Oneness Goes Global: New Film Shows Us How
New Film Calls Humanity to Step into Oneness

—Mark Gilbert

Once you embody the mystical insight that we are all connected, what are you going to do with that wisdom? Can you take the next logical step and seek to alleviate any suffering that you see in the world? That’s what Kell Kearns and Cynthia Lukas call to us to do in their latest movie Globalized Soul

Kell Kearns lived the life that many others desire to live. In the 1970s, he forged a successful career in the broadcast news industry, working his way up to being an on-air television anchorman in Dallas, Texas. Yet, something within him was dissatisfied and longed for more. It was in the early 1980s that Kearns had what he describes as a “leap in consciousness” and knew that he had to leave the safety and security of his television career. He set out to answer an internal call to make spiritual films and has never looked back.

Finding that his television career gave him the tools to make films, in 1983 Kearns completed his first documentary Christmas Eve—City of Peace. Set in Jerusalem, the film explored the interfaith movement and became what Kell describes as “a plea for us all to come together in nonviolence and unity.” This was followed by The Arms Race Within, which looked at the peaceful demonstration of a train carrying nuclear bombs; In Remembrance of Martin, a well-received biography of Martin Luther King broadcast on PBS; The Healing of Brian Wilson, which offered a nonviolent perspective on the war in Central America; and many others.

Cynthia Lukas began her career as an educator and community activist. Yet, in her twenty-five-year role as a college instructor, she frequently told her classes that she knew someday she would be making films. She saw within movies the power to effectuate shifts in awareness as well as lasting change. To Lukas, filmmaking was the ultimate way to both educate and bring about community transformation.

It was seven years ago in what Lukas describes as “kindred spirits coming together” that Kearns and Lukas began their collaborative filmmaking. Although Lukas continues to teach and lecture and has since authored the award-winning book The Spirit of the Owl: Transforming Grief to Gift, it is in answering the call to make transformative documentaries that she now lives her passion. “Film is a beautiful way to show oneness, not just talk about it,” Lukas reflects.

The collaborative efforts of Kearns and Lukas have led to the creation of their nonprofit company Heaven on Earth Creations, which has produced five spiritual documentaries. These include The Consciousness of the Christ: Reclaiming Jesus for a New Humanity, which told the story of Jesus as portrayed in the Gnostic Gospels. This was followed by Rumi Returning, an intimate portrait of the Sufi mystic that was aired on more than 330 PBS stations in 2008. Lukas believes that Rumi Returning truly set the stage for their latest film, Globalized Soul.

 “Rumi was one person who was a mystic and lived his life sensing the unity of all,” Lukas states. “From there, it was natural to move to Globalized Soul, which shows many people, some famous and many not-so-famous, who are serving humanity because of this mystical connection to the oneness.”

Kearns and Lukas may see their films as being about that oneness, but readily acknowledge that a divine unity guides their filmmaking. Their loving portrait of Rumi was so well received by Turkish authorities that they opened their borders to allow filming parts of their latest production. That opportunity led Heaven on Earth Creations to being a designated company to document on film the latest Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Melbourne, Australia. Parts of that film are included in Globalized Soul. Their work in Melbourne led them to following and filming the Dalai Lama in India a few weeks later.

Filmed in seven countries and featuring interviews with numerous people, including his Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rev. James Trapp (president of the Association of Unity Churches International) and many others, Globalized Soul seeks to answer the question, “Is there any quality that exists throughout humanity that can help us overcome the planetary problems we face?”

Kearns and Lukas acknowledge that the recent events in the Middle East and Japan make answering this question even more essential for humanity. Yet, optimistically, Lukas points out that the rebellion in Egypt appeared to be guided by the nonviolent concepts of Mahatma Gandhi, which have their roots in the Jain religion, a faith profiled prominently in their latest film.

Having met Jain practitioner Asha Mehta at the parliament in Australia, Kearns and Lukas later followed her to the holy city of Palitana, India, where Asha and her husband, Mahendra, both in their seventies, organized and ran a “mega-mobility camp.” There, with the help of volunteers from around the world, their two-week clinic distributed over 29,000 artificial limbs, adult tricycles, wheelchairs, and hearing aids for free to the poorest of the poor. This was just one of many projects that Asha and Mahendra have coordinated, knowing that their Jain philosophy of living and sensing oneness calls them to help those who are suffering.

Also central to their film are the efforts of the Jerusalem Peacemakers, an interfaith group organized by both Jewish and Islamic religious leaders seeking peace for their holy city. In Melbourne, the filmmakers meet Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, one of the founders of the group, and later visit with him in Jerusalem. There, in the friendships forged across religious lines, the film offers hope for the healing of the struggling in the Middle East. When Bukhari makes his transition before the film is complete, they return to film a dinner in his honor, leading to one of Globalized Soul's most touching scenes—Christian, Jewish, and Islamic leaders breaking bread in the memory of one who lived in the knowledge of their unity. As Kell notes, “Peace in the Middle East will not come through the governments. It will come from the bottom up, through the people.”

Although religion has been frequently pointed to as one of the causes of humanity’s divisiveness, Kearns and Lukas realized at the Parliament that the growing interfaith movement was a key to our healing as well—and that New Thought philosophies such as the Science of Mind are well positioned to assist. “We, as New Thought people, already get it that we are already one and are now moving forward with that knowledge into spiritual activism globally—there’s no one better to bridge the gap of divisiveness of old religions than New Thought,” muses Kell.

So, does Globalized Soul find an answer to its question? Does humanity contain a quality we can tap that will help us solve the world’s challenges? Yes, and the answer is embedded in the question posed earlier. As Cynthia pointed out, film can allow us to experience oneness at a greater level than any amount of discussion can. Once each of us embodies a sense of our interconnectedness, what are we all going to do? How does that change who we are and how we show up in the world? Kell and Cynthia suggest that how we answer that question will allow us to know if we have a globalized soul.

As Kell reminds us, “When we take the opportunity to show compassion and to help one another—to love one another as we love ourselves—then the reality of the universe opens up for us and we live in a state of joy.”

So—do you have a globalized soul?

Globalized Soul will have its official world premiere in the next few months. Currently, the filmmakers are offering advanced screenings of the movie to interested communities in order to gain feedback. To host a screening or for more information about any of their projects, please contact them through their website www.heavenearth.net or by e-mail at cynthialukas345@msn.com.