“Don’t wish it was easier. Wish you were better.” English edition

27. November 2015 - Intuition * Spiritualitet
Af: Malue Marry Montclairre FOTO Elona Sjøgren

Great interview by Malue Marry Montclairre with the man behind the movie "Power of the Heart", Baptist de Pape

The words come from the man who produced and came up with the original idea to the film The Power of The Heart, Baptist de Pape. This is a man I have personally become very fond of because he is such a fine and beautiful example of the fact that we as humans only have those limitations which we have convinced ourselves to be true. This man has done the opposite, he has released his own limitations and convictions about what it possible for him to do, and he has succeeded.

Back in June of 2015 I went to a screening of this extraordinary movie, which I had heard so much about from Steinar Ditlefsen without knowing what to expect. It hit me – and very clearly it also hit the rest of the audience – right where it was supposed to hit, in the middle of the heart. From the beginning of the film, the calm and deep voice of Maya Angelou streaming out of the loud speakers made me surrender: ”I believe that the heart is the most forceful, impactful element in our lives.” The heart. The most powerful organ that we are all gifted with, but so very few of us understand the full potential of. The heart where the soul lives.

In my practice as a Soul Support Therapist it is my foremost and most humble goal to help my clients find a way into their hearts, the dwelling of the soul. I often use the energy from different types of rocks and gemstones built into jewelry, which can support us in the choices we make through the enhancement of courage, self-confidence, and the ability to face the resistance of the outside world, which is often what we experience when we start to walk the path of the heart. Seeing this movie I got an overwhelming feeling of wishing to offer to Baptist de Pape precisely such a piece of jewelry demonstrating my acknowledgment and respect for the journey he has chosen to take – the longest journey possible that covers the distance from the mind to the heart. A journey, which for everyone who undertakes it is always full of obstacles and hardships, challenges, and patience.

Baptist de Pape begins our conversation citing Steve Jobs: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Without protection, without shield and sword, without façade and mask it becomes clear to me, that this man speaks directly from the heart. I sense the four essential energies that he needs to strengthen: self-protection, strength, grounding, and faith. Because in spite of the enormous success which Baptist de Pape has achieved with The Power of The Heart, he is still just a human being – we have a man who is completely naked in his humaneness, completely like everyone else.

“The best way to be great, is to make sure that the things you do makes you feel good. In spite of the fact that it was a fifty-fifty between good and difficult emotions in the process of producing the movie, I didn’t have any other choice but to follow my heart in creating this movie.” At the screening of the movie I had heard Baptist talk about his life six years prior to the movie, about his considerations and worries, whether he wanted to continue as a top lawyer in Amsterdam for the rest of his life, living an academic life just like the rest of his family. Most people who doubt their life’s journey asks themselves what they really want from life. For Baptist is was a YouTube clip with Oprah Winfrey interviewing Eckhart Tolle, “incidentally” popping up on a Google search on the meaning of life that made the first big difference for him. “Incidentally” is written in quotation marks because Baptist does not believe in coincidences, but instead in a far higher and deeper meaning with everything. In the interview with Oprah Winfrey, Eckhart Tolle describes how we, instead of asking what we want from life, should ask what life wants from us – and Baptist is, like most of us, raised with logical thinking – “We cannot find the connection to our soul with logical thinking”, as Baptist says. “At the time I felt cut off from my heart, my higher self and the meaning of my life. Life is short and it was necessary for me to find my purpose in life. I have had many spiritual experiences in my life, already as a child I had my first out-of-body experience, but I never told anyone about it. As a child it takes extraordinary courage and as an adult, it takes … well, extraordinary courage as well. And where does that courage come from? To feel your heart, your soul that gives you the undisputed feeling of what you are here to achieve and do in this life, that was what I was searching for”, affirms Baptist. And that was truly what he received. After walking around for about an hour asking the question exactly as posed by Eckhart Tolle, Baptist had to run for shelter from a violent rainfall. Nothing had happened by asking the question and he felt ridiculous, but there was nothing to lose. “Breathless and sheltered by some huge trees I suddenly got this strong pain in my chest. I know of course that the heart is not made of bone but it felt exactly as if my heart broke – I even thought that I could hear the sound of a bone breaking – and suddenly I was hit by this very strong feeling of unlimited love. It was so overwhelming that I cried and cried because it was such a wonderful feeling of coming home – and right there I knew I had to make a movie about the heart.”

Baptist is a man of many words and he feels strongly about sharing his experience, because as he puts it: “The older we get, many people become conscious that there is another way to live your life. It takes courage to share one’s story, like for instance I do, but it gives others the opportunity to do the same.” He continues eagerly: “In spite of no support at all from family and friends and of reoccurring doubt whether this vision was nothing all but a romantic dream, it still was the feeling of coming home that kept me going – I had to continue. It was very challenging for both myself and for my surroundings. Our soul does not care about realism. It only deals with intentions, and from the heart’s intentions miracles happen.”

It has taken five years to create the movie The Power of The Heart. During my conversation with Baptist it occurs to me, that this process of creation has followed Baptist’s own personal development. It was driven by a firm decision to follow the heart without having any notion about how this journey could possibly succeed. Without Baptist’s own personal journey to the center of his source in the process of finding investors and others who would support his project, the grand vision of this movie would never have been accomplished. “When you work from the heart, there is an in-build synchronicity with guidance from a higher level of consciousness. And when we pursue the intentions coming from the heart, things will sooner than later happen to us.”

Most people give up on a dream when they meet too much resistance or if the results do not come quick enough. This creates frustration, anxiety, and unhappiness – I see it daily in my consultation. Baptist is such a fine example of the fact that when we keep on following our heart and intuition, the pure feeling from the heart, then we will succeed. The heart contains intuition, and in the same way as we cannot logically explain what our intuition is telling us, the same way we just know when a wish or an aspiration comes from the heart.

“You can only learn how to trust your heart when you start experimenting with it. Humans do not trust their hearts. They only learn to trust it when they realize, that they actually can. This process is only possible trough experience.” Baptist continues: “We are not human doings, we are human beings, creating alignment with our source. We manifest from the being and when we are aligned with our source, things start to flow.”

The brain is the last one to know! For those of us who have started learning to live from this, we get factual proof in the movie. Studies made by Rollin McCraty, PhD and director of research for The Heart Math Institute in California, shows that the heart picks up on occurrences 20 seconds before the brain receives the same information. And this is merely what we are able to calculate! But in order to intercept what comes from the heart and what comes from the brain, we each need to find the particular way that works for us.

Is it through silence or is it by listening to music? Isabel Allende says in the movie that when she plays with her dogs, when she makes love with her husband, and when she writes books she feels in connection with her heart. For Paulo Coelho it is when he writes books, too. For Eckhart Tolle it also happens through meditation. For Baptist de Pape it happens when he goes bare-foot on the beach, by being in nature, by listening to music, and by getting enough sleep.

“Sometimes when I travel from Europe to the US, I often have to go to meetings and interviews directly from the airport, and if I haven’t gotten enough sleep, my connection to my heart is ‘blurred’. I know this. And therefore I can take better care of myself and pay extra attention to what my heart tells me to be the right or wrong action in a given situation. It is important for each of us to understand, that we need to find that special way which works for us. We can do this by asking ourselves what makes us feel alive. When do you feel this very special pulse or special sense in your stomach?”

In this moment, on the other side of the table I meet the heart, the pure soul in this man. Chuckling, smiling and full of eagerness to communicate the knowledge that he has attained, he sits gesticulating, humble and with great passion, sharing his life experiences. And I resonate with this human being who commenced the interview by citing Steve Jobs. Many people can quote and refer to the words of wise men and women. But to live from this wisdom is something completely different.

Baptist keeps on talking in the most considerate way: “With everyday lives where most people have families to provide for, with tailbacks on their way to work and all the other stuff that can make us stressed, it is even more important to stay tuned to our hearts. For not only in this way can we live out our purpose and be at peace with that, but we are actually also more productive, healthy, and happy when we are connected to our source. In a hectic life this in itself can be rather challenging and many of us do not know how to implement this truth in our lives, because we are not used to anything else than thinking – this is what we have learned. But if we really want to create a happy and meaningful life we have to find a place within ourselves, where we learn how to react to this.”

With his hands stretched out one above the other, Baptist attempts to show where the low energy is placed. “When for example we find ourselves in an unfavorable situation it is this low vibration and in order to change a situation which is not good or to find a solution to a problem, we have to move from the low vibration to a high vibration because it is impossible to find solutions to problems if we stay in the same energy that created them.” It is the power of manifestation which Baptist is talking about here. The power of manifestation is obviously something, which interests him very much. “During the shooting of The Power of The Heart I lived for a long period together with the director of the movie Drew Heriot and we had many conversations regarding the power of manifestation.” Drew Heriot has also directed the film The Secret which, as those familiar with the film know, is about the law of attraction. “We are constantly creating our reality – consciously or not –

and when we comprehend with the heart how we as energy are in interplay with the universe, God or whatever we choose to call it, we are able to create miracles.”

“Don’t wish for the magic, because you are the magic” as Baptist puts it. “We have to move from the head to the heart, because the energy of the heart’s desire is different, and from that place we can manifest whatever the heart desires and then the synchronicities happen. This approach was actually used – without me being a hundred percent conscious about it – for the creation of the movie.” Perhaps, I wonder, this is the reason why it took Baptist five years to complete the film. In that case it merely renders his decisiveness that more admirable.

“When we act from the energy of the heart’s intentions and desires it is different than when we act from the mind’s intentions. In the period in which all the interviews were going on, I repeatedly asked myself why some people are more successful than others. What mechanisms and coincidences are there between these great spiritual teachers? And it occurred to me that they are all powerful manifestors.” So why not write a book about this, now that he was in the middle of it? He did do so! It is presently with the publishing house in New York and is expected to be published in 2016.

“Right now I am focusing on one thing only, and that is screenings and talks about The Power of The Heart – that is what my heart calls for. I know exactly what cities and countries to visit until the end of 2016 and afterwards it is desired for me to produce The Power of The Heart For Kids.” Amen, I say! “With the type of education that we have today, kids are completely disconnected from their own source. It is fine to learn about physics, science, and language, but when the teachings do not come from a different place than the limited mind, they cannot be optimally put to use. A lot of kids are alone with their spiritual experiences, as I was. What I wanted for myself as a kid and did not get, I believe I can create for kids today.”

“All things start with the man in the mirror.” What a man! Baptist has a lot on his heart and in the middle of the flow of talk I sit for a silent moment and wonder about this man’s life. A life that in the last ten years has been full of constant traveling and hotel stays away from home, family, and friends. Baptist tells me about a night in a hotel in Frankfurt where he woke up and did not know where he was. That is a part of his life. He accepts this without complaining or seeming to be displeased.

“Often our biggest lessons and blessings are our worst nightmares. But we are able to extract the teachings out of them when we are present in the now.” This is the answer I get, when I ask if he ever has the feeling of fear. Fear of not being able to keep on performing. Fear of who wishes his company – for his heart or his fame. The reverse side of the coin which we always hear about when a star falls from the sky. But this is a star which has not fallen from the sky. This is a star that shines beautifully and strong, and with pride and humility does what he deeply and honestly feels is right in his heart.

So what are the four energies that we through intuition and trust have discovered to be good for him, going to be used for? “Trust is for me to know oneself and work from that place. Strength comes from being adjusted in one’s own essence. It comes from being unfailing in the heart. Self-protection is self-love, to love yourself. Because if you really love yourself, you are also going to take care of yourself. You are grounded when your losses in life do not bring you out of balance. If you can stay in balance and in contact with yourself in the heart regardless of the challenges of life, then you are really grounded.”

A joint reflection of the conversation with this wonderful man could only be a heart-to-heart conversation. Baptist concludes his many words with affirming: “As it is said in The Power of The Heart: Words that come from the heart, touch the heart. Therefore it has been gratifying for my soul to talk with you.”