YOUR BRAIN ON PORN A Documentary ALEX KENDRICK DR. PHIL ZIMBARDO JOHN MAYER Producer, Director, Writer, Actor, Pastor Professor Emeritus of Psychology, USC, Author of Demise of Guys: “The average boy watches 50 porn clips a week.” Multi-platinum selling and Grammy Award winning musician: “Internet pornography has absolutely changed my generation’s expectations (about sex).” He believes self-satisfaction is just as good or better than sex. “This documentary needs to be made.” MAKE PORN UNCOOL “I was 8 years old when my ‘girlfriend’ showed me the magazines under her dad's bed. When I was 11, a friend’s mom put on the adult movie, ‘Private Lessons,’ to watch us blush. By 13, I had found the cable stations. I didn’t look for porn. It found me,” recalled a child of the 80’s. What's your story? What's your friend's story? What's your teen's story? Now imagine yourself 13-14 today. You walk around with a portal to limitless (and free) adult book stores in your back pocket. Dr. Phil Zimbardo states the average boy sees pornography by age 11. By the time he leaves high school he’s watching 50 clips a week. The porn industry feeds the need: for every 400 movies made in Hollywood, 11,000 porn films are produced. [1] You know the stats (see box). But stats don’t change behavior. People don’t change because you cut off the source (see Prohibition). When you restrict behavior they want it more. If we're going to make a dent in pornography, we must reshape affections. People need compelling reasons to desire something more than porn. THE SMOKING GUN Did you teach your kids that smoking is uncool? Today kids see a smoker and say, "Daddy, why would they hurt themselves like that? Don't they know it causes cancer? They really stink." Our culture teaches us to value health more than cigarettes. And without outlawing tobacco or demonizing people who smoke, in a few years, we reinvented our culture. Smoking lounges were ripped out of high schools. "Smoke-free" signs popped up. PSA's peppered popular TV shows. Hollywood kicked smoking off the screen. People started saying smoking is uncool. An addicted culture bought it, fought it, and knocked the Marlboro Man off his horse. What if we could make porn uncool? AIR WAR: FEATURE LENGTH PORNUMENTARY It’s amazing how science eventually comes around to God's way of thinking. PORN STATS The porn ind more reve ustry makes nu than the N e each year BA, NFL, N HL, MLB, and NASCAR combined : 15 Billio n 30,000 pe op online eve le view porn ry second Average a mount sp en porn ever y second: t on $3000 At least 2 5% of all internet requests are porn r elated 90% of 816 viewed po year olds rn of 15-17 y online; 80% ear olds a re having m ultiple experienc es core porn with hard 70% of on lin viewed be e porn is tween 9 a m pm (work /school h -5 ours) FBI found po 80% of all rnography at violent se x crimes sc enes or h omes of the perpe trators In December of 2008, the WItherspoon Institute organized a consultation in Washington DC on “The Social Costs of Pornography” where leading academics, scientists, doctors, marriage counselors, and lawyers presented papers on the social, psychological, relational, and neurological dangers of porn. In 2009, Dr. William Struthers, a neurologist out of Wheaten published, Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain. His research showed how porn affects the same brain chemicals leading to narcotic addiction. After a wellreceived TED talk on August 5, 2011, Dr. Philip Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan wrote, The Demise of Guys: Why Boys are Struggling and What We Can Do. They discovered neither the abstinence-only or comprehensive sex-education classes in America talk about any effects of porn. In other words, the academics (most of whom are not religious) are sounding the alarm against pornography. Their research shows if you want to be pro-relationship, pro-health, and pro-sexual satisfaction, you need to be anti-porn. Yet to date, no one has brought a credible, scientifically-based, and youth-engaging PornUmentary to the mainstream. Let’s face it, the world tunes out the church’s well-crafted moral arguments. But they will perk up when Dr. Letters-After-MyName says little Johnny's secret porn sessions in his bedroom (or on the bus, or in the locker room, or in his car, or wherever and whenever he wants to look without any fear of being caught) says, "Chemically his brain on porn scans like a brain on heroin." Parents will rush to protect their children from harm and prepare them for relational success when they hear Dr. Psychologist say, "Arousal addiction will eventually lead to an inability for Johnny to connect emotionally or maintain a healthy sexual relationship with a future partner. More than likely Little Johnny will be on Viagra in his 20's because his brain has been remapped to find satisfaction in fantasy rather than a real woman." And don't think little Jane is going to be immune. Three out of every 10 porn users are women. Auto-erotica books aimed at women, like 50 Shades of Grey, populate the NY Times best seller list. Our culture is training brains to jettison real love for fantasy. We have the research. We have the distribution method. Let’s turn porn into a public health issue. [2] GROUND WAR: PARTNER WITH TROOPS IN THE BATTLE You know we need more than a film. We need to partner with boots on the ground. Three years ago Clay Olsen started fightthenewdrug.com. They speak to public school assemblies about the relational, emotional, and neurological damage caused by porn. In the last three years they’ve spoken at 75 public high schools. Those schools are begging them to return. They are totally booked for 2013. To keep up with demand they are training new speakers. There are over 27,000 public secondary schools in America alone (not to mention private, home school, and college students). One organization, much less 100, can't possibly scale to the pressing need. But one video can. Getting the documentary into movie theaters would certainly light the spark. But to fan the flames we will partner with organizations like fightthenewdrug.com, Enough is Enough (anti-porn non-profit started by Donna Rice Hughes), Just OneClick Away with Josh McDowell, and public high school world-view training groups like Axis and Summit Ministries. We will target home school networks, school boards, and high school and college ministries (Young Life, FCA, Cru, InterVarsity, etc...). Plenty of organizations deal with the fall-out of porn addiction. Others provide preventative measures (like filters) to protect wandering eyes from internet porn. But precious few are making a pre-emptive strike on the youth of our country. We must get to them before they get hooked. We’re not just asking for money to fund a film. We long to unite the battle front. In a partisan culture, it’s rare to find religious and non-religious groups attacking a common enemy. But like abolition in the 18th century, civil rights in the 60’s, and the tobacco/drug wars of the 80’s, disparate groups rallied around truth. We have the truth on porn. Before porn sucks another generation into its vise, we want to give little Johnny and Jane a reason to look away. We want to equip every parent with the tools and resources to fight a drug whose dealers hide in every 13 year old’s back pocket. STRATEGY TRAILER: 5-7 MINUTES FEATURE FILM DOCUMENTARY ANCILLARY BOOKS/VIDEO/CURRICULA Seed Money To secure greater funding and create awareness we need to produce a short teaser Director Find a credible and accomplished director Books and Web-Based Resources Write Your Brain on Porn for mainstream distribution along with a sex-ed curriculum/study guide upon release of documentary Initial Interviews We already have two experts agreed to an interview (Dr. Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan) and more are signing up Non-Profit Start Up Supplements staff salary, legal fees COST Documentary Shoot youth-appealing and scientifically based documentary in a culturally relevant way Online Viral Promotion Create short PSA’s (public service announcements) and brief viral videos to foster movement for the film $50,000 $250,000-$500,000 3 KEY INTERVIEWS WEBSITE NON-PROFIT START UP FEATURE FILM QUALITY 45-60 MINUTES [3] Video Based Curricula Re-engineer sex-education. Create a video-based curriculum tailored for religious and non-religious outlets (schools, ministries, churches, parent/child) that wholistically prepares kids for a satisfying and purposeful sexlife $150,000-$200,000 CATAPULT CONCEPTS WHO ARE WE? We’re producing "Your Brain on Porn" as a catalytic project to launch us in the public arena. But that’s not all we do. CREATE. COMMUNICATE. COACH We CREATE concepts designed to launch culture in a new direction. In 2014-2015 we’re aiming at another project: “FAMILY: The Six Essential Traits of Successful Families.” In another life, Mike High helped start the largest marriage conference ministry in the country. Part of his role was touring America to find the “top families in the country.” Regardless of socio-economic class, education, and vocations, he found six traits consistent in all the families he interviewed. As he travels the world teaching on the topic, he’s consistently finds the same six. In a culture of disintegrating, blended and misdefined families, we need a better trajectory. Possible mediums: DVD/Online Curriculum Documentary Conference Book We COMMUNICATE relational and reproducible truths through conferences, preaching, and retreats. We COACH men, marriages, and organizations on how to change trajectories. Mike High is a catalyst, counselor, coach, and consultant. He has been married to Victoria for 30 years, and has two daughters. He has a Business Degree and a Master’s degree in Biblical Counseling. Mike spent 13 years helping to launch the most successful marriage conference of its kind in the world, and for the past 16 years, has served with Fellowship Bible Church as an Elder and Pastor. Mike also provides much of the church counseling, and through the years has become a counselor to counselors, staff, elders, and pastors. Most recently, he has been providing consultation for larger organizations including; leadership training, managerial and vocational assessment, and CEO/COO/CFO leadership integration. Brian Goins is a creative strategist, writer, communicator, pastor, and life coach. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary and ran all the creative writing/production for one of the largest radio ministries in the world (Insight for Living). He planted two churches, speaks to marriages and men around the world, trains pastors overseas, and published Playing Hurt: A Guy’s Strategy for a Winning Marriage and currently is writing two books, Two Becoming One, and BORED: Why Men are Leaving their Faith and Families. He pursues his wife Jen of 16 years, enjoys his three kids, hikes mountains in Montana, and bleeds Tarheel blue. Contribute: All Rights Reserved Non-Profit Status: Send your tax-deductible donation to: Our Catapult Concepts non-profit filing will Christian Family Life occur by end of December, 2012. 13415 Reese Blvd Contact: Huntersville, NC 28269 704.519.7833 [email protected] [4]