Written by Lee Schneider, founder of DocuCinema.
Spiritual seekers may spend decades working to detach from their ego. Buddha meditated under a Bodhi tree for 49 days when he did it. But I think I’ve managed it in just .2 seconds. All I had to do was Google myself. There are 8,900,000 different results for Lee Schneider. I can already feel my sense of self slipping away into 8.9 million little pieces. In yoga we’re often reminded that it’s a good thing to surrender the ego. Buddhism teaches that the self is only an illusion. But what does that really mean?
As I examine myself under Google’s microscope, I can verify that I was once a writer of “ThunderCats” cartoons. How did I juggle that with my job as project manager at the Computer Sciences Corporation in Dallas/Fort Worth? It seems like a good living, I just don’t remember going into the office this morning.
Then again, I do move around. This week I’m living in Alexandria, KY, Morrison, CO and Batavia, OH all at the same time. Perhaps, upon dissolution, my ego is now able to be in several places at once. In his book “Autobiography of a Yogi,” Paramhansa Yogananda described one Swami Pranabananda who was able to do this. That seems like pretty advanced yoga and I don’t think I’m there yet. I’m not even doing handstand anymore.
When I started this blog I said I would never join Facebook. But it looks like I have anyway and I really like horses. 
I also like to Twitter, have 124 followers and live in Boston. Whole chunks of my life are kind of different from the life I thought I was living. For instance, I married Elyssa Korez on December 20th, 2008. Sorry, I don’t remember that wedding at all. 
Thing is, I’m getting married again in Los Angeles on June 20. Could I be practicing polygamy? I don’t remember being Mormon but then I don’t remember signing up for the Navy Reserves in Auburn, Washington either. 
I don’t know how I fit the Reserves in with my job as a photographer of tall ships. I published a calendar of them in 2002. It’s for sale at Amazon, anyway, and it has my name on it.
In Buddhism it’s said that attachment to ego leads to suffering. Right now, I’m getting the opposite effect. As my ego splits apart I’m hyperventilating.
If people are looking for me online, they might connect with one of my other selves instead of the one typing this right now. What is my name good for if so many others are using it? I need to run an online background check on myself to get back in touch with who I really am, but that costs $39.95.
Maybe finding myself isn’t as easy as clicking on a link. Maybe I’m not ready to completely surrender my ego, but if I nudge it out of the way a little I might have better access to the interior life that goes on whether my Google ranking looks good or not.
Written by Lee Schneider, founder of DocuCinema.
Hello and welcome to my blog. This is volume one, number one, paragraph one, sentence two, so you might discover right away that I am writing with assurance or wandering in the wilderness with only a metaphorical flashlight to show the way. Both scenarios are true. That’s the reason I’ve decided to write this. Right now, we’re at a crossroads where the usual definitions melt away. It’s an intersection of science and spirit. There are some curious discussions happening out there. So each week, on Thursday, I’ll offer you 500 words about the questions people are asking.
Can you really think your way into better health? Are there any limits to human consciousness? Does the laying on of hands heal people? Will time ever go in reverse? What is the deep power of chance events? If you do enough yoga, do you go insane? (Probably.) My friends from New York will read this as proof that after twenty years Out West I’ve finally gotten Out There. My Los Angeles friends might wonder why I am holding back. I admit that it’s hard to exactly locate Around the Bend on your GPS, but I see this blog, and my role, as observing and facilitating the connection between two worlds. Can a language be forged that works for both the science talkers and the spirit seekers, without diluting the intent of either?
I’m amazed at the number of organizations springing up to study the connections across the divide. Just a few: The Center for Spirituality and Healing, The Rubin Museum of Art, Bravewell Collective, John Templeton Foundation, Life Science Foundation, Center for Mindfulness, Society for Science and Religion, Columbia University Center for the Study of Science and Religion, the Zygon Center, Adrian Wyard and the Counterbalance Foundation, Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, the Mind & Life Institute, and the Institute for Noetic Sciences. Researchers and scientists like E.O. Wilson, Bruce Lipton, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Ernest Rossi are stretching the boundaries of how we perceive science and spirit, mind and consciousness. Louise Hay and Dr. Mona Lisa make us wonder how we can direct our own wellness by our intention. Two conferences are coming up, one in Washington, DC, the other in Minnesota, to talk about complementary and integrative medicine. That’s a kind of healing practice that can blend East and West and makes mindbody one word. It’s pretty busy out there in the crossroads.
From time to time as a filmmaker and media guy I have the pleasure of meeting science-spirit leaders and I’ll write about those encounters here. I’ll keep you updated on our DocuCinema projects that go to this territory. I promise to veer terribly off course sometimes to rant about Youtube and also India, explain why I’ll never be on Facebook, write about what scares me, reveal who my heroes might be, throw in a movie review and some foodie talk, show why marriage can increase your Google ranking, why there are too many Lee Schneiders already and why videos of cats riding motorcycles are always good.
That’s about 500 words right there. If you’d like to add some, post a comment! Stay curious and see you next Thursday.
