Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations Podcast - Shirley MacLaine: A Legendary Seeker

I'm Oprah Winfrey welcome to super-soul conversations the podcast I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time taking time to be more fully present your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now I really do find it hard to believe that just three months after launching my talk show in 1986 there I was talking to Shirley MacLaine on national daytime television about spirituality that kind of material even more so than today was really considered out there not your typical talk show kind of subject I invited her to the show because I had read and loved her memoir out on a limb while filming the color purple the international bestseller detail Shirley's lifelong spiritual quest and reading her story was life-changing for me in fact her writings helped inspire my own spiritual awakening Shirley has always felt a keen connection to the world beyond over the course of her remarkable career Shirley has appeared in more than 60 movies and she's been nominated for more than 100 various Awards she is won an Emmy seven Golden Globes and of course who could forget her oscar-winning performance as Aurora Greenway in terms of endearment today on the cusp of 80 she's as outspoken opinionated and sharp as ever never one to accept the status quo her latest book her thirteenth by the way is appropriately titled what if isn't it wonderful to be 79 and still so curious about life I'm like a child I need to know a much more sophisticated questions of course but I would say that's the reason for being alive frankly being able to ask suppose you have the freedoms of curiosity without being judged or told oh don't do that don't don't you think about you know what not if you're if you've lived along and you're still working up right you have the right and you ask everything from what if there really is reincarnation - what if sex isn't meant to be monogamous so what happened that you came up with this new idea for what if a lifetime of questions and speculations and reasonable guesses you know now that I've it's out and everything I I think I had come to the point where I would let my humorous imagination run away mm-hmm then I sat down and basically channeled it you know without filters when you first sat down to write out on a limb did you think you were taking a risk mm-hmm you did I don't think they say you didn't think I know that's how naive I can be and why it works for me I don't think I don't even know what risks are a risk to me is what risk is the people thinking wow she's out there that's not a risk to me but then I'm in show business and the world is show business you know yes I do all acting and singing and dancing are little parts yes in our own lives but you knew what attend that you were a mystic yeah how did you know well I didn't know that that meant mystic but for that for Christmas that year I asked for a cross and a telescope and my parents said what is this I said I don't know but that's what I want and I would lie out on the back lawn with me looking through my telescope knowing that there were other let's say off world civilizations up there yeah when you look through the telescope do you remember having the sense of out there somewhere is where I come from or yes or something like that yeah or have been there I would like to go back yes and you know what is the difference between that and the mystery of religion did you grow up believing in a God no that was never imposed on me from my parents but then you know they were dad was an intellectual who I mastered in psychology and philosophy at Johns Hopkins so that kind of religious stuff was not something they thought I should be you know imbued with mm-hmm you've written I'm a dancer who loves to think what do you most love thinking about who we are where we came from where we're going how did it all happen yeah that's my fun I consider it really fun yeah and whenever I'm with a scientist or a very kind of so-called left brained intellectual person that's what I love being with a dinner and then I of course I have to be fairly well-read in like Genesis and the Bible the Bible is the book it's right there it's written all about the other nests of otherworldly truth I mean that's the truth as I see it what is our purpose why are we here what so religion is called into question now and a lot of people say but then what is the purpose what is the purpose of human experience I think curiosity that's what saved me what do you now know for sure about our humans our place in the universe I am sure we're not alone mm-hmm but you've ensure that for a pretty long time yeah so you've spoken publicly about reincarnation and past lives forever and your belief did no actually forever forever really probably many lifetimes no one ever really dies when did you start to know that I think when I first started having past life riho now and then of course I got into the scientific study of it and did many regressions and what was so fascinating was in the regressions of the past lives that I have experienced I realized the people who showed up in those experiences were also in my life today really yeah and that became very educational oh that's why they're acting like that look what I did to them then that's when I understood the laws of karma it's an inspiration to try to figure out what's going on here I look at it as an adventure and understanding the science social spheres yeah that's what I'm interested in that in every way how do you feel about where we are now I think we're in big trouble how so tell me I think we don't know or have any comprehension of what we're doing to nature now those who are scientists and the Alborz of the world and stuff yes of course but what's happened to the rest of us we're so materialistic our values that that's our religion is materialism so we've become addicted to the materialism and have no sensibility of what is that doing to the very sustenance of our lives which is nature and everybody knows we've got to fix it and yet we're all leaving it up to somebody else to fix yes back in the day when Hollywood was Hollywood that glory days the glory days the rat-pack days the rat-pack in you yeah I look at that now with real installed yeah yeah yeah I'm I've thought a lot about that because I miss it you do what'd I miss I realize now is the spontaneity and not giving a damn that those guys were imbued the talent with so they didn't care and they always were very well dressed made certain that their time they wore hats and the ties and etc so they basically knew they were on the whole time and nobody really protected it what protected them was their spontaneity and they didn't care what other people thought of course there was this mystery behind them anyway you don't let the Rat Pack yeah well Dean and Frank and Sammy and and all of them were you happy during those days did you realize they were the glory days when you were in those days did you realize over there are you look back on that now and I say this was it this is what everybody wishes they had back and I don't know if Dean and Frank and the rest of them realized because they were much older and much more customed to this kind of attention and celebrity and I wasn't I mean I met them when I was 22 or something and it all happened to me very fast so I that was the natural way of things I look back on that why didn't you realize if I had realized I might have become a different person my my saving grace has been my naivete hmm and now as I'm older I look back and and I'm starting to evaluate what is memory mean and what are the component parts of memory and relationship how you do comprehend the past why am I remembering this and not that uh-huh and what does it all mean now I mean you can look back and say wow those are the glory days those were the glory days not just because the world has had not seen stars before like that nor will ever again because the era that we now live in with instantaneous everything everything including Instagram and no mystery no mystery so there can never be a star like that again in this culture in 2012 the American Film Institute recognized Shirley's contributions to our culture with their highest honor the AFI Life Achievement Award this annual event celebrates masters of film artists whose accomplishments of elevated American cinema Shirley's award ceremony was truly the night of a thousand stars as friends both old and new sang her praises longtime pals like Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep as well as new friends like Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston all paying tribute to Shirley six amazing decades in film so tell me about the AFI experience well you know a couple of my buddies said oh my god it's gotta go into your own funeral you won't like it it's very interesting to go through it and I was surprised that I enjoyed it I thought they didn't like me and then they are there as saying all these wonderful things so you go through that examination of your past and your opinion of yourself that's really what goes on then I was rather surprised I had myself sure that what happened I had a good time you had a good time at a good time when others never mind who had said I went your own front are you sure you want to do that and you know that since when I walked up the stairs at the end you're supposed to go on this stage and say stuff and when Jack put his hand out and helped me up the stairs it was a moment of God I really am getting old I adore this man and when you have that kind of on-screen personality but you could say is spiritual that's a really spiritual mix me and Jack Nicholson so then there was a Kennedy Awards the Kennedy Center Awards what you say that it that really was not an award for not even lifetime achievement not even for acting but really for life well-lived yeah that's what I felt about it yeah I think I've had a fantastic life oh my goodness in 1994 at age 60 Shirley MacLaine's set her sights on what is known as El Camino de Santiago it's a 500 mile long trail that crosses from France into northern Spain this ancient pilgrimage can take as long as six to eight weeks to complete as travelers make their way on foot to their final destination the Cathedral where the remains of st. James are said to be buried the people who've completed the walk say it's an arduous but deeply spiritual journey what did you go through when you walk the spanish trail how long were you out there how many days 30 days by yourself on purpose you know it's a it's a spiritual Camino so what I wrote about in my book I had a lot of past life memories during that time and they say and I think it's true you start your Camino after you're finished because while you're on it it was a trying you know your the point is to go alone don't make friends and that's really hard for me and I would spend any money you have to beg for food and live in refugee Oh switch our refuges there there places that you just throw 500 miles so you're doing 20 miles a day yeah so I was in touch yet again with blisters on my feet my physical condition I was 60 when I did it the hardest thing was for me not to make friends because everybody's going through the same thing and you want to share what you're going through about your life what was fascinating I think I thought about love affairs and men and what to do about all that maybe an hour combined really so I was kind of finished with it and had such wonderful memories but no regrets and no sense of one jingo and I'm gonna find the right one then of them but really being rather satisfied better lead to who I was and who I wasn't and when I got back to London I found that I had to walk in Hyde Park about four hours a day and that's when I got in touch with how everything we do becomes habit if we're accustomed to it because you watch so many hours a day on the trail is there anything left for you to be afraid of you're you done with that fear thing no I'm not done I'm not afraid of death I would not want it to be slow and lingering I think I'm afraid of lightning because it happens so fast if it struck me and I wouldn't have I wouldn't have a chance to adjust to what it meant but it's sort of like my memory I having a real adventure with my memory are you know you're too young yeah I'm turning 60 I know I just turned it's the only age I actually ever thought about oh well get ready get ready you'll think that when you're 65 and you'll think it when you're 70 it's funny what age the priorities you begin to examine it's so interesting isn't it because I thought in my 40s I would be releasing that whole need to please it still took me a while through the 40s to lose some of that but it's so interesting that as you get older your perspective on what really matters what is important it does shift it's supposed to though isn't it yeah but people-pleasing is a kind of endeavour all in itself and I am so free of that but that's where I'm finding my really dark spirited humor and but trying to do it kindly and trying to do it with a yeah with a sense of sensitivity and all that stuff what do you think the purpose of ageing what is that there to teach us to learn and why you came in in the first place and so we are the creators of whatever reality we are pleased with or not and I'm pleased with the lessons I've given my I'll tell you the truth I am mm-hmm no I sleep well because it's well with your soul yeah mm-hmm what is it you feel now or it do you feel now a sense of not urgency but that you would most want people to know no that's such a good question Oprah yeah because in a way I feel responsible having been so curious and had the freedom to explore these things and find answers for myself what I would like to do is have 10 or 12 people who are really as curious as I am and do seminars where we cherish air and ask you to other questions and Joseph Campbell used to do yeah I feel like I mean like that's what you know you love to do yes and I would love that too to sit with people who are who are similarly inclined to be as curious and and and have little tips with their imagination and try it out on each other I would love it to do that I want to amalgamate with people I want to hear and feel what they're thinking and wondering about and afraid of and cautious about that that's where I get my real and what is it you want to leave them with okay excuse me but I'm gonna say the notion that all you really need advice is some fresh water a good hat and our really good pair of shoes it's about all I concluded that I didn't say wash water a good hat and shoes yeah they're like I can hear them laughing back there because everybody expected a different oh I know I don't I don't have any answers honest to goodness I don't maybe learn more than you think you can from your animals yes that's the way I feel about my about my dogs like my older you know Terry I've written a book about Terry yes she's been a really extraordinary teacher for me how long have you had her she's almost 15 okay she cannot see a thing she cannot hear a thing and she's functioning on a level that is a miracle to me so I'm watching her get down and judge how much she can jump she doesn't even know where the floor is anymore she's smelling it smelling up that there's another sense there's another sense of knowing again I'm interested in that other Sensibility how would you describe your spiritual practice miss MacLaine do you have one I have to say no except perhaps no I guess I guess it's not a practice but it's a state of being I let things happen I allow things to happen who have been your greatest spiritual teachers the ones who have hurt me the most the ones who have had the biggest difficulties with I can't say that I've had a great spiritual teacher like a car door or I love Gary wheeler I have you yeah but what I do for you is is is what you want to do anyway which is to really get into it and you want to really understand yes so what has taken you the longest to learn here Oh patience it's patience I have I don't think learned one iota of patience but I am I look like I'm learning to be cognizant of the fact are you happy is there a level of contentment a sense of peace with you oh yeah yeah in that derek walcott poem where he talks about sit and feasting on your life are you able to do that not so much my life I sit and feast on the now oh good I really do that I would really do that so that's why I'm so intertwined with nature and you know my animals and lots of other people when I'm with them I'm really feasting on the now of who they're trying to be what an entertainment one of the things that you say in what if is you question whether the human race may have simply gone too far to clean up are you optimistic about the future for your grandchildren depends on them okay I would say if they would take responsibility for honestly the investigation of who they are yes the people who don't are in for the I think inevitable if you don't take responsibility for what you're doing somebody else will is that the first step in learning to step into a well lived life taking responsibility probably yeah yeah that's how you have the adventure mm-hm what if you could live 250 you said you have a good 15 left what if you could live to be a hundred maybe what I just didn't want you that's a good question mmm it depends on what the human race collectively decides to do and I think we're in that process I will be adventure of it all to me and I have to answer it that way is that that is a real unknown and you have to be to be happy you have to be willing to be compliant with not knowing do you consider yourself a spiritual Trailblazer do you think we would be here seriously where we are as a culture with so many books written about the soul the proliferation of people talking about spirituality about you know your all the things yoga meditate do you think we would be here without you oh oh okay that begs a huge question which I've been thinking about rather seriously and intimately we are all one I am everybody who's seeking mm-hmm and everybody who's seeking is me so I make no differentiation imagine that I mean that means but do you consider yourself a trailblazer and are you proud of that role that you've played are you proud of that's a better question as I'm thinking on the fly here are you pleased with the role that you've played as a spiritual trail place okay our culture I'm pleased with the fact that I saw a trail and I walked down it and didn't know what I was gonna find I accept that [Laughter] I'm Oprah Winfrey and you've been listening to super-soul conversations the podcast you can follow super soul on Instagram Twitter and Facebook if you haven't yet go to Apple podcasts and subscribe rate and review this podcast join me next week for another super soul conversation thank you for listening [Music]

Channel: SuperSoul Conversations Podcast By Oprah

Views: 141,665

Rating: 4.8407149 out of 5

Keywords: Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations Podcast - Shirley MacLaine: A Legendary Seeker

Id: _orGHqSydes

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2017