The Conscious Catwoman Speaks
at the 2012 Conscious Life Expo
A Conversation with Julie Newmar
by Shannon Nies
Many people who are familiar with Julie Newmar remember her as Catwoman from the original 1960s TV series, “Batman.” But she is so much more than that role. She has been a pianist, a dancer, a broadway actress, an entrepreneur, and more recently, a writer. In fact, Julie recently published a book, “The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth.” And this February, Julie will be speaking at the Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles, sharing her wit and wisdom with her listeners.
I was fortunate to be able to speak with Julie beforehand. Even though she was trying to recover from the flu at the time of our interview, Julie was still energetic and enthusiastic—about the interview, about the Conscious Life Expo, about life on Earth. Here is the conversation I had with this charming, funny, and truly brilliant woman:
Vision Magazine: What made you decide to speak at the upcoming Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles?
Julie Newmar: Well, I’ve been there a number of times, and I’m thrilled that they asked for me. What a nice turning of the tables! And it means a lot to me. Any time you’re asked to do something, you are forced to think more clearly about the “it” of it.
VM: What do you hope listeners will take away from your presentation?
JN: I’m probably best [at] the one-on-one, which means you could have one in the audience or a hundred in the audience. There’s a sort of give and take that the audience tells me what they want rather than me just scripting it and spooning it out to them. So, of course I’ll have some idea—I know who I am—and maybe they [the audience] will tell me something new about myself. I think the best relationships are ones of self-discovery.
VM: Who is the Conscious Catwoman?
JN: Catwoman, for sure, or enough people have liked the version that I’ve done of it…they keep putting back on my shoulders. I gave away the costume to the Smithsonian Museum a year or so ago. Anybody can wear it [the role of Catwoman], and many will in the future. It’s a marvelous part.
So, the “conscious” part or the “Catwoman” part?
VM: The “conscious” part.JN: In life, is an ascension. And whether you can still run the mile in the minute or the minute in the mile—no, it’s four minutes isn’t it? Whatever it is, it just seems like life is more and better. There’s always something new to learn and see and do.
VM: How many of the proverbial cat’s nine lives have you lived?
JN: Gee, I must be getting up around the eighth one now there—between seven and nine. If it comes to careers, let’s see, I started out as a pianist. And then dance took over. It was really the favorite of all the things that I’ve probably done in my life as a career. And from dance, acting, age 24, first time on Broadway. Won an award. Lucky, of course.
Acting has a length of life to it. Dancing, a shorter career; acting, longer. And then around 50 I was a mother. So what’s that, four [lives]?
And then writing kind of crept in. And writing’s only a way—the source—of exploration. Whatever you’re exploring, writing is your activity to get there. So, I guess that leaves me with three more to go? Yeah, I’ll become a stunt pilot! [Laughs.]
VM: In your bio on the Conscious Life Expo’s Web site, it says you will share the secret of your “nine plus lives.” Are there more than nine lives?
JN: Well that sounds like me bragging!
I added the “plus.” The nine we know about, haven’t gotten to that yet. Seven and a half, I guess. There’s definitely plus.
I love hanging around with people at the Expo because they’re so evolved. It reminds me of the first time I went to a really great university. I think it was Cal Tech. And something [happened]— well it physically happened—but it happened in the other realms of consciousness. You walk where people are very intelligent. First of all, they’re taller in the high-end university. [Laughs.] The men give you that straightforward ‘glad to see you there, kiddo’ look.
And I think I’ll be hanging out in a very high-level atmosphere at the Expo. So that’s something I look forward to. It will definitely be a shared hour and 45 minutes, whatever they are going to limit me to.
VM: Could you please tell us about a few how to’s you offer in your book [“The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth”]?
JN: I like some of my quotes: “Lack of responsibility lands you in the hospital, the poor house, or with ‘friends’ who want to hurt you.” [Another quote is:] “Words, thoughts, eventually have a life of their own. Never say something you don’t want to be true.” I like this one: “Never mind changing the world. Make everything you have better. People will notice.”
Here’s a cute one: “I hide my annoyance when people tell me, ‘But you can wear anything!’ Anything…is what I don’t wear.”
And this one is especially good: “Good manners are wisdom practiced backwards. Bad manners are the throne of selfishness claiming to be individuality.”
I like things you can kind of peel off and put on your refrigerator or your mirror where you wash up in the morning. They’re kind of like good life rules, get you out of your doldrums.
And in the last couple of years, I’ve accomplished a very good thing, and that’s no more depressions.
VM: That’s wonderful.
JN: Yeah. Those are good things, when you think of all the hospitals that are full of people who seem to be practicing the wrong stuff.
And here’s the one [quote] I have to think of every day; it’s just one line: “Every profession has its scullery duty.” Like for me, writing. Writing is kind of like singing. It’s a lonely career; you have to be alone to practice it. Now, dancing and acting don’t. You’ve got a lot of people around, you get to enjoy each other. And people, at some point in their lives, will be thinking, oh I’ve got the wrong line of work here. And I’m sure even the President of the United States thinks that way. But every profession has its scullery duty. Of course some people have to ask me what “scullery” means. [Laughs.]
Oh here’s one I like a whole lot: “Tall girls…” (Okay, I’m tall.) “Tall girls, don’t slump. Think of how many short guys out there would love to have your offspring. Stand up for them.”
All you need is one good line to change a bad habit and become admired again. That’s why I wrote the book. I’m not garrulous, I’m not talky. I’m a better listener than I am a tall tale teller. I’m not your average entertainer. I like to put the other person on the pedestal or give them a chance to feel good in my presence. That warms me up. And I’m first born, so that doesn’t make sense. [Laughs.] Maybe I’m both those things.
But it’s a nice little book. It’s a high-end looking little book at an affordable price. And there are 70 really nice pictures in it, [and] with the help of a very talented friend, I designed the whole book myself.
You know Louise Hay’s [book]—it’s been my favorite book for years, have it always by my side here—“Heal Your Body: The Mental Causes for Physical Illness.” My book is kind of like that. It’s got about 75 pages and it’s a problem solver. It’s definitely a keeper; you’ll have, or anyone will have, this book for 25, 30 years. And you’d be giving it to your daughter, and it’s a nice kind of thing to share. I’m actually proud of it.
VM: How do you explain life on Earth?
JN: Well, maybe it is between the lines. Maybe none of us know and we all know. It’s a sharing business on Earth, see. Every so often you have this ultra-absolute knowingness, do you not? I had it one time when I was about 18 years old, when I was on tour in Baltimore. I was walking toward one of those monuments at a park, and all of a sudden it was if my feet were lifted a foot off the ground and I was walking on air. And for, I don’t know how many minutes—15, 18, 20 minutes—there wasn’t any question I could ask myself that I didn’t know the absolute truth and perfect answer to. It was a sort of a feeling of ascension—remarkable feeling. I haven’t had anything quite like that since, but I get these high points. Like the thrills where the goosebumps go down to the ankles and it says, oh yeah, I’m the right part, or, oh yeah, that’s the direction you want to go in, or this is the person to be with. It’s those instinctual pullings. It’s quite nice.
VM: What inspired you to write this book and really start writing?
JN: You wake up in the middle of the night and you’ve got this humdinger of an idea. So I turn on the light, hopefully not wake someone, find a pencil and get a piece of paper and write it down. It’s just so good, so good, so good. So little pieces of paper were kind of piling up, notes were being made and lists were happening, and pages were getting typed out, and shape was coming through. And editing was being done, and printing was coming forth. And talking about it, actually, out loud—takes the courage to do that even then. Then I thought I had it and I didn’t. And then I thought I had it again and I still didn’t quite have it.
And then I worked with a friend of mine; we put it so you could get it through on the Internet, and send it—whiz-bang—to have someone give you a yes/no answer. It took time, a couple of years. Maybe it took a whole 10 years. But in the meanwhile, I’ve written four books. Haven’t finished them, but they’re presently in the works.
I think writing is putting your life in a nutshell. I have one chapter—I think it’s about the third chapter—that tells you how to solve the most intractable problems, and to use writing as the solution. Because there’s something that we can’t always tell another person or it just gets kind of caught in our sense of right and wrong about what to say. But it somehow comes from your brain to your consciousness and down through your arm and out through your fingers. Using a pencil or pen, and down on a piece of paper, you ask yourself a question, and just kind of sit there quietly. And lo and behold, it’s like a genie bottle. Words kind of fall onto the page, and sentences form. It’s like opening a present to yourself. You get answers that make life a hell of a lot easier. I think I did better that way than with any psychiatrist. (Pardon me, I’m not against anybody’s therapies.)
In truth, each one of us individually has our own separate answers. I can ask my body what it needs to do this or that for me. Or it’s already speaking up for me and saying, you need a little more calcium, let’s go get some milk. Last night it was ice cream. [Laughs.] Well, ice cream is a reward—not too often.
Writing is the best way to answer your own questions. And the clearer the question, the easier the answer will come to you. Isn’t that right? Don’t they always say, in the question is the answer?
So I’m just in a space there at the hotel [for the Expo], wherever it’s going to be, to reflect the best out of people.
And I have this sixth—I don’t know, I think it’s my twelfth—sense. Somebody could call me up on the phone, 2,000 miles away, and I’ll hear what’s bothering them. I’ll hear, almost in a sense, what they’re doing. It just kind of filters through to me. Like Abraham-Hicks says, put yourself in the vortex. Simplify. Don’t come with a lot of baggage; just show up. Take it easy. We stress too much.
VM: What is the secret to passionate living?
JN: Well that would be, being in the moment. Definitely, no question. I was born with perfect pitch in music; that’s quite a choice thing. And to me it’s a very simple thing. You just get still and hear. I guess that’s why people like to go to the mountains or look out beyond the ocean. There’s all that distance for connection. The whole point’s to fall in love with yourself anyway, and your life, of course. You want to do that as much as you can.
So falling in love with others is a good way of practicing. And that is a moment-to-moment experience. It’s funny, it’s almost musical in a sense. People will come to your tone or your key. Be irascible, they’ll be irascible. Complain, other people will sense [it], return your complaints— their complaints—to you. Pick your methodology about living.
VM: How did acting change the way you engaged in the world?
JN: Well, it gave me more world to engage in, because acting has a bigger audience than dancing has, or lute playing, I don’t know. [Laughs.] I wrote a wonderful essay, I have it on my Web site. (I have two Web sites, Julie Newmar Writes, and my main Web site, JulieNewmar.com.) So I’ve decided in my next life I’m going to be a pianist. Well, I’ve practiced, so I’m halfway there. Everyone gets a choice. I mean, if you’re buying a ticket to Japan, I hope you’ll get off in Japan!
VM: Do you ever get tired of speaking of your iconic role of Catwoman?
JN: No, not really. It’s like being a woman; I don’t get tired of being a woman. As a matter of fact, [in my] next life I’m going to be a female. I like how men treat me, and despite [the fact that] I’m not answering your question, the answer is still no. I don’t get tired of it and it’s lots of fun. It’s a winning character as far as playing character roles. It wasn’t hard to play. I mean, I didn’t have to go out and learn Chinese.
VM: If there is anything that you have learned that has made the most difference in your life, what would that be?
JN: I must say I would give credit to this wonderful Abraham-Hicks. I started out as a Christian Scientist, so that gave me a makeup, sort to speak, in being attune to higher thoughts. Religiosity—I liked it, I enjoyed it. I loved Sunday school. I now of course follow that strain of thinking. And most of us do in a way. I really think that all religions say the same thing. So we’re all in the harmonious balance whether we think it or not. But I’m unduly impressed with the teachings of Esther Hicks.
VM: Could you briefly explain the teachings?
JN: It’s a modern version of Christian Science, and probably the most cutting-edge wherewithals of thinking that we can do in our ordinary and extraordinary lives. It’s a kind of guidepost to me. It’s my teacher. Give credit; I give credit. So I think that’s a fair answer to your extraordinary question.The 2012 Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles will take place at the LAX Hilton, February 10-12, with a post-conference on Feb. 13. (Julie Newmar will be speaking Sunday the 12th at 3 p.m.) To view workshop and free lecture schedules, to purchase tickets, and to learn more about the expo, please visit http://2012.consciouslifeexpo.com
