Killing Buddha – A Film by Betsy Chasse

Published on Jun 2, 2012 by CrowdfundingLive

http://crowdfundinglive.com/projects/cfl/killing-buddha-the-film-1/

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Betsy Chasse, writer, director and producer of "What the Bleep Do We Know!?" is crowdfunding her second independent film, "Killing Buddha." To help fund her new film, visit the link above.

Embrace Nothing. If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha … only live your life as it is, not bound to anything. – Linji, 9th century Founder Linji school of Chán Buddhism

By participating in this project at any level you’re invited to join a special group – come along as we make the film via a special website just for you! Watch videos from the set, see behind the scenes footage, chat online with the cast and the film makers and so much more! Once you join in the funding you’re a part of the team!


While distributing What The Bleep Do We Know?! I was honored to be able to travel the world to speak about my experience making “Bleep.” The most common question people asked me at the end of my talks was, “ How did a broke, out of work, spiritually unconscious, material Valley Girl who was into sex, tequila and expensive shoes end up being a writer, director and producer of What the Bleep Do We Know!?”

Sometimes it takes the most unlikely of people in the most unusual circumstances to create something that touches the world like “Bleep” did. The story I told was so funny and resonated with so many people I decided to write a film about it, a comedy called Killing Buddha.

FILM SYNOPSIS

When life is in chaos we are forced to change, a lesson successful film producer Sara Wells reluctantly learns when her seemingly perfect life comes crashing down. Desperate for work, she takes on a documentary project about spirituality and the new thought movement. Will “Killing Buddha” mark her triumphant return to the riches she thinks her life once contained? Or will she and her mismatched crew of seekers, believers and cynics find that ultimately it’s not what you have and what you believe in, but who you ultimately become that counts?

Think “Bridget Jones gets hired to shoot a documentary about finding the meaning of life.”
Funny and light-hearted, Killing Buddha is a mainstream comedy that will include interviews with some of the greatest spiritual teachers, such as Deepak Chopra, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and many others interacting with the actors as they shoot the “film within the film.”

Why do I want to make the film? 

Killing Buddha is a reminder that everything we seek can be found within ourselves. Hence the title which prompts us to let go of all our attachments to the people, things and events in our lives that we put on pedestals thinking they can bring us happiness instead of finding happiness within. Really, it’s not the car, the boyfriend, the seminar, or even the guru — it’s you that makes the difference!

Simple, right? Yeah, so simple I and everybody else I know seem to keep forgetting it! So often in our search for meaningful answers we get lost in an overwhelming sea of choices, teachers, and so many messages, we forget our-selves. We give our power away to the latest fad, the newest idea (or even the oldest idea) we’ve just heard. Sometimes these beliefs and people take over and we lose track of our inner guidance.

Which is why I think it’s so important to get a funny reminder out there for all the people who’ve been on the spiritual path forever, as well as all the newbies asking the questions (maybe for the first time), “What does my life mean? Why am I here? And how can I be happy?”

Why help me fund this film?

Why should I make another film about “spirituality”? I mean, doesn’t everybody know this already? Well, firstly, this isn’t just another talking heads documentary about quantum physics (been there- done that!) It’s a back-to-the-basics narrative comedy that happens to have a spiritual message and includes some great minds helping our characters find it.

So, even if you know that happiness lies within, it’ll be funny to see all the ways we can forget! I’m sure many of you will relate to some of the incredible experiences our characters find themselves in. And consider this – there are literally millions of people in the world who could really use this message (specially in these times) who probably aren’t willing to watch films about quantum physics!

Or hey, you can just laugh at me via the characters in the movie! If there’s anything I learned making “BLEEP” it’s that films where people espouse great one-line quotes about the meaning of life are great and have their place. But sometimes, more than anything else, we all just need a good laugh. And when you’re laughing you’re more likely to learn something new. So, whatever reasons you need to join me in making this film – lets just do it!

Other Ways You Can Help

I am so grateful to all of you who supported “What the BLEEP.” It was because of your support that our little movie made such a global impact. And in those days we didn’t have social networking!
So, even if you can’t help fund this film, you can help spread the word! Please share this campaign on your social network, with your friends and anyone you think might want to be a part of bringing this simple, but important message to as many people as possible.
It all starts with you.


Thank you

What the Bleep Do We Know!?

See also Wikipedia on What the Bleep Do We Know!?

See also The Journey to Wild Divine (Game)

Note: The Wikipedia article on this film is blurred and abounds of Cartesian assumptions and beliefs that are sold as 'scientific core statements' and veiled behind 'solid scientific' language. The same cynical and reductionist worldview is pervading the Wikipedia contribution on Dr. Emoto's water research. The Bleep is not pseudo-science. Wikipedia is in those contributions that are marked with, and suffering from, a fearful and claustrophobic reductionism that is labeled 'correct science'. As an overall impression, I find that this whole Wikipedia project is in last resort concerned about political correctness, and not scientific accuracy and holistic insight.

See also the Bleep Web Site with many further references and access to the online communities.

Copyright © 2006 Twentieth Century Fox LLC
Preview by Pierre F. Walter
Click to play

Buy DVD
Producers: William Arntz, Betsy Chasse
Directors: William Arntz, Mark Vincente, Betsy Chasse
Screenwriters: William Arntz, Betsy Chasse

Buy DVD Set

DVD Review
   by Pierre F. Walter

I shall discuss both volumes here in one (short) review, and this for good reason. The Rabbit Hole Edition or Quantum Edition is for the most part a summary and expansion of the Bleep - with countless scenes repeated from the first edition, but cut in a different way. In effect, the cut is highly interesting; it seems to me that part of the convincing magic of these films is the cut. This is especially true for the Quantum Edition, 3rd DVD.

Each of the three DVDs contains elements of the Bleep, scenes that are repeated in part, not in full, so as to fuse them together with new elements. This is highly educative, and it seems to me that indeed, the intention of the producers here was one of explication, one of condensation and one of still more detailed explanation of the main theme of the whole business: creating our own reality and what it means. The little critter, as it were, is set out most in detail in the 3rd and last DVD of the Quantum Edition, which is in my opinion the best and most genuine of all.

Dr. Fred Alan Wolf

The basic message of the extended movie is that science is eminently spiritual and holistic, and cannot be in our days be defined as Cartesian as it was during the past two hundred fifty years. These scientists and authors interviewed in the movie unanimously vote for a New Science that is beyond reductionism and human in that it encompasses the spiritual dimension of the human being in every sense of the word, and in that it is systemic and shows the hidden connections of life and living, within the greater metaverse. I regret only that Ervin Laszlo was not interviewed for the movie!

Thereby, the movie actually goes one step ahead, showing that science is only one tool of many, and that the other essential tool is awareness building, the developing of human consciousness as a primary tool to gain an objectivized view of reality that is beyond personal frenzies and emotional addiction. The merit of the movie is to exhibit scientific and complexity of living in a way even intelligent lay people, policy makers and non-scientists can understand.

For my comprehension level, nothing is left open, except the essential truth that creating your reality does not mean you are going to be happy and rewarded for it.

I think that most people don’t even get through to this insight, because of their Cartesian doubts and their reductionist mindset. They doubt the whole process and that’s why, I guess, so much is repeated over and over in the Rabbit Hole Edition.

In fact, I work since now fifteen years with the scientific prayer method that is an integral part of Divine Science, as I write more about it on Science and Divination and in my reviews of some of Dr. Murphy’s books.

When you consider that this method was first invented by Ernest Holmes in 1927, and expanded and commercialized in the 1960s, by Dr. Joseph Murphy and Catherine Ponder, then you are not actually so surprised about the Bleep and Rabbit Hole films. They tell you a familiar reality. What I am saying is thus that they don’t tell something entirely new, but they tell it in a very good, pedagogically sound and, as it were, educational way. And they back this truth up with a lot of scientific data that confirms that we are indeed the creators of our reality, and co-creators with the Divine. And all this is done in a way that is also aesthetically very beautiful, more beautiful than anything I have seen of this kind before. It's a wonderful fusion of truth with art, if I may say so.

Dr. William A. Tiller

However, there is more to creating your own reality, and what I am going to say now was not said in any way in the movie. Why? Because it's not so wonderful after all, and not so positive. But life is not always positive, as movies are. This secret is that when you have created a reality, be it art or whatever you manifest as reality in your life, that does not mean that others will recognize it as such, it does not even mean that they are going to notice it, let alone appreciate it. It doesn’t mean you will be rewarded for it. It doesn’t mean that you are going to ’make money’ with it. It can mean that you are still more alone than before, still more isolated and still more rejected ..., so the outcome is not entirely predictable.

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