An Actor/Artist is a person who values EXPERIENCE over Safety, Comfort, and Familiarity. 

Experience: “Knowledge or skill obtained from doing, seeing or feeling things.” 

Filter: “A device that removes something from whatever passes through it.” 

Filters, ESPECIALLY the ones we are NOT aware of having been installed, either by ourselves, (which could have happened anytime), or by someone else, (most often parents or other authority figures during one’s childhood) will invariably cause— 

An Opportunity To Understand  

—to become— 

A Reason to JUDGE.  

Ironically, The Filter creates The Illusion of A Shortage of Information that IS, in fact, available as a result of Doing, Seeing, and Feeling.  

Fear and Ignorance are the main ingredients used in the construction of new filters. 

Listening and Seeing are the chief tools available for removing and destroying existing filters. 

“Filter” is really just a more interesting word/concept than “Judgment”, but they amount to essentially the same thing.  It is always easier TO JUDGE than it is TO SEE. 

Some Examples of Filters that can limit one’s ability to see the Truth of Another’s Experience (which is often tough to see anyway, let alone with filters on):

Artists are narcissistic people.  *  People who love animals are more spiritual than people who don’t.  *  Artists are more insightful and interesting than regular people.  *  People who love animals are needy and should get a life.  *  If your height/weight ratio is greater than (fill in the blank) then you need to lose weight.  *  If your bathroom is dirty, you’re gross.  *  People who collect or save things are weird and fucked up.  *  A women who doesn’t want children is not really a woman.  *  A man who can’t make a living and support his family is not really a man.  *  People who prefer TV to books are morons.  *  Women who never masturbate are sad.  *  Women who never masturbate are not sad, they’re just not whores.  *  Men who can’t commit are pathetic losers.

Some of these may seem, in part or wholly, true to you, some may not, but all of them help to prevent one from understanding the life experience of certain other people. Now, if you are not in the least interested in understanding another’s experience, there’s no point in reading further.  Forgive me for assuming and/or trying to push you to value that ability (aka empathy) and just enjoy your membership in the Republican Party.

The Key to Change: RISK. 

An EXERCISE for the Actor, Artist, or just any plain old Human Being who'd like to shake things up a bit:

Step One: Identify a filter that you wear everyday which prevents fully understanding SOMEONE ABOUT WHOM YOU CARE DEEPLY. Identify the particular fears you have that keep this filter in place. 

Step Two: Recall when this filter was installed. If it was installed by someone other than yourself, identify who that was, why you think they installed it in you, and the reasons you choose to continue wearing it.  (If you installed it yourself, do the same.) Identify what role fear plays in each step. 

Step Three: Close your eyes and Fantasize about what a deeper level of Understanding and Intimacy would look like with this person if you permanently remove this particular filter.  By “fantasize” I mean Allow Yourself To Imagine the BEHAVIOR that might result between the two of you if this filter were gone. 

Step Four: Identify the Feelings that result from your Fantasy of the New Behavior.  Is the experience pleasant or unpleasant, or a combination of the two, and WHY?  Be specific in your identification of these feelings, especially the unpleasant ones, and also identify whether they seem unpleasant in relation only to this particular person, or to others as well, and if there are others, do they belong to any identifiable group such as Women I’ve Dated, or American Indians or Relatives Whom I've Punched At Holiday Dinners, etc. 

Step Five:  Make a decision to remove the filter if your INSTINCTS tell you that a deeper level of intimacy with this person is what you actually desire.  Make a decision to keep wearing the filter if you decide you do not desire more intimacy with this person. 

Step Six:  If you decided to remove it, go back to step one tomorrow and begin the process again with a different filter, and perhaps a different person.  If you decided to keep it on, start noticing specifically how it works the next time you’re with that person, what it protects you from, what it protects them from, and why you prefer to stay closer to the Surface with them. 

For Extra Credit:  Tell the person about the filter you have been wearing, share your Fantasy about the New Behavior, and Invite them to Help you remove/destroy the filter.   

Important Note: DO NOT say anything about filters THEY may be wearing UNLESS ASKED. (This exercise is for YOU, not for them.) Enjoy!