Updates

7/13/05
As I write this, I am near to signing a contract with Films Media Group, the oldest and largest company that markets to educational institutions and libraries. Although "In Another Life" has not yet found a home with the PBS stations (except for KBDI in Denver), nor with the Wisdom Channel (which accepted it and then changed their minds), nor with the public except for a handful of people per month, it seems to have found a home in academia, or at least a certain percentage of academia. My thanks to Paul Clemens, publisher of Blue Dolphin Publishing, for his suggestion to approach this market.

Since "In Another Life" was broadcast in January 2003, I have had no more than seven, and sometimes as little as three, orders per month for the VHS tape or DVD at $25/each. Meanwhile, website hits have gone from about 15 per day to the current steady rate of about 70 per day. Which means that people have been enjoying the free information, and that's good. I want people who might not be able to afford to purchase the documentary to be able to get all the information. However, the documentary is better-designed than the website to reach out to people and immerse them in a topic that is new to them. It wasn't intended to "preach to the choir."

The reaction from PBS stations has been interesting. It has ranged from an assessment that the program was not professional enough, to reactions to the topic itself, that it was "pseudo-science." Perhaps many of the technical objections were really veiled objections to the topic as well. I have never hidden the fact that this is an independently-produced film, done on an extremely low budget (because no funding sources or individuals saw fit to donate a significant amount of external funding). Actually, that's a little misleading, since I produced it through the resources I had available in my own small company, and with the help of some colleagues. My distributor, Don Shafer, remarked that if a typical documentary costs $100,000 to produce, "In Another Life" looks like a $70,000 film--i.e., still pretty darned good. However, even if one concludes that it can't stand on its own in competition with PBS documentaries which had serious financial backing, it can certainly stand as an independent film, showcased with other independent films, as one PBS producer suggested to her supervisor. In such a lineup it would compare favorably. (The style may not be trendy, but that's a totally different issue which I've addressed elsewhere on this site.)

Remember Alvin and the Chipmunks, created by David Seville? (Or am I dating myself?) Here's a little tune the Chipmunks are running by David entitled "Mediocre."

Despite the tremendous obstacles I faced producing this program, as in all aspects of life, when I encountered them it often seemed as if there was a hidden reason why the direction I was forced to take turned out for the best. For example, I had to build the film around the interviews rather than the narration as is usually done, because I could not afford to shoot re-enactments, nor to purchase stock footage, nor to pay for illustrations, which would have been necessary to visually cover an hour of narrated script on such an intangible subject.*

However, this method of relying heavily on interviews may actually have been preferrable, because the interviewees themselves are the real tangible evidence for reincarnation. If I show them only briefly, the viewer cannot assess their credibility--in effect, the viewer cannot examine the evidence. Credibility is the crucial issue where presenting reincarnation principles to this society is concerned. When Dr. Ian Stevenson's work is presented, and skeptics cannot find flaws in his work, they sometimes attack his personal and professional credibility. In this documentary, a naturally-skeptical, highly-credentialed journalist tells you he has traveled with Dr. Stevenson on two research expeditions, and reports that Dr. Stevenson was getting the results he claims. Professor Almeder, who speaks next, also knows Dr. Stevenson personally, and vouches for his integrity. So a lot of this documentary is geared toward addressing this issue of credibility.

Perhaps this is why it's appreciated by the academic audience. Not only are the experts some of the top people in the field, but the interviews are presented as evidence. Film buyers were probably not impressed that there was no music bed behind the interviews, for example--but one professor wrote me that his students specifically mentioned they appreciated that I hadn't used it.

I am in a unique position to present an honest, objective case for reincarnation, because I have been practicing strict honesty as a spiritual discipline for over 30 years. This is why the VHS tape and DVD have been priced at $25. However accepted the practice is, I don't agree with the technique of charging "$24.99." The documentary is imbued with this degree of honesty throughout. When, for example, you see a little girl in slow motion turning toward the camera as Carol Bowman's segment is being introduced, this little girl is an old soul who did, in fact, speak to her parents and grandparents of a past life, and when asked, spoke of it very briefly in my presence. So when the narration under that footage refers to American children also having past-life memories, the girl you are seeing did in fact have those memories. Similarly, when host Chris Shaw introduces the piece by describing his own deja-vu experiences, this was not scripted by me. He volunteered this information for the opening.

We have become so jaded by the constant bombardment of hype and dishonesty in this society, that we don't believe anything we hear. I chose to ignore this trend and make everything in my documentary, and in the website, as authentic as possible.

Now, when I sign this contract, copies of "In Another Life" will no longer be available to the public at the retail price in the U.S. and English-speaking Canada, except under certain circumstances, as when the program is broadcast on PBS stations and copies are offered at the end. I am sad that I have to make this trade-off, and I appreciate very much the 3-7 people who have chosen to purchase it each month. I hope they enjoyed it and have found it worthwhile to own a copy. However, if I have to choose, I choose for the documentary to be made available to colleges and libraries, because there it will continue to expose generations of our future leaders to these crucial concepts.

When I was in college, I felt oppressed by the stifling materialism that prevailed in my classes.** Now, in hindsight, I realize what a "snow job" society has done on its young students. You would never know, for example, that civic leaders like Benjamin Franklin believed in reincarnation, nor that practically all of the Romantic poets and Transcendentalists believed in it. You may get a little of Plato's teachings on the subject. You will not be told that it was an integral part of Christianity in the early centuries, and was deliberately removed. You will not be told about Alfred Russel Wallace, who developed a spiritually-based theory of evolution parallel to Charles Darwin's materialistic one. You will not be taught that William James, who has been called the father of modern psychology, was personal friends with Swami Vivekananda (while not accepting all of the latter's ideas, because he wasn't ready for them), and you will not be taught that Carl Jung had his own reincarnation experiences and accepted reincarnation, nor that he was connected with Ramana Maharshi. You will not be taught that some of our greatest physicists, including Einstein and Oppenheimer, studied Eastern philosophy (i.e., not just casually--Oppenheimer learned Sanskrit in order to read the Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu scriptures in their original language). And on and on.

So, I am very pleased that students who are being fed this distorted view, may suddenly encounter an "antidote" to materialism in the form of "In Another Life" in one of their philosophy, religion or psychology classes.

If you want to see "In Another Life," you may want to request it for your local library, or you may wish to write to your local PBS station and request that they broadcast it. If enough people request the program, eventually they will start taking it seriously. Recently, I have been reading a copy of "Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society" by Sylvia Cranston and Carey Williams, which is a wonderful textbook on the subject. I noticed that my copy was from the library of a community college. It looks to be in very good shape, so I thought maybe it had been stolen, and I decided to e-mail the librarian and offer to send it back. As I was writing the e-mail, I noticed the stamp, WITHDRAWN. So, I mentioned that perhaps it had been taken off the shelves and "retired" from the library, and I wrote her that I "hoped it was not because of objections to the content." I have not received a reply to that e-mail...

If anyone has had a nagging question in their minds as to why I maintain this website--if you cynically thought my purpose was to drive sales of the VHS tape and DVD--now you know. I will continue to update and add on to the "In Another Life" supporting website, and I will continue to offer the free streaming video. If anyone wishes to donate to this project, see the comment I've placed at the bottom of the home page by clicking on the "unfolding rose" thumbnail.

In my previous Update of 6/6/05 (linked below) I discussed my discovery of a possible past life of my own, as Matthew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of poet John Greenleaf Whittier. I've included comparison photographs. If anyone has additional information on the life of Matthew Whittier, I'd be very interested to know of it.

You may have seen the bumper sticker, admittedly in very poor taste, which says, "Jesus is coming, and He is pissed!" Well, I have a strong hunch that, as ludicrous as it may sound to you, people like the ancient Celts, the Carthars, and the Romantic writers who have carried the flame of reincarnation in the West throughout history when all else was dark, are back, and they are pissed! Meaning, that they are determined, and they sense that the next order of business is to get these principles of reincarnation back into the mainstream consciousness.

Thanks again to all of the people who have given encouragement to bring this project to the point where "In Another Life" will be made available to colleges, universities and libraries across the U.S. and Canada, and around the world. I hope that, if not now, perhaps when society is ready, it will also see more airtime on PBS or through other venues.

Best regards,

Stephen S., Producer

*Technically, it is possible to use the narration-driven method, even with a sparsity of images, by relying heavily on "b-roll" of interviewees walking, sitting at their desk, standing in place while the camera moves around them in fast-motion, ad nauseum; and then by throwing in every special effect in the book. However, while these artificial methods may be in fashion now, I think they will go out of style in the next few years, and artistically they don't appeal to me. I also don't want "In Another Life" to look dated in the future when the public starts taking reincarnation more seriously and is interested in a program about the pioneers in the field.

**For many years, students have been taught in college that modern science has brought us out of the realm of superstition and into the realm of objective intellectual inquiry. This is only partially correct. Materialistic science was a reaction, and represented a pendulum-swing. It was a reaction against the degradation and distortion of the spiritual perspective. As such, it is subject to its own degradation and distortion, which we are seeing today. For example, we can patronizingly dismiss the idea of nature spirits, believing that we are now enlightened and have explained nature in purely physical terms. What is more likely is that the idea of nature spirits that the scientists were exposed to was a degraded version (because they were not receptive or prepared for hearing the pure teachings) that had degenerated into superstition. For example, a documentarian investigating religions manages to visit with representatives of each religion who match his own level of sincerity and preparation. If he concludes that they are bogus, it is because he is insincere and unprepared, and so becomes attracted to, and attracts, bogus practitioners. There may have been a genuine one in the house next door, but it will never come to his attention. Having proven to himself that religious practitioners are bogus, he will go away satisfied and report that fact to his viewers. People with the same mindset will watch the program and feel that their beliefs are confirmed. But all this has absolutely nothing to do with what's really out there. Similarly, what materialistic science has rejected is the poor knockoffs of the mystical or spiritual world view, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To continue the example, I saw a Nature episode in which a filmmaker was invited to visit a remote tribe in South America. Their shamans had a message for us, the "younger brother," as they called us, that the Guardians were becoming sick (or perhaps the better translation would have been "overwhelmed"), and that nature was in serious jeopardy due to our actions. The narrator tried to act respectful, but since he assumed that the idea of "Guardians" was mere superstition, he could hardly help but be subtley patronizing. But, what if there really are guardians, nature spirits? What if we have lost that whole side of reality, because the teachings degraded into superstitions and myths, full of distortions? What if these people are descended from an older, superior civilization, and retain at least some of that knowledge--in short, what if they really are the elder brother, and we, the younger brother? In the same way, we arrogantly dismiss the mystical viewpoint in all areas of study, when perhaps the only thing we are superior to is the dim, distorted myths that the mystical viewpoint had degenerated into. This would be something like beating up on a baby gorilla, thinking to oneself, "these things are small and helpless, and I am strong." Just wait until the mother gorilla arrives and see how strong you are. Materialistic science is in a similar position when it is condescending toward myths and superstitions that have their origins in real spiritual understanding. It is helpful to understand that the current state of affairs is due in part to the natural tendency for great teachings to decay as people of less mature understanding inherit them, and as charlatans mimic them. Then, there follows an attempt to protect the original teachings, which effort itself falls prey to ignorance and turns into violent suppression. Finally, the whole thing is thrown out. But now we find ourselves sorely lacking the original, pure teachings.

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