One of the movies we will be exploring in our upcoming MetaCinema series is the brilliant classic 1937 version of Lost Horizon. In the film, high-minded statesman Robert Conway, while escaping from a war in China, is kidnapped to Shangri-La, an idyllic utopian community tucked high in the Himalayas. There he meets the High Lama Father Perrault, who explains to him why he founded Shangri-La:
“It came to me in a vision, long, long ago. I saw all the nations strengthening, not in wisdom, but in the vulgar passions and the will to destroy. . . Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! What unintelligent leadership! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity, crashing headlong against each other, propelled by an orgy of greed and brutality. A time must come my friend, when this orgy will spend itself. When brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. Against that time, is why I . . . am here. And why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here.”
Watching this scene, Dee and I turned to each other and said, “And this was written in 1937? It sure sounds like our world today!”
The story of the world has always been the same: violence, war, greed, corruption, and unconscious leadership. Meanwhile, there exists a portion of humanity dedicated to higher, nobler ideals. Shangri-La is not a physical location; it represents a state of consciousness, a haven of well-being that exists within each of us. For those steeped in the struggles of the world, life is hell. For those who are willing to retreat to a state of inner well-being, real peace is available.
I met a fellow who asked me what I do for a living. I told him that I write books and present programs on how live a joyful, soul-rewarding, impassioned life. He asked me, “Do you think the world will get better, or will it get worse?” I told him, “For the people who want it get better, it will improve. Those who expect is to get worse will suffer more.”
Each of us lives in the world that matches our consciousness. Jesus explained this in the language of his time: “In my Father’s mansion there are many rooms.” We live in a world of many simultaneous realities, each of which seems real to those who occupy it. Every belief system is self-reinforcing. We all continually find evidence to prove what we believe is true. There is no use arguing over the way it is. The way it is, is the way we think it is. We do far better to establish ourselves in the loftiest reality we can imagine, and do all we can to remain there.
Most generations believed that they were the last one. Yet we are still here. Certainly we have lots of problems that need to be addressed. The environment, the economy, and politics require a great deal of conscious attention and guided action. There are two kinds of environmentalism: fear-based ecology and vision-based ecology. Many of the ecology documentaries I have watched are fear-based, splashing 85 minutes of gory scenes of destruction, followed by five minutes (if that) of “what you can do about it.” Other ecology movies are vision-based, laying out a few minutes of the dilemma, followed by the majority of the film offering solutions. My favorite is Where to Invade Next by Michael Moore. Dee and I both found this movie to be life-changing.
In 1818, John James Audubon, who founded the pro-nature Audubon Society, said, “The environment is being destroyed at such a rapid rate that I fear that we have but a few years left for the planet.” He said that over 200 years ago. Somehow, we remain. If we are to triumph over unconsciousness, we need more visionary thinkers like Father Perrault—a fictional character, but a very real expression of the higher minds of novelist James Hilton and producer Frank Capra.
Those who wish to live in a world of “pitiful madness, blindness, and unintelligent leadership” will continue to do so, and magnify it. Those who wish to take refuge in the inner Shangri-La, where the riches of the mind are cultivated and safeguarded, will find our way there. Audubon also stated, “But Hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns.” I imagine that if you are reading this, you are already on board with the sacred inner sanctuary and loftier elevation. If not, you might pray to be kidnapped by a benevolent universe to set your feet on higher ground.
