By Ryan David Sims
Saturday, June 28th marked the premiere of Change in Washington DC. Several hundred people turned out to the George Washington Lisner Auditorium, just a few blocks from the Capitol Building and the White House. It was a fitting platform for the message of the documentary, and the date was declared Brain Education Day in Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Alexandria, Virginia. In his proclamation of June 28th as Brain Education Day, Fairfax Mayor R. Scott Silverthorne said, “Founded by philosopher and educator Ilchi Lee, the International Brain Education Association and the Korean Institute of Brain Science promote the study of brain awareness and its potential to improve the human condition. Brain Education outreach activities have been dedicated to helping people improve their physical, mental, and cognitive health. Brain Education’s pioneering work helps people tap into their brain’s unlimited potential.”
After the screening of Change, Executive Director and Producer Ilchi Lee gave a lecture about the film, it’s theme, and the underlying concepts that he wants to share with the world. Beginning by asking the question, “what are my reasons for changing?”, Lee posed an answer: “Health, happiness, and peace. In the end, they are all the same. Only the words differ.” This was a major theme of the lecture following the film. The audience seemed to agree that health, happiness, and peace were valuable goals and gave a large applause. The next question was posed to the audience: “so what can I change to achieve health, happiness, and peace?” The audience was asked to try something. For one minute the task was to shout, applaud, and stomp your feet—as loudly as possible. The crowd burst out of their previously attentive and subdued state and became an almost 400-voice chorus of loud, almost raucous, cheers, claps, and stomps. After the minute long exercise, Lee asked how everyone felt. The answer was that we certainly felt different. In fact the change in energy of the room was almost tangible. So why did we just scream and clap for a minute straight? That was my question, initially. Was this just a catharsis, a expurgation of whatever we were thinking or feeling in the moments beforehand? The answer turned out to be essentially, yes. But it was more than that. Lee made the connection between changing one’s energy, and changing one’s consciousness. The change in energy was directly related to the change in consciousness that followed the loud and rambunctious meditative exercise. This seemed like a pretty easy proposition to adopt. Physically I felt different, and my mental landscape was also cleared. Both changes came through the same act.
Lee then directed the audience to retrieve the set of meditation magnets that were clinging to each of the seats of the auditorium. He explained that if we can change our consciousness by changing our energy through meditation, we can be the master of our emotions. Electromagnetism is one of the most basic types of physical interaction. Lee explained that through magnetic meditation, we can change our energy and consequently our emotions too. “You can train your concentration with the magnets.” While rotating the magnets around each other, Lee asked the audience to do the same. “Don’t let them come together. To do this, you must focus, right? But when focusing, you are in an emotion-free state.” After leading the crowd through a few meditative exercises with the magnets, it was explained that to manage your emotions you need energy stronger than the energy you are trying to control. “As you move the magnets around each other, you are producing energy. You are focusing and producing energy to manage your emotional energy.”
This is a step toward experiencing change. By remembering that you can manipulate and produce energy to control your emotions, then you can be free of the restraints that they place on your will to change. The premiere of Change in Washington DC, was literally a magnetic event. The next screening will be in Atlanta, Georgia on July 9th. Hope to see you there.