(…no I’m serious)

Recently on twitter a cosmic advisor I follow (@batshaahar) posted that things like meditation, breathwork, or positive thinking could serve as an escape mechanism just as easily as things like tv, social media, or weed.

I agreed with her and posited that the corollary could also be true – that tv, social media, and weed could be just as healing as meditation, breathwork, or positive thinking, if used correctly with intention.

I’ve never been a tv fan, traditionally. I didn’t even own one in NY and the one in my apartment now I hide behind a hutch so it doesn’t disrupt the decor. I still don’t have cable; I just use it to play dvds.

But in the past year I’ve found myself on Netflix more often, and I’ve discovered that the right movies and tv shows that call to me can actually impart deep spiritual lessons, if I’m listening.

There’s no doubt in my mind, for example, that The Magicians crossed my path right when I needed to learn about quantum time. (Fair warning though, while the lessons were useful, I found myself having to slough off a bit energetically after watching, due to the low vibrations of some of the characters.)

Travelers (recommended to me by Monique Darling) was an even more in-depth exploration of quantum time, and an instructional guide to balancing your soul mission with your human life. It was also a thought exercise in trusting the divine plan.

I then watched Extraordinary Homes, which provided an amazing expansion of consciousness into thinking about how it’s possible to join the comforts of luxury architecture with living in harmony with surrounding nature, and gave me a renewed appreciation for the beauty of our planet and an idea of the possibilities I’d like to allow myself for how I live on this planet in the future.

After seeing my posts about Extraordinary Homes, my friend Yerasimosrecommended Chef’s Table, and I watched the first episode last night. In it (as I posted a video of earlier) was the story of a man’s restaurant career success taking off because of an accident on the highway causing traffic that made Italy’s greatest food critic stop for dinner in his restaurant, follow up with a glowing review two days later, and then award him Chef of the Year in his magazine. This exactly mirrored sentiments I’d been receiving this week from my healer Katherine and reader Kara that I should allow for more possibility for my music success to show up as a complete surprise delivered by the universe since, not unlike the chef, I’d already set the intention in motion and maybe didn’t even realize how much work I’d already done.

There’s no question in my mind that spirit put these shows in front of me as the most efficient way to bring me these downloads.

(And of course I nearly forgot Queer Eye – possibly the most healing show on television today, offering templates of nurturing, intimacy, self-care, and energetic embodiment to those bastions of patriarchy that need it most right now.)

Now that’s not to say that all television is going to do the same thing, and most importantly, remember that just because something is good tv doesn’t mean it’s raising your vibration. I’ve heard amazing things about the writing of Breaking Bad but I have absolutely no interest in watching a white dude with a meth lab, because I don’t feel in any way that that’s going to tune me in with the beauty of the world. The question is not whether the tv show is “good,” it’s about how it makes you feel and what it teaches you.

I like meditation and spiritual courses and group rituals and ceremonies but I’d feel pretty bored with life if I believed they were the only places you could find magick. Magick can be found in the everyday, and some days I’d rather get high and watch tv than meditate, so if I’m going to do that I might as well do it in a way that feeds my soul.