Super-Consciousness
A few months ago through my network of friends on Facebook, I came across the trailer of a movie called THRIVE. I was impressed with the quality and brief presentation of the topics it covered. On the symbolical date of November 11, 2011, the full version of the film was released to the public through the internet. For the approximately two and hours of the film, I was glued to my computer screen and going through the emotions of excitement, admiration and hope.
I have watched many documentaries or short films that touch on controversial topics, including conspiracy theories about governments or UFO’s, the corruption and deceit executed by large corporations on industries such as food, energy, health or finance, to name a few. Most of them have been revealing to me, but I always felt that they were lacking in some way, wether it was poor quality in the production, not enough research behind it or a lack of practical solutions.
With over seven years of work and more than 4.5 million dollars invested, THRIVE manages to create a very broad context which includes practically all these controversial topics and connects the dots in a clear and logical form. The whole film is supported by interviews with people who are considered experts in each area, a very comprehensive assortment of video clips and beautifully created graphics. The depth and fact-checking that is not included within the movie can be accessed on the website –www.thrivemovement.com-, which fully reveals the time, effort and vision behind this project.
Full Thrive Documentary
SuperConsciousness spoke with creator and movie host Foster Gamble, to learn more about the minds and vision behind the — thrivemovement — as well as the reception the movie has had so far.
SuperConsciousness: It’s been almost a month since the movie was launched, and I’d like to know what has been the response so far?
Foster Gamble: We’ve been thrilled with the response. Close to half a million people worldwide have seen it already, and the response has been over 95 percent just rave reviews. People appreciate the quality of the film, the beauty of it and the production value, but what I’m even more excited about is that people are really finding it to be coherent. The story makes sense. I actually thought that the material would be much more controversial but I think, especially, because it’s all fact-checked and we’ve interviewed many experts directly, that there’s actually very little discussion about that. Most people are spending their energy sharing it with their friends and family and coworkers, sitting down in groups and talking about what they can actually do about the situation that they’ve just learned a lot more of. We are thrilled with what is going on.
SC: How long ago did the idea start to develop the Thrive Movement, and what was the process for you to decide which people to interview, both for the movie and the website?
FG: The people who are in the movie and on the website are people that I consider to have important expertise in certain areas. People who have influenced me in some way or another, either by being a whistleblower and telling more about the truth than we get from the corporate media, or by being a significant thinker, activist or researcher in a particular area. That doesn’t mean at all that I agree with everything that they think or write, nor do they agree with everything that I am putting forth. But I think one of the most important skills now is to be able to listen to anyone and everyone and find what resonates as true and coherent, and then independently tie those pieces together in the story in a way that makes the most sense for each of us out of what’s really going on.
In terms of what inspired me to do this, I was a filmmaker in college, and when I was graduating it was kind of assumed that I would go on to make big films in Hollywood. I found that I really wasn’t interested in that. I realized that I didn’t have anything that was important enough to say that was worth all the time, energy, money and technology that it takes to make a feature film. At the same time, as I was looking at the world that I was going into coming out from academia, I saw that we were at risk of a nuclear holocaust. We were destroying our very environment that we depend on for our life support, and the U.S. was invading Cambodia for no good reason that I could understand.
So, it was really an important moment for me, getting that we were heading in a very dangerous direction. And I didn’t see at that time a lot of people doing effective things about it and I didn’t know a way out myself. I took the opportunity to devote my life to finding out what’s in the way of humanity thriving, and I committed myself that if I ever found a coherent answer to what’s in the way, as well as what we can do about it, then that would be the feature film I would make. I thought it would take a few years, and here we are 41 years later, and this is finally the movie that I wanted to make all my life.
SC: I perceive that the movie is only one aspect of the whole project. After looking at the website, it has so much more information and different sections. What is the long-term vision of Thrive?
FG: First of all, we came to the realization during the 8 years that we were making this movie — really as big as the movie itself is, it is an endeavor — it ultimately was just a trailer for the website. It was to catch people’s attention, to give them a coherent hologram, if you will, a low-resolution story that covers the necessary topics and shows how they tie together, but doesn’t have time to go in real depth. On the website we could take each of those topics and explore them much more deeply and talk about the vision, the dangers, the opportunities in each sector of human endeavor, as well as following the money and identifying key aspects of the solution strategies and success stories, things that people can do in their individual life to take action on these critical issues.
The last point I would make is that we see the website as a hub, as a place where the local community can come together and share information, learn more deeply but also contribute to what they’re up to, help to get in touch with people who are interested in similar things, and take action in small groups, local communities, large networks across the planet. So, we really see the website as sort of our team’s portal of communication to interested people across the world. We are and will be growing the website on a daily basis and adapting it as new information comes in and new technology becomes available.
SC: A large part of the content in the movie is dedicated to expose a conspiracy that has been taking place to limit humanity. Why did you choose to give so much time to this particular aspect?
FG: As my wife says in the movie, it can be uncomfortable to learn about these things, but it’s like finding out you have a really tough but treatable disease. If you actually realize what is going on and then learn about it, there’s a much better chance that you can cure yourself. It’s the same thing with our global situation right now. People, in my observation, are so confused and afraid about what’s going on, that we wanted to share the benefits of our decades of being able to take the time to ask the key questions and follow the money upstream, and find out what’s really going on behind the scenes to help people save time. To take leveraged action in making obsolete the individuals and the agenda that is destroying the lives of billions of people, as well as economies and ecologies all across the planet.
SC: What is your perspective on some of the most recent events since you’ve made the movie, such as the “occupy” movement and what’s going on in Europe with the leaders of the European countries getting together to see if they can find a solution to the financial problems they are facing?
FG: I think that they’re both really important. In relation to occupy, it just moves me to tears to see the first global evolution revolution in history happening, and I salute the courage of the thousands and millions of people across the planet, in thousands of cities, who are risking a lot in terms of violence against them, in exposing themselves to the elements, and exposing their reputations to people who might not understand what they’re doing. I really respect that people are taking to the streets and finally saying, “Even if I don’t fully understand what’s going on, I know we’re getting screwed and we’re not going to take it anymore.”
That’s really an important turning point in human history, and I think it’s one of the most humble emerging movements that I’ve ever seen in terms of not claiming that they know all the answers, but knowing themselves enough to not sell out to the traditional political polarities or any particular institution. To actually be seeking the principles of a universal movement based on the individual rights of every person, based on ethics and integrity in economics, in business, in how we treat the environment, and how decisions are made and so forth, I’m very excited that this is going on and it’s a fascinating thing to watch and participate in. I’m in touch with a lot of the people in the occupy movement, and many of them are using our “Thrive” movie and the website, showing it in their media tents.
I just learned yesterday that some people have been going around in a media van and projecting it upon the walls of buildings and using a large sound system to project the sound. I’m delighted to be able to offer into that global movement the information that we’ve gathered, and most importantly, the principles of non-violation, the principles of ethical economics that we have come across and try to portray in our film and website. It’s absolutely critical, as the old systems come tumbling down, that we don’t just get trapped in creating a new authoritarian state, and that really brings me to your second question about what’s going on in Europe.
From my understanding of economics, the meetings that are taking place in Europe are quite the opposite of what they portray themselves to be. The evidence seems overwhelming to me that the governments fundamentally are working for the corporatocracy, and especially for the International Central Banks. It is the representatives of the International Central Banks and their puppets in government who are meeting in Europe not to really, in my opinion, decide how to rescue the economy but to justify their action, which will basically continue to lead to the economic collapse of most of the major countries of the world because, as I portray in the film, I believe that’s their agenda.
There is plenty of writing from these different people where they scoff at the notion of a nation state. They really think we’re living in a corporate-owned world, and there’s a lot of truth to that. I do believe that their true agenda is to inflate currencies, to create economic chaos, and then as things come tumbling down, they already are proposing — there are some clips from it in the movie — a One World Government, with a One World cashless electronic currency, so any dissident can be disabled financially at anytime funded by a One World tax that we would all now pay, whether we liked it or not, to the World Bank, and then enforced by a One World army that would be under the control of really the bankers’ authoritarian state. I hope people wake up to this as rapidly as possible, and begin withdrawing their support from the governments, from the banks, and from the corporations who are destroying so many lives.
SC: One of the most common human reactions when we learn about this kind of information, understand it and get the full grasp of it, is that of anger, frustration and polarization. The movie does a very good job at the end showing people solutions, and I think this helps to channel that frustration in a creative way. Is this part of the film, is this message getting across to people? Are they grasping that aspect or are people getting caught in the emotional reaction and becoming more polarized?
FG: I appreciate the question because I am absolutely delighted with the response that we’re getting to exactly what you’re mentioning. People are responding to the suggestion and the need for nonviolence. I’m getting thousands of letters from across the world of people reporting that they’re reconciling with their family members, the people in their workplace, and the people in their community beyond the usual right, left, liberal, conservative political polarities, and actually finding common ground in finding out what’s really going on to all of us. People are proposing systems that are based on integrity, rather than just deception, fraud, counterfeit and greed, which is basically what our economic system has been running on for quite a while. I am getting letters with proposals on growing new voluntary systems based on the true honoring of the freedom of every single individual, rather than a coercive state which has the monopoly on money and force, that then turns around to tell you what to do, in service to the banks and corporations.
I’m very excited about how rapidly people are catching onto this because I think it just makes common sense. The other systems that people have proposed in the past, these collectivist systems where the good of the group is supposed to supersede the rights of the individuals, that always ends up turning into state-sponsored tyranny, that’s how it has been throughout history and it’s taking a little longer here with America, but here we are. It’s happening very rapidly all around us. I think people are waking up and now it’s a decentralized movement that I think will be relentless. I hope it is as nonviolent as possible, except in people’s own self-protection, and I’m confident that it is going to succeed.
SC: You just mentioned, and in the movie you talk about three core values: integrity, freedom and compassion. Can you expand on what these values mean to you?
FG: My sense of compassion is the ability to feel along with someone else. It doesn’t mean that if someone else has a disease you have to have the disease, or if someone else is horribly depressed that you have to be depressed, but it’s allowing into your heart your sense of connection with them so that you feel that connection and are drawn to do whatever you can to help ease their suffering. In terms of integrity, for me integrity takes on a little bigger than the usual definition. And those of you who are reading this interview or who have seen the film will know more of what I’m talking about. Based on the toroidal form — this fundamental energy pattern of the universe that has become so important to me and so many scientists, inventors and philosophers across the world — one way of describing integrity from a slightly new perspective would be in terms of a true alignment with the fundamental energy patterns, with the flow of life energy.
If you know something to be true but you say it otherwise, then you’re not aligned with the true flow of energy. So you move into a pattern of deception and deceit, and I think everybody has some experience of how that begins to eat away at your life. If you try to walk all bent over, very quickly your back will start to hurt, and you’ll start getting the feedback that says, “Stand up and let yourself breathe because you’re not aligned with the fundamental pattern of life energy, which would have you stand up in alignment with gravity.” It’s this sense of wholeness, whether it’s having whole food, based on whole seeds rather than genetically modified distortions that damage our health, or a whole economy based on honoring the freedom of each individual to voluntarily exchange with other people, as long as they’re not violating anyone.
Integrity is lining up with what is truly so and honoring its wholeness. And then freedom goes hand in hand with integrity, because freedom also is recognizing that we’re all part of one vast unlimited energy field. We are all connected in that sense, and yet at the same time we’re all distinct. We’re like whirlpools in a stream.
It’s my belief, as I start to explore in the film and go into it much deeper on the website, that if we’re actually going to survive, much less thrive as a species, we have to begin by honoring the wholeness and freedom of every individual, and then not let our emerging systems violate that in any way.