Okay, I admit it: for a moment, they had me too.

For a moment, they had me buy into the false belief that an actor’s success equalled the attainment of fame, status, and money.

For a moment, I bought into the idea that successful creative expression meant doing talk shows and red carpets and private jetting to exotic settings to work with top directors on blockbuster movies.

Truthfully, those were by far never my internal driving factors to want to dedicate my life to the craft, but the bombardment of Hollywood brainwash imagery seeped into my subconscious.

I noticed that every time I watched a popular movie or television show or listened to commercial music, it would make me feel like I was lacking in some form.

I soon discovered that the media’s main purpose was to put us into a serious state of dissatisfaction— with ourselves and with our lives—so that we reach outside for worth and so that they can profit from our low self-esteem.

Working as a professional actor in the entertainment industry, I found the whole process of casting to be a soulless experience, where incredible artists were minimized to numbers and nothing mattered but famous faces and making more money.

Auditioning performers in the industry are made to feel replaceable, disposable, and disempowered.

The industry feeds off of our need to constantly prove ourselves to others whom we mentally decorate with some invisible power over us and our fates.

We end up being forced to constantly beg for external validation and permission to perform, while comparing and competing with other creatives. On top of that, for those of us who are not white males, our opportunities for creative fulfillment are even more limited by discrimination.

Personally, I banged my head against the wall in terms of ethnicity. Being of mixed ethnic background and looking vaguely like a bit of everything (but mainly Hispanic), there was either no work for me or I was embarrassingly typecast.

As a woman, I was either required to speak dotingly about a man or negatively about another woman—and that is as deep as the conversation would ever go.

And let’s not even get into the extreme hypersexualization and exploitation of the female body in media. None of these factors of the reality of entertainment business quite matched the soulful reason why I chose to dedicate my life to storytelling.

I figured that if I felt this way, there must be many other performers who feel exactly the same and yearn for something different.

I started thinking, “What if those low frequencies that the media sends out were instead powerful waves of enlightenment fueled with the intention of nurturing the soul?”

What if the entertainment industry was driven by a mission of sharing sound and story to aid our self-realization and spiritual journey?

What if we had collectives of conscious performers creating theatrical healing experiences accessible for all people?

What if everything we interacted with (think: billboards, commercials, car radio, television, movies, music, theater) had the intention of raising our frequency and aligning us with our highest self and life purpose so we can all together cocreate a better world?

Seriously—what would the world look like?

How would we all feel about ourselves, about each other, about life, about our true nature, and purpose of being here if this had been the only message sent out to us since we were born? We can only imagine.

I believe in the harmonious unification of creative expression and spiritual practice for performers, where performance is a form of meditation and the stage is a sacred space.

I believe in a conscious alternative for those who are tired of Disney commercials and want to talk about quantum consciousness, about the fabric of reality, about the interconnectedness of all things. I believe we have the voice to fill the void for this awakening generation that is surrounded by mindless beats and meaningless words.

When we go back to the ancient ritualistic roots of sound and storytelling, we find that it was intended as a powerful, unifying, and inspirational tool for connection.

Storytelling is essential for the human soul; the sole way we give meaning to our experiences is through stories.

Stories help us to make sense of the world and our place in it; they enhance our sense of self and our sense of something greater than us. Stories supply the symbology that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those distractions  and fantasies that tend to tie it back. We need stories as effective spiritual aid.

Instead of wasting our precious energy on trying to squeeze into a shallow framework, which cannot offer us lasting fulfillment and which doesn’t align with our deepest truths, artistry, principles, beliefs, or dreams—why not create conscious alternatives?

Let’s create true art and offer enlightenment, empowerment, and healing to the masses. Let’s create transcendental theatrical healing experiences with the power to catalyze spiritual awakening and growth.

Let’s crack the hold that Hollywood has on us “dependent” performers and form a movement—a grassroots revolution to use our art to heal, empower, uplift, unite, and ascend.

 

Author: Giulia Eve Flores
Image: Author’s Own
Editor: Sara Kärpänen
Copy editor: Travis May