Don Coorough's First Book of Essays Has Been Published

Dear Friends and Readers,

My first book of essays has been published and is now available for purchase. It is a 456-page quality paperback.


http://www.publishamerica.net/product51902.html


Love-ism Volume II, Book 1: Essays on a Philosophy of Compassionate, Common-Sensed Evolution—Politics, Economics, Environmentalism and Ethics Studied from Historical, Contemporary, and Future Points of View contains essays written by Don Coorough which reflect his desire to promote a better world; a world based on love, peace, liberty, mutual respect, understanding and cooperation. This revolutionary book of essays is steeped in a profoundly historical perspective, each essay building on the ones which come before it, and promotes a united world which would reflect the wishes of people everywhere. The book urges a mass, people-power movement to create this new world. Some of the essay topics in the book include a look back at the decade of the 1960s, the development of the thesis which reveals how war and occupations of other nations cannot and do not work, an in-depth analysis of Capitalism, Communism and Fascist-Socialism, and a look ahead at how to organize societies through wise economic practices and a sound ecology. 


I hope my friends and readers will consider ordering a copy. Please click on the link to get your copy today. Also, please feel free to share the link with your friends.

Warm regards in peace and with love,
Don Coorough

On Taking Personal Responsibility for One’s Emotional States

Life is a pastiche, a process, a melting pot. Life is love and anger, hope and despair, understanding and intolerance, charity and greed, joy and pain, peace and suffering. Still, it remains always dominated by a suffocating atmospheric mixture of fear and desire which play together in a swirling vortex, each constantly influencing and reinforcing the other in the unconscious' mental realms.

We are taught to want from an early age in our infancy as needs are not immediately met. We are not taught to examine the reasons for our unrelenting wanting. Instead we merely accept it as the natural state of the human psyche. We want because we are afraid of not having, of lacking, of feeling the pit of emptiness within and the scrutiny of others who possess that which we seek. We fear these conditions because the ego demands to reign supreme, not just over the self, but over everyone. We seek supremacy because we fear that autonomy will be encroached by others. In the ego's wish for a place in eternity, it seeks to fill up the empty spaces where inadequacy finds footholds with the acquisition and attainment of personal desires.

It is this manifestation of personal desire, setting personal motivations and accomplishments ahead of everything else in the one's world (or cultural motivations and accomplishments when cultures express desire - whether militarily, economically, or religiously) which the Buddha warned as being the root of all suffering. The Buddha taught a lesson which is hard-learned - when our actions, thoughts, feelings, and/or intentions come from personal motives - we are in a place of greed, desire, and selfishness. Personally motivated desire will always lead to suffering.

However, to act altruistically, without considering what personal benefits or harms may arise due to a course of action, is the highest expression of love. This is everyone's highest calling in life, the lesson each of us is here to learn, and the underlying struggle in all our interpersonal relationships and life choices. Giving in to altruism negates personal desire, liberates one from the domination of the ego, and opens one up to a much larger world with the potential to engage in and with universal principles and universal purpose. To the degree one integrates ones personality in greater degrees with altruism in every moment and every individual choice, one negates desire, increases peace and harmony in life and eases the causes for suffering (not only in one's own life, but in the lives of others, too). Stress (which is a symptom of the ego when dominated by fear and desire) does not arise from living out the highest expression of love since stress is only a personal reaction to one's focus on one's own desires. Stress never attaches to altruistic actions or motivations.

It is often true that individuals delude themselves regarding their motives. We all create useful excuses in certain circumstances to allow us to remain in denial as we pursue individually motivated agendas: "I know best," "I only want what is best for (fill in the blank)," "It's God's will (or any other term which denotes some individual's term for 'higher power')," "I want to save you, or protect you, from making the same mistakes I've made." This list can go on and on, but you can see the manifestation of the personally motivated rationale by now. The real question one can ask oneself in any and every instance remains, "Am I doing this on even the remotest possibility that I will gain something I desire as a result (or avoid something I wish to avoid)?" If the honest answer is yes, then the contemplated course of action is personally motivated, and the result can only bring personal suffering along with it.

Life cannot exist without some degree of suffering. Life is a process of becoming. As one engages in the process of becoming, one will, being human, make mistakes in life. The quality of human frailty and tendency for individuals to err underlies the process of learning and growth. These mistakes will, naturally, lead to suffering. What do I mean by mistakes? I am alluding to actions based on and colored by personal desires.

Another facet of personal desire is that it rarely stops to consider the free expression of the personal will and choice which divests itself in others just as surely as it invests in oneself. The interplay between exalting one's own ego driven needs while also negating the free will of others is the ethical principle, and fundamental esoteric basis, underlying the interrelationship of personal desires with suffering. Actions based on personal desire will cause someone to suffer: either the person undertaking the action if/when their expectations for the outcome are not met, or the person being manipulated or affected by the action which negates their free opportunity to choose the events and circumstances affecting them from and in their environment. In either case, it is also part of the nature of suffering that it festers, causing enmity between both parties, leading to suffering in both, as well.

Life, as a process, flows through a constant series of yin/yang experiences - experiences that reveal the effects and influences of both extremes of the polar opposites in every duality - whether that yin/yang might be expressed and experienced through emotions, careers, beliefs, relationships, economic/political systems, cultural ethos/pathos, or sociologically influenced dreams for the future. One cannot know happiness without also knowing sadness. If only one of the states existed, that state would not be distinguishable, and hence would only be experienced as part of a bland, unperceived ennui.

However, the law of existence which demands that the poles of opposites must be intertwined and present as the duality of reality (whether in individuals or cultures and nations) should not denote that it is not possible to improve the conditions of existence for the better. We can do a lot to ease suffering by reducing our individual, natural, and cultural orientations to desire. Humanity will never fully eliminate suffering, but the degree and suffering felt as well as its pervasiveness throughout the world can always be alleviated by varying amounts. The only path to reducing suffering arises by commensurately reducing individual, national, and cultural desire.

The contemporary world is rooted in stress. Those most successful in accumulating wealth, position, and power require a willing workforce to perpetuate the division into classes and widen the gaps between classes. So, the worker is placed under the constant stress if not only having to produce on the job, but having to protect and maintain their income in order to continue paying for: rent, house payments, car payments, insurance payments, repair bills, food, clothing, and, of course, the purchase of all those objects which are accumulated out of desire - for status, for the acceptance of others, to create envy in others, to make one feel good, and to create a sense of personal self-worth. Stress keeps people "in their place," sociologically, as it also reveals the people who cannot cope - those who societies ultimately cast aside.

Humanity has re-created (or perhaps redesigned is a better word) the planet. Humanity has done this out of the personal and collective desires for an unending and unfathomable "more." Yet, while the quest for all this "more" makes the already wealthy exponentially wealthier, and the affluent more comfortable and more estimable in others' eyes but generally lazier to a commensurate degree, this "more" also leads to greater doses of suffering on a planetary scale as the divide between affluence and poverty widens, as extreme poverty spreads, as famine becomes endemic, as species are rendered extinct, as the quality of the environment deteriorates, and as we use up the planet's natural resources at an alarming rate without ever stopping to consider the needs of future generations who are, after all, our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

This culture will, ultimately, consume itself into oblivion. People will survive, no doubt. But the structure of the culture, the economic, political and sociological models upon which the contemporary social order are based will all perish as the culture consumes itself into oblivion. The people of the future will have to develop a more sustainable mindset and more sustainable method of integrating humanity with the natural world as they seek to integrate necessary comfort while maintaining a viable and naturally abundant ecosystem (which the planets is capable of providing for us if we allow it to) while overcoming the desire for luxury and predominance. 

Humanity will have to reduce its numbers dramatically. Human sprawl must cease to usurp nearly all the habitable land and wisely understand that if we so reduce the planet's diversity, we ultimately doom it to evolve into a lifeless waste heap incapable of functioning as an living, interconnected, and vital ecosystem. Thus, humanity must find a way to teach, individually and collectively, the personal responsibility that accrues with existence and the need for balance between ego driven personal and collective expressions of desire with the moral and ethical imperative of honoring and respecting all other lifeforms. 

In the process if dying, one discovers that the implications and influences of duality are slowly stripped away. The ego (and nearly always the body, too) is immersed in pain and suffering. The process of dying may seem instantaneous or drawn out over a long period. However, in both cases, the process of dying demands the ego focus on the pain and suffering which is insuperably connected with the encroachment of necrosis (mentally, emotionally, and physically). This dynamic is another law of existence because the process is meant to purge the individual of personal desire before they enter the light, feel the sensation of perfect love awaiting at the end, and reunite with the "All." 

What comes after death?

No one who has not been there can answer that with any degree of certainty. Those who have encountered Near Death or Out-of-Body states are also incapable of answer with any degree of objective certainty that question, too, because they did not cross the threshold, and therefore, have not actually experienced the afterlife (if one exists). No, those folks have gone up to the door, but they have not walked through it. Thus, no living being can offer anything objectively or definitively true about the post-death experience. 

All living things possess consciousness. Even coral reefs know the exact right time of the full moon, and the one full moon of the year, during which to coordinate their reproductive discharges to effectively propagate new life. The timing of coral reproduction, the hive mentalities of ants and bees, the way packs, herds, pods, coveys, schools, and all other collectives of species of life on this planet (including colonies of single celled organisms) work together to enhance their chances of survival, all prove to me that there are hierarchies of collective consciousness.

The Earth, our planet, is also an ecosystem, utterly interconnected and interdependent. This planet has created, nurtured, and propagated unfathomably countless variations of lifeforms over the eons of the planet's presence in the cosmos. Until redesigned by human inventions' intervention, the bounty the planet offered seemed limitless. Consequently, it seems obvious to me that there has to exist a planetary consciousness which exists in conjunction with the ecosystem. 

It is my contention and belief that when individual lifeforms die, each individual consciousness reunites with the planetary consciousness, and that is what I call, "Reuniting with the 'All.'"

I can only suggest that, from any logical perspective, the "self," or individual consciousness, would be a puny thing compared with the "All." The only way the "All" can be enriched is by and through the love we bring with ourselves into it at the moment we "step into the light" and reunite with our source, the fountain of life. As the individual consciousness joins with the planetary consciousness, there is no more need for the individual self-awareness to persist. However, all of that-which-was-the-self integrates into the "All," and so it (and each of us with it) lives on in the planetary consciousness. This is why all aspects of personal desire and ego must be purged through the stripping away process contained in pain and suffering as expressed through the process of dying. What is left is the pure love accumulated and expressed in one's lifetime, which then joins with the planetary consciousness, the expression of altruism and love which nurtures physical reality. In this process, the planetary consciousness can be understood as the ever-increasing, ever-intensifying, ever-expanding, ever-diversifying, and infinite expression of the planet's accumulation and apprehension of love. 

In the same way, our solar system is also an ecosystem, as is the galaxy, the local cluster of galaxies in which our galaxy drifts through space, and on to our universe, indeed, leading all the way to the Multiverse. So, our consciousnesses never die, even though they cease being self-aware. As part of the planetary consciousness, they merge with the solar consciousness when the Sun goes supernova. This accumulation of pure love and eons of nearly infinite expressions of diverse experience will seed the new solar system that arises out of the (quite literal) ashes of the supernova of the previous one. Eventually, when all the available energy in this area has been used, the collective consciousnesses of the many solar systems will join with the galactic consciousness, which will join with the collective consciousness of local cluster of galactic consciousness when our galaxy burns all its energy, and so on, through the merger with the Universal Consciousness, and ultimately, the Multiversal Consciousness. 

Rather than mourn the passing of those who die in our lives, we should rejoice. Our mourning is an expression of our own losses. But in reality, death purges and perfects the soul, making it ready to reunite with the "All." The soul becomes an instrument of pure and perfect love which then enriches the planetary consciousness, and through it, all of humanity, as well. Suffering ends. The ego is overcome, and the individual expands into the "All" in the merger of reuniting. This is an event to rejoice because love is served. This is the esoteric meaning of "Love-ism." 

The Poetry of Don Coorough Is Finally Published

Dear friends and readers,

My book of poetry, "Love-ism Volume I: A Critical Mass and Other Poems" is now available for purchase. It is a 442-page quality paperback. 

http://www.publishamerica.net/product50927.html

"Love-ism Volume I: A Critical Mass and Other Poems contains the complete poetry of Don Coorough. The title poem is a contemporary, epic creation tale which incorporates material from wide ranging sources, including: cosmology, physics, neuroscience, biology, politics, economics, sociology and mythology. Destined to be a classic, this experimental poem was written utilizing techniques like: formal structure and rhyme, free verse, projective verse and organic composition. Also included in the collection are poems from the following categories and genres: love poetry, nature poetry, impressionism, surrealism, psychedelic poetry, dream vision poetry, transcendentalism and poetry of political, religious and social commentary. The material will inspire its readers with its breadth of styles, its foundation in a vast array of topics, and its highly emotional content. It's influences are readily apparent, including: John Donne, Alexander Pope, John Milton, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Walt Whitman, Allan Ginsberg, Charles Olson, and Denise Levertov."

I hope my friends and readers will consider ordering a copy. Please also feel free to share the link with your friends. Please click on the link to get your copy today.

Warm regards in peace and with love,

Don Coorough

Shoreline Driftwood – A Four-Year Anniversary and Thank You to Readers

On September 21, 2008, I typed in my first post for my blog, Shoreline Driftwood. Today, I am 6 days away from celebrating the 49 month anniversary for this blog, and just a little past its 4 year anniversary. In those 49 months, Shoreline Driftwood has received 18,856 page views on its 221 posts from readers all over the world. I know the counter on the blog does not read as having recorded that high of traffic to my blog. Unfortunately, the counter had to be restarted on multiple occasions because it failed to keep working from time to time. This explains why the counter only indicates 9716 visitors to my blog as of today's date. 

I am extremely grateful to all the readers who have stopped by my blog, either to give it an occasional read or to become regular readers. I wanted to take this anniversary and use it as an opportunity to share with readers not only my gratitude (which is deeper and more heartfelt than I can state) but also to include some of the highlights as culled from the stats on page viewings which reflect your interests in my writing.

Readers of my blog emanate from nations all over the world. The top 10 nations in terms of numbers of page views is as follows: 

1) United States – 8839, 

2) Germany – 1206, 

3) Russia –1156, 

4) United Kingdom – 781, 

5) Slovenia – 592, 

6) Netherlands – 348, 

7) France – 308, 

8) South Korea – 265, 

9) Canada – 244, 

10) Ukraine – 198. 

In addition to these nations, I know the blog has had readers from Indonesia, Philippines, Lebanon, Iraq, and India, in addition to many other nations.

For my writing to reach such a broad and diverse readership is very humbling at the same time as it is extremely gratifying. I am amazed and surprised by the reach of the blog given it was such a small venture 4 years ago. I had no idea I could, or even any ambition to, generate the large and diverse readership which I have garnered over the past 4 years. As I say, I feel humbled by the response.

Indeed, at some point in 2010, I realized my readership had grown to a point that I could reach more people per month from my blog than I could from many, if not most, of the online literary journals in operation. Consequently at that time, I ceased submitting my writing to other sources for possible publication. For the entire 4 year period, I have averaged 385 viewings per month and I found I was getting as many as 1100 to 1200 viewings in some months. I liked how I was able to garner so many viewings without contributing to advertising or feeling constrained by publishers and editors. I experienced a great deal of freedom in this way, not being limited by subject matter, style, voice, or genre (poetry, non-fiction, or fiction). As a consequence, I have grown as a writer, as a thinker, and as a person. I have to thank all of you as readers of Shoreline Driftwood for making this possible.

Next, I’d like to share with you a list of my top 25 most viewed blog posts. I’ll provide the title, a brief description of the blog entry, the date it was posted (month/day/year), and the number of viewings. If readers find they missed something and want to go back to view it, you can click on the link below or by going to the blog archive and looking in the month and year indicated for the title, and then merely clicking on the title will take you to the post.

1)      Ekphrasis Exercise – three poems I wrote which interpret three pieces of art, 2/7/10, 1830 viewings

2    2)      An Interpretation and Discussion of Charles Olson’s Poem “Maximus to himself” – an analysis of the poem, 1/21/10, 1135 viewings

3)      A Critical Mass – my epic creation tale poem and poetic magnum opus, 12/15/08, 820 viewings

4    4)      Metternich, Bismarck and Franco Reveal Reactionary-Conservatism’s Political Struggle with the Rise of Populist, Liberal-Republican Equality – an historical overview with critical commentary, 5/26/10, 450 viewings

5    5)      On Reliving the 60s: The Conflict between the Old Entrenched Power Structure and the Youth Movement – an historical overview with commentary and analysis, 4/1/09, 362 viewings

6    6)      An Analytical Introduction to the Poetry of Jim Morrison – a brief introduction to the poetry of Jim Morrison, 5/13/10, 225 viewings

7    7)      On the Rise and Fall of America’s Counterculture (1967-1972) – an historical overview with commentary, 12/10/08, 216 viewings

8    8)      The French in Indochina and the Beginning of Decolonization and the End of Domination by Western Empires in the Third World – an historical analysis with commentary, 5/24/10, 181 viewings

9    9)      R. D. Laing’s Radical Psychology and My Arguments with Contemporary Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment – an overview and analysis with commentary, 8/3/09, 166 viewings

10)  Seductively Satirizing Hollywood’s Seduction: Woody Allen’s Anti-Genre Films – an overview and analysis with commentary, 11/12/09, 160 viewings

11)  On the Organization of an Enlightened and Ecologically Sound Community – a philosophical look at two possible futures depending on humanity’s approach to Climate Change which includes detailed scientific factual findings, 2/14/09, 152 viewings

12)  On the Nature of Consciousness: Consciousness’ Relationship to Living a Life with Meaning – a detailed analysis which includes the latest neuroscientific research and findings and a philosophical interpretation of the information,12/6/08, 143 viewings

13)  the firestorm of raging opulence – one of my poems (a short one), 6/8/09, 140 viewings

14)  On Reviewing the Realities of Reagonomics’ Supply Side Strategies and their Effects on the Current American Recession – an historical overview with critical analysis, 3/23/09, 139 viewings

15)  Understanding Classical Greek Mythology and Its Avenues for Enlightenment – an historical overview with interpretive analysis and commentary, 11/10/09, 130 viewings

16)  The Fifth Revolution in Poetics: On a Brief Overview of the History of Poetry with Commentary and Analysis – an historical overview with a contemporary analysis and urging for a 5th revolution, 3/23/10, 108 viewings

17)  On Choices, Actions and Responsibilities: Freedom, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – a philosophical treatise which includes an historical overview and critical analysis, 12/12/08, 104 viewings

18)  On How George W. Bush Confounded the Wisdom of the Ages – an historical overview with critical analysis of Bush’s leadership and neocon’s ineffective strategies with regard to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 12/7/08, 103 viewings

19)  Significant Word Exercise: Peace – a commentary from the personal point of view, 1/28/10, 101 viewings

20)  Jung and Mythopoetic Thought – a brief overview with commentary, 12/7/09, 83 viewings

21)  Solaced Wistless Sighs – one of my poems (a short one), 12/21/10, 66 viewings

22)  On Death, Dying and Reintegration – The Transition from Life through Death into Reintegration with the All – a philosophical and spiritual view of the after-death experience, 7/28/12, 60 viewings

23)  On Seeking Balance in the Contemporary World – a philosophical and spiritual commentary, 7/10/12, 55 viewings

24)  A Poetry Exercise and Prompt: From “Meeting the Mountains” to Amniotic Steps” – a poetry exercise which reveals the writing of my poem “Amniotic Steps” (a short poem), 9/7/10, 55 viewings

25)  The Approaching Age of Equality - an historical overview with contemporary analysis and commentary, 11/3/11, 48 viewings  

     As you can see, only four of my poems are present on this list. By far, most of the posts on Shoreline Driftwood are original poems and most of them have received viewings in the 20s or 30s, though some of my earliest postings of poetry show only a handful of viewings. I assume most people don’t go back through the blog archive to look for older nuggets and because I had a small readership in the early days I have fewer viewings of those items.

  

     I’d like to remind readers that all of my essays have been rewritten and updated with the revised versions incorporated into my two books of essays. Likewise, all of my poems have been revised and those revisions have been included in the book of my complete poetry (with two exceptions, Unrestrained Perfect Love was written after the book was compiled and By a Stream was omitted from inclusion because of an oversight). My two books, "Love-ism Volume I" (poetry) and "Love-ism Volume II book I" (first book of essays), are available to be purchased online. You can find the links in 2 of the next 3 newer blog posts. 

  

     Thank you to everyone who has stopped by for a visit and to all of you who will do the same in the future. I am grateful for all of you. The purpose of my writing is to share my deepest thoughts, my most urgent feelings, my hopes and fears, and my unique perspective on our world. That sharing and communication has been accomplished is reflected by the viewing numbers I’ve posted. You give my life meaning and value by reading what I have written. I can never overstate how much that means to me.

      My wish for all of you is for peace, happiness, good health, warm relationships, and a fulfilling life. May we continue to grow together in the future. 

The Next Beatles' Movie - A Band on the Run

 The Next Beatles’ Movie

“A Band on the Run”

A Screen Treatment

by Don Coorough

Introduction

This feature film arises from a notion of creating a new “Beatles” movie. One might ask, “How can there be a new Beatles movie with two of the members passed away?” Would anyone be interested in a Marx Brothers movie without the brothers? Would anyone be interested in a Humphrey Bogart movie without the real Bogey? Well, ironically in 1972, Woody Allen made a movie he called “Play It Again, Sam” in which a lookalike actor, Jerry Lacy, portrayed Bogart and the film audience accepted him in the role. Indeed, in 1980, the movie “The Man with Bogart’s Face” was made with Robert Sacchi starring as Sam Marlowe, the man with Bogart’s face. That movie was accepted and enjoyed by the movie audience of its day, and even the website DVD Verdict offers a review which suggests the movie still stands up.

In order to make a new Beatles movie, one would have to find lookalike-soundalike actors to play the roles, all of who can act and will be believable, in addition to having a script which is faithful to the era as well as the personas of John, Paul, George and Ringo. There are certainly a lot of Beatle impersonator bands performing throughout the US and Britain at this point. Several movies have been made in the past about The Beatles which have used actors who looked enough like The Beatles and who could sound like them, not just with their singing voices but their speaking voices as well. Several successful films exist of this type, including: “The Birth of the Beatles,” “Beatlemania,” “The Linda McCartney Story,” and “Two of Us,” to name a few.

Additionally, I feel it is highly valuable to point out how the band is currently experiencing a huge revival of interest in them by a whole new generation of young people. By providing this demographic new material which would be available for the first time, but still utilizing music by the stars culled from their solo careers, this movie would have a strong likelihood of being very successful – indeed, it would likely end up being a summer smash.

In order for the film to work, it would have to be a fictional romp in a style reminiscent of “Help!” but which would incorporate elements of their known lifestyles during the 70s. My idea is to have the selected lookalike-soundalike actors who perform the roles of The Beatles act in a story which might have been played by the musicians themselves had they made another film together in the 70s after The Beatles had broken up. So, the story must be written in a manner allowing it to be acceptable by current audiences as having been “possible” in the 70s. It would have to be faithful to The Beatles’ personas, to the time period which it depicts, while also remaining within the general stereotypical formula used in The Beatles 60s movies, and it would have to contain music by the guys from their solo careers.

Casting and Roles

Other actors in the movie would also include lookalikes for Linda McCartney, James Coburn, Alice Cooper, Christopher Lee, and Richard Nixon.

The role for the Christopher Lee character would be the role of the villain, a super villain who aims to take control of the world, reminiscent of the arch-villains from James Bond movies. Lee conspires with Nixon who is his primary assistant, as they intend to hold Paul McCartney for ransom. It is Lee’s plan to extort money and power from the nations of the world. A ludicrous idea, yes, just as was the idea of Ringo being sacrificed because of a particular ring he received and wears on one of his fingers (the plot of “Help!”) and the plots of all the James Bond films.

The James Coburn lookalike character would reprise, in a tongue-in-cheek performance, the Derek Flint role Coburn portrayed in “Our Man Flint” and “In Like Flint” as he would be the action hero assisting John, George and Ringo in their quest to rescue Paul. The Alice Cooper lookalike character would assist Derek Flint as a rock and roller who can also be a tough guy. Cooper would assist Flint in helping to provide the muscle for the operation.

Premise of the Film

The premise for the movie is fictional in the same way “Help!” was a fictionally premised movie. 

Paul remains in Lagos, Nigeria after completing the recordings for Wings’ “Band on the Run” album. He plans to meet with Linda McCartney (who could be portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow) and the rest of Wings (none of whom actually appear in the movie except at the end in a scene of Wings’ first concert of the tour) back in England and to join them all as they leave on a world tour in a couple of days. However, Paul must remain behind in order to finish mixing the album first.

I acknowledge that Wing’s first world tour did not occur until 1976 whereas the “Band and on the Run” album came out in 1973. This is not a mock documentary, so details like that can be fudged without sacrificing the believability of the story. This is, after all, a fictitious story and by giving it a bit of an over the top premise (in the same way “Help!”was over the top in its premise and storyline), we clearly find room for some license with an inconvenient detail like there having been no Wings tour schedule right after the release of “Band and on the Run.”  We will also combine songs from a variety of the former Beatles’ solo albums, not culling material from a particular year. The premise is for the movie to be set in a nebulous mid-70s year, anywhere from ’73 to ’77.

That night, after Linda has left via jet for England, Paul is kidnapped by Christopher Lee, Richard Nixon and their goon henchmen. They hold Paul captive in a run down, abandoned holding cell and send a ransom note to Linda. Linda does not know where to turn or what to do. So, she contacts John, who in turn passes the word on to George. George then informs Ringo, who is golfing with Derek Flint and Alice Cooper, so he enlists them in the quest to save Paul as well. The movie progresses from there as we follow the zany events encompassed by the rescue.

The songs I propose to use as music for the movie are all culled from the former Beatles’ solo catalogs, songs taken primarily (though not exclusively) from the 1970s era. I suggest using the following songs for the John Lennon contributions: “Instant Karma,” “Whatever Gets You through the Night,” “Mind Games,” and “Watching the Wheels.” I suggest using for the Paul McCartney tunes: “Band on the Run,” “Hi Hi Hi,” “My Love,” and the live version of “Venus and Mars/Rock Show.” The George Harrison songs incorporated would be: “Crackerbox Palace,” “When We Was Fab,” “My Sweet Lord,” and “Got My Mind Set on You.” Finally, for the Ringo Starr songs, I suggest including: “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Photograph.”

The Story

The title and opening credits would appear during the opening sequence which would be without music. The screen reveals Paul seeing Linda off at the airport as she returns to England. Paul explains he should just be a day or two behind her since mixing of the album would be completed soon. He suggests she get them packed for the tour and asks her to make sure the rest of the band get ready as well.

Paul stands at a window and watches Linda’s plane take off. The song “Hi, Hi, Hi” plays as the jet takes off into the sky and the credits continue. In a quick sequence of scenes, we see Paul leave the airport, drive through some highway interchanges, then off the highway and onto a dark, dirt road at dusk. The driver of an oncoming car seems to be drunk and runs Paul off the road. When Paul regains consciousness, he finds himself tied up and looking up at Christopher Lee. Paul says, “What’s all this now?”

Paul is imprisoned in a run down, abandoned, old shack of a holding cell probably used for transporting illegal contraband for years. While in his cell, we see him start the song, “Band on the Run,” solo, on his acoustic – “Stuck inside these four walls / sent inside for ever / never seein’ no one / nice again, like you, mama, you,” and during this part he’s thinking and dreaming about Linda, so we see her in the next segment which is then filled in with the sound of the whole band from the original recording.

When Linda arrives home, there is a telegram waiting for her. It’s the ransom note. Linda is to announce to the world that Paul has been kidnapped. The ransom demand is to put all national governments under Lee’s and Nixon’s command. They will run the world. “Only in this way,” the note says, “can world peace be guaranteed.” She is warned not to go to the police. We hear Linda mutter, “I wouldn’t go to the police anyway. All they’d likely want to do is bust me for marijuana possession.”

We see John’s character introduced through the song, “Watchin’ the Wheels,” as a homebody daddy in love with Yoko, taking care of Sean. At the conclusion of the song, Linda calls John to explain about the kidnapping. When John is told of Paul’s predicament, John says, “Nobody messes with me mate,” and promises to help.

George’s character is introduced with the song, “My Sweet Lord,” as living in Malibu, near enough to the beach to have an ocean view and practicing his meditation. The setting suggests George’s character to be spiritual and sincere. At the conclusion of “My Sweet Lord,” John gives George a call to explain about Paul’s plight. George explains, “We can’t have Paul in the hands of anyone more dastardly that he is himself, so count me in,” as he agrees to help rescue Paul.

Ringo is introduced with the song, “It Don’t Come Easy.” We watch him playing golf with Derek Flint and Alice Cooper at a golf course in LA. As we see the play on the first hole unfold, Alice tees off first and hits a long drive down the fairway, a very good shot. Next up, Flint hits one out into the fairway a good distance, but not as far as Alice’s drive had carried. Then, up comes Ringo. He swings mightily at the ball. The club does not hit the ball, but a breeze whipped up by the force of the swing does cause the ball to fall an inch forward, just off the tee. Alice gives Ringo a pathetic shake of his head and says, “I’ve seen better swings on a playground, Ringo.” Immediately thereafter, George comes driving up on a golf cart and tells Ringo, Flint and Alice about Paul’s kidnapping. Ringo agrees to join in the rescue saying, “Well, we can’t have that now, can we? I mean, Paul might actually end up dead this time.”

Flint becomes fascinated by the part about Lee’s and Nixon's characters wanting to take over the world, so naturally, as a super-spy, he has to get involved. He explains, “Once again the world is in trouble, and this time it needs me to extricate it,” then turning to George and Ringo he continues, “and extricate Paul as well, of course.” Alice wants in on the rescue too, saying, “We can’t let Paul remain kidnapped, it’ll ruin his legend.”

So, Alice and Flint join in with George and Ringo. They fly to New York to join up with John, and then all five of them fly off to the airport in Lagos.

Upon arriving, Alice and Flint lead a reconnaissance mission, as the others wait in their rooms at the ready, to the song “Whatever Gets You through the Night.” We watch Flint and The Coop go into bars, get a lead on Lee and Nixon, and surreptitiously find their way to where Paul is being held as the song, “Crackerbox Palace” is heard in the soundtrack. We see the spies locate the building in the compound where Paul is being held. As is historically the case with Flint’s character (from “Our Man Flint” and “In Like Flint”), he knows everything about everything. So, he knows the history of the place, where the holding cell is located, and has an idea for how to spring Paul from his captivity.

In a change of perspective, we go back to Paul’s POV. We see him pining for Linda, and her for him too. Both of them recollect certain special moments together while the song “My Love” is heard on the soundtrack. When they remember the same thing at the same time, they should be shot in the same scene together in a split screen fashion but with each in their own set. They would set up the lead in to a kiss which would not happen (they'd each kiss air) because the bubble of them being together in memory would be broken by their being apart and on separate continents.

We see the boys put their heads together along with Flint and Cooper during the song “Got My Mind Set on You.” They work out the details of Flint’s rescue plan. Flint and Lennon will battle Lee’s character while George and Ringo are to go straight to the building where Paul is locked up so they can free him. They’ll have to fight off some henchmen in order to pull it off. Alice is left with the task of fighting off Richard Nixon.

And then, to the song “Instant Karma,” we watch the plan unfold as they do battle with Christopher Lee, Richard Nixon and the other henchmen. However, things don’t go quite as planned. There are too many henchmen, and Flint has to fight them off. Cooper is occupied with his fight against Nixon. So, Lennon has to take on Christopher Lee alone.

In a battle against great odds, Flint takes out all the henchmen. Then, he is immediately surrounded by a bevy of beautiful starlets in bikinis, so he remarks, “I do enjoy the rewards that come from my work.” Alice Cooper takes out Richard Nixon in a fist fight (reminiscent of his fight with the Richard M. Dixon character, a Richard Nixon lookalike, who he staged a fight with during his 1973 “Billion Dollar Babies” tour). Alice remarks to himself, “I just gotta get myself a stooge like this guy for my next tour.” In a great struggle of wills during the battle between Lennon and Lee we hear the song “Mind Games.” This should be a surrealistic, way over the top struggle, complete with electronic machines which seem to derive power from Lennon’s and Lee’s minds, lots of costume changes, horror film cliches of closeups of their eyes, and all filmed in a kind of Frankenstein motif. 

Paul is freed by the others as they overcome his guards to the song, “When We Was Fab.” As Paul is rescued and reunited with his former band mates, John turns to him and says, “You can’t ever tell anyone about this you know.” Paul asks, “Why not?” John explains, “Do you want to kill all our solo records’ sales?People will think we’re friends again, and they’ll wonder when we’re getting the band back together.”

After Paul’s rescue, they’ll all be whisked away to the site of Paul’s first concert just in time for him to get on stage and play “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” as the opening number. Then, John, George and Ringo would sit in as they’ll all play together on “Photograph.” 

On Death, Dying and Reintegration – The Transition from Life through Death into Reintegration with the All

While duality is a property of life and being alive, and while duality persists through stages of the dying process, duality does not exist once the dying process reaches the stage where consciousness realizes the body is relinquishing its hold on the mind, or electromagnetic force which controls all human thought processes. When consciousness acknowledges the end is near, the mind undergoes a transformative process in preparation for reintegration with Unity.

During the first stage of the purification process as the mind succumbs to the transition to death, duality is thwarted. Consciousness must be purified of all attachments to life, material objects, and corporeal relationships. In order to detach from the material realm, and as part of the purification process, consciousness must be purged of all personal desires. The manner in which consciousness separates from desire and material attachments arises from an initial period of complete immersion into suffering.

As the Buddha explained, suffering is the result of desire. During one’s lifetime, the symbiotic relationship between suffering and desire renders itself as most obvious occurs through one of two phenomena: either the individual’s expectations regarding their desire is unmet which results in suffering by the desirer through feelings of loss and disappointment, or the free will of some other individual is thwarted when the desirer’s wish is fulfilled which leads to suffering felt by the one whose will is thwarted, causing disharmony between the two individuals, ultimately yielding a commensurate level or degree of disharmony in the relationship between the two individuals. In the latter instance, the desirer will end up feeling some degree of suffering because of the disturbance in the relationship, a lack of trust will arise, enmity could intercede, a potential loss of opportunities in the future is likely to evolve, and the result still reveals itself as disappointment, loss, and consequent suffering, now by both people involved in the situation.

The dynamic just described constitutes the essence of how karma accumulates from our actions, deeds and desires, and affects our world through future situations, circumstances, and forces which take place as a result of our earlier actions. Karma is a natural process constantly at play in our lives because we are constantly acting and desiring in life. N science, we learn that every action causes an opposite and equal reaction. The same principle comes to play in the accumulation and working out of karma. The laws of cause and effect create a symbiotic relationship which must always be equilibrated. Karma need not always be balanced immediately. Indeed, it may take years or decades. In some instances, karma does not even become equilibrated during one’s lifetime.

When accumulated karma has not been equilibrated during one’s lifetime, it must be purified during the transition through death to reintegration. The purification of un-equilibrated karma is one of the forces coming into play causing the intercession of suffering during the process of transition through death to reintegration. Another factor leading to the mediation of suffering during the transition results from an individual’s remaining attachment to personal desire.

In both of the circumstances presented above, suffering reveals itself as being an efficacious cure for an individual’s persisting desires. Suffering leads the consciousness to dwell on its cause. During the transition from life through death to reintegration, the mind loses its connection to the body. When the mind-body connection is lost, a consequent disconnection with other individuals from one’s life occurs. When the individual consciousness is left as the sole being to whom one must justify one’s actions, the need to create excuses, blame others, or otherwise create rationalizations no longer exists. Hence, the individual is finally capable of acknowledging faults, mistakes, and undesirable qualities. In such a psychological environment, the ego recedes as a motivator and controller of the mind, an honest assessment of the self can occur, and attachments to desires reveal themselves to the consciousness readily.

When the ego recedes into the background of the personality during the transition, the super-conscious assumes the dominant role in the mind. The super-conscious lacks any attachment to fear as well as the need to overcompensate or create false self-images, an overblown sense of self-importance, or deny personal responsibility for one’s life conditions as a result of actions and desires. Consequently, the super-conscious is capable of arriving at fair and unbiased judgments. The super-conscious also has no attachments to anything, so it can shed all of the individual’s previous desires and left over karma.

The physical process of dying can be instantaneous or drawn out. In either event, the physical process has pain and suffering attached to it. However, the physical process is only a detachment of consciousness from the body. Once consciousness separates from the body, there is a period of time while the electromagnetic field which comprises individual consciousness persists. Eventually that field will dissipate and join with the Earth’s electromagnetic field. During the slow period of dissipation, consciousness undergoes the purification process. As elements of the mind become purified of desire and karma is release, those portions of the electromagnetic field dissipate and become integrated into the Earth’s electromagnetic field – what scientists call the magnetosphere.

The planet is a living ecosystem and, consequently, has a consciousness which is the source of our awareness, the mother of our minds. The magnetosphere is the Earth’s consciousness. Ultimately, when the purification process has been completed, the rest of the individual’s consciousness reintegrates with the planetary consciousness, its source, and the entirety of the purified individual is subsumed by the planetary consciousness. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

As I explained earlier, the process of purification is the first stage in the transition from life through death into reintegration with the All. The second stage in this process is the conversion of the individual’s purified consciousness into a state of pure love. It is during this conversion when the individual gains an apprehension of meaning. An intense white light looms in front of the imagination – the mind’s eye which continues to populate thoughts with imagery, allowing the mind to continue to root transcendental experience in familiar forms, thus facilitating comprehension by the consciousness. The light radiates with the energy of pure love. This light washes over and through the consciousness of the individual infusing its essence back into the mind. An energy exchange takes place which the individual consciousness accept pure love into its while the totality of the individual’s purified life experiences are reintegrated with the planetary consciousness, enriching it with the totality of the super-conscious’ self.

As the individual’s mind becomes infused with the energy of pure love from the planetary consciousness, the mind sees the self walking into the light. The further into the light the mind walks, the more of this pure love energy bathes the “soul,” or super-conscious. Simultaneously, the further one walks into the light, the more of one’s totality of experience reunites with the planetary consciousness, reintegrating, becoming one.

Let me explain why I call this process “reintegration.”

Initially, when we are born, a small piece of the planetary consciousness attaches itself to the body of a fetus. This occurs at the moment the fetus gains self-awareness which is the moment individual consciousness and the ego are born. As an ego with an individual consciousness is born, a separation occurs from the planetary consciousness. This process occurs as the electromagnetic field of the fetus separates from the mother’s in the womb and a new identity comes to life. At the same moment, this new electromagnetic field acquires it’s uniqueness by chipping off a bit of the planetary electromagnetic field.

There is significance to the separation of the individual from the All. Prior to separation, the embryonic new consciousness lives in oneness with pure love and the planetary consciousness and does not self-identify. However, in the split, dissociation occurs. The ego comes into being with unique qualities. These unique qualities are the bits and pieces of the planetary consciousness which the newly forming individual consciousness brings with it. The bits are influences bequeathed to the new consciousness from the planetary consciousness’ storehouse of memory, experience, and essence from what it has gained when pervious individuals died and reintegrated.

Out of the stuff which consciousness brought with it as the new consciousness comes into being is what one might call, soul memories. Within these soul memories are contained apprehensions of what many people interpret as being memories from previous incarnations. It is out of this disintegration from the All which provides for the newly emerging consciousness the basic framework for the personality it will develop during the lifetime. This basic framework and its attendant soul memories are often accessible by individual’s whose consciousnesses are less dissociated than those who cannot access those memories. However, because of the dissociation which occurs in the process of being born, most people who can access these soul memories misinterpret them as being memories of actual previous lifetimes or incarnations they lived. This misinterpretation gave rise to the theory of reincarnation.

Really, what we are can be summed up as pieces of the all. In that sense, we are not really separate from each other. Rather, we are all made up of different pieces of the same single Earth consciousness in the same way that the different personalities within a person who suffers from multiple personality disorder are all really the same person. If I harm you or your harm me, we are actually harming ourselves at the same time. Because we are really all one, or perhaps more accurately, different pieces of the same One, and because we emanate from a source which is comprised of pure love, it is utterly contrary to our purpose for existence as well as contrary to our essential nature to be anything other than love or to express anything other than love in our lives. By understanding this concept, one can clearly see why wars, bigotry, hate, violence, anger, and anything else which causes separation and division among us is also contrary to our purpose for being alive as well as the meaning of life.

We are here to accumulate experience and bring experience back with us to enrich the planetary consciousness. We are here to experience love and spread love to bring the love back with us to enhance the One consciousness. We are here to share, grow, learn, understand, and ultimately, through our love heighten and raise our consciousness to bring ourselves back to the All on a higher arc and life it to a higher vibratory level as a consequence. If we lived according to those principles, we’d find meaning, fulfillment, and purpose without diminishing anyone or anything else. We will, as a species, have to learn and accept these principles if we are ever to create a more utopian culture on the planet, reach our highest potential, live in peace, and accomplish our greatest achievements.