Program

Mala and I have been fascinated by the science behind these experiences for a number of years, and though reading about the phenomena involved is exciting, I sensed that it’s one thing to read about something and quite something else to actually experience it. An experience is a different level of understanding and a different kind of knowledge—it’s visceral, immediate and profound. The film and theater adage “show, don’t tell” became a guiding principle in discovering a way to include these experiences in an entertaining and engaging show. A show in which the audience makes many of the inferences for themselves, without being told by us what it means.

For me, the broader implications that these phenomena have in our lives, our sense of the world and our sense of self is key. We decided that a kind of narrative, the life of The Guide, told backwards, might be a way to connect these experiences to our daily living… and it might introduce an emotional connection as well. We began referring to the project as a Neuro Funhouse, but as we worked on it we came to realize that it was evolving to be something more than that. It has made us rethink some of our own beliefs and assumptions, to see ourselves and the world in a different way, and we hope that it might have a similar effect on our audience.