The Movie - A Beautiful Mind, a true story presented by director, Ron Howard.
Main Character - John Forbes Nash, Jr. brilliantly acted by Russell Crowe.
Impact: What a wonderful lesson this story offers us on how to manage our delusions, illusions and misinterpretations of reality.

By profession, John Forbes Nash, Jr. was a math professor at Princeton. By example, he demonstrates a proven way to manage our delusions. How he came to manage his delusions is presented in the 2001 movie, A Beautiful Mind. Through the visuals of moviemaking, we are able to experience the delusional world Nash lived in and how he came to cope with his delusions. Nash teaches us that our delusions or our misinterpretations of reality are nothing more than tricks of the mind that cause us pain and suffering.

When I saw this movie the first time, I did not realize that the entire first half of the movie was the world as seen through the eyes of John Nash. Nash could not distinguish the difference between the reality that his mind created and the reality everyone else lived in. In our reality, he was a professor at Princeton University. In his delusional reality, he also worked for the secret service on a “top secret” mission and suffered stress, anxiety, fear, etc.

When it was discovered by a psychiatrist that he lived in two worlds, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Medication stopped the delusions, but the side-affects made Nash’s life a living hell. He had both a wife and child to think of as well as his career. He was a mathematical genius but the medications clouded his thinking; he could not do his work. They also interfered with his sex drive and his passion. He felt the price was too great to pay so he secretly stopped taking his meds; the delusions returned. Of course, he could not tell the difference between the delusions and reality so once again he became a danger to himself and those around him. When he got caught, the solution of his psychiatrist was to put him back on the meds. But Nash figured out another way to manage them by invoking awareness.

Nash, taught himself to be aware when his delusions were present. He knew their irrational demands were not real. His solution was to refuse to interact with them. They did not go away (in the movie) but in time they became silent. He was aware of the delusions but he functioned as if they were not there. What a wonderful lesson for us all. That which is ignored, withers and becomes harmless. That which we fight or resist, we keep alive.

Through his practice of awareness, Nash was able to maintain his job at Princeton and make a major contribution to society with his economic theories (being co-honored with the Nobel Laureate in Economics in 1994). In the movie, he finds peace, respect and a place in history. As of this writing, he is still living. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash

When I saw this movie a second time, I realized that we all live with delusions but for most of us, our delusions do not manifest beyond our mind into our physical reality as portrayed in the movie.  Just look at something in your life that causes you pain and suffering. You can track it to a false belief, a misperception, a delusion. When we cannot distinguish between truth and delusion we suffer.

Truth is permanent and stabilizes us in peace and wholeness. Delusions are impermanent causing insecurity, fear, pain and suffering. John Forbes Nash, Jr. teaches us how to manage our delusions, illusions and misinterpretations of reality.  That is his true gift to us.

Until you return, fill your days with GIGGLES, JOY, APPRECIATION and AWARENESS!

Sylvia Silk, D.D. Director of the Institute For Balanced Living, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Doctor of Divinity, Spiritual Coach, Reconnective Healing Practitioner, Writer