The Spiritual Arts Foundation

Désirée Ickerodt - Spiritual Filmmaker

May 3, 2024

Désirée Ickerodt

Désirée Ickerodt is a German filmmaker living in London. Her creative journey started at the age of four when her mother enrolled her in her first painting class. Most of the children were older, and she was the youngest. She was told to paint a fish. At the time, she was not quite sure what a fish was other than that it was probably some animal. So, she used her imagination, and the result looked more like a sea monster.

Since childhood, Désirée has been sensitive to other people’s energies. Whenever she shared her impressions with the adults, they told her it was just her imagination. This led her to believe that her intuition was not a reliable source of information and that imagination was not necessarily a good thing. So, when she had to choose a career path after finishing school, she chose a more down-to-earth profession as a translator.

After finishing her translation degree, she moved to London. Living in London enabled her to explore her spirituality once more. She explored different healing techniques, such as Reiki, crystal healing and sound healing, and was professionally trained in them. She attended many spiritual talks, seminars, and meditations. Years went by, during which she felt that something was still missing. Finally, she decided to study Fine Art.

Désirée Ickerodt - What happens when we die

During her degree course, she started out by working on sculptures and enjoyed it immensely, but it did not come naturally to her. It was too physical. Her penchant towards the ethereal came back. Her tendency to lean towards the imaginable and intuitive side of life re-emerged. At some point, she purchased a tablet and started playing around with it, allowing creativity to take its unpredictable course. She started filming using her tablet despite its low resolution. It was a playful way of connecting with the medium of film. Her tablet also had a simple video editing app. So, her first film came about all by itself. She had not planned to make a film but could not stop once she started. Filmmaking was addictive in a good way. So, she decided to switch her study focus from sculpture to the more ethereal medium of film.

She finished her degree at the University of East London in 2014 with a BA in Fine Art. In her degree show, she screened a short film inspired by a theosophical writing called The Proem. It describes how everything comes into being and then goes back to sleep. The film Crossing the Horizon (2014) is a visual meditative short film about the beginning and end of the universe. The audio for this film is a recording of an Aeolian harp, a string instrument played by the wind.

Since then, Désirée has worked independently on short films about life, truth, death, and happiness. For this short film series, she interviewed several people from different walks of life, asking them questions, such as, What Matters Most To You?, What Is Life All About? and What Is Happiness? In her award-winning short film What Happens When We Die?, the interviewees are trying to answer the ultimate question. For some people, death is the end, but for some, it is just the beginning of a new journey. Désirée is very interested in the survival of consciousness after the body's demise.

Désirée Ickerodt - Death, light and time

In April 2019, Désirée underwent a past-life regression based on the QHHT method (Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique) developed by Dolores Cannon. These sessions can last about three hours. The session’s audio was recorded and featured in her short film Death, Light and Time. This hypnotic regression method involves connecting with the Higher Self, which knows all the different lives an individual has lived. Before the beginning of the session the therapist asked Désirée if she had any questions for her Higher Self so that they could be asked during the session. Désirée wanted to know how time worked and what time really was. During the session, Desiree was guided to three lifetimes: one as an ant being, one as a member of a secret sect and a third one that was not even an incarnation. Under hypnosis, she describes the moment of death in previous lifetimes, how she experienced a bodiless stage and how her Higher Self understands the concept of time. The film and its background are further discussed in the video Discussing Death, Light and Time on Désirée’s YouTube channel.

Désirée enjoys being involved in all aspects of filmmaking as it is such a metaphor for reality. When we consciously experience moments in our lives and ‘film’ them with awareness, we grow and evolve into more integrated individuals. We are the actors of our lives; we also record and film the scenes of our lives and are, as such, our own camera operators. When we are reminiscing, we usually only remember certain scenes, and as such, we are the editors of our own life stories. Sometimes, we project into the future and plan ahead, so one could argue that we are also storyboarding and scriptwriting our lives. Of course, we are also the directors and producers of our lives. We have, in fact, a complete film crew within ourselves.

When Désirée first learned to edit films, she found it very cathartic. It can be a very intense process if you go into the minuteness of it. Sometimes, it feels like entering the quantum structure of reality. The editing process does something to the editor. For Désirée, it made her more aware of how she edited her own life. Which scenes do not make it into the film? Which events are not stored in our memory? The so-called Deleted Scenes often end up in our subconscious. But they are still there. They never fully go away.

Désirée has been travelling to the Scottish islands for the last few years. In her atmospheric short films, she captured the energy of the rugged landscape of the remote locations she visited. In November 2023, she produced a few short films on Shetland. Since returning to London, she has been focusing on rediscovering the beauty in urban London in her short videos filmed at dusk and dawn over the river Thames. She maintains a positive outlook through a curious spirit of discovery that leads her to see beauty in ordinary life.

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