I couldn’t take it anymore. I love movies and show business, but I couldn’t sit there one more minute. I had purchased a ticket to “Knocked Up”, Hollywood’s current best-seller that featured teen sex, stupid people and lots of profanity. I’m no prude, but I am a writer and this script was so bad that I had to get out. I have grown more and more impatient with what the film industry was promoting. It seemed that they were only catering to young kids from 12 – 18. Every film had to have teen sex, nudity, drugs, or lots of action, i.e., blowing things up with lots of blood and gore. Something inside of me was telling me that there had to be another way.

Shortly after that experience, I was part of a Hollywood conversation with the producers of “The Pursuit of Happyness” the very successful movie with Will Smith. The conversation was geared to what Hollywood was looking for and what sells today. They confirmed what I had been thinking all along, that films were geared to teens only. That what sold today was sex, violence, horror and action. One of the most difficult things to hear from this producer was that it was easy to make a film, find investors, stars and distribution, but the real challenge was getting someone to read your script in the first place.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what all this had to do with me? Well, I’ve been an actor, director, producer, art director and screenwriter; and I have spent the last twenty years working on a screenplay called American Shaman. It’s the story of the psychic, Edgar Cayce.

But before I was ever ready to write Edgar’s story, I had to go through a dark night of the soul. This occurred while I was the set designer at a San Clemente, California dinner theater, designing a set for the play, “Death Trap”. I had worked extremely hard, and everyone thought that the set was wonderful. Everyone that is, except the star, Edward Mulhare. You remember him; he played the ghost in the TV show, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”. He thought it was crap, and announced to everyone that it was the worst set design he had ever seen. Such is theatre, but I was devastated. I had had numerous situations that added one disappointment after another in Hollywood, and I felt like I just couldn’t go on. I was so depressed.

One day, I was walking through the gardens at the Self Realization Fellowship Temple and Ashram Center in Pacific Palisades, California. As I walked and cried, I asked for some kind of divine guidance. As I turned a corner, I walked toward a small bush. Under the bush was a sign that read: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” All of a sudden, a burden was lifted off my shoulders. I announced to my friends that I was leaving Hollywood for Hawaii. I never intended to return, but what I didn’t know was that God had another path in mind for me.

During my stay on the islands, I read a book that a friend sent with me about Edgar Cayce. As I sat alone on the beach, contemplating my life, I came to believe that Cayce’s story needed to be told on film and that I had agreed, many lifetimes ago, to be the channel for that story. Eventually I came back from Hawaii and left my life in Hollywood to make the trek to Virginia Beach, Virginia. This is where Cayce’s A.R.E. foundation is located. I sat each day in the meditation room not knowing what to write. Eventually I prayed and meditated and asked Edgar, Gertrude Cayce, Hugh Lynn, who had just died the week before I arrived, to give me the words to say.

I then closed my eyes and waited. Then, after a time, my hand would move, writing 10-12 pages in long hand. I had no idea what was coming through. All I knew was that the words didn’t belong to me. This automatic writing went on every day for a solid year. After it was finished I felt I had been given a great gift. That was back in 1982. Since that time, the script has been edited again and again. Today, the screenplay is called “American Shaman”.

(The definition of Shaman, according to the Cambridge Encyclopedia, is a person thought to possess special powers to communicate with and influence the spirits by dissociating his soul from his body. The spirits assist him in performing his duties, which include discovering the cause of illness, famine, and any other misfortune, and prescribing an appropriate cure.)

It’s time for the world to know Edgar Cayce. Since his death in 1945, there have been over 300 books written about him and today, there are more than 900,000 websites devoted to his life and work. I believe the world is ready to see him in a different light.

I remember what Shirley MacLaine said at the last Golden Globe Awards. A reporter asked her why there were so few “spiritual” or “new age” films being made? She said it was because they were too preachy, and that there were not enough good stories. I agree. That’s why American Shaman is first and foremost a love story between Edgar and Gertrude. The psychic phenomena are secondary to their relationship and struggle with the medical doctors of the day.

So here I sit, once again being led by some force to venture out into a whole different direction. After submitting American Shaman to various agents and producers in Hollywood, and having one after another say they liked it, but it wasn’t what they were looking for; God gave me yet another idea. The idea was to start a Spiritual Film Company here in Atlanta, so I sent the word out to a few people. Suddenly dozens of film people of like mind contacted me, saying that they too were fed up with films whose only purpose was to make a fast buck. They told me that they also dreamed of making films that made people think and expand their awareness.

Since the birth of this idea on October 18th, I have been interviewed on Eastern Paranormal (a website and radio show) which will carry the message of Edgar Cayce and the Spiritual Film company coast to coast. I have also talked to the president of the International Spiritual Film Festival in Taiwan, to see if we can bring this event to Atlanta next year.

So, this is my story. I hope it resonates with you. If you’d like to become part of our Spiritual Film Company, or are interested in supporting the production of American Shaman and other spiritual films, please contact me. With divine guidance and the support of other committed film makers and film enthusiasts, we hope to make films that touch the heart and expand the mind.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great jurist said: “If a man never takes a stand on anything, he runs the risk of being judged to never have lived at all.” I have taken a stand to make the world a better place. Won’t you join me?

e-mail: scottlindquist4375@yahoo.com