“It may seem simplistic, but I came away from The Nature of Existence with a renewed compassion for spiritual and religious people.”
GodlessGirl.com

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A Documentary of Cosmic Stuff

Interview by:  Gordon K. Smith

Although he has made narrative features, writer/producer/director Roger Nygard has a special knack for investigating the world of belief systems and how they rule human behavior. His earlier documentaries TREKKIES (1997), TREKKIES 2 (2004) and SIX DAYS IN ROSWELL (1998) showed us folks obsessed to varying degrees with TV and movie aliens and the supposedly real ones who crash-landed in rural New Mexico in 1947. Nygard has returned to that territory with a new film that travels around the world in search of truths about God, love, the afterlife, and THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE.

Weighing in on this are everyone from confrontational evangelists to Vatican officials to eastern mystics, eggheads and Christian wrestlers in Georgia who perform a Passion Play complete with body slams.  NATURE is also about Nygard’s own journey, literal and spiritual, in search of answers in an increasingly polarized world.  A most affable tour guide through spiritual diversity, Nygard met with us at the Angelika Theater in Dallas while the film screened on the floor above us.

UTM:  There’s two films here, one about “the nature of existence”, and one about you making  this film.

Nygard:  It didn’t start off that way. I took on a partner about a year and a half into the process (co-producer Paul Tarantino), and he suggested, after I was struggling with how to tell the story, maybe you should put yourself in the film. I bought a second camera, and he came along, filming me doing the filming…my composer, Billy Sullivan, did some camera work also. We took turns. Another producer, Laurel Barrett, who’s Dallas- based, she went with me to India and Italy.

Nygard started his quest with massive e-mail inquiries to scientists, clergy, celebrities, and religious leaders around the world.

Nygard: …a high percentage replied, but some emails, I got no response. I put a call into Oxford to the office of (British scientist and religion critic) Richard Dawkins. ‘I’m looking for Richard Dawkins’. ‘This is he’. Wow! And he set up an appointment. Sometimes it was that lucky.

UTM:  How about Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist?

Nygard:  There is a deleted scene on the website about my visit to Stephen Hawking. And the reason I took it out of the film, even though I really liked it, is that it was similar to the Pope (who ultimately refused audience with the filmmaker). I got there, and he said no. He just sent down his assistant who said, ‘he decided not to do the interview. He’s just tired of the God question.’ He must get that a lot. Stephen! Tell us about God! (laughs).

UTM: He’s the go-to God guy.

Nygard. Right…I have a process I call the three R’s: Research — books, stuff on the Internet. Before I went to China, I researched who the leading expert was on Confucianism. Then during interviews, more often than not, people would say, ‘you need to interview so and so’ — and so referrals, and then just random chance, knocking on doors.

UTM:  Which one led you to Irvin Kershner (film director most famous for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)?

Nygard:  Irvin Kershner was a referral. One of my five producers is Mohit Ranchandani. He produces horror films in Hollywood and he knew Irvin. And he knew Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (the Holy Man in the Indian segment).

UTM: That’s a real dichotomy of people.

Nygard: (Kershner) was one of the best. The older the better, they’ll tell you just how they feel, because they don’t care anymore what people think.

UTM: How about the Billy Graham camp?

Nygard: I tried the high profile televangelists. Since they have their own platform, this didn’t offer them much. They’ve got a camera already.

UTM: Do you think actors or other celebs just didn’t want to get nailed down to a religious opinion on camera?

Nygard: Some won’t, others perfectly happy to. If you’ve got an image to protect, and that’s how you make your living, I can understand that…if Tiger Woods had just said, ‘Hey, so what?’, he’d have gotten a lot more respect than doing the fake apology tour. But he has an image to protect, so he did the tour. Same with a belief system.

At that point we were joined by the Dalllas co-producer, Laurel Barrett.

Nygard: Laurel and I met at the (Dallas) USA Film Festival in 1991. She was working at the fest, I was screening my first movie, we’ve been friends ever since. Once she heard this topic she said, ‘I want to get involved. I’m coming with you to Italy and India’.

Barrett I had some things going on in my life and I woke up one morning and said ‘I have to go. I have to get back to these spiritual grounds’…we just got out a map and started looking a interesting places.

UTM:  Is that how you connected with the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas?

Nygard: I think the first person who told me was Ann Alexander, when I came back here for the film festival (in 2007, as a judge). I always bring my camera to utilize existing travel opportunities…and I said, ‘so what do you have in Dallas that is unique and interesting, that would work in this what’s-the-point-of-everything documentary. They said, well, we got the biggest gay church in the world. I said, ‘Stop right there’. Knocked on the door, ‘Who’s in charge here?’ Reverend Jo Hudson answered, and let us film two services.

UTM: One of the few actual sermons seen in the film. Did a lot of churches refuse to let you shoot actual services?

Nygard: Not a lot told such an interesting story. I happened to film on the day she told her deepest, most painful story, about being kicked out of the seminary because she was gay…that’s cinematic, when someone is spilling their guts like that, so it’s partly just luck.

UTM: On the other end of that spectrum is Brother Jed Smock. I thought I’d heard every theory possible about the “causes” of homosexuality until he brought up masturbation.

Nygard: He’s very entertaining, he knows how to get attention, and he’s been doing it for 35 years. I had seen him during my senior year in college (1984, University of Minnesota). I shot a little mini-doc of him at the time, and used it in my film now.

UTM:  We see him now preaching at the University of Florida. He gets around.

Nygard: I couldn’t believe he’s still doing it 30 years later. He goes all over the country on college campuses.

UTM: Does he ever get thrown off?

Nygard: They can’t if it’s a public campus. Private schools can. He knows his law.

UTM: On your website you’re posing with him. Grudging admiration?

Nygard: You wouldn’t think he’d be a person you’d be interested in hanging out with because he’s off-putting to most people. But that’s his stage persona, offstage we sit around and have a conversation. He has beliefs that differ from mine to a great degree, but the whole point of the film, and he’s no exception, was to meet people whom I didn’t understand why they think that way. Once I got to know people, I was no longer so angry or afraid of them. So I made friends with Brother Jed, with Muslims in Mumbai, and with witches in Serbia*, which didn’t make the cut…to love someone you give them your full attention. I didn’t go to tell them “you’re wrong”, I went to listen and learn about them…I started out very angry at people.

How could people fly planes into buildings, or blow up abortion clinics because of something they believe so strongly, whereas I’m over here and believe the opposite.4 We can’t both be right, so who’s right? How do we find truth? And if your litmus test is whose belief is the strongest, they win! I can’t believe anything strong enough to drive my car into something and blow it up. I can barely commit to buying a new car…so going from anger, to getting to know people, becoming much less afraid of who they are, what they believe, and arriving at a place of peace and acceptance of others. Mark Twain said the way to overcome bigotry is to travel. And they learn about you, too.

UTM: It’s said in the movie that you were born Episcopalian. Is there any one word that describes your belief system now?

Nygard: Uh, ‘Open to any good argument’.

“The film is not heavy-handed by any stretch of the imagination — as the humorous encounters Nygard has with the local cuisines and other enjoyable sidebars would attest — and it is as fair and impartial as the medium allows. One never gets a true sense of Nygard’s own ideas on the subject he’s exploring, but it’s clear he doesn’t approach the task in jest. And that dynamic precludes the extreme stuffiness that could easily accompany such a project.”
Sam Ogden, Skepchick.org

Full Review

CHECK OUT The Nature of Existence
Q&A with Director Roger Nygard Sat July 31, 2010

Palm Springs, CA
July 30 – August 5, 2010
Camelot Theater
2300 East Baristo Road
Palm Springs, CA 92262
info: (760) 325-6565
tickets: http://www.camelottheatres.com/
showtimes: 12:00pm 2:30pm 5:00pm 7:30pm

Roger Nygard ponders the most basic—yet most difficult—concepts of life in ‘The Nature of Existence’

Roger Nygard ponders the most basic—yet most difficult—concepts of life in ‘The Nature of Existence’
July 1, 2010
By: Blase DiStefano

Why do we exist? “To figure out why I exist” and “Nonexistence has nothing to recommend it” are only two of the many, diverse answers from subjects interviewed by director Roger Nygard in his new documentary, The Nature of Existence. Other questions about religion, science, God, faith, truth, scripture, and morality are posed to religious leaders, renowned scientists, comedians, and many others.

The 48-year-old Nygard, probably best known for Trekkies (a feature-length doc about Star Trek fans), also directs, writes, and edits for television series, including The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm. So you know he’s got a sense of humor, which is evident in both his new film and this OutSmart interview.

Blase DiStefano: Let’s start off with something simple, not like the questions you ask in the film! Of all the places you traveled, which one was the most interesting, and why?

Roger Nygard: India was hard to top. The whole country is like one big holy site. My shoes were off more than they were on. Tip to India travelers: bring flip-flops. Every direction you look is a photogenic tableau. The place that gave me chills up my spine though was Stonehenge. Maybe because it’s so ancient—it’s over 5,000 years old! Seeing those iconic stones in person was surreal.

Of all the people you interviewed, whose answers seemed to resonate with you most? The answers that resonated most for me were from anybody who I felt was honestly seeking truth, wherever it may lead—because that’s how I felt about my journey. I could listen to the particle physicists and string theorists for hours, yet it seemed like minutes.

But old people are the best! They will tell you the way it is, they don’t censor themselves, they don’t give a shit what people think about them.

In answer to your question “What is the definition of God?” evangelist David Miller said, “God is love. I think when we have found love, we have found God.” He was wearing a button that showed a circle with the word homo in it and a line crossed through the word. What was going through your mind while he was spouting off?

I immediately had the feeling that he might be gay. That moment reminded me of a quote from Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “We always condemn most in others, that which we most fear in ourselves.” How many times do those who most loudly condemn others have to be found guilty of doing that which they condemn before a pattern emerges?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says in the movie, “Happiness is discovering your true nature.” That struck me as brilliant in its simplicity. Once a person discovers who they are, and they begin living in concert with their true nature, they will be much happier. If you live your life trying to reach a goal set for you by others, by society, by organized religion, or whatever, if that goal isn’t in concert with who you are, you will live a life frustrated and unhappy. If God didn’t want people to be gay, why would he make some people whose hearts are drawn to others of their own gender? Can we choose how we feel? I don’t think we can choose who we fall in love with.

Since God is not male or female, did anyone say that they refer to God as “it”? What was the most common answer to that question? Far more people referred to a patriarchal god.

The goddess is currently out of favor, but [feminine deities were common] in many ancient societies.

As for the most common answer, what was most common was a lack of agreement. Mahatma Gandhi said, “There are as many religions as there are individuals.” Similarly, there are probably as many definitions of God as there are people. Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson (l) speaks to the congregation at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, “the biggest gay church in the world.”

In the film there is a string of answers where people define God as: nature, love, the answer, omnipotent, everywhere, everything…. If something is everything, then it’s also nothing. Einstein borrowed Spinoza’s definition, saying that God is the laws of the Universe. I think God is the word we use to refer to our desire to be connected to something greater than ourselves.

Tell me about visiting the LGBT church in Dallas.

The Cathedral of Hope is a haven for the nonjudgmental. I love that attitude! I also love what Canon Coy James told me: “I think that it’s the biggest gay church in the world because God has a sense of humor. Texas is a very conservative state. But I think it’s also because that’s where it’s needed the most.”

I was so lucky to be there for a service when Rev. Dr. Jo Hudson told a heartfelt story about when she was in the seminary and somebody accused her of being a lesbian. With her entire future career at stake, she had to make a choice. Would she be true to her heart, or would she choose to live a lie?

What do you think of Brother Jed Smock? Did you see anyone who agreed with what he was saying?

Brother Jed Smock calls himself a confrontational evangelist. He knows how to get attention. He’s very entertaining. He’s a master at his craft. Many people believe Jed’s message. At the end of the day, there are always a few who stay to genuinely listen to him. One student told me, “I do believe most of what he’s saying, and I have to admit in my head I am ridiculing him at the same time because of how radical he is.”

What do you think of Ultimate Christian Wrestling?

They were really nice people—when they weren’t bashing heads in the ring. You have to see their show to believe it. It’s certainly one of the “jaw on the floor” moments in the film.

It may seem weird to hear me say this if you’ve seen all the people in the movie, but there’s nobody in it that I dislike. I like people. I may disagree with many of them. But one lesson I learned is that when it comes to beliefs, we are never all going to agree. Never. But our only hope is if we get to know each other. The more I traveled while making this movie, the more I learned about other people and other cultures and other beliefs. I didn’t necessarily have to change my beliefs; I just learned why people believe other things. As Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Were you able to ask the pope any of the questions? If not, why not?

It’s not easy to see the pope. I don’t want to give out any spoilers about my interaction with the pope before people see the film, but I did get within six feet of the pope and have a moment with him.

What was the best part of making this film?

Taking a journey with no idea where it would lead me. It’s exciting and scary at the same time. I never knew who I would meet next. And the food! One reason I exist is to sample culinary delights all over the world.

What was the worst part?

Traveler’s diarrhea. I had the worst chicken fried rice ever in China. Note to travelers: if you see the chef rinse the chicken in the river, you probably shouldn’t eat it. I also had the best BBQ chicken ever at the Holy Smoke BBQ in Huntsville, Texas.  The best and the worst chicken, both in the same movie.

The inevitable question: are you in a relationship? If yes, the inevitable second question would be: with a man or woman? If no, the inevitable second question would be: do you date men, women, or both, or neither? This is getting complicated. Shit, are you gay?

[Laughs] I’m straight. I’m single. Never been married. Wait a minute, what’s wrong with that picture?

I am mystified by marriage and relationships, and in looking for a subject to tackle next, I realized that “The Nature of Marriage” is even more inexplicable to me—more of a challenge than the very nature of existence itself. Check back for all the answers to that one in a couple years….

Ending with The Big Ones: two of the questions you ask in the film are “Why do we exist?” and “Is there a God?” When you ask yourself these questions, what are your answers?

We exist for many reasons. Here’s one purpose: to create and to share your creation with others. Create something today…a painting, a dance, a short story, a dress, a garden, a recipe, a new skateboard trick, whatever moves you…. When people have nothing to contribute to society, when they are not creating and expressing themselves, they get depressed. As Julia Sweeney told me, “Happiness isn’t a goal, it’s a byproduct of having a purpose in life.” For many people, the default is to create another human. That sort of creation will keep you busy for a couple of decades. Then you can get back to painting again.

To find God, I think we have to examine the very fabric of existence. An atom is 99.999999 percent empty space. We are made of atoms that are made of mostly nothing, but still we exist, we are conscious, and part of being conscious is to yearn for a purpose greater than simply reproducing our genes. It’s in that space between the mostly nothing and our self-aware existence that we look for more—something intangible—and, for lack of a better definition, we may call it soul, or spirit, or life force, or simply consciousness. Is there one religion or philosophy that best represents that intangibility? Maybe, or maybe not. Science is the one approach that has the ability to actually look in that space. What will we find in microscopic bursts of energy as we collide proton beams? I don’t know, but it sure is exciting to be alive when it’s happening…

http://outsmartmagazine.com/2010/07/director-roger-nygard-ponders-the-most-basic-yet-most-difficult-concepts-of-life-in-%E2%80%98the-nature-of-existence%E2%80%99/

Sunday, July 18th 7:30pm
Movies on a Big Screen

Sacramento don’t miss your chance to see The Nature of Existence

The Nature of Existence premiered in Los Angeles this weekend and opens around the country later this month. You can find a list of screenings at the film’s web site, http://www.thenatureofexistence.com.

MEDIA GEEKS: I want to start by asking you a bit about the project that put you on the map. What led you to documentary filmmaking, and did you have any idea that Trekkies was going to be as big as it was?

ROGER NYGARD: [Laughs.] No. It was a left turn, certainly, in my career. I had never intended to, or wanted to, make a documentary. But [Trekkies producer and Star Trek: TNG actress] Denise Crosby actually pitched the idea to me.

She was in my first feature, High Strung, and we stayed in touch over the years. She had been out doing the convention circuit and had seen what that world was like. One day, she was telling me about the people she was meeting and said someone should make a documentary about Star Trek fans. Of course, it’s so obvious! I mean, why hadn’t anyone done that yet?

So, sometimes that happens. There’s a diamond in the road. Everyone’s driving by it. [Laughs.] And you go, “Hey! There’s a diamond here!”

MG: Was it a radical departure for you? To have to go out and collect documentary footage and try to find the story within it?

ROGER: Sort of, yeah. At the time, I really wasn’t interested in [the project]. I sort of referred Denise to someone else. And they talked to [Constantine scribe] Frank Cappello about directing it. He had a different idea. He wanted to combine the documentary footage of Star Trek fans with a narrative, “road trip” picture.

There was a convention coming up, that Denise was going to be in. So, they were going to go forward with shooting one weekend, just to see how the footage looked. But, when the time came, Frank couldn’t do it, and I was still, like, around… So, we all went and did a weekend at the LAX Hilton, at a convention called FantastiCon.

The footage we got that first weekend was so colorful, that we just kept going. I was hooked from that point forward. Documentary filmmaking is addictive.

MG: Had you ever been to a convention prior to that experience?

ROGER: Not a Star Trek convention. I had been to a Fangoria convention.

MG: A horror film convention?

ROGER: Yes. And had seen an auction of a pair of Vulcan ears. I always remembered that, thought it was wild. So, when we didTrekkies, I sought out an auction and said we’ve got get this on camera. We filmed the auction of a Klingon forehead.

MG: It was purchased by a Klingon, if I remember correctly.

ROGER: Right! He was not going to let that go. [Laughs.]

To finish answering your question, Denise and I got together and watched, I don’t know, five or ten or a dozen documentaries. We picked out the most acclaimed documentaries, and learned by osmosis. And we realized that they need a story structure just as much as a narrative film does.

MG: The difference is that you’re blessed with a script when you go into a narrative film. With a documentary, you’ve got to figure out what your story is. It’s like trying to build a boat while you’re sailing.

ROGER: Right. It’s a journey. You don’t know the ending, really. And, I realized halfway through Trekkies, that the film was severely flawed. And, still, I think it’s a severely flawed movie. Now, much copied — flaws and all. It’s like the flawed film has become a template for a kind of “Fan Film.”

MG: What would you say were its flaws?

ROGER: Well, the most successful documentaries have a story arc, same as a narrative film, with essentially a three-act structure. A crisis is set up at the beginning, there’s some conflict, and there’s a very distinct resolution at the end.

For example, we watched Hoop Dreams, about two basketball players in high school. The crisis is: who will get picked in the end? Who will be chosen? And the one you expect to be chosen isn’t, and the one you don’t expect to be chosen is. So, it’s a great surprise ending.

The way I addressed this main structural problem in Trekkies, and I don’t think it was entirely successful, [was to divide the film into] a series of vignettes, like a collection of short stories. Here’s Gabriel Köerner. Here’s his life. And here’s Barbara Adams, the Whitewater juror. Here’s her life. And then, they’ll pop up again throughout. And so, I created a style of documentary with little vignettes. Little slices of life. Almost an anthropological study.

There isn’t really a crisis or a challenge to overcome. But there IS a conceptual arc. I realized it, almost afterward. Because it’s kind of an instinctual thing, I guess, when I’m making a film. There is a lesson, or a moral story. Which makes sense, because each episode of Star Trek was a morality tale.

In Trekkies, we front-loaded the film with all the bizarre and unusual stuff. You say, look at these “crazy” people. Look how bizarre, and strange, and colorful, and odd they are. But then, as time goes on, it starts getting a little bit serious. Here are all the things they do. With charity work and [Star Trek actor] James Doohan’s suicide prevention story… And you get drawn into the fact that these people have hearts and souls. And so the moral of Trekkies is that, by the end, you realize that these people are all right.

MG: I re-watched Trekkies last night, and it dawned on me that there’s certainly a cultural component — and perhaps even a spiritual or philosophical dimension — to Star Trek fandom.

ROGER: [Laughs.] Sure. The “Prime Directive.” It’s a philosophy.

MG: I dare say it may even be a religion. Do you think you entered the same territorial waters when you embarked on your journey into The Nature of Existence?

ROGER: Oh, yeah. There’s definitely a pattern there. This film is a complete, almost scene-for-scene remake of Trekkies 2. But with different people, and different belief systems. Trekkies 2 was the dry run for this film. Because, with Trekkies 2, we went international. We traveled the world to talk to Star Trek fans in other countries. And, also, I asked more theme questions. There were some in Trekkies — that’s where they made their start. You know, “Trekkie” or “Trekker?” Which is appropriate?

MG: I would perhaps call them religious denominations.

ROGER: [Laughs.] Right. That was my first theme question. The seed of all the other documentary theme questions. “Trekkie” or “Trekker.” What’s the right answer?

MG: And which is the right answer?

ROGER: [Laughs.] Well no one, of course, agrees. That’s where the fun starts.

MG: Fair enough. So tell me about this new project. What was the genesis of The Nature of Existence?

ROGER: Well, you’ll see the stylistic genesis in Trekkies. But, existentialism, for me, began at the age of 7, when I realized that I was going to die. Up until that age, children just kind of go along. Suddenly, you’re in this world. And, of course you’re permanent! Why wouldn’t you be? I’m here now, why wouldn’t I be here next year?

MG: So, what happened at age 7 that made you say, “Oh my God! I’m gonna die!”

ROGER: [Laughs.] I was a voracious reader. I still am. I lived out in the country. The nearest house was a half-mile away. And so, all there was to do was blow things up, or magnify ants, or read books.

So, I was paging through the family medical encyclopedia for the first time, and the first thing I read about was tuberculosis. And [the symptoms included] a lot of coughing. Fatigue. Sleepiness. I was thinking, Man… I’m sleepy. I was coughing a lot. Just last week. And I’m gonna die!

The little hypochondriac in me was convinced that my time was up. So, I put on my little snowsuit, because I lived in Minnesota, and went out on the frozen lakes, and lay down and waited to expire. And I was counting the stars and marveling at how many there were. Probably got to 200. And then my feet were getting cold, and it was probably 20 minutes later. And I thought, probably better go have dinner.

MG: You literally thought that, if you just go lie down and wait for death, that—

ROGER: I was coughing! I was so fatigued! Probably because I had been running around and playing outside all day.

MG: At that age, what did you think was going to happen? If you lay there long enough, would the sky open up?

ROGER: My time would come. I was waiting to see what would happen. I was sort of overwhelmed by the idea of death. And so, partly, it was just being a little bit in shock. Like all shock, it sort of just fades after awhile, as other more immediate concerns come to the forefront. Like hunger. Or you’ve got to pee. Or you’re cold. Or all three at once. They’d motivate you to move on from this mortality fixation.

MG: So what led you to ultimately seek answers in the form of this documentary?

ROGER: A couple of things happened between then and now. One of them was that my dad died when I was 13. It brought mortality home in a personal way. He had multiple sclerosis, which is a very slow disease. And he wasted away until he was an emaciated version of himself, before he finally died. And so I had questions about that: Is he going to heaven in this form? Or some other form? Or… what happens?

MG: Were you raised with a particular set of beliefs?

ROGER: Episcopalian. So, we went to church every Sunday. I talk about it in the film, actually, in the setup.

For me, church was a countdown until pancakes. We skipped breakfast, because we would go to brunch afterwards. For a starving kid, that’s the immediate thing. Not let’s sing about something with lyrics so ancient I don’t even understand what they’re talking about. I wasn’t non-religious or religious. I just was hungry.

But, when my dad passed on, it did open up that question. Which creates more questions, a sort of infinite, existential onion. There’s another layer, another question behind every question.

I was like, well, there’s this retarded kid in school. What happens when a retarded person dies? Are they retarded for eternity? Or, a baby. When a baby dies, is it just crying and floating around in space? For all eternity? That doesn’t seem like a nice heaven for a conscious entity. Or is that baby given an immediate college education? And who chooses his major? Of course, nobody had any answers.

It wasn’t until 9/11 occurred, when suddenly there’s people dying on television, and our entire country had to face our mortality, that my mental dam finally broke. I started interrogating all of my friends. What’s the point of everything? Why are we here? Where is this afterlife located, exactly? How does the soul work? What’s the method of information transfer from a brain to a soul? And what happens with an Alzheimer’s patient? Are the memories saved somewhere, and then transferred? Once again, I was off and running with all these questions.

MG: I read that you came up with a total of 85 questions for the film.

ROGER: [Laughs.] Yes.

MG: Was there any particular question that was, like, THE ultimate question? The one that was the most difficult to answer?

ROGER: Yeah. I started with that question, every interview: Why do we exist? And scientists would correct me and say that’s the wrong question. The correct question is “How did we come to exist?” Whereas religious experts are perfectly comfortable with “Why.” Because “why” implies a reason.

That leads to the next question: if we are here, what is our purpose? Most people reference a religious aspect. Not everybody. But, if they do, then the next question is, “define what the word ‘God’ means.” Because, if someone asks me, “Do you believe in God?” I can’t answer that until they define for me what “God” means.

Do you believe in the God of the Old Testament? Well, that’s a little more specific. And, to me, that seems a little less likely than the God of Einstein — who borrowed Spinoza’s definition — which is that God equals the Laws of the Universe. That’s pretty easy to believe in. I believe in the Laws of the Universe. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.

MG: How do people respond, generally, when you pull them aside and say, “Why are we here?” How do you get them to talk past the dogma?

ROGER: Well, the religious experts tend to quote Scripture, because that’s what they put their stock in. And everyday people tend to give you more grounded answers. I like the answers that have to do with food. I love food. I love eating. It’s a big part of my existence. Hence the pancakes when I was a kid.

I got a spectrum of answers. There were dichotomies, though. Eastern thought versus Western. In the West, our belief system is based on God being an entity outside of us. We pray to Him and ask Him for things. Please help me. Please help Grandma. Help us win the baseball game. Please grant us special powers. Essentially to favor us with His good will.

In the East, they look inward for God. God is within you. It’s about meditation, instead of prayer. It’s about self-realization, instead of asking for strength. They believe that everything you need is already within you. So, it’s two completely different ways of looking at the concept.

In my opinion, it seems maybe a little healthier to understand yourself, rather than praying that my invisible friend is bigger than your invisible friend. The Mormon god is different from the Scientology god is different from the Catholic god. So, how do you choose which invisible helper is right? I don’t know. But I do know that understanding yourself is one of the most important steps you can take towards personal happiness.

MG: This is clearly a more personal film than Trekkies.

ROGER: It was the first time I’ve inserted myself into a movie.

MG: You read my mind! I was going to ask, as somebody who’s spent his career behind a camera—

ROGER: I was a very reluctant protagonist. I didn’t start out intending to put myself in the film. The first year and a half of shooting had nothing to do with me. It was just interviews of other people.

As I was trying to figure out how to tell the story, I showed some of the footage to a friend, another filmmaker named Paul Tarantino. He suggested I put myself in the film. It was my journey, after all, and I was learning. And, so the audience could learn as I learn.

So, I set up at the beginning what my existential crisis is and, at the end of the film, I have a resolution. It’s not an earth-shaking resolution. It’s really that the answer is so simple, it’s hard to see.

MG: Which leads me to my last question. Now that you’ve been through the process—

ROGER: [Laughs.] What’s the answer?

MG: Right! What’s the answer? Why are we here?

ROGER: I get that a lot. People expect there to be some really big, complex answer. But, in the middle of the film, there’s a pizza chef I interviewed, named “Big Lenny”, in Boston. I asked him for the secret to his pizza sauce. And, he adamantly yells, “there is no secret!”

I realized, after the film was finished, that’s the answer to the movie. Right in the middle of the film: there it was. There is no secret.The secret is so simple, it’s not a secret!

It’s the little things in your life. The small things. The moments. That’s what meditation is about: focusing you back on the moment. So, knowing that, what is the answer? Well, no one’s gone to the afterlife and come back with videotape—

MG: Not Yet.

ROGER: —and I’ll wager that we won’t be seeing that in our lifetime. So, if that’s the case, the only thing we know for sure is that we have this moment, and a limited number of moments, until the day we expire. And as we get closer, those moments get more and more precious, because there are fewer and fewer left. So, if you’re not maximizing those moments, and being IN those moments, and THANKFUL for those moments, you’ve sort of wasted them.

[Actress and Letting Go of God scribe] Julia Sweeney says in the movie that happiness is a false goal. You cannot find happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of having a purpose in your life. So, you need to find a purpose.

And, so what is our purpose? Well, the universe was created somehow. And, we’ve been created, somehow. Through evolution or whatever you want to believe.

So, creation is the most basic “vibe” of matter. We have a consciousness, and we are able to understand that. So, we are here to continue that vibe. To create.

Now, what should you create? Well, if you’re a writer, you write. If you like to dance, you create a new dance. Or paint if you like to paint. A new math theorem. A new building. A better widget. Whatever it is, you offer something to society, to the world. A creation of some kind.

People who are creating something are happier people.

Check out the recent review found on the Los Angeles Times.

Movie Review: All will not be revealed in “The Nature of Existence”

By Michael Ordoña

July 2, 2010

It can’t help but disappoint that there’s not more on the actual nature of existence in “The Nature of Existence.” But taking on the Big Questions in a 94-minute documentary is bananas, as the filmmakers winkingly acknowledge with the tag line: “Every mystery of human existence … explained in one movie!” As a conversation starter, though, it’s an affable appetizer.
The film is really mostly about the foibles of religion, but gently so. It benefits from director Roger Nygard’s (“Trekkies”) light comic touch and heartfelt “desire to communicate truth,” as one subject says is often lacking in discussions of religious beliefs.

The sound bites Nygard allows from people of faith on the titular topic can be summed up as “We exist to serve God.” There are slightly longer snippets from scientists who say just enough to blow one’s mind. If nothing else, one fact remains clear: String theory is crazy weird.

Nygard interviews smart friends on pertinent issues, then broadens his search to key locations across the country and eventually to holy and intellectual centers around the world. Many different beliefs are represented, but one senses some deck-stacking when he gives significant time to Ultimate Christian Wrestling (ministries).

There are pithy nuggets, as from the seventh-grader who derides notions of heaven as a place of endless happiness; Nygard’s take on questions of an afterlife, whether he should live for now or later; and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s quote that “Religion is the banana skin; spirituality is the banana.”

LOS ANGELES
Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90403
info: Aero Theatre
tickets: 323.466.FILM / Fandango
Director Roger Nygard in attendance for Q&A

Check out the article at: www.cnn.com