The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Year-Long Writer Program: Feb 28

I've decided I'm not going to put "Week #" markings on these--people need to start where they start, and there is an unavoidable amount of repeated material, because we are continually cross-referencing a few basic models.  The problem is that the "truth" (whatever that means) of the path of writing cannot really be put into words.  It can be expressed in directed actions: "Write a story a week" but that is because as you write those stories, you will learn things that cannot really be put into language.
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This week, we're going to explore the interactions of the first three chakras--what is called the "Belly Brain."  We have, in the news, what seems a really choice example of corruption on these three levels.  Survival, sex, power. These get so mixed up, so mashed together. One of my reasons for insisting that one should be able to support oneself (and have practical experience of this) before engaging in sexual relations is that confusion is so damned easy.  So--what happens to someone with a wound in chakra #1?  They perceive the entire world as a threat.  All of their personal relationships will be warped by this, and they stay in a perpetual state of emergency.
What about a wound in #2?  We see obesity, sexual promiscuity, inability to distinguish between sex and love, sexual dysfunction or inability to perform, orgasmic dysfunction...
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Hold on.  Here's another thing to look at.  The ability to have a really good rock-the-socks-off orgasm is based on your ability to let go, to let yourself dissolve.  I've known a number of women who had never achieved orgasm, and it seemed to me that they had problems in "letting go" of other aspects of ego as well.  What are the masculine equivilents?  Not sure, and that might be in a blind spot of mine.  Comments would be welcome.
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What about chakra #3?  Power issues?  Obesity in men seems more likely to result from an injury here.  Men who feel ineffectual, insubstantial, can fall victim to this--they build a fortress that becomes a prison.  but attaching ego to bank accounts can be just as damaging.  A need to control, the use of sex as bargaining chip, the confusion of possessions with self-worth...all of these things come together here.  Damage all three of these, and you probably get a street person.  Damage one of the three badly, and you have someone ripe for a co-dependant relationship.  But most of us have damage on one of these three levels.  If we put the time and effort into healing here, we strengthen our root tremendously.
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So...what stories can arise from the interaction of wounds on these levels? And what lessons can we integrate into those stories?  In fact, who can think of a film that deals with these issues?  Sex and power get nicely mixed up in "Wall Street", although the core theme probably deals with confusion around power and heart chakras.  What are some other films that deal with wounds and issues of sex, power, and survival?

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