Stanislavski, the great Russian theater genius, called what he did 'Spiritual Realism.' He wanted the actor to be carried away by the play, so that, regardless of his will he lives the part. Regardless of his will. What we are going for is entering the subconscious experience of 'living the part.' This opens the truth of our intuition in our moment to moment experience of 'being' the character. Stanislavski neglected to define his terms when speaking about states of consciousness with regards to the actor or with regards to artistry itself.

Before any further discussion, I must attempt to define my terms. Let us now clarify the unconscious, subconscious, and conscious modalities of consciousness in order to continue our discussion with regards to the art of the actor. Let us accept, for the time being, that the conscious modality is the most superficial and is the modality in which definition is expressed. The next modality is the one just underneath the conscious modality. It is the subconscious modality. The subconscious modality is the experiential modality. The third modality is the one which is the most deep. The unconscious modality is that of impressions. (The Human Potential Handbook, Leas Maria) Stanislavski believed that the subconscious was inaccessible to our consciousness. He believed that we could not enter that realm. I propose that we can and will make this shift a large overall theme in the creation of my work with the actor and the art of acting. I believe there to exist now here in the U.S. a more widespread and accessible arena of consciousness exploration and development, most likely more so than Stansilavski ever had the opportunity to experience. Although, Michael Chekov, Stanislavski's most gifted student, actively sought out consciousness exploration in his work with Eurythmy, Indian Yoga, meditation, and reincarnation. Our fortunate accessibility to the tools of human potential, healing, and energetics in art, music, and theater will come to play a more prominent influence in the birth of a new artist for the 21st century. The birth of a new actor.

Stanislavski also failed to define the terms intuition and inspiration in his opening chapters of An Actor Prepares. Websters dictionary defines intuition as: the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. A thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning. Websters defines inspiration as: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative. The quality of having been so stimulated, esp. when evident in something. A person or thing that stimulates in this way. A sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.

For the purposes of my work I will substitute the terms 'truthful' for Stanislavski's 'inspired' and an actor's 'instinct' for Stanislavski's 'intuition.' Nowadays the modern American audience has become accustomed to the intensely private 'reality' created by films and film acting. We tend to judge and become inspired by the truth of the performance. The 'reality of their doings' as Meisner would say. This is not to say to other types of performance are not good or do not contain inherent truth or reality. It simply means that when watching a film performance we as an audience get swept away by the behavior, the emotion and the creation of the character under the given circumstances. This is what we see as truthful and is often what inspires other actors to strive for the same depth and truth in our performances. So, I will take intuition to mean an actor's instinct and inspiration as the truth of performance. Websters defines instinct as: an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli. A natural or intuitive way of acting or thinking. A natural propensity or skill of a specified kind. The fact or quality of possessing innate behavior patterns. Websters defines truth as: the quality or state of being true. That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. A fact or belief that is accepted as true. This makes our following discussion a little more flexible because the fact remains that the art of acting and anything created on the stage or in front of the camera is not 'reality' but a reflection of the fictional reality of the story, the environment, the characters, etc.

An inspired (truthful) performance is born out of an actor's instinct (intuition). In other words a truthful performance is the result of a string of intuitive moments. I believe that the root of an actor's intuition operates in the subconscious body modality of consciousness. The subconscious body as being the experience (subconscious) of sensations (the language of the body). In other words, an actors instinct operates in a moment to moment inspired truth, as long as the actor allows his or her instinct (intuition) to follow the deep sensate experience of the body. Allow the experience of sensations in the body (the subconscious body) to communicate the instinctive needs of the embodied character.

Our demands a this point must be in training to open up into our subconscious bodies. How do we train entering the subconscious? Once we are there how do we train prolonging those intervals? And by prolonging these intervals can we bring a more consistent truth or inspiration to our performances and to our art? And when we are in the midst of creating out of our subconscious instinctual bodies, can we then learn to shift in and out between the subconscious experience and our conscious mental directionality of that sensate experience? In other words, can we allow the inspired, instinctual creation to unfold moment by moment (rooted in the subconscious), while at the same time allowing that to be guided within the framework of our consciously defined characters and stories which we discovered by using all of our known tools in the creative process of acting (objectives, obstacles, actions, conflicts, beats, behavior, etc.), without our conscious minds sabotaging or allowing the actor to 'come out' of his subconscious and instinctual experience? Beyond this can we learn to attune to a 'universal mind'? The Mind that runs the Universe. The Mind of non-judgment. The Mind of the healer. I believe it is a frequency of vibration that can begin to be cultivated the more one practices receiving. Much the same way a tree receives sun from above and water from below. And in this universal frequency can the actor allow that intelligence to flow in and through him - providing him or her a much more profound experience within a Universal framework? If so, the theoretical result may give the actor the ability to truly 'live the part regardless of his will.' And what may be crafted is a total unification between the 'spirit' of the actor with the 'spirit' of the character guided by the 'spirit' of the Universe - the great and creative Universal Mind. All of which may give us a way towards achieving what Stanislavski believed to be the aim of our art form - "the creation of an inner life of a human spirit, and its expression in an artistic form." (An Actor Prepares)