external experience. The fear of our parts can create quite a scary experience.
Avatar: The Way Of Water
(Nature & Unity)
“The way of water has no beginning and no end. The sea is around you and in you. The sea is your home before your birth and after your death. The sea gives, and the sea takes. Water connects all things – life to death and darkness to light.” You are nature/water/unity.
The Thin Red Line (Beauty In Horror)
Once we fully and truly realize that there are no bad parts, that all our parts and thoughts are intrinsically innocent, what we see inside seems to project to the outside. External horror can be one of the greatest challenges. Can you glimpse the beauty? What do you see?
Baraka
(Beauty & Wholeness)
For some, Baraka succeeds in zooming us out where from a distance we can glimplse more of the intrinsic beauty and wholeness of our earth and human experience.
The Thirteenth Floor (Clarity)
(Clip can be plot spoiler) This virtual reality movie discerns reality from experience in seeing that nothing is real which is another way of saying everything is real.
Caddyshack
(Playful Lightness Of Being)
Be the ball Danny. Na na na na na na na.
The Legend Of Bagger Vance (Flow/Harmony)
Why do we enjoy playing or watching sports? Is it for the Self qualities of flow, ease, the zone, harmony, or grace? In this scene, parts surrender with soft eyes to the field, to the harmony, to authenticity, to the one and to feeling it with our hands not our head. Do you experience flow and harmony in a sport?
Hair
(Freedom & Love)
Hair is a favorite musical and selected because it celebrates themes of the liberal 60’s which can translate into channels for qualities of Self such as authenticity, love, freedom, oneness and flow. Can you equally find freedom and love in the conservative version of this musical? Can we equally find in Joe Biden and Donald Trump a devotion to freedom and love?
The Sound Of Music (Music Always Here)
Are the hills alive? Can you hear the sound of music? Here, now, everywhere?