In the course of making my film on intuition: PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System – I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve been rejected.

Rejected by financiers, rejected by distributors, rejected by potential investors, rejected by those whom I thought were my friends.

I started seeking backing for this film around about 2006.
That’s over a decade of constant rejection.

I used to take it personally. And truth is, it got me down.
And at times, it made me question whether there was even merit in doing the film.

But here it is, nearing completion. And not only is it looking great, but the response to it from work-in-progress screenings has been hugely gratifying.

I now have 27 wonderful and supportive investors from all around the world, and the film is better for all that prior rejection I faced. In fact, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good a film if not for that rejection.

How come?

Because I came to realise that rejection was just the Universe shunting me in the right direction.

Say what?

Seriously, I discovered that rejection is merely the Universe shunting you in the right direction. 

When I think back on all those times I was rejected – whether it was from a distributor, or an investor, or a financing entity – I thank God for that rejection. Because had that distributor or investor or financing entity come on board the film, it would be a different film. They would have tried to impose their energy upon it, and it would have been the wrong fit. The film would have suffered.

Rejection forced me to make the film intuitively.

I began, in 2006, trying to put this film together the way I’ve put every other film together – and remember, I’m not new to this. By 2006 I had produced and directed 15 feature films and more than a dozen independent documentaries. I know how to produce a movie.

But I kept on getting stone-walled on this one.

Everyone would tell me what a great idea it was, and what a great film it would make, but no-one would back me. The traditional way of financing and producing a movie just wasn’t working.

It forced me to look at what I was doing, why I was doing it, and I realised I was imposing my will on the process. It had worked in the past, but it wasn’t working this time. Not with this film.

So I started to look at rejection – and I began to ask myself why? Instead of taking it personally, I began to try and look at the bigger picture. Why was this happening?

And it occurred to me, not immediately but over an extended period of time, that those rejections, as disappointing as they were at the time, were crucial in leading me to either think differently about the film, consider other more energetically aligned options, or to leave myself open to a better fit from some other person or opportunity.

And that happened.
It happened time and time again.
And it continues to happen.

I now look at rejection in a totally different way. I am thankful for rejection.

Why?

Because I know that the Universe knows better than me. That there are better things around the corner. I have now learned to trust that rejection is the redirection I didn’t realise I needed. Or perhaps deep down I did realise, but common sense or my wilful intellect led me to the door of rejection anyway.

There is such a thing as Divine Timing. I believe that now. I’m impatient. I’m an impatient person. I want things to happen now, in my timeframe, to suit my grand plans.

It doesn’t work that way.
I know that now.

I have learned, through the making of this film, that my timing is irrelevant. And if I try to impose my timing on something, then invariably things don’t work out as best they could.

I now trust in Divine Timing, and I wait for things to align.
And they do.
You just have to trust.

People say that persistence is the key to making things happen.
I would disagree with that.
Within persistence there is a strong element of force, and will.
For me, that now doesn’t work.
It used to, but not anymore.
What works now is trust.

Ultimately this is all about intuition. Knowing that your intuition is a guidance system that’s designed to keep you on your destiny path. Believe it or not, rejection is part of that guidance system. Sometimes it’s a rude and brutal part, but it’s guidance nonetheless.

It’s the Universe shunting you in the right direction…

Photo by W Eugene Smith, from his Newcastle Railyard series.

This morning in an auditorium south of Asheville in North Carolina, Lee Carroll and his partner Monica Muranyi watched my film – PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System.  

http://www.pgsintuition.com

If you don’t know who Lee Carroll is, well, he channels the spirit guide Kryon.

http://www.kryon.com/About_Kryon/About_Kryon.html

Lee Carroll is one of the most famous channellers on the planet. He holds channellings and seminars all around the world to large crowds, some as large as 3000 people. He’s constantly traveling the globe, and his events and seminars are invariably sold out.

He’s written nineteen books, published in 25 languages, and his website (which hosts all his channellings for free) gets about 30,000 hits per day. Take a listen to one or two –

http://www.kryon.com/k_freeaudio.html

Monica, his partner, has written three books, bringing together many of Kryon’s teachings into something akin to anthologies. They’re fabulous.

http://monikamuranyi.com

Jennifer and I are doing a bit of a roadshow around America at the moment, showing the work in progress cut to some of the key players in the film. We can’t get to everyone on this trip – we’ll have to come back again later – but we were able to catch up with Lee at his Asheville event. And this morning we showed him and Monica the film –

– and they both loved it.

They both applauded spontaneously at the end, and Lee described it as “spectacular.”

I’ll take that!

He was particularly interested in what the Indian interviewees had to say – including His Holiness Pujya Swamiji Chidanand Saraswati, one of the spiritual leaders of the Hindu religion, and head of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, on the sacred Ganges.

Lee also loved the cinematography, which he said was so good it almost distracted him from the rest of the movie! And the subtleties in the editing didn’t go unnoticed too –

He’s a former award winning sound engineer for movies and tv, so his technical appreciation for what we’ve done was tremendous. He was impressed with the sound design, even though it’s still a temp mix.

Wayne & Lib and your team – take a bow!

So there you go. Very pleasing, and once again a huge relief for me. It’s nerve-wracking showing these people the movie. But so far the response has been very gratifying.

During the two days at the event, Jennifer and I met quite a few wonderful people who have expressed great interest in the film, and have given us their details so we can begin to think about Cinema on Demand screenings in their towns and cities.

A few days break before we head over to the west coast to continue the screenings…

You’ll notice that I’ve changed the banner image from a Camino image to the key art of my intuition film – PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System.

http://www.pgsintuition.com

This reflects a shift in emphasis on this blog – because whilst I’ll still post Camino related writings, my preoccupation now and certainly till release next year will be the film.

Actually it’s not such a shift, because when I started out on my first Camino, in April 2013, I dedicated my walk to this film (yet to be started at that stage!), and hence that’s why I named the blog as I did – PGS the Way.

I’ve been thinking that maybe I should shut down this blog and start a new one dedicated to the movie – but I have so many wonderful and very precious friends on this blog, and it now has such a rich a colourful history (think Sister Clare, think the Burning Dwarf), that it would be a shame to shut it down.

However lately I’ve found that most of my posts have been film related, not Camino related, and hence I decided to make this shift with the banner pic.

I do have in the back of my mind releasing highlights of this blog as a book at some time down the track – not comments, but my own personal writings. Because this blog does chart my spiritual growth, from my commencement of the Camino (in fact, during the preparation too), to the forthcoming release of the movie, next year at 4:44pm on the 4/4.

Actually, we’re going to be releasing the film theatrically beforehand – both in the US and Australia. I’ll let you know more about that later.

So here is the revamped PGS the Way. I hope you’ll hang around, because I promise the next several months are going to be fun!

Here below is the website’s first banner pic – at Cape Finisterre…. posted in Feb 2013.

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Last night we screened a Work-in-Progress cut of PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System at the International Holistic Medicine Summit in Kansas City, Missouri.

Dr. Norm Shealy, a legend in the field of Holistic Medicine and medical Intuition, introduced me and the film, and I have to say the screening could not have gone better.

It seemed the film held the audience right from the get-go, and at the end there was long and loud applause, with a few people even giving the film a standing ovation!

It was very gratifying.
And a huge relief for me!

Later there was a Q&A, and most of the audience stayed for that. Afterwards, in private conversations with some of the audience, Jennifer and I got some valuable feedback which we will take back to the editing room for further tweaks.

Most importantly, before last night’s Summit screening we held a private screening of the film for Caroline Myss and Norman Shealy. They both loved it! Caroline in particular was very generous in her praise – and if you know Caroline Myss, that means something!

(Caroline and Norm feature prominently in the film.)

Later, I wondered why I had been so anxious about Caroline’s response to the film. It’s because she has such a finely tuned radar for anything that is false, grandiose, ego-driven, self-serving, or in any way inauthentic.

She is fierce and withering in her condemnation of anything that is not truthful.

In the months prior, in editing, whenever I had a choice to make, I would mentally ask myself: Does this pass the Caroline Myss test? And by that, I meant, am I doing this for the right reasons? Is this creative decision based on truth or ego?

I guess I was anxious about Caroline’s response because I knew she would tell me in no uncertain terms if the film was authentic or not. She would not be polite or demur – that’s not her style. She would give it to me from both barrels if she didn’t like the film.

And from a technical level, she would also dismiss the film if I didn’t get intuition right. And let me tell you, intuition is a tricky subject for a filmmaker. That’s probably why a film like this has never been made before! And that’s why it took 18 months in editing to complete.

Caroline genuinely loved the film – and for me, that meant I’d made something which had passed the Caroline Myss test. That meant I’d made something truthful. And irrespective of any future success or otherwise, ultimately that for me is the most important thing –

The Summit screening last night in front of a room full of intuitive professionals affirmed that.

Jennifer and I now leave for a 900ml drive to North Carolina to meet up with Lee Carroll, who also features prominently in the film. Lee channels Kryon. We leave Kansas City though mightly relieved. We now know for sure that the film works.

It passed the Caroline Myss test…

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Jennifer and I are off again in the next few days – this time back to the US to begin the first stages of promoting the film – PGS Intuition is your Personal Guidance System. 

The purpose of the trip is to show the film to the key US based interviewees in the film – to get their feedback and hopefully begin to enlist their support of the film.

We start in Texas near the border of Luisiana with Dr. Rita Louise – who features in the film and has very kindly offered to put us up at her magnificent Plantation styled house.

We then move up to Kansas City, where we’ll be screening the film to Dr. Norm Shealy and Caroline Myss – two of the most highly respected medical intuitives in the US. They make an important contribution to the film.

The following day we’ll screen the film as a Work-in-Progress cut at the International Holistic Medicine Summit, in Kansas City on June 12th. Whilst the film isn’t finished yet, it’s in good enough shape to screen to those attending the Summit – comprising some of the top Medical Intuitives from around the world.

From Kansas City we then move south to North Carolina, where we meet up with Lee Carroll – one of the world’s most celebrated channels. He channels Kryon, and he too features prominently in the film.

From there we fly to the west coast to meet up with Dr. Francesca McCartney, founder and CEO of the Academy of Medical Intuition, based in Mill Valley north of San Francisco. Francesca was enormously helpful in the early stages of the film, and also contributes as an interviewee.

From there we head south to Santa Barbara, where our schedule and itinerary happens to co-incide with Paul Selig’s schedule and itinerary – he’s on a major pre-launch tour of his new book, THE BOOK OF TRUTH, which launches June 6th. Paul too is in the film – live channeling, which is amazing! and we’ll screen the film for him too.

We then head to LA where we meet up with Dr. Judith Orloff in Venice – Judith makes a wonderful and impassioned contribution to the film – and then we head down to Encinitas near San Diego to show the film to the famous James Van Praagh.

These aren’t the only US based interviewees – there are others, including Michael Tamura and Dr. Dean Radin, amongst others – but we’ll be meeting up with them on the next trip.

So it’s a full on few weeks coming up. The film will have all its original music in, thanks to composer James Shuar in London who has worked hard to meet our deadlines – and will look spicko thanks to a temp grade and temp mix – thanks also to Spectrum Films and Big Bang Sound.

By the time we come back we’ll be better informed as to what we have, how it plays, and what – if anything – we need to address in a final pass in post.

Exciting times ahead!

Let me tell you a story – and this story is about how I first became aware that Jennifer had psychic abilities.

It’s about lost things…

Many years ago, Jennifer and I were about to go to India, for work. We were working with an Indian film financier on a number of projects, and we had an early flight out to Bombay.

At that time we were living in a beautiful but small beachside property. I mention this because being small is relevant to this story.

The property was about 75 minutes drive from the airport, and the flight left at 8am. That meant we had to be at the airport at 6am, which meant leaving at 4:30am, to take into account early traffic, and that meant waking up at about 3:45am.

At about 8pm the night before we were due to leave, I did my usual check before flying – credit cards, itinerary, passports…

I couldn’t find the passports.

I usually kept the passports in my passport wallet, and did so as a matter of course. but it was empty. The passports were always in the wallet.

But they weren’t.

We began to search – and we searched everywhere.

Remember, this house was not large. We searched in the obvious places, such as the side pockets of my carryon luggage, and in my suitcases, and in those places where I stored important documents.

And when we still couldn’t find the passports, we searched in the less obvious places. There weren’t that many places to search in this house.

By 10:30pm, when the passports still couldn’t be found, we began to pull the house apart.

We looked in crazy places, like in the crockery cupboard, in the bookshelves, between the books in the bookshelves, under the mattresses, under the sink, in the cabinets in the bathroom, in all the pockets of my jackets – everywhere. 

Still no passports.

By this stage it was nearly midnight, and I was frantic. We had to leave the house in a little over four hours, and we would forfeit our flights if we couldn’t find our passports.

I was wrung out, exhausted, stressed. We had looked absolutely everywhere. There was simply nowhere else to look. The passports hadn’t been stolen, and unless on the last trip I had lost them somewhere between the airport and the house, then there was nowhere else they could be but in the house, somewhere.

But where?

Jennifer said: Ok the passports are here somewhere. Let’s just sit down, relax, I’ll meditate, and we’ll find the passports.

I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to keep looking – but Jennifer was quietly, calmly insistent – and after decades of marriage, I knew to do what she suggested.

So we sat, and we quietened our minds – hard for me because I was so damned agitated – but Jennifer began to meditate. And it wasn’t long before she opened her eyes, turned to the bookcase that was near to where we were sitting, and said: The passports are there.

I had searched that bookcase meticulously. I had pulled out every book, I had even opened the books in case the passports had somehow found their way in between the pages of a book.

I said to Jennifer: I’ve looked there, thoroughly, I can tell you they are not there.

Calmly, she said again: Yes they are. Let’s look again.

I thought this was a complete waste of time. And we had precious little time left before we had to leave for the airport – not to mention sleep. But I knew not to argue with Jennifer, so we began pulling out all the books again.

I mean, how the hell could our passports end up in a bookcase anyway?

We took out all the books so that the shelves were empty. No passports. Under the bookshelf were piled all the large coffee table books that didn’t fit into the bookshelf. And on top of those books was our digital scanner.

Jennifer said: Have you checked the scanner?

I hadn’t checked the scanner.
Why would I check the scanner?

I checked the scanner, and there were the passports, inside the scanner.

I then remembered I had scanned our passports several weeks earlier for the Indian visa applications, and I’d forgotten to take the passports out of the scanner!

OK – how did Jennifer know the passports were in the bookcase?

I still to this day cannot explain it. She meditated, then she knew. She just knew. There was no doubt, no equivocation, she just knew that’s where they were, even though it didn’t make any sense that they would be there.

Cut now to my situation with my lost phone.

Yes i was like I was with the passports – stressed and anxious. But I’ve learned a thing or two since those days, since making my film on intuition. One of the things I’ve learned is that you have to detach from the outcome of whatever it is you’re seeking.

Dr. Norm Shealy, the man who brought holistic medicine to the west, and a legend in intuitive medicine, states that in an interview in my film. It won’t come, whatever you’re wanting, if you’re desperate for the answer, or the solution.

With my phone, after I did everything I could to find it, I then let go, and handed it over to the Universe. After my initial flurry of stress and worry, I became calm and it no longer bothered me. Whatever was in my highest good would happen.

I got the phone back, and some have said I was lucky. Again in my film, one of the key interviewees says this: Everyone says you’re really LUCKY. There’s no luck about it, I’m working on my intuition!

That’s verbatim what Lee Carroll, who channels for Kryon, says in my film – and he’s absolutely right.

I’m working on my intuition!

(PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System will be released globally at 4:44pm on 4/4 next year.)

My phone has been found, miraculously!

When I lost my phone several days ago now, I went onto the Find my Phone app on Mac OS, and there’s a function which allows you to put a message on the locked screen. So I used Google Translate to write, in Italian, that if the phone was found, please call Jennifer’s phone number, and I will pay a reward.

Well, Jennifer got a call this evening from a man who, in broken English, said he had found the phone. He didn’t want a reward – and he’s going to take it to the hotel where we stayed in Piedmont – the Da Fabiana near Bossolasco (a fantastic place) – and the wonderful people there are going to mail it to me in Australia.

No one wants payment, even for the postage – and no one wants a reward.

Jennifer always said the phone wasn’t lost, and I would get it back. She was right, as it turned out. And these are the NICEST people.

Just incredible.

I couldn’t ever imagine that the phone had been stolen. It made no sense, given the energy of the place, and of the people there. I truly believe in the innate goodness of people – their honesty and generosity.

Yes there are thieves, and there are people who for whatever reason do things that are harmful to others. Are they bad evil people? No, I don’t believe so. They have their reasons, that’s all.

They are still beings of light, as are you, as am I – as are those people who found my phone.