Transcription
Cinema.
We stopped talking about movies. And I don't know why. I don't know what happened where all of a sudden we just stopped talking about movies—good, bad, or ugly. I want to talk about films. And I want to just mention here, Chad, I'm not a critic. I will not talk about, you know, if a movie is bad.
Yeah, yeah. Like the point that I think that—well, the excitement of speaking to you—is completely like the opposite of that. It's through your lens of how you see movies and what they offer, you know, what they're telling, how they translate to society, how they translate to us as people, the psyche, the world, you know. And they speak to us, don't they?
Movies, like I've been a keen fan of movies all my life, Michael, you know. I used to collect VHS's. I was watching older films before I should, and I could always see something beyond the story itself, you know, that was deeper, that was underlying, something that could touch me. It could change a person. What I love about movie: it heals, you know. You can relate, it can motivate you, you know. And it can change, it can transmute, it can transform.
So, I think that was the excitement because I could see that you could see past and beyond, and it wasn't about whether a film is good or bad. It's what of what's what the story carries, and what the film offers, and what insights and messaging that has in relation to us, the world, absolutely anything.
Stories is what keeps us all together. Stories is story, film, art. Let's specifically talk about movies here. I mean, we can talk about books and TV and everything, but I specifically want to talk about film. Film holds us all together as a culture. Storytelling holds us all together. And the idea that we could all go to a movie theater and experience something and have our emotions kind of pulled out of us, that we could all be sad together, or we could all be happy together, or we could all be scared together.
Yeah.
I love that movie-going experience that we can go to a theater, like when I went to *Terminator 2: Judgement Day*, right? When I saw T2 in the theaters in the early 90s, my mom and dad took me, and I was with my brother. My brother and I were sitting in front, and my parents were behind us. And the idea that you're seeing a war of the machines, you were completely pulled into this theater. You were pulled into the story.
When the T800, when its foot hits the skull, everyone in the theater jumped back. Everyone in the theater went nuts because it's like we all saw that. We all felt that, that we are a part of this futuristic war. Where else can you get that, you know? Where else can you get that feeling that sitting in a movie theater? I sold *Once Upon a Time in Hollywood* with my brother right before the pandemic hit.
We were sitting with a whole packed-out crowd. I'm a huge Tarantino guy. We're sitting, and we were brought back to 1969 Hollywood. We were there witnessing history.
Yeah.
With Rick and with Cliff. We were there. We were sitting. Cliff was going to his house behind the Van NY theater. You got it. You understood it. You felt it. And I'm trying to bring that camaraderie back. I don't know if that's the right word, camaraderie. That kind of "we're all in this together," but camaraderie is like "we're in this together," you know, for a good reason. Some people that I went to see *Once Upon a Time* with didn't really enjoy it. I loved it.
Mhm.
But there was still that camaraderie that we were in a theater experiencing an artist's vision.
And that's what it is, isn't it? It's art, and that's the beauty of it, you know. One thing I did want to talk to you and go into was the hero's journey, you know, that involved in the movie. Just speak a little bit about the hero's journey because it's so prevalent for everything, isn't it? What's your take on that, Michael?
So, the hero's journey, right? We all knew it when we saw *Star Wars*. We knew that there was something there. You heard the George Lucas interviews about Joseph Campbell and *The Hero with a Thousand Faces* and the hero's journey. But it wasn't until I started really reading—and this is in kind of layman's terms—there's this book called *Save the Cat*. I don't know if you've heard of *Save the Cat*.
No, no.
I'm a screen—I'm a screenwriter. I'm a storyteller. I've been a storyteller my whole life. But I didn't understand how movies were crafted. That there has to be a protagonist, and there's got to be an antagonist, and there's got to be these setbacks that this protagonist has to endure. And I used to write these stories, and I wanted the stories to be easy. But it wasn't until I picked up *Save the Cat* by Blake Snyder. And I highly recommend it. Whoever is watching this or whoever is going to listen to this, go look at Blake Snyder. And I think Blake Snyder did pass away. RIP Blake Snyder. He wrote a story, a dumbed-down version of the hero's journey, and he basically broke down what it takes to tell a compelling story in layman's terms.
Now, I want to preface that Quinton Tarantino doesn't follow the hero hero's journey. Okay? Brian Coppelman doesn't follow the hero's journey. To a degree, he does, but he doesn't do it as formulaic as a *Save the Cat* story. So, I've been writing screenplays since I was a kid, but I never understood how to tell a compelling story until I read *Save the Cat*. And I read *Save the Cat* when I was in college, maybe a little even after that.
*Save the Cat* teaches you that the hero has to go on this journey. And once you learn that, you start viewing films differently. You start watching *The Hobbit*, right, with Martin Freeman, or you'll watch *Lord of the Rings*, which is the ultimate hero's journey, or *Star Wars* episodes four, five, and six. *Episodes 1, 2, and 3* are somewhat of a hero's journey, but it kind of turns out for the worse for, you know, Anakin becoming Vader.
But the idea that a hero's journey, it's always the same. It's always the same beats that, you know, the first 10 minutes of a screenplay is the hero in his hometown. That things are normal. Things are perfect. Things are the way they are. And if the story never evolves, that story will stay the same. That 10 minutes will turn into a two-hour 10 minutes. It will always stay the same.
But then you have the catalyst, and the catalyst is on page 12 of your story, on any movie. Nolan also doesn't really follow this as much, but the other 99% of the screenwriters out there, the other filmmakers, by page 12, there's a catalyst, a call to action, as what Joseph Campbell said, where the hero is going to get a call. And that call is going to be, "We have your wife," or "The pirates are about to sack your village," or, you know, "There's a shark loose in Amity."
So the hero in the first 10 minutes is normal, but after those first 10 minutes, something has to change. Then after that has to be this debate. The hero doesn't want to go into this new world, right? Luke doesn't really want to go and fight the Empire. He's curious about it. He meets Obi-Wan, but he doesn't want to go fight the Empire. And it's this kind of debate scene where he's thinking, "Should I go? Should I not go?" And it's not until page 25 where he's got to decide that something has to happen. The normal world has to flip to the upside down.
And I want to mention, I don't watch TV, but I know that *Stranger Things* does talk about the upside down. Not a big TV guy, but I am a movie guy. So then this hero's journey continues into this upside down. And what Blake Snyder calls in *Save the Cat* is this promise of the premise. A B-story has to come in where it's the love interest who's going to teach the hero, you know, how to best become the best version of themselves towards the end of the story.
But the next 30 pages of your story is this promise of the premise. Why did we come to see this movie? It's Luke fighting, you know, in the Death Star, running around the Death Star with Han Solo. It's Brody compiling the information for the shark. *Lord of the Rings*, it's Gandalf and Frodo meeting up and figuring out things. It's the promise of the premise. Why did we come to see this film? What is the importance of this hero's journey? And then at the midpoint, everything has to change.
Everything has to change. It can't just be a normal, "Ah, we're on an adventure. Everything is good." Marvel follows this phenomenally. Kevin Feige, you know, in *Infinity War*, the hero's journey for *Infinity War* is Thanos, and it's literally beat for beat. And I did this on my channel, on my Instagram and Tik Tok channel, where I did a breakdown of the hero's journey for Thanos because, I mean, you don't realize it until you're going, "Oh my god, this story is about Thanos!" And, you know, the story continues, and I don't know if you want me to go through all the beats and the journeys, but the idea is that you have to hit certain beats of this hero's journey to make a compelling story.
And I think that's—I think that has gotten lost in film, in storytelling. And it's not to knock the more modern versions of stories. I mean, there's, you know, there's movies out there that hit the beats, right? But they do it on their own terms. I think *Sinners* did a great way of this. I think *Weapons* did a great, you know, a great hero's journey, but it doesn't follow it as cohesively as *Save the Cat* is.
But I hope that answered your question. I love the idea of a hero's journey and kind of marrying in esoteric and occult themes into a story really takes it from a level eight to a level 10, in my opinion.
Your take on the hero's journey and it related to the common man, you know. Do you think that's seen as much today? Do you think people see themselves in movies, or do you think it's more of an unconscious move, and if they do take anything from it? Because ultimately, we're all on our own hero's journey, aren't we? So...
Man, Chad, yeah, brilliant, brilliant question. Very, very thought-provoking question. Life is a hero's journey.
Life is a hero's journey. You could break it down to a day in the life of someone. You could break it down to a year for someone. You could break it down to a half a decade. You could do a whole decade. You could do someone's entire life as a hero's journey.
Yes, 100%. Because when someone hits that dark knight of the soul moment, when someone hits that, you know, the death—you know, I lost my father in 2018. That is true. You know, you think that you think that you can't move on, but what does the hero's journey have to teach us? It teaches that you have to dig down deep and find the lessons that you learned on your journey.
Life is a hero's journey. Life isn't puppy dogs and ice cream. I'll never forget, I wrote a screenplay once, and it was about this guy who passes away and he goes to heaven, and he rewrites his next life, and nothing happens in the script. He's a screenwriter, and he rewrites his next life, and the angels are telling him, you know, he's saying, "I'm born. I have no health issues. I get married to a 10 out of 10. I move to Costa Rica. I'm living the life. I have yachts. I have gold chains. I got everything." And the angels are telling him, like, "That's not life. This is not reality. There are supposed to be setbacks."
There are, you can't grow. I wrote a book. I'm not here to promote any of my books, but I wrote a book called *Just Ask the Universe*, and it's under my alias called Michael Samuels, and it was a self-help book. That was one of the first books I've ever written. And it's about writing down your wants and having the universe manifest it for you. And that's really what movies are because they mirror real life, right?
Someone wants something. A protagonist wants something. A hero is stuck on this farm, and he wants to get out, or he's excited about the rebellion against the Empire or the Jedi, or the hobbits are so curious about, you know, the world outside, and then they want it, and it manifests for them.
And what I've learned—and I'm huge into occult studies, I love anything occult, not for like devil sat like not not into that stuff—I like the idea of what the occult stands for. That when you really want something, things have to get stripped away.
Mhm.
For you to get what you want, you have to change your life. Change can't happen if life stays the same. That's the hero's journey. You have to remove your ordinary life to get to the life that you really want.
Yeah. An alchemical transmutation type of things, you know, the subtle from the gross, you know. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that.
The alchemical change. But the alchemical change has to come inside of you, right? You can't—your reality can change. I do believe in "ask and ye shall receive." I do believe in that. But if you don't change, if that alchemical process doesn't happen inside of you from negrado, the darkness into the light—and again, not in a in a devil format, but this luciferian light of shining a light on the darkness, shining a light on your fears.
Frodo was terrified. Luke was terrified. They had to face their fears to finish their story.
Yeah, we as humans have to face our fears. As painful, as horrible as it is, we—I've gone through it. We have a family business. And the family business went through hell. Capital H E L L hell. But we came out of it changed.
Yeah.
For the better. And that's hero's journey. That's changing the alchemical change inside of you, changing your soul for your internal to match the external.
Beautiful. Beautiful. I completely mirror you and agree. People, like, I don't want to go too much into me because this is more about you, and obviously I'm talking.
I want to hear about you, man. I honestly, like, what's your story? Why do you resonate so much with film and with occult studies? What is Chad so in? Why does that make—why does it make you so interested? And, yeah, I want to talk about me too, but I want to know about your story too. This is not just about me.
To be honest with you, I think it started off as a form of type of food for me. Like, it felt knowledgeable. It felt like we're experiencing through a different lens. But, you know, my life's been a bit—how can I put it? Like what you just said about your father. My mom died in 2020.
My goodness.
And I had a lot of things that—how can I put it?—that have tested me throughout my life, also just like you. So, one of my goals since about 18 was to try and limit my anger, was to try to transmute the inner side of me. I understood it wasn't the world. I early understood it was parts of me, you know.
And then I started to see the trauma in everybody and in myself, and then go through that type of, you know, looking inside even though you're scared, and tackling some of them darker things, you know. And then, you have great experiences because of that. Absolutely amazing experiences. Things slow down. You start to see life differently, you know.
What you did, what you did, and what we all—for the ones who want to change—you faced your demons.
Yeah.
You looked at your demons in the face and you said, "You're not in control."
And grief is a funny thing. You and I have a shared experience. We know what it's like to lose a parent, but we also know what it's like to overcome that grief, overcome that pain, overcome that trauma. And that's what film teaches us.
Mhm.
That's what movies teach us. That's what story. Yeah. Right. Win. Right. That's exactly why we need to talk about movies again. We have to heal as a society that it's so easy to open up X and start scrolling and watching the pain, the suffering, the destruction, the unease, the torture, the suffering. But it's also nice to go and play *The Godfather*.
Cool.
And go back to the 19th century, 20th century, and watch a movie about a family overcoming grief and loss, or *Goodfellas*, you know, rising through the ranks and losing everything because he never faced his demons. People like us who face that trauma, who shine a light on our shadows. I've done so much shadow work. I am obsessed with shadow work. It is—it's everything because the ones who don't want to change aren't going to change.
I love my comments on Instagram or Tik Tok where they're like, "Why can't you just enjoy the movie? Why do you have to—why do you have to find—why do you have to find the deep esoteric spiritual themes of a film?" And it's like, listen, I can go watch *Anchor Man*, or I could watch *Tommy Boy*. *Tommy Boy* is my number one comedy of all time. I could watch—and it was before I lost my father—I watched *Tommy Boy* a thousand times. I could watch *Tommy Boy* with Chris Farley and go, "Oh, it's about a dude who's doing funny things. That's me watching the movie."
But deep down, it's about how a guy who inherits this family business has to grow up and has to become an adult. He has to not become his father, but he has to become Tommy. And that's why I'm bringing this to the mainstream again. My channel blew up, dude. I didn't expect it. I wasn't looking even for followers. I didn't expect for people to really go, "Oh my god, this is what I needed. I needed to talk about movies. I need to talk about the spiritual themes in films."
Do we feel it? Like, just me reaching out to you. There's so many. So, it makes me feel like people are waking up or feeling the movies lately, you know, or like wanting to connect almost or understand.
Yes.
And that's what you're providing, Michael. It's almost like a type of nosis, a type of food, a type of knowledge which, you know, a lot of it's original, but people can—when you say it—people can resonate with it straight away, and it's like, "Oh my god, yes!" Oh, I had that thought too, or I fought that when I watch that, but I can't speak about that normally, or it doesn't quite fit, or it's a little bit out there, or some people might not see it that way. And you make it okay. You make it normal. You make it acceptable and you make it worthy, you know, and I love that.
Really do. 'Cuz I love movies, which as we're finding out here. So, um...
Movies are life, dude.
Movies are life. And again, we stop talking about them. We're criticizing them. We're criticizing art.
Like, just that you just said we stopped talking about movies, and you said movies are life. Haven't we stopped speaking about life?
Yes.
How many people don't talk about how they feel, and you know, when you are down or whatever, or, you know, you're going through something, some comfort is watching that film, isn't it? Is it tuning into that movie? So, I think you've hit the nail on the head there that, you know, many people don't want to talk about life.
And, uh, % have to now.
But I feel—I feel like it happened, like it really, really went to [ __ ] when the pandemic hit, that people went inward, you know.
And I'm just trying to—I kind of want to rip off that band-aid and go, "No, what's your favorite movie? Why is *Miami Vice* better than *Heat*?" Not to piss you off, but to have a conversation. Why is—why is Darth Vader Dath Vader, meaning Dark Father, from a cobalistic point of view? Why is that? And I tell people in the comments, I could be 1,000% wrong, but my goal is to talk about movies, and my goal is to just have a conversation. I never say I'm right about anything. I never say that the greatest movie of all time is *Jaws*. That's my greatest movie of all time.
Of course. Of course, it's perspective, isn't it? But the insights you're having on movies can never be wrong. Nobody's can. It's just one way of viewing it. You know what I mean? So I love that. And that's why I can speak and shift to a lot of people because it's perspective.
Brilliant, isn't it?
100%. I do tons of deep dives on Kubric, and those have gotten the biggest hits on both of my channels: "the movie movie magic Michael" on Tik Tok and "I am Michael Oaken" on Instagram. The Kubric videos just absolutely—people go bonkers for Stanley Kubric, and I mean, I could understand why. The guy was a genius, an otherworldly genius.
I guess the idea is that, like, I could have a theory on a Kubric scene. Like today, I just posted a video on my social media where the opening shot of *The Shining*—that little island, like, right? You've seen *The Shining*, I'm assuming?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay. That little island that we're kind of gliding through, and then we guide glide past. You know, you're just thinking, "Oh, Kubric, just in nature. There's this isolation in nature." But I think that island represents Danny. That this island, this little thing surrounded by this ancient wisdom, is Danny. And Kubric is showing us that this island is isolated. It's surrounded by quiet quietness. These mountains that don't move, but they have ancient knowledge buried deep within them.
I love,
Right? Yeah.
I could be a thousand% wrong. And Kooper could have said in an interview, "No, it's just me just talking about nature and the vastness and kind of the isolation, blah blah." But I could be 1,000% wrong. But, you know what? I could be 1,000% right. I just want to have that conversation.
But, like, what you say, that there can be many ways to interpret it and even be wrong. It's an interpretation around a particular lens. You know, you can look at things politically, culturally, through a mythical lens. So, if you're looking for a particular lens, it's just a perspective.
And I think yours are kind of spot on, my brother, you know, in all grand context of things. I saw a video the other day because a lot of people say in regards to the jumper, the space rocket, they're related all to the moon landings. This is what we're talking about—about perspective again. And then I saw how you put it to Apollo, and you looked at it from a completely different perspective, and I went, "Wow, that's like, you know, really, really cool!"
Well, I look at it along the lines—you could look at it that Kubric filmed the moon landing as a conspiracy channel, as a conspiracy theorist. Absolutely. That's very easy to go, "Yeah, the moon landing was fake. How did they fly to the moon? How'd they get off the moon with no propulsion?" All that stuff. But I don't talk conspiracy. That's not my channel. Whether I believed whether we went to the moon or whether we didn't go to the moon is none of my business.
My business is, I'm looking at a scene in *The Shining* where Danny is wearing a sweater that says "Apollo. Apollo 11 USA," and it's pointing to him. Now, there's this guy on YouTube who I absolutely adore. He's phenomenal. His name is Rob Ager. Guy does phenomenal deep dive analysis of films: Kubric, Spielberg, Cameron. Really, really good stuff. Really quality stuff. And he believes that that rocket is a fallus because there was essay in *The Shining*, the deep underlying things. And I do believe that there is this essay that Jack was doing to Danny. And I don't want to touch that kind of with a 10-ft pole, but I do believe that.
But I didn't interpret the rocket as a fallus symbol, right? I didn't interpret that. To me, it didn't resonate. I understood what Rob Ager was saying, and he could be 1,000% right. But to me, Kubric was literally saying "Apollo," the god. And who was Apollo? It was the god of prophecy, the god, the protector of children. And Danny had this shining. He could see into the future to avoid danger in the future. Could it be a fallace? Yes. Could it be Kubric filming the moon landing and messing with people's minds? Absolutely.
But my interpretation of a brilliant film and a brilliant filmmaker is this was about the god Apollo, and the god Apollo—Danny is a god, and Danny opened his third eye to have those powers. And we all can, right? I do believe that. I do believe that we could all open our third eye and talk to the other side. I'm very big into that spirituality. But, you know, it resonates with some people, and some people go, "No, no, it's the moon landing." Okay. You know, I'm not right, but neither are you.
I love it.
I'm 100% right. And you're 100% right.
That's the thing.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I think that's what I'm trying to point out. And I think me and you are probably at the level where we can do that, which is kind of cool because in today's society, you have to be right, don't you? And if you don't agree that you're a vegan or meate eater, or you're a flatearther or the earth's circle, or whatever, you're going to argue. And like, I do think it's cool to have a debate, and like, things can be true or not true, and we're just happy to kind of put our necks out and say, "What about this, you know? Have you ever looked at it from this angle because I think this is quite cool and it makes sense in the grand context of things and the way you look at things like through myth, symbolism, nois, through different outlooks, through, um, so yeah."
I'm a gnostic.
You're a gnostic.
I'm not—I'm not agnostic. I'm a gnostic. I believe in that internal spark inside myself.
I'm the same. I'm the same. I'm the same.
That's why you and I—that's why you and I met up like this. I'm not [ __ ] on anyone's religion. I think that religion is really important for people. I think that if you're Muslim, believe what you want to believe. If you're Christian, believe what you want to believe. But I also have the right to believe what I want to believe. And I believe in that inner spark inside me, in whatnostic tradition was before there was ever a prophet, before there was ever—before there was ever Jesus. Right?
So the idea is that nosticism makes you want to find out who you are and what is your superpower. It's kind of like Marvel, right? Like, I believe that Marvel—and I'm a huge Marvel guy, also big DC guy, but I love, love Marvel. I've seen every Marvel movie 5,000 times.
Marvel is really finding that Gnostic self. It's Steve Rogers finding who his superpower is.
Yes.
It's finding—it's Tony Stark in that subconscious cave, building that suit, going deep within, not having the wealth, the riches. All of that was stripped away, but finding this gnostic god inside you and becoming that.
Yes, that's powerful. That's not worshiping something outside of yourself. That's you becoming the best version of you on the hero's journey. Am I...
I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Oh, this is—this is just beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, carry on. Sorry.
No, no, no, no. I just want to say, am I hitting the right chords on your podcast?
You were hitting every chord, especially in relation to me. It's just beautiful to hear. When you were growing up, did you see the same, like how you've just related that to the inner properties of yourself? Like when I was growing up, I kind of noticed *Power Rangers* were hinting at the same thing, these properties within us, and if we'd combined them, we would become one. What was it for you back when you were kind? What did you see anything like that?
It's a great question. It's a great question. And for me, I was always looking for—let me back up. When I saw *The Goonies*, *The Goonies* was the movie that did it for me. That was a movie of wanting to go on an adventure of these boys, you know, this group of kids, these teens that are being forced to move from their neighborhood, from their homes because the big bad corporation is going to buy it and put up other homes or whatever. But the idea that I wanted to go on this adventure to find the Holy Grail, if you will, that—and then it wasn't until I saw *Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail*. Well, I wanted to find that the cup, right?
So, I became fascinated with religion, and, you know, not one particular religion, but all of them. And I became fascinated with storytelling and how I can incorporate it. And then I found the law of attraction. And to me, the law of attraction, you know, *The Secret*, *The Science of Getting Rich*. And I went really deep into the law of attraction where you're looking at someone who wants something and who sets their goals and intentions into the universe, and the universe conspires on your behalf to bring you that goal. And it worked.
And I saw it in movies, and I saw the wants and the needs of this inner growth. But it wasn't until the last maybe five to 10 years—I want to say the last 10 years—that I really got intonosticism and sp and deep spirituality. I liken it that, like, if the hero's journey is kindergarten, law of attraction is like kind of like elementary school. The occult, magic, that's PhD level [ __ ], right? That this is not, you know, religion is, you know, you're building to that.
But this gnostic—this gnostic worldview of looking at film in this point of view of finding that light, that light shining a light on the darkness, that really didn't happen until like the last 5 to 10 years for me, where I had a Christ consciousness experience that it was—it was—and I don't do drugs drugs. I've never done drugs in my life. I don't do drugs. I don't smoke. Drinking to me is, you know, a few times a year. Like, I'm not a drinker. I don't smoke. To me, my drug is self-improvement, is knowledge, ancient occult knowledge that I can better myself with. And that just really enhanced my story writing. Finding that occult tradition, you know, and again, not [ __ ] on religion. I think religion is really important, but for me, that resonated most, you know. Like when you eat something, you go, "I don't really like this, but it's good." And you eat something like this, you go, "I don't really like this, it's good." And then you eat something, you go, "This I will never forget for the rest of my life."
Yeah. Yeah, brother. And when you—when you read the Cabala or the Zohar or ancient coalistic texts or ancient religions, you know, the ancient gods, and you go, "My god, how deep does this rabbit hole go?" And then you incorporate it into yourself, and you incorporate into your own work.
Life changes, dude, 'cuz you change. So, this Christ consciousness experience—just tell us a little bit about that. You know, because I've had one of those myself, but that was kind of, you know, because you go through all these religions, you go through Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, you go through absolutely everything, that nonuality these baga—uh...
It's—I love it all. I have a whole collection—I have a whole collection of Buddhas in my den. I collect Buddhas. I collect poker chips and Buddhas. Go figure.
That's two wicked unique things to collect, brother.
Exactly. Exactly. Um, yeah, to me. Um...
The experience, how did it—I came in contact, whether you want to believe it or not, but I came in contact with an archangel in the flesh, and it was as real as you next to me right now. It was this feeling of—I was in my backyard and praying and meditating to this Bob Proctor meditation, and this archangel landed in my backyard. And after the research, after everything that was said and done—because I didn't believe in angels. I didn't know what—I thought an angel was a Christian belief. I didn't know what the hell it was.
And once I hit that, once I really found what these beings are, my whole world changed. It was this Christ consciousness happened right in front of me. And it wasn't Jesus Christ, but it was this awakening. This awakening that, like, once you see beyond the veil—and it wasn't—it wasn't a near-death experience. This thing landed next to me when I was ready to see it. And again, I don't do drugs, and I don't drink. It was this feel—and it looked—he looked down on me, and the next day I got this confirmation, and someone told me about this spirit Raziel who's in my backyard. And I looked up this spirit Raziel, and it was the same dude who landed right next to me, and I didn't even know what the name Raziel was. It didn't—I didn't know what that was. I didn't understand it. It didn't make sense to me.
And once I opened that channel of knowing what the angels are, the demons, not demons, the demons, once you start learning what Socrates was teaching us, what the ancient philosophers were teaching us, what Jesus was teaching us, that Christ consciousness, you can't go back. You can't go back. You can't look backwards and go, "Oh, maybe I should just focus on the law of attraction." It's different grades. It's different levels. It's different levels.
And when I found the Cabala, it was this thing that I saw that governs all of us, that you're starting here and you want to get to here. But in order to do that, you got to go through these pillars. You got to go through these initiations in life. And I did. And it helped me. It helped me write my stories better. It helped me become a social media movie maven where if you would have told me a year ago, six months ago, "Yeah, you're going to be, you know, an authority on talking about films and the spiritual esoteric deep dives into movies, and you're going to be bringing people together," I'd go, "Yeah, out of your mind." I don't—I don't—I don't talk like that.
A few things for the people on the channel, because if I was watching this, I'd be annoyed if I didn't ask—if I didn't ask them myself. Okay. In the best way you can describe it, how did the angel appear to itself to you? How would you describe it physically? Is it something for the people at home? Are they imagining something similar to what they see in films and things, or how?
I mean, I could show—yeah, I could show you a picture because it was—I mean, dude, it was as real as you and I. I was meditating in my backyard, and I heard something. It was end of June 2020. We were in the middle of the pandemic. We were on lockdown. We weren't going anywhere. And I was meditating in my backyard. And again, I'm not big into meditation. That's not my go-to for like going inward.
And it was a calm, quiet afternoon, late afternoon in New York, and something landed next to me. And I looked to my left. It sounded like Iron Man falling from the sky and hitting the pavement. And on my life, Chad, on my life, I thought it was my neighbor playing a prank on me. I thought my neighbor—I swear to God—I thought my neighbor, who's a college buddy of mine, I thought my neighbor hopped the fence and was playing a joke on me, 'cuz that's how real it was.
Yeah.
And I looked down, and he had these ancient—they call them Birkenstocks—these ancient sandals. And they were—he had big feet, like these big masculine feet. And I was looking up, and I'm looking up, and there's a tunic, and I'm go—I can curse on here, right?
Yeah.
I was saying, you know, "What the [ __ ] is going on here?" I'm wide awake. You know, my wife and kids are in the house. I'm wide awake, and I'm looking at this guy, and he's shredded. He's ripped. He has like—he's like deadlifting like 450 in like the Universal gym. And I'm looking at him, and he's got these massive, massive gray angel wings. And I'm looking up at him, and he's looking down at me, and he smirked, and he was gone. The whole thing took one and a half seconds.
The next day I had a reading with a world-renowned medium. I'm big into mediumship. My mother's a medium. My brother's a medium. We're big into spirituality like that. My mother's name is Lady Phyllis, and she's the real deal, and she taught it herself. And I was having a reading with this guy, George Anderson, who is the most scientifically tested medium on planet Earth. And I get on the phone with him, and I'm going to pause here because two years—it was, yeah, two years—in 2018 I lost my father.
And on my dad's deathbed, when he was dying—his lungs were failing. He had lung cancer, and he beat the lung cancer, but he got COPD, and he couldn't breathe, so his breathing was just deteriorating. And it's been—it's 8 years now. He passed away February 2nd. Thank you. Listen, the guy smoked his whole life. He wasn't giving it up, and he went out on his own terms. But I talk to my father more now than I did when he was here in the physical.
So, I'm talking with my dad on his deathbed. This is January 2018. And I'm saying, "Dad, when you get there"—'cuz I knew he was passing. I knew he was leaving—I said, "When you get there, you got to tell me what it's all about. Is it Buddhism? Is it Christianity? Is it the law of attraction? Just get me a sign, dude. Tell me the secrets of the universe. I want to know." He passed away, and, you know, we went to mediums, and we heard from him, and he was giving us different signs, but he didn't tell me what I asked him. He was just coming through multiple mediums.
And then I saw this angel in my backyard, and then the next day I had a reading with George Anderson. And George Anderson gets on the phone, he's like, "Oh, your dad is coming through. Your dad's here. His name was David, but he also went by the name of Jay, and blah blah blah. And he was doing this and that. And he wants to give you the secrets of the universe." And I said, "This is what I waited for. This is it. This was two years in the making." And the medium started saying, "You have an angel in your backyard."
Wow.
And I'm going, "No one knew that except my wife and kid." Like, no one knew that. I didn't even know that. I saw this thing the day before, and I'm going, "Oh, it was just—maybe it was just a figment of my imagination. I don't know what the hell it was. It was real. It looked as real as you and I, but I couldn't even know what—I didn't even know what it was." And he says, "There's an angel in your backyard, and his name is Raziel, and he's on tap for the slightest request. And your dad wants to tell you from over here that the Cabala governs the universe."
And I'm going, "The Cabala?" I'm like, my dad was no rel. We were not religious at all. We believed in the law of attraction, being good to people, what you give out, you karma, more Buddhist than end suffering type deal stuff. But when he said the Cabala governs the universe, and you should look into Archangel Raziel, Chad, this is Raziel, and that's the exact dude. Hold on. That's the guy that was in my backyard.
Wow.
I'll pull that up on the screen for him if you can go on Wikipedia, and that was him. But when he said, "Look into Raziel," I'm like, "Something's here. There's something to this. There's something deeper than what we're told. There's something deeper than what we're looking for. We're not being told the truth."
And when you go down the rabbit hole of the cabala of esotericism of occult studies—and I'm not talking about the devil worshipping [ __ ]. I don't like that stuff. That's not me. That's not what it's about. What it's about is about peeling the layers away of the facade. And that's Cabala. And I'm incorporating that with movies that once you peel that layer away, Chad, you see a different world.
That's what life should be like. You should question the answers. You should go, "This isn't what you're being shown. There's something deeper here." That's Cabala. And I incorporated that into my film watching, into my storytelling.
Yeah. Brilliant.
That's—that's what it is. And it was all from this one medium. He goes, "Look into the cabala. There's something there."
And once you realize that you're a Gnostic—not agnostic, but agnostic—a seeker of wisdom, a seeker of the truth, a seeker of being the best version of you.
Yeah, man.
Dude, you can't go back.
No, I—it's—it's the ultimate, isn't it? There's just nothing—it's truth. I think when you've tasted real truth, it's—there's nothing like it in the world. It's just, you know.
And then Christ consciousness, what you talk about and things. It's like it's nameless, isn't it? It's like, so it's just nameless. Like all these people arguing over names. And this is why I don't care over what anyone calls anything, brother, because it's such—it's just how can you name that?
You can't—you can't name God.
You can't—you can't—you can't physically. And that's whatnosticism is. If you read the book, there's this great book. I have no affiliation with it, but I read it. It's called *Not in His Image* by John Lamb Lash. *Not in His Image* by John Lamb Lash. And it's about how we lived in a world, humans lived in a world where you were able to be open about this stuff, that you could—you can go into a library and find this Gnostic knowledge.
And the idea is it's kind—it's gotten lost over time that religion is kind of, you know, taken a hold of what humanity is. And again, I'm not against religion, but just because if I don't
believe in it doesn't mean that, you know, doesn't make it right or wrong.
Of course, you know, gnosticism hit me. This was like, oh my god, this I I tasted a bite of this and going, I resonate with this. This is real. This is you. Yeah.
So, you know, so right when you resonate with yourself, how can you, you know, just with everything? Have you had the experience or do you have the experience of like seeing other everyone else as the same as you? It's almost when I look at you, I I'm going to put this after the the consciousness, the Christ. I know what is in you is that and I know what is in me is that. But don't get me wrong, there's the mask and the the self in front of it. But like what you are is ultimately what what I am. And it's like I think that we are That's a brilliant take, Chad. I think that we are I think that God is a son sun. And I think God is a son and we are just rays of light emitting from the sun. And that's what gnosticism is that you are part of the whole that you're part of this whole experience. And again, it doesn't make you good or bad. I think that just deep down it's what we are.
This mask, my favorite band is Tool. I don't know if you're a Tool guy. I've not heard of them. Sorry. All right. Yeah. No, I I highly recommend you listen to Tool because they go they they talk about this Christ consciousness in their in their in their song. They talk Tool T O O L. I think I I'll definitely look. Yeah, I'll look at that if that's what they do. I have the pin over here. It been around forever. Um, but their music is talking about Numa, about talking about the soul, about that we have a mask, but we have to remember who we are.
And and I feel that when I opened up myself to the Cabala, to ancient religions, to ancient spirituality, that I was able to find me, to find that version of me that was waiting for so long to come out. You know, you tried the law of attraction, you tried, you know, trying the different foods. Life is a buffet, dude. Life is a smorgasbord and everything is there for your taking. But then you find the one dish and you go, "This was it. This was the dish that brought out the best in me." And I think that's when I married that ancient wisdom with film. It's really resonating with people. It's really resonating with with this bringing spirituality to the masses without sounding like a [ __ ] nut, without sounding like a a fooey, without someone calling like woo woo. You know, I've taken a few classes in the past and they're like, "Let's talk about the white light and how it resonates." Like, dude, it's nothing like that. You know, this is this is not what it's about. This is about the internal. We are always being told worship outside, worship outside, worship outside. Gnosticism, film teaches you to look inward, finding deeper meaning in film, in life. And that's what I'm marrying on my channel that you're looking at a movie. What are the deep things? Yes, the Goonies are going on an adventure, but it's really about grief. It's really about losing something and trying to hold on to that childhood. It's about not becoming an adult. It's about holding on to that last adventure. That to me is is is finding the deeper meaning in film the way I found a deeper meaning in my life.
And uh I'm just trying to marry the two. And it's been fun. It's been a great process. I've been enjoying it and and the people that come on as the haters, it's it's funny because it's like I'm having a conversation with people. I don't you know, there's no hate. No, you know, people that do that have problems with themselves, brother. Um, and and that's that's that's the best thing to remember.
You see, and eventually they'll work and and see what you're saying and see these things within themselves cuz you're not on a high horse saying that you aren't this evil. We're all working through it. You have worked through it. You've seen the dark. You're going to go you're going through the dark. You you know, so and I got I got to tell you, Chad, and the people that don't the people that write me kind of like a bookend to our conversation, the people write me and say, "Why can't you just enjoy the movie for what it is? Why do you have to look into the deep meaning of the film?" you know, they may never change. They may never want to grow or learn or get bigger and better. I'm not judging that person. I'm not saying, "Well, you're wrong because, you know, you're not looking at it from my point of view." I'm not doing that at all.
I will tell you this, as a writer, when you're writing, these characters on the page are coming from somewhere else. Yeah. This is not your conscious mind saying, "Johnny is getting out of bed. Johnny is getting a cup of coffee. Johnny is driving down the block." It's not like that. You're pulling these stories, these these characters from the ether. One, I I will die on that vine, man. I will I will fight that that I will fight for. people who were authors. PE JK Rowling, Stephen King, Michael Kitton. This was subconscious level storytelling. Harry Potter is in the ether. This wasn't just some lady thinking about magic and wisdom. No way. No way. This was otherworldly. Stephen King. Yes. The Shining, otherworldly. Same thing with film directors. Kubri, Spielberg, Tarantino, when they're putting their films out together. Nolan, it is otherworldly.
And that's what I'm trying to pull back the layers of to go, anyone can do this. Anyone can write a story, but you have to connect with this. You got to connect with your interior to find that story, to find that hero's journey. Because again, it's you could you could sit down and go, "Chad is a cool guy. Chad unfortunately lost his mother. Chad is running a podcast." And that's not a story. But when you write a story, when you write a book, an allegorical, something with symbolism, deep themes, doesn't have to be esoteric. It could just be deep themes. Gone Girl really isn't esoteric. It's a brilliant story by Gillian Flynn and good movie by Fincher too. When you go through that, you realize this is not being written in the conscious. There's deep symbolism here. Ancient stuff going on. And I'm just trying to pull back that curtain.
That's brilliant. That's brilliant. And I think you're exactly right, brother. Oh, it's been absolutely amazing chatting to you, Michael. I'm going to have to get you for a round two. Wow. I'm in, man. I'm in. I'm always in. I love talking about this stuff. And my journey as a writer continues. I I have a few screenplays that are being circulated in the entertainment industry. Stuff's been optioned. Stuff's been moved. I've had stuff people attached. But my goal, my ultimate goal as a writer is to bring my stories to the masses. And the only way to do that is through the mediumship of film. And whether that's me directing it or, you know, I having one of my stories put out there right now. One of my stories, uh, it's a it's a a book I wrote written, uh, called Pokergeist, and it's about a newbie poker player has to get a degenerate gambling ghost off his back by winning the World Series of Poker. And it's very deep, and it's very spiritual. And the screenplay, I wrote it 15 years ago. The screenplay won the Grand Jury Prize in the New York Film Festival. in a New York film festival. It it it beat out 4,000 other screenplays.
And right now, right now, it's being shopped around. I have a full eight, you know, full representation on the West Coast. So, my goal is to not only be on your on your phone to talk to you about movies, but I want to be on the big screen, too, telling stories. Not just talking about, you know, I want to be on every screen in the world, not just the phones and and the tablets. I want to be on everyone's TV. And that's that's my goal is to open up this knowledge for film, to storytelling, to the hero's journey from different perspectives.