The Real Thing

7 Years ago when I first came to Hollywood, stars a twinkle in my blue eyes, I brought my hot off the press screenplay with me, THE REAL THING.  An action-packed dark comedy about a Coca-Cola addict.

Hero of the tale is Reverend Fear.  He's the smarmy head a drug rehab clinic. He looks down on the junkies he treats. One day Coca-Cola is discontinued and Reverend Fear then learns what it feels like not to be able to get his fix. There's a fizzy mix up as the preacher tries to buy Coca-Cola on the black market... but ends up instead with a huge shipment of, you guessed it, coke. 


Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

Surprise! No Hollywood studio bit.  One lower level exec worried Coke would sue.  Doh!  Someone can be addicted to this blog if it's good enough.

What's your take?  Could Coke sue for making a fictional tale involving their product, which is perhaps in fact addictive for the sugar/corn syrup and caffeine?  Any experts out there with some free legal advice for a free can of Coke? And if Coke did sue, wouldn't that be awesome publicity?

That's why when I saw this video that lambastes every corp in America I really got a thrill.  These are the kind of ballsy in-your-face producers I need to get the script for THE REAL THING to.  Oh, and yeah, this short won the Oscar and opened Sundance.

Sip on that Coca-Cola.

Childhood Revisited for Charity

I had a father and mother who loved me, but who were both so caught up dealing with my dad's drinking issues that it left me feeling like an orphan.

So here's the very personal story of my family's troubles, told from the POV of the soul of my first house, thanks to what I learned from Connie Miller's amazing Souldrama workshops.

Please give to The Cool Change Foundation to help prevent families, like mine, from suffering needlessly.

Soul Surfing at Souldrama LBI

By Ken Sheetz

I began covering Souldrama events around the world just a few short months ago thanks to my BuzzBroz.com client and pal Bradley Quick introducing me to guide to the soul Souldrama founder Connie Miller.


This journey was cross country to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The group was 90% American, people from coast to coast but mainly from New Jersey, with one student from Greece.

What made this event extra special for me as a Hollywood filmmaker was that Barnet Bain, producer of WHAT DREAMS MAY COME was in attendance and shared a viewing and discussion of the film deep metaphysical premise. Barnet is one of the true Hollywood visionaries and it was an honor to have him present and acting out key roles in all our dramas. His facilitation of Souldrama LBI was a triumph of the soul for him and for the brilliant Connie Miller for letting it evolve soulfully.



What was cool for me was to see how we all carry on the dramas of our life like some internal never ending show. It was, dare I say, far more exciting than going to the the typical commercialized, un-Barnet Bain-like, Hollywood movies to look, unflitered, deep, deep into the hearts of people who were mostly strangers until the group formed, but who felt like family as the 8 days drew to a close.



I got Barnet interested in Souldrama after hearing him speak on a radio talk show which I cover. And I was thrilled he got and gave so much from the event on LBI, an affluent island near Atlantic City that has 18 miles of beautiful beaches to enjoy.

In fact, I had such a wonderful time that I rescheduled an assignment in Malibu to enjoy the entire 8 days workshop and honored myself and the group by taking the time to properly finish this chapter of my work on myself, exemplified by this drawing of a safe house for my inner child that Barnet Bain and I created together.

Formation of the DreamShield 10/10/10: A Talk WIth Barnet Bain

I am an artist, an interior architect, builder and filmmaker and very used to visualizing things and willing them into physical reality. But the visions unleashed in Italy have a life of their own. So as I lightly doze on the flight back to LA from a social media assignment in Italy, I worry more visions might me make talk in my sleep about Galactic invasion and make a fool of myself.  I start to question my sanity.

I decide on the long flight back from Puglia not to blog or talk about the experience until I speak to a man in Hollywood I had the honor to film and get to know via BuzzBroz social media job, mega-producer Barnet Bain.

Barnet possesses a brilliant mind and is totally versed in vision work, having produced such great films as THE CELESTINE PROPHECY and, right up my alley, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME.



Here is an interview I filmed where I met Barnet.  You can almost see Barnet's amazing mind work in his talk with my BuzzBroz client Filippo Voltaggio.



MAY 2010 MEETING IN MALIBU

My pal Ramon Govea, writing partner for a new sci-fi screenplay about wormholes and actor in my short film SCARICTY, and writer for Ancient Tomorrow, came along for the meeting with Barnet in Malibu. I still had not told Ramon what the meeting was about but he was excited to be meeting the great producer.

We meet Barnet at the Coffee Bean in Malibu. He's dressed in his typical elegant casual style I've come to admire about LA's laid back yet business style of dress. One I've yet to master.

Barnet is warm and curious and takes instantly to Ramon. As we grab our coffees the shop almost seems to tilt, ala INCEPTION.  Yep, I'm still shook by the vision.

I share the entire Italy vision story with Barnet and he listens with rapt attention.  I tell him of the vision of the energy bands assuring a gentle 2012 (read all about in the prior post). I also share with Barnet and Ramon an after vision I'd had, post Italy:

AFTER VISIONS IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD

One night, as I lay awake in bed, mind racing like nothing I have ever felt before, I see the energy bands that extend from the hall in Santa Maria Del Sole, begin with a mighty groan like a trumpet, to slowly rotate. The vibrations and noise from the energy bands pierce me to my core. I'd hoped to be spared further visions and this one is even more spectacular than the one in Italy.

I continue to explain how the white energy bands, that run north and south and east and west from Santa Maria's yoga hall and Gulia's group healing, spin at incredible speed, punctuated by brilliant flashes of power like silent lightning. The bands at last blur to form a white/blue energy shield around our entire planet.

But the DreamShield 10/10/10, as I recently came to name it, is no ordinary shield I explain to Barnet and Ramon. I next saw Earth vanish... invisible in the empty void of space to the meddling ETs Sheldan Nidle talks about in his vision, safe from DNA transformation by a superior Galactic civilization.



I could not have imagined what the energy bands, which I originally mistook as a simple metaphor for the web while in Italy, are doing to protect us. Yes, the energy bands became a cloaking device big enough to hide our planet from the DNA reprogramming and drastic terra-forming and tectonic devastation of the Earth, that Nidle predicts in the 1 hour video series above, to start in November of this year.  I tell Barnet that the vision finally ends and I bolt up in bed gasping for air.

"I'm a regular Joe from a family of Wisconsin welders.  Am I losing my marbles?" I ask Barnet.

The great producer and human being reaches over to touch my arm while he looks deep into my eyes.  Barnet speaks with incredible calm, "Ken, visions can be both real and unreal at the same time. A vision's power and origins are simply a mystery we need not have a rational explanation for.  And who's to say what this can all mean?  Relish in the mystery.  And thank you for sharing this with me."

"Me too, " Ramon adds in wonder.

Barnet then shares his own past, how as a child he would see things, as I had and Ramon had, things that were not there. The experience he had as a young person of leaving his physical body. Like me.  And how our families thought hi, both strange and wanted the visions to stop. Ditto.

"I am planning a trip home in July, Barnet," I interrupt, the matter so pressing on my mind. "I come from simple Midwestern stock. I am afraid all this has changed me so much that my friends and family will think I am nuts and have me committed. Maybe I should bury all this vision stuff and just get on with my life."

"Be open and honest with your family and friends back home. You'll be a beacon." Barnet says.

And so, feeling more sane than I had in weeks, I open up to Barnet about another disturbing vision, "I was told in a dream by what could only be described as an alien that on 10/10/10 at 10:10:10 AM and PM that the Dream Shield needs to be strengthened somehow."

"Binary code!" Barnet exclaimed. "10/10/10 - 10:10:10! The date and time is all ones and zeroes!"

"Binary code... I should have noticed that myself." I groused, always too tough on myself for not being as smart as someone like Barnet.

Our talk went on for another half hour with Ramon giving amazing insights of his own on 2012 based his findings writing ANCIENT TOMORROW. Ramon filmed the whole event for us, but sadly I had some tech problems that destroyed the precious footage. But I feel confident I've done a good job of reconstructing Barnet's amazing talk for you because this talk is indelible in my mind.

Take heart.  I plan to film another talk with Barnet on this topic well before 10/10/10.  Stay tuned.

The meeting ended with all three of us feeling like brothers. I gave Barnet a Wisconsin style bear hug for all this wisdom. I was feeling better about all this vision stuff that was so new to me. Ready to embrace my Italy and subsequent vision.

Barent loved the peaceful nature of the gentle 2012 vision as a counter to all the negative images conjured up by the Mayans from so many thousands of years ago and the new interpretations of people today. Why not have a 2012 that just kicks off a new era of peace and prosperity?

On the way home to NoHo Ramon and I made a pact to break me out of the nuthouse if my family had me locked up on my visit to Wisconsin.  I was still shaky but feeling better by the minute.

But that night after the talk with Barnet another vision came to me. Again more fantastic than the last and again I would be rattled to my core...

The Vision in Italy of a Gentle 2012

Connie Miller had a surprise for us to wrap up SoulDrama in Puglia Italy. A group healing with the great healer Guilia of the Yoga/Spiritual Retreat of Santa Maria Del Sole.



I picked a mat near the end of the yoga hall, once a stable. There were a few empty mats from the group members who were almost always late.

Guilia, who speaks little English, asked though her assistant interpreter, that we lay on our backs and relax. The week of working long days both in the group sessions and doing interviews with the workshop members had left me exhausted. Guilia began to chant in Italian and I gladly shut my eyes.

I’ve done meditation and EMDR therapy and had healing visualizations before but never as part of a group. Something new was happening in my head. The images were so clear.

I felt the resentment of the group incomplete state on the yoga mats vanish as celestial beings materialized and lay in the empty spots. One was right beside me. I could hear their thoughts as they communicated with me telepathically.

I thanked them for filling in the grid of students and I felt the circuitry of the group amplify. Blue/white energy crisscrossed between the group. We were a living satellite dish.

As Guila passionately chanted over us several students fell into such deep sleeps that they began to snore. Dream power now coursed through the group. Subconscious energy of enormous proportions.

I felt Connie Miller transform beside me into a white angel with a sword held to her chest. The vaulted brick ceiling became lustrous gold bars. The floor we lay on changed from oak to glass and the room became cylindrical as our groups power magnified.

I was aware how uncomfortable it was to lay oin the yoga mat on the hard floor when the ends of the long yoga hall began to extend to infinity. I am seeing all this from outer space now, A band of white energy racing north and south until the ends join.

Now bands of white energy shoot out east and west and complete another belt if energy. I am pleased by this as I imagine the reason for the bands is to get out the message of Souldrama and Santa Maria Del Sole via the web, symbolized by the conduits of energy.

The vision ends and Guilia’s assistant announce the end of the session. I excitedly ask others in the group if they felt or experienced what I did but most say they just relaxed or slept. No one seems to take what I saw, my vision of a message via the web as much. Visions in meditation are normal in the semi conscious state you enter.

A few nights later after Souldrama ended and I was getting ready to return to LA I was woken from a deep sleep by a dream in which I was given a message that the bands were more that a symbol for the web. And that on 10-10-10 at 10:10:10 AM Puglia time the bands needed to be strengthened to make 2012 a gentler shift. I wept. Why were these messages coming to me? I felt lost. Crazy.

Next day I went back to Santa Maria Del Sole and filmed this interview with Julia. As you’ll see my vision was what she was hoping for. A gentle 2012.

Guilia asked me to share any more visions I might have. I was frightened. More visions. This one was huge enough!



But sure enough a few after I returned to LA more visions came. Even more amazing ones that would nearly drive me over edge of sanity…

Facing My Shadow Self

The Souldrama Italy week flew by.  We moved through Connie Miller doors of transformation.  I was growing faster than I ever dreamed possible.



I dreaded the day when we were to face our shadow self.  Fearing the rage darkness I have hid inside myself since I was a child.

But Connie gives you tools to cope with the stuff coming up from your dark shadow self.  And one of those is understanding how we can be loved just being who we are.  She calls it "Your Moment of Love" where you reenact that first moment in life you knew you were loved unconditionally.  For me and many in the group it was with our grandmothers.  Lucky grandma's don't have the burden of raising us an can love us just who for who we are.

And I recalled Grandma Gooder making me apple pie in the kitchen in Milwaukee near Lake Michigan and hugging me to her bosom.  She patted the top of my head and said "Why, Kenny,  You're as tall as my heart."  Love... Yes, I was doing nothing but being me.  No great feats of over compensation.  I was just a kid in the kitchen feeling the love of another human being, my Grandma.

Connie taught us that day how our shadow is an important part of us not be ashamed of.  My rage is my champion not a villain.

Where's Superman?

Connie Miller's Souldrama got through to me so quickly.  I'd done a lot of work on my issues in therapy over the years.  EMDR, anger management, psychoanalysis, self-help books; I had tried them all.  But eventually I felt I running in place and stopped working on myself and started working on films.

My screenplay STEPS was about the pain of divorce, the project that brought me to Hollywood 7 long years ago.  The project got dreailed because I was not strong enough financially and spiritually to stand up to the strains of Hollywood and the cavilcade of hanger-ons who siphoned my cash away while messing up the story to the point where I hated it and myself.  Thus ended my first foray into Hollywood.

I withdrew into learning how to make movies myself, without the need for all the bums I usually stumble across out here like some kind of asshole magnet.  Perhaps it is me who has been the asshole.

But out of that learning to be low cost and independent, along would come YouTube and social media marketing where all my new hard won film skills and business skills would converge in a venture I call BuzzBroz.  So named as I wanted so badly for my brother Fred to leave his factory welding life behind and come out here to build a social media company with me.  Fred never came, not wanting to give up the comforts and security of life, what little there is in this mess of an economy, in Wisconsin.

Now, less than six months into the BuzzBroz venture I was hanging out in Italy with a really cool bunch of people.  Therapists from all over the world and a rock star who owned the resort.  And I had earned more in the first sic months of BuzzBroz than all my seven years in Hollywood put together,  Now, this was not much.  But all the film biz had been money out not in.  It felt good to be getting paid for my film work, even if it was only for Youtube.  And you realy can't say only about YouTube.  It is a miracle of a site if you can generate Google ads for videos and I can when clients have good content and let me do the promotion right.

So when Connie had us talk about our childhood heroes and how their energies were going to help us in this week of group I was shocked when it came my turn to play Superman, my kid hero -- because nothing could hurt him, a skill I longed for whenever dad got out the belt -- and Superman said he was prepared to do nothing for Ken, me, all week.  Connie askes why and Superman explained he had given up on me a long time ago.  How he had tried.  Supes was fed up!