Recently, I watched the 2011 movie The Adjustment Bureau staring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie and Terence Stamp. Billed as a science fiction romantic thriller, the spiritual aspects of the movie are what intrigue me.
The premise is that we humans are at the effect of The Adjustment Bureau which is tasked with keeping us on track for the highest plan and to intervene or manipulate situations when the highest plan changes. The beings in the Adjustment Bureau are similar to guarding angels and the entity that is never actually called God or Source is the Chairman of the Board.
In the opening scene, we are introduced to Damon’s character, David Noriss, who is a Congressman from New York who runs for Senate. It is election night and he lost. He is getting ready to make his concession speech when he runs into the intriguing modern dancer, Elise Sellas, played by Blunt. They have an immediate connection and her devil-may-care attitude inspires David to improvise his speech in a way that is relatable to the electorate.
The Plan included this meeting and the inspiration but not a relationship. The Adjustment Bureau agents have a few missteps and have to intervene to not allow David and Elise to be together. The Adjustment Bureau has to reveal itself to David and, in a not very divine-feeling-way, Stamp’s character, Thompson, threatens David if he tries to contact Elise again. Thompson also shares with David that the reason The Bureau keeps such a close eye on The Plan and the manifestation of The Plan, is because humans messed it up so badly in the past that The Bureau had to step in to save the day.
A few years later, it is time for David to run for Senate again and he decides to reach out to Elise and to have a relationship with her regardless of The Plan. David’s main Adjustment Bureau agent, Harry Mitchell, played by Mackie, decides to help David find Elise under the radar screen of the Bureau.
Although the movie received mixed reviews, I enjoyed it. There are two take aways from the movie that I want to highlight today.
When David is asking Thompson why he and Elise can’t be together, why The Bureau cares, Thompson says that both David and Elise would be so happy with each other that they wouldn’t strive for more success and greatness. David would settle for not being a Senator and for not reaching for the presidency. For Elise, instead of becoming a world-famous dancer and choreographer, she would be happy to simply teach elementary school girls to dance.
Notwithstanding the possibility that the highest plan was for David to be in politics and for Elise to be world-famous dancer, it struck me as judgmental that bigger and better, in a third dimensional sense, would always be the highest plan. Why couldn’t teaching young girls to dance be the highest plan? Even more so, why is being happy and in a loving relationship not part of the highest plan? Is being miserable really the highest plan? Definitely something to ponder and ask what our mirrors might be regarding the highest plan and/or for clarity on issues to manifest the highest plan.
The second take away for me, of course, comes with the ending. As Harry is delivering the good news to the couple from the Chairman, he says, “Maybe one day we won’t write the plan, you will.” This is another great piece to take to our meditation chair. What false beliefs and patterns of behavior do we need to change in order for The Plan, The Highest Plan, to be not only something we strive to manifest but we are in such alignment with all of Creation and all of Source, that we are creating the plan as well as manifesting it? If this triggers any issues, just take it to the Chairman of Your Board and make the appropriate adjustments.
Gratitude to fdsfe67854 with Pixabay.com for the image above.