The Teachers: Zelig

In 1983, Woody Allen's film, Zelig, came out. It made quite an impression on me when I saw it--an impression that has lasted for over 30 years.
     Zelig is the "mockumentary" of a fictional man named Leonard Zelig who becomes known as the "human chameleon" for his unconscious behavior of taking on not only the personality of the person he is interacting with but for the extraordinary phenomenon of also physically morphing into a person with the physical features/characteristics (and clothing!) of the person he is in conversation or relationship with as if as to mirror or perfect complement to that person. For example, with a physican he begins to talk, look and act like a physician; with his psychoanalyst he begins to look and talk like Sigmund Freud; with a professional boxer he begins to talk, act, and look like a stereotypic tough-guy boxer, with an obese bearded man he grows obese and bearded, etc., etc. all in the effort to be accepted, to "fit in."
     Filmed from the perspective of a media documentary and with the title character played by Woody Allen himself, Zelig felt to me like a real personification of my own tendency to try to mirror the people I was with--or especially the people with whom I held conversations--in order to "play it safe"--to be as like in opinion and demeanor to that other human being as possible so as not to make waves, not to draw attention to myself, to seem amenable, likable, and "invisible" to the world.
     Almost immediately I also realized that the "Zelig" phenomenon is one that is also endemic to much of our American/Western culture. People are afraid to "risk" being their true, authentic selves for fear of showing their flaws or weaknesses. Everybody wants to fit in, so conformity is the rule of order rather than individuality and exceptionality. Zelig pointed this out with the artist's brilliant use of flamboyant exaggeration.
     In a culture that would have us believe that resources are limited and that everyone is competing with each other for those limited resources, the desire to "lay low," to "stay under the radar," and to "not make waves" is a viable and safe choice of action and behavior for those with less aggressive, less ruthless, and less competitive instincts or for those with more peaceful, cooperative attitudes and/or natures.
     The pressures on Americans--and, more recently, to all "Westerners"--to fit in and not stand out have only increased over the years since I was a child. I feel tremendous sadness and dismay at the pressures to conform that today's children (and adults) have to withstand--many of which are economically motivated. These issues have been common to Woody Allen's filmmaking themes throughout his career but had never been so clearly elucidated as they are in Zelig. Many, many times during my adult life (I was 25 when I first saw Zelig) I have reflected upon the social behavior of my self or of someone I've observed in which I sadly realized that this person was falling into the Zelig/ "chameleonic" behavior pattern. They were caving in to the pressure to fit in and thus shirking away from presenting their true selves, from being "big" and authentic. The Zelig pattern, as I saw it, thus became a flag of something to avoid, a marker of the kind of behavior and patterning that I wanted to avoid or break and never return to. I wanted to learn to be true to my self, to my own values and beliefs, to learn to be unafraid to express my opinions and my Truth. And I wanted to pass this awareness and this power on to others--which helped reveal for me one of my main motivations to teach, to stay in education. As a teacher I wanted to try to help others to experience and learn that they did not have to behave the way they were being pressured to behave by society, school and the ever-increasing power and influence of the media. I want to help others experience and learn that they had choices--that they are, in fact, in choice at every moment of every day over the course of their entire lives. This same desire has spilled over into my main motivation to write and to do these podcasts. I hope that my words, that my stories might provoke people into considering the choices and patterns of choices they make, as well as to consider alternatives--to speculate on choices that they might not have considered or that they were too afraid to consider. A society of Zeligs is a pretty boring even frightening prospect (though I fear we are far closer to such a society as one might think). Individuality in all its power and glory is what made America stand out. Perhaps a society of powerful, self-confident individuals would create a society of chaotic anarchy, but I think it would also nurture some amazing creativity and amazing fraternization and collaboration.

Woody Allen's masterpiece, Zelig, is a wonderful example of the teaching gift that is good art. Satire seems especially effective as a social messenger. There is extraordinary value in placing a mirror in front of our fellow man--in front of ourselves--in order to magnify our view of the versions of behavior and/or decision-making that we are capable of, that we are susceptible to, that the "powers that be" would like us to use (out of fear). All of my "teachers"--and there are hundreds of teachers that I have not singled out for these podcasts--all of my teachers have enabled me to more clearly see, feel, or hear something about my self or about my world that I could improve upon, that could use a little work and attention in order for me to grow, to expand into a "bigger," "better," newer version of my self--to realize some of the tremendous potential given me by my Divine source, by my Divine Nature, by my the revelation of a tiny glint of the "True Self" that resides within this four-dimensional, emotion-based human vehicle.
     And so, my message to you, like that of so many of my teachers, is to Be big. Be strong. Be courageous. Be fearless. For, What could possibly happen? What is the absolute worst that could happen to you for being true to your authentic Self? Incarceration? Death? But remember:  you are already incarcerated--of your own choice!--within the bodymind and rules and restrictions of an Earth-based human being. And death! Death is but another illusion. It is but a door to other worlds. For the Divine--the spark of pure Consciousness that gives life to you and every single "thing" in the Cosmos--is indestructible and ever a part of the eternal Unity of the Creator. The illusion that is the human vehicle that you are currently using is to be used for the gathering of experiences, as a test vehicle for your Soul's journey of expanding Self-awareness and Self-realization.
     Just think of it: A life lived without fear of death! A life lived with full confidence and knowledge of the permanence of the Life Force! This would be a life lived fully and without fear. Some people fear pain worse than death--pain for one's self and/or having to watch the pain and suffering of others--especially loved ones. But pain can also be dealt with as it, too, is but an illusion--an illusion that we Cosmic Beings devised and use in order to try to force ourselves to pay attention to the here and now--or else as a tool to help us learn to transcend the here and now. It is a tool by which we force ourselves to pay attention to lessons that we have been missing or, worse, lessons that the Ego/Personality has caused us to ignore or avoid. The lesson is, however, important enough to the Monadic oversoul, to the Soul Plan, that it cannot be ignored forever. So you can choose: pay attention to the issues and learn the appropriate lesson, or suffer, die, and have to be re-confronted with that very same issue and lesson in another form, in another time, in another place. I say:  Take it head on and figure out what your Monad had intended for you to learn now. The Zelig life is a life of running and hiding, it is not a life of conflict resolution. It is also not a life of confidence and self-empowerment.
     Be big. Be strong. Be courageous. Be fearless. For, that is Who You Really Are.