Close Encounters of the Third kind – Esoteric Analysis

February 8, 2013 6 Comments

Film poster with pyramidal image of road leading to the light at the top.

Film poster with pyramidal image of road leading to the light at the top.

By: Jay

Spielberg is in several senses, a master.  His 80s films constitute part of the very essence of what it was to grow up as a child of the 80s like myself.  Those of you who did have a keen sense for that 80s “feel” – a decade when it seemed simpler.  Reagan was a good guy leading the free West against a godless empire of commies and atheists, while yuppies could found businesses, and Jacko burned his curls at Pepsi-funded mega-concerts.  In the midst of this milder pop culture was a series of Spielberg and Lucas films, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Back to the Future that made the 80s even more enjoyable.  I recently did an analysis of Raiders of the Lost Ark, noting the esoteric elements found within, and this time we are going to look at that late 70s (1977) gateway to the 80s that was Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

One crucial element I’ve noticed in both E.T. and Close Encounters is a deeper esoteric theme that has been overlooked in all the analyses I’ve seen so far: the nature of symbols, language and communication.  This will become clearer as we progress.  As the film begins, we are shown mysterious ships that appear in the desert, the French scientist and the cartographer interview an old Mongolian man who says of the UFOs that “the sun came out and sang.”  There was a direct connection between the entities and music or sound, and they are directly connected with the sun.   Simultaneously, across the globe in India Hindu pilgrims and yogis had gathered to sing to the entities during the daylight, “Ah yah, Ah yah ye.”  This is close to the Tetragrammaton, the sacred Name of God in Scripture: Spielberg may be making a direct connection to the entities and the biblical notion of God as Lord Zbaoth, Lord of Hosts. In this instance, however, the “hosts” appear to be closer to the gods, possibly as demons or angelic.  Note also that over the old man is the Star of David, a symbol that would be very familiar to Spielberg.

Simulacrum.

Simulacrum.

When the “aliens” arrive at Barry’s house, what happens is more in line with supernatural phenomena surrounding the multitudinous accounts of possession.  Strange occurences like electrical disturbances and electronics going haywire mark their arrival, and it’s worth noting that the police cars, airplane and trucks go haywire, running in circles.  Immediately following the Barry scene, we are shown Roy and his son doing fractions over the family train set.  Roy, we notice, has this fascination with models and miniature versions of things.  In symbology or semiotics (which is key to unlocking Close Encounters and E.T.), the connection of a smaller image, icon or model with the thing itself is simulacra.

"33"

“33″

In semiotics, particularly in Plato’s Sophist, simulacrum is intended to fool the viewer into thinking the copy is the real thing.  The copy takes on a life of its own, yet viewed in scale it would clearly appear that the copy is not real.  This is a perfect analogy for the nature of film itself, as well as the role of the director.  The writer and/or film director is creating a simulacra of the real world with models and pictures, piecing and placing them together in a certain way, just as Roy does with the model train and city he has built. One may think of the simulated beings in Blade Runner or the simulated world of The Matrix here. Spielberg has mastered this art of simulation, and is presenting a simulated reality world – that of UFO-invaded America that is intended to produce a certain effect in the population.  Can this be taken to a larger scale, to which Spielberg and the director himself is a “toy” of the larger, galactic forces or entities of the cosmos?  Are we a Greek scale of being, being “played” and “directed” by the celestial hierarchy? Read more of this post

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Cloud Atlas (2012) – Esoteric Analysis

October 30, 2012 4 Comments

Film poster. “Everything is Connected.”

The Gospel of Illuminism

By: Jay

Cloud Atlas (2012) was an interesting film on several levels. Fans of both the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer will quickly recognize the fingerprints of all three, especially philosophical elements of the Matrix trilogy.  From the perspective of moral assessment, there is much in the film that I object to, but artistically speaking, I think it was excellent.  On a deeper, symbolic level, the film also has a wealth of beautiful imagery that alone made it worth watching, while on an even deeper, esoteric level, it is clear as to its meaning: metempsychosis and gnostic deification.  The history of western esoterism has long been obsessed with the notion of reclaiming lost knowledge and technology, all the way back to Plato’s Timaeus, and its legends of Atlantis.

Though I have not read the novel, I can divine its meaning from the film.  While audiences the land over appear to be bewildered, the knotted yarn can easily be untangled.  Early on, we are clued into a reference to Nietzsche’s ”eternal recurrence,”  a shooting star birthmark that recurs in characters over different generations, and a highly significant musical piece being written, known as the “Cloud Atlas.”  In total, six different time periods with a handful of reincarnated persons all interconnect, leading from 1846 to 2346.  The other element that stands out is that each of these periods includes some system of oppression.  The first, 1846, involves slavery and human trafficking, with a good Christian man helping save the life of a good-hearted slave.  In the next, a Cambridge University gay couple battles the system of post-Victorian era “sexual oppression,” which leads to one of the two writing the ”Cloud Atlas” musical piece.

From there, a hot 1970s journalist Halle Berry interacts with one of the gay lovers who has documentation to expose a large nuclear facility that is planning on a false flag event to make nuclear power look bad, for the benefit of big oil.  Next, we are introduced to a publisher in 2012 London who engineers an escape from an old folks’ home, and from there, we move to a dystopian Korean future where a one world government known as “Unanimity” rules with technocratic iron fist.  In this timeline, Sonmi-451 is a genetically engineered clone that works as an acolyte in the religion of the future: Fast Food.  From there, we move to a post-apocalyptic unknown continent that has been destroyed by what appears to be a nuclear disaster or war of some kind, in which the future future Tom Hanks must guide a future future Halle Berry to the location of a Sonmi “temple,” which is actually the technology to go offworld.

Without getting bogged down in the details of the non-linear narrative, and exactly how they connect, the viewer should understand that the story is told in a non-linear fashion to associate the viewer with the idea of eternal return.  The narratives are non-linear like the philosophy: each character is thus reincarnated into different roles and forms, based upon the decisions and roles made in the last life.  Death, as Sonmi-451 (the film’s prophet-philosopher), explains, is just a doorway to the next life.  The decisions you make in this life, determine the birth in the next, she explains.  This is metempsychosis, and the ancient transmigration of souls taught by Plato and the Eastern mystery religions.  The wheel of birth and death can only be transcended by enlightenment and right living, the general philosophy goes, which will lead to the recovery of the lost gnosis, or in this case, and in some of western esoterism, lost technology. Read more of this post

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Mission Impossible III (2006) – Analysis

October 17, 2011 1 Comment

Ethan Hunt, based on Spymaster E. Howard Hunt

By: Jay

In the wake of the publicity for the upcoming Mission Impossible 4, I thought it would be relevant to do an analysis of Mission Impossible III.  Part III starred Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian, an international black market arms and weapons dealer.  Spy and espionage films are often the best forms of fiction that function as windows into real plots and intrigues, and Mission Impossible is no different.

In fact, Tom Cruise’s central character, Ethan Hunt, is based on spy mastermind, E. Howard Hunt.   Hunt confessed a few years ago to being involved in the JFK assassination, laying the blame at the door of LBJ.  The “Cigarette-Smoking Man” of X-Files fame also appears to be loosely based on E. Howard Hunt: both are involved in high-level assassination plots, including the assassination of JFK and MLK in the X-Files episode “Musings of a Cigarette Smiking Man.”  Both are known for authoring novels under pseudonyms, too.

In Mission Impossible III, however, Hunt is in his usual role of  heroic super-agent.  Davian has kidnapped one of Hunt’s trainees, and injected her with a detonatable microchip, and upon rescue the chip detonates.  She warns Hunt of the “invisible man” and that the overall plan is an “inside job.”  Where have we heard that terminology before?  The plot then indicts the Vatican in dealing with Davian, and the IMF team has to infiltrate the See to kidnap Davian to keep him from obtaining the “rabbit’s foot,” which is said to be an anti-matter sort of compound, later identified as “anti-God,” which bring to mind the Angels & Demons plot of Dan Brown. Read more of this post

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Contagion (2011) – Analysis

October 17, 2011 1 Comment

Touch ye not, taste ye not, the defiled masses.

By: Jay

I saw Contagion with a theater full of baby-boomers and senior citizens who frequently commented throughout how realistic and scary Contagion was.  I had to snicker at this.  Contagion is like a remake of Outbreak, and Outbreak is awful.  Outbreak is worse than the worst episode of the A-Team, minus the captivating dialogue.  Contagion isn’t much better, aside from the good acting with the all-star lineup.  The entire film is like watching a public service announcement for government vaccines: something they would make you watch in high school.  It’s total fear propaganda – the only thing contagious is the fear spread by the film.  I’m reminded of the “H1N1″ scare of a few years back, where the system told us we were all dead.  And what happened? Nothing. Only the weakest minded, most  oblivious fools still thinks the system loves the public and has its best interest at heart.

Connections are made in the film to SARS, which was an engineered bio release, and as I watched, I immediately thought of V for Vendetta, where a planned bio-release kills thousands of Catholics. Recently, the BBC did a show called Survivors that was well done along the same lines, where a pharmaceutical corporation allows a bio-release to get out, killing 95% of the population.   In fact, the BBC pops up in the film, as well as CNN’s Sanjay Gupta.  This should tell you who’s on the inside in terms of mass media.  I’m reminded as well of The Stand, The Passage, and a host of other Zombie films.  We seem to have an apocalyptic fascination in Amerika.  In fact, the “virus” in Contagion is a pig-bat-bird mutation that kills within 24 hours.   Read more of this post

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The Box (2009): Esoteric Analysis – Shadow Government Revealed

June 29, 2011 8 Comments

Film Poster. Cameron will be sacrificed to Mars.

“You are the experiment.”

By: Jay

As I often lay out here, fictional films can show you more about what is really going on that the fictional mainstream news outlets  The Box is one of the most striking examples.  The Box (2009) is Richard Kelly’s most recent film—Kelly of Donnie Darko and Southland Tales fame. All of Kelly’s films contain deep esoteric themes, and The Box is no different. In fact, it’s one of the most, well, “illuminist” films I’d seen since Eyes Wide Shut. The Box also contains hints and homages toward Kubrick, in fact. On the surface, the viewer is presented with a moral dilemma: It’s a film about compromising morals and suffering the consequences. On another level, it describes the elite worldview and control system with stunning detail—but not just the elite perspective—it also contains an even deeper, initiatory quasi-masonic level, as I will argue. The film was not a critical success, but I suspect its meaning went over the head of most.

The story takes place in 1976, where NASA Viking Mission camera engineer, “Arthur” (James Marsden) and his wife “Norma” (Cameron Diaz), have just purchased a large, new home. They are the typical middle class suburban family, pictured as overwhelming mediocre, in fact (on purpose). We then learn that a certain “Arlington Steward” (Frank Langella) has been resuscitated and released from the burn unit. Early one morning Arlington arrives in a black Lincoln, a “man in black,” and mysteriously drops a box off at Norma’s door, while Arthur heads off to NASA to privately construct a prosthetic foot for Norma, who is slightly crippled. Recall, of course, that in many purported “UFO” experiences the so-called “men in black” arrive on the scene, etc. Note that I am not advocating aliens and the assorted myths attached thereto. This will be relevant later in the analysis, however. Norma discovers the box has another box in it with a large red button on top, and Norma is astonied.

Meanwhile, Arthur finds out he has been rejected from acceptance as an astronaut, a longtime personal goal. Presumable funding for the new house and car would come from the astronaut position he was counting on. Norma teaches English at a local Catholic private school, and significantly, they are studying Jean-Paul Sartre’s play, “No Exit.” A certain miscreant in class has appeared who attempts to embarrass Norma by asking her to show the class her club foot. Norma acquiesces. This is relevant to those in the know concerning Sartre’s philosophy—Sartre proffered that as we mature, it becomes evident we are simply hiding behind various “masks” as a kind of cloak to escape the radical freedom we are condemned to.

Jean-Paul Sartre. Someone should have made him wear a mask.

For Sartre, Norma’s clubfoot is an imperfection she hides because it’s a reminder that her beautiful appearance which masks the clubfoot is a facade. It’s not real. Were Norma to embrace her defect, she would actually be free from the stigma such defects produce in our psyches. Indeed, for Sartre, we even hide behind such roles as “suburban middle class wife,” because there is a kind of ease in accepting this pre-programmed role handed on from the previous batch of middle class suburban forebears. Sartre calls this “being in itself,” and likens it to inanimate rocks. Those who become “free” realize that reality presents “radical freedom,” and when this is accepted, one becomes “being for itself”-being that is free and undetermined. This will be relevant for the later “initiatory” reveal.

"Table for two, dude."

Norma mentions to another student in class the famous Sartre quote that “hell is other people,” because it would be like others “knowing all your faults.” We also note that Arthur’s young son doesn’t believe in Santa when the subject comes up in the kitchen, because Arthur is a “scientist.” It is also relevant that this is Christmas time. This is relevant because we are supposed to understand that “scientism” is another mask, Sartre would contend. The “scientist” hides behind the mask of “rational inductionist,” and when presented with mystery or radical freedom, he timidly avoids the fearful conclusion by resting his faith in the imagined totality explanatory power of “science.” Arthur and Norma are about to encounter something they could never have imagined.

Shadowy shadow government figure no one is aware of, who watches as Watchers do.

The next day NASA gives a press conference for the upcoming Viking Mars Probe and curiously interjects statements about the expected discovery of “alien life” and “ancient alien civilizations.” In fact, this is precisely what Arthur C. Clarke and the NASA videos at the time were promoting. Isn’t it somewhat obvious that you will find what you’re looking for? It’s not very scientifically “neutral” to be so completely sold on the idea of alien life. Instead, we are being given a larger clue as to the meaning of where the film is going—the underlying new mythology that the supposed “science establishment” has predetermined we will “discover.” The new “discovery” will be that there is “life” elsewhere in the galaxy, thus exotheology. Exotheology is the planned new cosmology that replaces man’s origins and telos with aliens and apotheosis. However, The Box is going to give us a veiled clue as to who the “aliens” really are. During the press conference, one reporter asks why NASA is working closely with the NSA, which goes unanswered. Read more of this post

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The Dark Crystal – Esoteric Analysis

February 27, 2011 11 Comments

Henson's Dark Crystal

By: Jay

 Much like Labyrinth, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal is one of those kid’s films all of us who grew up in the 80s seem to have a strange affinity for. And, much like Labyrinth, it is chock full of Henson’s same occult proclivities. While Labyrinth, in my analysis, constituted the inner journey into Sarah’s psyche (much like Inception is an inner journey into Cobb’s labyrinthine psyche), Dark Crystal is more of an exterior journey.

 We are told in the beginning the setting is a long gone “age of wonder” on another world where time comes and goes in thousand-year cycles, or aeons. Such terminology may be said to be of another world, but as the symbolism necessarily goes, such films (and all stories in general) function as statements relative to the human story. Thus, the two great races that arise in the age of the Dark Crystal are symbolic of two kinds of people (passive and aggressive/followers and elites), which is itself a manifestation of the film’s obsession with duality. Indeed, the film follows perfectly in a long train of gnostic nostalgia, elsewhere reviewed by me.

 The notion of a 1,000 year cycle is also a Hindu theme, similar to the theory of Kali Yuga, where we are currently entering an age of dominance of chaos, the demonic, strife and dischord. This is also similar to the notion espoused by other occultists that this is the aeon of the child, etc. Occultist Madame Blavatsky also formulated bizarre theories of numerous other races and worlds that preceded our own, as well as the Babylonian Talmud mentioning such ideas. It becomes evident that Henson, like Lucas, borrowed heavily from the mythology of various cultures in creating these fantasies.

 The eastern dualist conceptions are marked in the film, as mentioned. The Skekses represent the left hand path of severity and cruelty, control and empire, while the “gentle mystics” are supposed to represent the “gentle ways of natural wizards.” The Skekses, then, are harbingers of technology and power – they harness the Dark Crystal for the purpose of advanced control mechanisms and even brainwashing (yes, brainwashing), while the mystics are purported to be in tune with nature and the forest. The Mystics, as is worth noting, chant the Buddhist “Om,” further reinforcing the eastern dualist religious conceptions, while the Skekses are busy enacting the “Ceremony of the Sun” for the passing of the Emperor, which brings to mind ancient Egyptian theology, and it’s identification of Pharoah as son of Ra. Read more of this post

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Facts of Life and Family Matters – Esoteric Analysis

February 27, 2011 5 Comments

Notice the pyramidal structure of the gals, with fat girl and the black on the bottom. Clearly an illuminist racial and weight discrimination hierarchy, forming a pyramid with no cap! Just kidding.

By: Peter Parker

In a world where queer theory and feminists readings dominate the realm of academia, the analytical method known as esoteric analysis is, sadly, restricted to the outer fringes of the world wide web or conversations I have with the homeless guys who congregate under the local overpass… and usually the homeless guys wander off when they find out I don’t have any change, booze or drugs. But who needs stuffy academics and smelly hobos anyway? With nothing more than girl-friendlessness induced free time, a brain polluted by archaic pop culture, access to an online etymology dictionary and completion of a first year myth and symbol course from a semi-reputable university, you too can have hours of fun, ringing, highly tangential, evidence for the presence of mystic arcanum from the beloved situation comedies of yesteryear. Think I’m joking? No my friends, I’m deadly serious.

For example, did you know that the 80′s sit-com The Facts of Life is filled with Garden of Eden/Pastoral imagery? Nearly every character’s name means something like field or garden. Why? What secret purpose does it serve? What unseen hand is responsible? I do not know? Perhaps it speaks some greater truth about the human spirit, after all, like the song says; “The facts of life are all about you, you, you, you!” Now onto the magic…

Facts of Life

Edna Garrett

Edna is a name of Hebrew origin meaning “one who renews”, possibly coming from the same root as “Eden” (as in garden of). Strangely, the name Garrett may be related to Garth a Scandinavian occupational name, adopted as a surname in the 20th century, meaning “keeper of a garden.”

Natalie Green

Natalie is a name of Latin origin meaning “birthday”, referring specifically to the birth of Christ (an event that will return mankind to the lost paradise of Eden). In Christianity, Christ is considered the New Adam. The last name Green, is Old English in origin referring either to someone who lived near the village green (a kind of field) or to a person who dressed as the green-man at the May Day festival (a festival of renewal). Read more of this post

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Batman and the Joker as the Apollo/Dionysius Archetypes

February 23, 2011 7 Comments

The Apollonian/Dionysian Dialectical Dichotomy

Contributing writer David Shankle gives yet another angle on Batman: Dark Knight 

 
After revisiting Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight, viewing the juxtaposition between Batman and The Joker in a Nietzschean context made a lot more sense.

Nietzsche, in The Birth of Tragedy, used the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy from Ancient Greece to explain the constant struggle between Apollo’s order (law, beauty, reason) and Dionysos’ chaos (hedonistic appetites, drunkenness, sexual urges, primal instinct). The light side and the dark side. Thus, as this reasoning goes, to totally repress the darkness would be to remain ignorant, and thus misunderstand reality as it as only understood in the Apollonian context. So Nietzsche proposed that these two elements were not opposing, but rather complementary.

Batman, the Dark Knight, represents Apollo. He operates on vitruous principles and seeks law, order and justice above all things. The Joker represents Dionysos: he seeks chaos and ultimately the disruption of order. He doesn’t value material things. When rewarded with a room-full of money, he dispassionately doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. He is therefore a philosophical villain, viewing the order enforced by Batman as a mere illusion. The Joker intends to show Gotham City that these delusions of order, their “system,” is feeble. This is further highlighted when The Joker talks to Harvey Dent (Two-Face) in the hospital. Read more of this post

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Strawson’s Idea of Perception as Theory-Laden for the Philosopher, Alva Noe’s Action in Perception, and the Larger Transcendental Preconditions

November 25, 2010 21 Comments

Noe's "Action in Perception"

By: Jay

(c) copyright, all rights reserved.

A.J. Ayer and other logical positivists have contended that the problem of perception is a central issue in modern epistemology and metaphysics. Ayer himself argued from a position of phenomenalism to what he termed “sophisticated realism.” Ayer represented more or less the end of the “psychologistic” approach to perception, even with later defenses of realism, and P.F. Strawson gives a biting critique of Ayer in his article “Perception and Its Objects.” Likewise, Alva Noe has argued for what he terms an “enactive approach” to perception, outlined in his Action in Perception. In this paper, I will compare the criticisms of both, in regard to the empiricist and psychologistic approach, as well as arguing that Strawson’s view of theory-laden approaches and common sense realism are also crucial for Noe’s thesis.

In order to understand Strawson’s criticisms of Ayer, it is necessary to first understand Locke’s view of perception and then move from this to the application of Strawson’s insights, to Noe, and then my argument for the necessity of a larger context as a precondition resulting from where both are correct.  John Locke argued that human perception is akin to pictures of objects, received from sense impressions that in some form exist in the mind as concepts, or ideas. Locke is, of course, a seminal thinker, along with Hume and Berkeley, in British Empiricism. In this view, the human mind is conceived of as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, which passively receives impressions from the external world, which are then stamped upon the mind, as a kind of seal in wax, or picture in the mind. There are no innate ideas.

In this view, perception is thus not direct, but indirect, or mediated by sensuous qualities or “accidents” (in the classical terminology) we perceive of the object. Objects in the world possess primary and secondary qualities, and these qualities we receive as impressions through sensation are then the only data we pick up from experience. The mind is viewed here, though anachronistic, as a blank tape in a camcorder, which records the impressions. The self or subject then views them, as if there were a “little man,” or homunculus inside the mind of the subject. For Locke, the mind can never penetrate to the substratum, or reach beyond the veil of the senses. Hence, it is an indirect or mediated realism. The objects of the external world are indeed objects with a real ontological status; they have being. However, the mind of the subject can never penetrate to the world in itself, and this ends up being the chief problem for classical empiricism. The Lockian view, what Strawson calls “scientific realism,” ends up presenting us with systematic illusion.[1]

  Read more of this post

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Donnie Darko – Video Analysis

November 4, 2010 Leave a comment

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