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I discovered through my reading of Robert Kegan the iconic video tapes of comparative therapy approaches that Carl Rogers, Frederick (Fritz) Perls and Albert Ellis, with real client Gloria. The contrasts in the therapists' approaches are fascinating. The most controversial session was with Perls, who was seen to have almost bullied and demeaned Gloria. However, there is one interestingly unique aspect of Perls' intervention - how he pointed out the specific moment of when he felt Gloria was speaking a deep and direct truth, on the basis of her energy and transmission (54 min point). Is there a common quality to the energy that we are seeking in the witnessing filming and editing process? How might this connect to Gendlin's Focusing method? After these three consulting sessions, Gloria (to my surprise) chose Perls as her therapist. However, after being his client for years, she interestingly said she felt retraumatized.

In the words of David Isay, founder of StoryCorps, "inviting a loved one, a friend or even a stranger to record a meaningful interview with you just might turn out to be one of the most important moments in that person's life, and in yours." StoryCorps is an American non-profit organization whose mission is to record, preserve, and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. This is a wonderful TED speech by David, setting out their journey of creating story booths in Grand Central Station in NY, to the incredible achievement of how StoryCorp has now the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered. A compelling example of the power of storytelling, the evolution of the lineage of our oral history (StoryCorps is modelled on the efforts of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s, through which oral history interviews across the United States were recorded. Another inspiration for the organization was oral historian Studs Terkel. https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_isay_everyone_around_you_has_a_story_the_world_needs_to_hear/transcript?language=en

This might have initially seemed to be a talk tackling the political subject of freedom of speech, but it is in fact a seminal summary of the importance of free-associative and spontaneous full-felt-sense speech, from a clinician psychologist's point of view. Drawing from the likes of Carl Rogers, Freud, Maslow, and Jung, Peterson highlights that role of active listening...that relates directly to the InteriorTruth principles and practice. The initial talk on YouTube is here, with the full audio versions, with the Q&A session 1hr20: Apple or Google Podcast. Another crucial dimension evoked in Dr Peterson's speech, is Carl Rogers' notion of how powerful the process of playing back what you thought you understood as an active listener, to the speaker. The mere fact of clarifying in the clearest and most authentic way possible what it is that you understand the speaker is saying, can provide deep revelations - the speaker is hearing themselves back, through the listener. Peterson advises this as the one lesson to take away from this session - of direct relevance for situation of conflict, through to therapeutic processes. It is very interesting to reflect on how the InteriorTruth process of the editing and playback to the film subject, mirrors the same principles. As a filmer, I seek to be an active listening, and in my editing, I reflect back to the film subject what I felt I heard. The essence of what I heard is built from a composite of moments, after listening multiple times to the footage. Thereby providing an opportunity for the film subject to literally see and hear themselves playing back what they said, with the added interpretive layer of the editing. I recognise that the editing process is deeply subjective, but have been pleasantly surprised as to how 9 times of 10, film subjects immediately validate the edited versions. Recorded at Caius College on November 22, 2021.

Loving this book by JF Martel, Co-host of the excellent Weird Studies podcast. P69 speaks to how "the transmutation of signs into symbols is achieved through framing" which I see as being the silence practice in my filming. Nice to make the analogy of an artist's canvas or a theatre stage, with the simple fact of sitting with someone in silence as the "framing".

Fun time tagging/signifying 45 minutes of silence from a recent shoot. I found I in the end placed lots of tags, with things like 'raising eyebrow'; 'slight stretch to the left'; 'rolling of the head'. Aiming for a 3 min edit, but perhaps I'll post the full version for paying members on my website, a new meditation app! This connects to the interest I have in witnessing subtle energy, as described in action by David Deida in the workshop in Ken Wilber's loft here (reproduced with permission from Integral Life).

With might be seen as an oblique connection to the witnessing filming process, but pointing to a direction I am embarking on to evolve my work, Marker is an essential inspiration, ushering in the style of the non-linear film essay. Marker (1921 - 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983) - meditation on the nature of human memory, showing the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory, and how, as a result, the perception of personal and global histories is affected. Friend and collaborator Alain Resnais called him "the prototype of the twenty-first-century man."

How dare I step into the religious realm or domain to even entertain a notion that this type of witnessing process might be a sacred practice? Yet, here are a few thoughts emerging from the powerful resonance inside me when I heard a fellow filming practitioner use that word (see here for a Zoom edit of fellow filming practitioners relating their experience of the filming practice). Clearing away the practical stresses and efforts needed to get a film together, not to mention the technical elements of the filming equipment and configurations, plus the often long editing process...the golden thread of what we are doing here having a sacred label to it brings an incredible sense of clarity, reassure and confirmation. I'm using an image from Hilma af Klint, since this is the artists referred to by a recent filming subject who also referred to 'thank you for creating this sacred space [of silence / witnessing]". It is by coincidence the same image on the cover of one of the most important books in my life, Sex, Ecology and Spirituality by Ken Wilber. (Image rights labeled for non-commercial re-use: Photo: Albin Dahlström/Moderna Museet)

Fabuloous quote from the Lo-Fi podcast by John Wentz, interviewing Ricardo Santos (https://www.instagram.com/ricardosaga/): "Why do I do art? It's the source of my happiness right now, it's my engine in life. It's like going to a place where suddenly you become god, you can change everything at your own will and everything is OK. You need nothing, just to be there." "For me creating art is about the fun and how I feel when I'm doing it. In the moment of putting the paint and how things build, when before there was nothing. That's a beautiful thing to experience as a creator. That's creation for me... whatever you can say about your art...for me it's about the moment of creation" Check out the fascinating art podcast from John Wentz: On Youtube or Apple, or on any podcast streaming platforms.

A game-changer in narratives landscapes, here from a collaboration between JR and Time magazine. https://time.com/guns-in-america/ Scroll, scan and explore the narratives. This speaks to my heart having worked since 2017 in narratives "Sensemaking" in organisational development projects, and in particular where we are able to "map" large numbers of narratives thanks to spatial signification prompts, that allow for quantitative interpretation of narratives.

JR is an absolute inspiration, with his social narratives vision...through photo portraits. I'm hoping to extend the same principles, with video! Check out: http://www.insideoutproject.net/en for more details.

Yousuf Karsh CC, was an Armenian-Canadian photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals (from Churchill to Picasso, Hemingway to Hepburn). He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. I totally love his qoute below: "There is a brief moment when all there is in a man's mind and soul and spirit is reflected through his eyes, his hands, his attitude. This is the moment to record." Are we on the cusp of being in the art of capturing soul now on video? I'm equally inspired by the stories behind such photographers as Mario Testino. I loved his BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Disc piece, and Platon Antoniou, photographer of figures from Clinton to Gaddafi (as featured in the Netflix documentary, clip here) What exactly is their craft? Their secrets? It seems so subtle, yet so obvious. Can anyone attain such skills and presence? I'm in the process of curating the pointers they offer. More to follow!

I've at various moments in the editing, wanted to have a long fade of the portrait image between sections of the film. Often I time the cut with a moment where there is a natural pause so that the fade out is of the person taking a reflective moment without talking. But where I've wanted to fade out and the person is still talking, I've attempted at using a still image / free-frame. But it screams out as being totally a out of place...the rigidity is too marked. I was led therefore to a real interest in how we are able to perceive the micro-movements of any image. For example, in the video below, you kind of feel that it's not a photo, but it's very difficult to actually point out the movement (until the slightest mouth movement appears). I feel this is a good way of highlighting the power of filming as a medium, and ask further questions as to understanding how we communicate, and future innovations in media.