Backdrop People, The Truman Show, and My Own Story
By Anna Biela
About Mental Health
I have been meaning to write about this for a long time.
I have heard Dolores Cannon speak several times about what she calls “backdrop people”—the background people, the extras who create the setting of our lives, much like the extras in a movie. According to Dolores, these backdrop people are not necessarily souls with whom we have made agreements to share important life lessons. Instead, they are like the extras in a film, helping to create the scenery and atmosphere of our lives. She often compared life to a movie: there are the main actors, the supporting cast, and then the backdrop people who help complete the stage on which our story unfolds.
Today, I sat down in Bryant Park to rest. There was a crowd of people gathered, all waiting for the outdoor movie to begin. Then I realized the movie was The Truman Show.
In that moment, everything seemed to come full circle. All the backdrop people were waiting to watch The Truman Show. It immediately brought Dolores Cannon’s ideas back into my mind and put many things into perspective.
At the same time, my own story came rushing back.
Years ago, I experienced what felt like the awareness that I was living inside a movie. I became obsessed with finding the “backdrop people” while I was in London. That journey eventually ended with me being admitted to a psychiatric ward. I was reported as a missing person and later diagnosed with withdrawal psychosis after stopping cannabis.
Looking back now, I see that period of my life very differently. For me, it was deeply symbolic, filled with synchronicities and dreamlike experiences that seemed to blur the boundaries between my inner world and everyday reality. One of the stories I felt I was living was The Truman Show.
I would also like to say that, in my opinion, many mental health conditions are not always diagnosed properly. Some people who experience what they believe to be a glimpse into an unseen or spiritual world are immediately medicated rather than being given the opportunity to explore those experiences with both professional mental healthcare and appropriate spiritual guidance. I went through this myself. Everyone thought I had gone crazy, but my experience felt very different from the inside. I felt as though I was seeing what was happening behind the scenes.
Whether that experience was a spiritual awakening, a psychological crisis, or a complex combination of both is something each reader can interpret for themselves. I simply know what it felt like to me.
Today, sitting in Bryant Park surrounded by people waiting to watch The Truman Show, my own story came rushing back. It reminded me that sometimes life creates extraordinary synchronicities that invite us to reflect on our past from a completely different perspective.
Perhaps we are all the main character in our own story. Perhaps everyone else is simply playing their role in helping us discover who we are.
Author’s end note: FYI, this story is the reason why I don’t smoke weed anymore.
God works in mysterious ways, but He got me out of addiction. That night that I spent at the hospital, I was given a choice. God said, “You need to choose now: Jesus or demons.” They were having a field day with me, trying to get me to kill myself by convincing me I was in the movie Inception that I was dreaming and to exit I needed to die.
I went to Bristol and then London on January 2, 2019, looking for my Twin Flame. I felt like I was running away from demons that were angry because I had stopped smoking weed. The experience became very intense, and I felt they were becoming increasingly aggressive.