Hello,

this question is primarily for Jason Bennett because so far he's one of the few teachers I've heard of that seem to work with archetypes etc but anyone who has an opinion or comment please join in

Jason:
-How do you teach Archetypes, what kind of exercises do you do?
-Same question for Externals and emotion work?

I just want to know more about the use of archetype work/externals/emotion work because in the "traditional" training teachers would often say don't work for an emotion/result but work on objects/activities.
However, I'm wondering if it's possible to access any emotion on cue without the activity/object and without any emotional recall or sense memory work and simply just "cry on cue", if you know what I mean, by using Archetypes, externals or any other (to me unknown) emotion work?

I look forward to hearing from you JB and anyone who has anny comments or input on this matter

Foreigner

Hello,

Ok, I don't have too much time right now, major teaching this week. But I'll type a fast answer.

First, talking about this kind of stuff on a message board is not easy. It's VERY easily misinterpreted. So if someone responds and I tell them they aren't getting it, please don't think I'm being rude.

1) I am not at all the only acting teacher who talks about archetypes. Michael Chekhov famously said, "There is nothing without an archetype." He and the famous theatre practitioner Roy Hart both had correspondence with Carl Jung -- the originator of Archetypal Psychology.

The Pan Theatre in France is a theater training school that only focuses on Archetypes as the tools actors use.

Books about Archetypes are used in the training of writers all over the world.

2) What you may not realize is that many teachers use different words to refer to archetypes, without realizing they are talking about archetypes. Examples -- point of view, subpersonality, energy, state of being, emotional life, type, who the character is, quality, tactic and more...

An Archetype is a universal way of being hard-wired into your brain. It isn't always emotional. All emotions are archetypal but not all archetypes are emotional. For example, the "rational mind." And the "killer" can be emotional or very unemotional (hot or cold). It's really about the ENERGY you access, not the emotion.

So there is no "working for an emotion." In fact, there shouldn't be "working" for anything. To be a successful actor, one MUST have access to a whole range of archetypes -- effortlessly and on cue. If you have to work at it, you can't possibly be a great actor. The Archetype Work, as I teach it (which is a rather unique and modern process I'm developing), virtually guarantees easy-access to the entire spectrum of human energies, the only limitation being your genetic make-up.

3) The Archetype Work we do is IN PREPARATION to be an actor -- to free you up and get you ready. I do not teach actors to be thinking about archetypes while they are acting.

4) Basically, EVERY traditional acting tool and script analysis tool is really for the purpose of accessing archetypes. For example, if you use Strasberg's sensory work to create your father, it is for the purpose of eliciting the parts of your psyche (archetypes) that "come out" when you are interacting with your father.

Or, in Meisner's old-fashioned emotional preparation technique, the purpose of "imagining yourself" in a situation is to activate various archetypes for use when you act. Neither Meisner or Strasberg seemed to realize this, but that is because they both lived long ago and their limited understanding of the psyche is now outmoded.

Or, in Michael Chekhov's physical techniques, ALL of the ways of moving you learn are designed to access archetypes for use in your acting.

It's the same for Stella Adler's work. It's even the same for the Atlantic Theater School. Even their extremely limited toolbox of intellectual analysis is still designed to "trigger the imagination." Why? To elicit archetypes, whether the teachers there know it or not.

It isn't possible to be a good actor unless you are accessing a whole range of archetypes. Period. The opposite of being a great actor is being shallow. Shallow is an archetype, by the way. But if you aren't accessing MORE than the shallow archetype, you are rather guaranteed to suck.

What is new about our work, is that it re-frames ALL the traditional acting processes under a modern understanding that the the human personality is a collection of archetypes. And we understand that this is the whole point of acting. Actors access archetypes and say lines...and induct the audience into archetypes. The more archetypal the performance, the deeper it is, and the more likely it is to interest an audience.

We teach ALL the traditional acting tools at our school. But, unlike the traditional schools, we understand that all traditional acting tools actually have the purpose of accessing archetypes.

We learn a vocabulary of archetypes at our school. And we do myriad exercises that check to make sure you have easy access to the whole range of humanity within yourself, within your imagination. The imagination is archetypes. Archetypes are what the imagination is made of.

There are many ways to go about getting in touch with archetypes -- through a process called "Voice Dialogue," through vocal improvisation, through physical improvisation, through working with dreams, through working with memories, and more.

The fact is, our modern understanding of the psyche makes our work about the safest EVER in actor training. No students ever go to any psychological place they aren't ready to go. No student is ever abused or judged for not being able to get to a particular archetype, because unlike traditional acting teachers, we know that if an actor is blocked, there is a good reason. The archetype work, as we teach it, is profoundly respectful of the actors' learning.

5) Focusing on your "objective" or on "playing your action" is for the purpose of eliciting archetypes. However, this shallow, old-fashioned approach is not enough for most actors. It fails many actors because is was created 70 years ago, when the understanding of human motivation and behavior was rather shallow. These concepts were created by acting teachers trying to dissect acting. They were created when our culture was focused on "actions" as defining character.

The framework of archetypes in acting is much newer, and it integrates the current understanding of psychology into the work of the actor. As a result, it gets far better and deeper results. The fact is, more in our culture are now becoming more conscious of energy exchanges. The vocabulary of actor training always needs constant refining to serve the culture we are a part of. Audiences demand an "energy feeding" from great actors. It's really what great actors do -- serve up energy -- archetypes.

One example -- Hannibal Lechter. Why did we love him? Because Anthony Hopkins stood there, often times completely still, and accessed these archtypes -- Rational Mind, Power, Messiah, Sexuality, Killer, Vulnerability, The Impersonal, Being (opposite is doing), Superiority, Needy Child..and more. It's all about energy.

I sincerely doubt Anthony Hopkins, or very many great actors, think about their objectives and actions obsessively. Nope, no way. They are far more focused on archetypal energy -- whether they are consciously aware of it or not. Most are at this point, some aren't.

** Here is a question for readers -- think of some of your favorite actors/characters. What is it about them that you loved? Use adjectives to describe the energies/archetypes that you were attracted to in their performance. I hope some of you answer, I'm very curious to hear.

I have seen the "objective" "actions" concepts fail hundreds of actors. I have never once seen Archetype Work fail actors. Period.

There really is no way to know about Archetype Work from reading this message post. You have to experience it to know it. It is an EXPERIENCE, not a concept. You cannot have any idea whether it is valuable for you if you have never experienced it. Period.

And we DO teach objectives, obstacles and actions at our school. Only now they work for all our actors because we unite these concepts with an archetypal education -- an energetic education. It's thrilling to see the work work for basically anyone willing to do it.

If Stella Adler, Strasberg, Meisner, Stanislavski, or ANY of those famous teachers were at our school I'm sure of this -- they would ALL love this work. And it would force them to admit that TALENT is far more common than they were able to see. When their work failed actors, they blamed the actor and called them untalented.

With the power of our work in 2008, I am constantly startled at the quality of the work that comes out of all kinds of people. It is a dream come true.

You know when I was younger, I had about every acting problem there is. Archetype Work changed my life. And it solved all my acting problems and made all the traditional acting tools make more sense.

Well, my 15 minutes to type are up. I have to get ready to teach. I'll have to answer your other questions later.

These are just my rushed thoughts. Please forgive me if later I re-read what I wrote and feel that I misspoke. It happens. - Jason Bennett

Jason a question for ya:
At what point in your training do you start working archetypes? I stem this question from the understanding that there are enough archetypes in the human canon to fill all the pages from every menu in every diner in Jersey. How do you help your students in finding the archetypes that are effective for the character? I know this is a question that is better answered in the training and not on a message board, but if you could piece together an idea for me. Do you do the basic study of the script first? (the whos, whys, what's, etc) then find the character's point of view, then start working archetypes? Or do you dive right into archetypal explorations for the get-go. Im sure it also may depend on the actor and where they're at in their training so this question may be for naught. I'd love to see your position though!

Dear Avid,

In our training of actors, the beginning of the work is "Instrumental."

It is work designed to free your body, voice and mind. It is work designed to remove the blocks to talent's full expression. In our work, you learn which archetypes are easy to access, and which you may have not developed or have no access to. This is all done before working with material -- or simultaneously.

We don't approach work with archetypes on material until the later stages. But again, I don't teach actors to do archetype work much with scripts. Here is why.

An archetype is like a computer program hard-wired into your brain. For example, the computer program of the KILLER, when accessed, causes your pupils to dilate, your breathing to speed up, your blood pressure to increase, your heart rate speeds up. Adrenalin is released through the body. The rational mind almost gets turned off, your face turns red, and your IMAGINATION focuses very specifically on killers ACTS -- fighting, weapons, strength, running, and more. In other words, YOUR ENTIRE WAY OF THINKING AND VIEWING THE WORLD CHANGES.

Now, many aspiring actors cannot access the Killer, because their life training has caused them to disown it. They may identify with Peacemaker, for example. Or perhaps they identify with the Rational Mind. If the life conditioning is really strong, as in an actor was severely punished for being a Killer as a child (biting, hitting other kids), then when the actor comes to professional acting, we have a problem. The actor cannot access the Killer part of the imagination.

Thus, the actor literally may not be able to see when a character in a script is a killer. If you disown the computer program, you cannot imagine it! The more archetypes you have access to, the bigger your imagination. But if you disown the Killer, that part of your imagination is blocked.

If an archetype is imaginatively blocked, your reaction to a Killer character in a script might be to miss it entirely -- meaning you won't see that the character has a killer part around. Or you may judge the character. Or you may be intimidated by the character. Or you may simply indicate the Archetype, while not really accessing it.

A combination of these things is usually occurring when an actor struggles with a role.

So, we do Archetype work IN PREPARATION BE AN ACTOR. Because you need acccess to a whole range of archetypes BEFORE you are at the audition! If you don't have AUTOMATIC access to a whole range of archetypes in the early stages of the audition, you'll never get the role anyway.

So Archetype Work is Instrumental Work, and comes before the Craft part of our training.

By the way, actors' dreams usually reveal which Archetypes the actor can easily access, and which Archetypes scare them (nightmares). That's the major reason we have dreams. Working with an acting teacher that knows how to ask you questions about your dreams can help you make huge amounts of progress in a very short amount of time in this area.

Finally, yes, there are dozens of archetypes and hundreds of subpersonalities. But there is a list of about 10-12 "pairs of opposites" that you must have to have a successful career as an actor.

Can you name some? Do I have to do all the work here?

So we start with those in the training.

And as I said, the work works. It gets very deep and safe results. People call the workshops life-changing. And it is deeply respectful of a person's boundaries. It's ACTING, after all. It isn't brain surgery.

And also, you cannot understand this work from just reading about it. Archetype Work is an experience, it is not an intellectual idea. My students have read books about Archetypes. But then when they have their first couple of sessions, nothing is more thrilling than literally seeing their mind expanded right before my eyes. They are literally waking up to who they are -- who they once were as children. It is literally an expansion of the personality, activating the HUGE amounts of potential in the unconscious, for use in their acting. Isn't it amazing that you can now expand who you are profoundly as a human being? It's what great actors do! It's the whole point.

These kinds of births and leaps of consciousness are some of the most magical parts of working with the professional actors I serve! And the results for the acting are instant and profound. - Jason Bennett

Great discussion Jason! I truly understand what you are aiming for with archetypal training. And you make a great point about being emotionally, and creatively free. Its a domino effect of the psyche (in a sense) so if you're not fully prepared to approach the work, it will be useless. I just wanted to get a better idea of your process with the development.
One other question, do you ever have difficulty with your students who mistake the work for playing "caricatures" rather than real people. I think sometimes with archetypal work, an actor could have the tendancy to go to the MODEL of a type. Its a tricky balance isn't it?! Anyway, great talking with you about this. I always appreciate our conversations!

Hello,

The answer is no...we never have difficulty with students playing caricatures.

The work is nuanced, specific, unpredictable and true to wild, imaginative life.

Now, would I expect someone simply reading my thoughts about these subjects and trying them with actors, or as actors, to have problems with this stuff? Yes. If a teacher or actor is not trained by a teacher who is FINELY ATTUNED to the real energy patterns of each archetype, indicating will happen.

So, actors have to find teachers who can really access all kinds of archetypes IN THEMSELVES. Then, the teacher can sense what energy the actor is in. If teachers are themselves not trained in energies/archetypes, then they have a hard time recognizing the archetypes in actors and don't know how to "facilitate" the actors into archetypes.

It's my job to facilitate the actors into archetypes. I couldn't do this unless I had done this work on myself for so many years. Now that I have, I can see "faking it" from 5,000 miles away. So it is absolutely not a problem in our work, because our faculty is expert in energetics.

Then, the actors really feel, internally, the energetic shifts. And over time, memorize the feelings of actual energy shifts. It's addictive. They never settle for indicating again!!!!!!

The actors who study with me from the BEGINNING, with no previous training, do the BEST work quickest -- because they are learning energetics from the beginning. So they never go through an "indicating" phase. The actors who come to me from other schools, even the most famous, I often have to spend a good amount of time shifting them out of the fakey stuff -- because their old-fashioned training created these bad habits -- the teachers oblivious to energy shifts/archetypal shifts. But even with them, I get results that last. And it's a privilege and thrill.

- Jason

quote:

Originally posted by JBActors:
Hello,

The answer is no...we never have difficulty with students playing caricatures.

The work is nuanced, specific, unpredictable and true to wild, imaginative life.
You are absolutely right!

Now, would I expect someone simply reading my thoughts about these subjects and trying them with actors, or as actors, to have problems with this stuff? Yes. If a teacher or actor is not trained by a teacher who is FINELY ATTUNED to the real energy patterns of each archetype, indicating will happen.

So, actors have to find teachers who can really access all kinds of archetypes IN THEMSELVES. Then, the teacher can sense what energy the actor is in. If teachers are themselves not trained in energies/archetypes, then they have a hard time recognizing the archetypes in actors and don't know how to "facilitate" the actors into archetypes.
Its moments like this that would have me recommend anyone work with you. I agree, and I couldn't have said it better myself.

It's my job to facilitate the actors into archetypes. I couldn't do this unless I had done this work on myself for so many years. Now that I have, I can see "faking it" from 5,000 miles away. So it is absolutely not a problem in our work, because our faculty is expert in energetics.

Then, the actors really feel, internally, the energetic shifts. And over time, memorize the feelings of actual energy shifts. I call this a psychological version of "muscle memory". It's addictive. They never settle for indicating again!!!!!!
How do you address the issue (if it ever comes up with your students) of an actor who is good at accessing certain moments, but not the entire performance. I guess its more of a question of how do you work with your students on maintaining their concentration on their archetype in a given moment. I'll be the first to admit, I have students who create wonderful "moments" in a given performance, but their energy can fall short sometimes, and leave "holes" in their energy. Would you find that to me more of a personal concentration problem, or would you have any tips for this to be worked out in the classroom?

The actors who study with me from the BEGINNING, with no previous training, do the BEST work quickest -- because they are learning energetics from the beginning. So they never go through an "indicating" phase. The actors who come to me from other schools, even the most famous, I often have to spend a good amount of time shifting them out of the fakey stuff -- because their old-fashioned training created these bad habits -- the teachers oblivious to energy shifts/archetypal shifts. But even with them, I get results that last. And it's a privilege and thrill.
I agree! There's nothing more exciting than watching one of your students really take control of their character and make it something living!

- Jason

I really appreciate your posts. You have a keen understanding for the art and the science of performance. Its interesting, because I think we have similar teaching styles, but we use a few different tools to get the results. I feel like some of my work is more like taking the backwoods-scenic route, when you have the non-congested six-lane highway. What I mean by that is, I think I may use some methods that you may deem unneccesary (and rightfully so with your teaching style). For instance, I access archetypal work in a very slow, methodical step-by-step way that may parallel yours, but with different techniques.
I like to address Viewpoints in my work. For one, its a technique that really, and truly forces freedom in your work. But at the same time, its a wonderful comment on sociology and how our psycho-physical selves assimilate within our social constructs. I use viewpoints as a tool to explore the essence of personal archetypes. It is one way I find out a little more about my students' own personal archetypes. I find who is the powerful one, the alpha in the pack, who is the cunning one, who is the weak follower type. I see wonderful intricate traits from everyone. I also use some of Meisner's ideas in my work to get to the bare bones of what my actors are thinking, and how their strining together their thoughts. I think THAT is what is vital in archetypal training. You may agree, or disagree, but I truly believe the fluidity of the thought an actor (or character) has, is just as important as the thought itself. This is where character comes to life.
I equate it to space. In space, we have solar systems within the universe. Now, each of these solar systems can be billions of light-years apart from each other, but they are still connected by a web that cannot be seen, but it is known to be there. And even though the universe is expanding, the connection of all the planets, black holes, solar systems, nebulae, etc are all connected by this mysterious web.
Like the universe, our minds can expand, and take in more information that can do many things:
we can relearn old habits
break old habits
learn new ones
gain information that can reshape the train of thought, etc...
Our entire system of thinking can be changed by a simple discovery. Our minds are flexible, much like the universe. Its only bound by its own rules.
What I am fascinated with, and what I want to be able to control is that train of thought within each actor. Yes, we can say, at this moment, my character is thinking this, and feeling this, and wanting this, etc. and that thought takes them to this moment, where now, they're thinking that, and feeling that, and so on, and so forth. Its the shift in thought, not the thought itself, but the manipulation of the shift in thought that excites me. That invisible force that pushes one thought to the next. Its the magic that makes us all unique. Oh, crap, I have go get going. I'll be writing more because I know I left off mid-topic here. But I've got a lot I want to talk to you about. Thanks so much for all your wonderful input. I'll be back with some ideas that I think you may be interested in....

Quote from avidactor:

"How do you address the issue (if it ever comes up with your students) of an actor who is good at accessing certain moments, but not the entire performance. I guess its more of a question of how do you work with your students on maintaining their concentration on their archetype in a given moment."

Jason Bennett responds:

First, earlier you compared the process of learning energetic access to archetypes to "muscle memory." Again, with all due respect, I do not know if you are at all aware of what our Archetype Work is, because you have never experienced it. But you keep being quick to assume you know exactly the experience I'm talking about in my writings. No offense, but I'm not sure you do, because this is a website and you are just reading my brief writing on th subject, you aren't having the experience. So you can't know it.

Now to your above quote. I don't want my actors to be "maintaining their concentration on" any archetype while they are performing. I really think you need to re-read my earlier posts. Actors who have easy access to archetypes don't need to be, and shouldn't be, "concentrating" on them during performance. If they have to, something is very wrong with their acting process.

Instead, actors should be thinking the character's thoughts, feeling the character's feelings and doing the things the character does. All this should be INCREDIBLY specific, far more specific that 99% of actors who begin work with me are capable of. They think they know what specificity is, and they don't. And they don't even know they don't.

So the answer to your above question isn't about archetypes...It's actually about the CRAFT techniques for creating moment-to-moment extremely specific, full LIVING within the imagined obligations. Most aspiring actors have no idea how to do this. Many acting teachers have no idea how teach this.

We have a massive performance exercise I created called the "Tour Of A Place" exercise. It is an exercise I created by synthesizing the work of Adler, Chekhov, Strasberg, Morris, Meisner and others. In this exercise, you create a room ENTIRELY FROM YOUR IMAGINATION, and you fill this room with objects. ALL of the objects must have specific and deep emotional stories and history behind them. The stories must be highly emotionally diverse. You also create at least 10 highly emotional and diverse "memories" that occurred in the room -- ALL from your imagination (you are not allowed to use ANYTHING from your "real" life). Then you come into the class and give us a "tour" of the room, sharing whatever "memories" come to you while you are giving us the tour. IT IS A MASSIVE EXERCISE -- it usually has to be shown about 7 times in class before it succeeds. The instructions for HOW to create all this take OVER AN HOUR to give!!!! I cannot give them here.

When this exercise is done brilliantly, I see academy award-winning performances -- all from the imagination! This teaches actors how to create an imaginary WORLD, and CHARACTER LIFE, with brilliant SPECIFICITY. When actors can do this, they NEVER have a "concentration" problem again. There are never "holes" in their performance again. It works.

Ok, I have to go now. I'll answer more later. But I thought you were going to write more, too. - Jason Bennett

Hi Jason,

Sorry its taken me some time to get back to you. I've been stuck on Jesus and the "good word" topic for so long, I think its time I get the desert sand out of my toes. Anyway, I do have a great understanding for archetypal training. I know it is a very difficult (if not impossible) feat to explain and discuss, in detail, via message board.

I like the idea of the invented room. I could see it would take my students weeks to prepare for something like that. I don't feel my students are prepared with concentration enough to dig that deep, unfortunately. I work with pre-teens, and teens. I know that actual performance is not when to concentrate on archetypes. I believe its within the rehearsing and the training, definitely! When I do private coaching, I work with adults and this is where the bulk of my character analysis training comes into play. You mentioned a while ago that an actor must be in tuned with psychology. An actor must understand the elements within the human condition to act, and react to a situation, and its history. I think the relationship between psycho-analysis and improvised thought is too important to be left out in acting.
What I was getting at earlier, is that I want to dig deeper into (and I know this may sound confusing) is to HOW we get to the WHY'S of our characters. By this I mean studying the electrical impulses in the human mind that manipulates thought and reaction. I like getting to the science of acting.
Everyone knows there's a million ways to react to a situation, and its the actor's job to find a specific way to do it. Within that "specific" way, we travel along a path. Each path is different because each human has their OWN cognitive reasoning for reacting the way they do. BUT, there are patterns within the psyche that are hotwired to make people react in a similar fashion as someone else. This is the core of archetypes (in my opinion). There is a cognitive pattern that is programmed in all of us where the variables begin to wane, and that specific choice is almost made for us.
You stated before that it is important to remember your dreams, and keep a journal of them. I agree. I believe our dreams are part of the answer to finding the winding road our cognitive thought travels. But this is a very weak method if we're talking in specific terms of study, especially when the end desire is to teach it. So I'm looking for alternative routes. Provoking a situation a million times over with different people from different backgrounds and seeking the results is another way, but I feel that is too primitive. Simple observation I think is best, but what to use as the control becomes an issue. There's too much out there!
So I do personal tests. I watch performances at local theatres and study reactions. I watch films, people on the street, my girlfriend, everyone. I notice the patterns, but I just can't put them in words. This is where my struggle lies. I know there is a way to manipulate standard emotions with the standard situations. I know there's a way to change one's reactions before they even subconsciously find it. I do minor exercises. When Im laying in bed with my girlfriend, and she's asleep, I focus on her heartbeat. It is true that when people are close together, their heartbeats at the same rhythm after they are in a relaxed state. I listen, and I purposely change (normally by lengthening my breaths) my heartbeat. In her sleep, I see how it physically effects her. (Uh, Im trying not to sound creepy here but, probably doing a bad job of it). She always moves. It does something to her that causes a physical reaction. I do other exercises that focus on the psycho-physical self, but its so hard to explain here. Anyway, I'm working on a journal that will put all this nonsense into a place where it will all start to make sense, but if you can, tell me your thoughts on my weird ass ideas. Thanks man!
Nick Scott

One of you or both of you, avid and JB, can answer, or I guess anyone else.

JB, you have said before

quote:

An archetype is like a computer program hard-wired into your brain. For example, the computer program of the KILLER, when accessed, causes your pupils to dilate, your breathing to speed up, your blood pressure to increase, your heart rate speeds up. Adrenalin is released through the body. The rational mind almost gets turned off, your face turns red, and your IMAGINATION focuses very specifically on killers ACTS -- fighting, weapons, strength, running, and more. In other words, YOUR ENTIRE WAY OF THINKING AND VIEWING THE WORLD CHANGES.

Now, many aspiring actors cannot access the Killer, because their life training has caused them to disown it. They may identify with Peacemaker, for example. Or perhaps they identify with the Rational Mind. If the life conditioning is really strong, as in an actor was severely punished for being a Killer as a child (biting, hitting other kids), then when the actor comes to professional acting, we have a problem. The actor cannot access the Killer part of the imagination.

but what i want to know, is that if a person were to work really hard, could he/she access the killer archetype, even if it is buried beneath SO much life conditioning?
Thanks!

I honestly think everything we've learned, we can unlearn as well. I think the KILLER "type" can be accessed as simply as the "fight or flight" mechanism that gets switched on when needed. We all have dopamine in our system. It is the chemical that causes adrenaline to rush when in a panic state. We all have it, and we can always access it.
I think an actor has to be wise about accessing emotions. I think we need to be able to access our emotions at any particular time, but also be able to shut them off too.
This is danergous territory for someone who's not ready for this type of work. The mind has to understand that there is a risk of becoming desensitized to emotional responses. For instance, a few years ago, I fell in love with a girl. She was the epitome of everything I've ever wanted. I wanted to marry her after dating her for 4 months. We started out living close (we were in a show together) and then when the show was over, she moved where she was from, and I moved back to where I was from...on opposite sides of the country. We had a great relationship...well at least I thought. I went to visit her once about 9 months into our relationship, and had an amazing week together, and when I came home, she called me the very next day and told me she wanted to break up. Inside, I felt that drop in my stomache, but I didn't react emotionally. I reacted logically, and said to her "if that's whats going to make you happy, then I'm happy for you". Stupid right? But I was totally ok with it. I was able to switch off my emotional response, but still maintained the feeling of it within me.
My car was broken into two days ago (and they took my GPS unit, so don't leave that sitting out in your cars, by the way). I could've reacted rash, which is what I was feeling at the time, but I reverted back to reason, rather than emotion. If I had left my emotion on, I would've gone apeshit and started seeking out the person that did it. But instead I thought rationally and took the steps needed to get my insurance on the ball. Other than that, I've got other personal issues going on..(ie the thread of pregnancy testing) that are very hard to maintain a level head about, but every time I feel an emotion rise to the surface, I take note of it, of its feelings, and I memorize it, and put it back down. Im able to control my emotional responses and use them for when its needed. On the stage.
This could become a serious psychological problem if not handled correctly. I could desensitize myself from the world I live in and fall into an emotionless state. But I keep concentration on my emotions. I don't bury them. I recognize them when they come, and I use reason to determine what should be accessed, and what should settle itself down. There are steps in doing this, but its not a method I recommend to anyone, given the psychological damage that COULD occur.
People have mental breakdowns because they hide their emotions. People have mental breakdowns when they don't know what emotions they should feel. The exercises I do could very well lead to that behavior.

quote:

but what i want to know, is that if a person were to work really hard, could he/she access the killer archetype, even if it is buried beneath SO much life conditioning?
Thanks!

Hello,

This is the whole point of the Archetype Work. As an actor, you MUST have access to these basic kinds of energies -- a whole range of them. If you don't, your script analysis sucks, your auditions suck, you have to shallowly indicate and more. Great actors have access too all kinds of real and deep energies. They are modern alchemists.

Archetype Work is like the magic acting tool. It is the process of re-learning how to access the energies you had easy access to when you were a kid.

It succeeds where all the traditional acting tools fail. It's the reason why it revolutionizes actor training.

But you asked about "working really hard." Well, Archetype Work isn't really hard work, actually. It's rather absurdly easy. And it basically never fails.

But you have to have a trained facilitator in the work. Again, for an introduction the basic ideas of this system of psychology, read some of Hal and Sidra Stone's books. Start with "Embracing Our Selves." This book changed my life when I was 17 years old. And I sought out their staff (as MANY actors have done over the years), and realized very, very quickly how much this work helps actors.

And a lot of it is guided by work with dreams. Dreams are absolutely amazing guides to the work you need, as an actor. The intelligence of the dream process is rather miraculous and extraordinary. I just did a 6 day training in Northern California a few weeks ago, filled with psychologists, actors and even doctors. It was amazing -- life-changing, honestly.

And it is my very deep privilege to share the work with our actors in New York. It's so exciting to see the work work so reliably and practically.

Can you believe your dreams will solve your acting problems for you, and give you access to the characters -- with you hardly doing anything???? That's how it works, if you're paying attention...

- Jason