Review Catfish (and love on the internet)

The other night I watched the film Catfish and was absolutely riveted. I really wanted to write something about it, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Reviewers around the world have been struggling with the same problem – how to convey how amazing the film is without giving away the plot and especially the end!

You can see from watching the official trailer below that it’s a true story about a man, Nev, who ‘meets’ a woman through Facebook. It starts as a love story and actually it ends as a pure love story too – Ultimately, it’s about the beauty of compassion and the essential goodness of humanity and gives us all something to think about in terms of what we might do if we found ourselves in the same situation.

The film is very relevant as the internet is such a big part of many of our social lives these days, especially with lots of people joining on line dating sites looking for love. The virtual world can bring us into contact with people we might not meet going about our everyday lives, but meeting in virtual reality actually adds a few interesting dynamics from a spiritual perspective.

The internet is an amazing mirror where we can fall deep into our own projections. In days gone by, when we all lived in small villages and communities, you might meet someone but the likelihood would be that you’d get to know them over time. You’d know their parents, their family, their friends and loads of background detail about them. Looking for love on the internet means starting from a photograph and a few words. In a split second, without really realising it, we can take our hopes, dreams or even our fears and aim the lot at someone we haven’t even met yet. That’s why it’s important to get to know people over time in the same way that we would if they moved to our village and let them be who they really are.

That process of projection works both ways, which is why you don’t have to take it personally if you decide that you’re going to say hello to someone and you don’t get a response. It’s easy to feel rejected if that happens, but they can’t possibly have rejected you as they don’t know who you are.

The way we go about looking for love on the internet also reveals a lot about how we actually relate to other people. I always say that if you are working with Cosmic Ordering or the Law of Attraction, it’s always far better to focus on the kind of relationship that you want and let the universe fill in the details of what the person who might be a good match for that. Making a list of what you think your perfect partner should be like might see you scrolling through profiles on dating sites, thinking this one’s all wrong because he or she is an inch shorter than the height you wrote down, or this one’s just right because you both like French films, discarding fabulous people left right and centre in the process before you’ve actually given them a chance.

You are a unique and precious soul and so is every person on the planet. In the same way that you might want someone to look beyond your height or the colour of your hair to see the whole person that lies beyond that kind of detail, it’s always good to approach everyone on the internet with the same respect and reverence once you know they are genuine.

Having said that, you still need to work with your psychic intuition, especially in virtual reality! If you get a strong psychic nudge that something or someone isn’t quite right, you should pay attention to it just as you would in your everyday life (you would, wouldn’t you?). Sadly there are a lot of internet scams which target vulnerable or wealthy women and start off with a love story but end with the man saying they need money for some serious problem. Many people are so good natured and kind they fall for this hook,line and sinker. We have even seen some of these scammers try to infiltrate my free on line spiritual community, Psychic Knight, the issue is so wide spread. The answer is not to be cynical with everyone but use your intuition and common sense.

Apparently the web is taking over in terms of how we actually meet partners these days. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts and experiences. The one thing that strikes me is this. Internet dating can be a brilliant way of using technology to help us weave a bit of love magic, but at the end of the day, someone can look great, sound great, seem great and it all feels fantastic until that moment when you meet. That’s the telling time, because no matter how promising everything else seemed at the outset, the most important thing that tells you whether you’ve just met a good friend or a possible partner is that mysterious X factor we call chemistry. We can work powerful love magic, but love also works its own deep and wild magic on us!

Loads of love,
Michele x

The Catfish Trailer