The Movie Transcendence — From a Metaphysical Perspective

The movie Transcendence, directed by cinematographer Wally Pfister, opened to disappointing box office and derisory reviews in the US last week. But we LOVED it! And we’ll tell you why. We viewed it from a metaphysical perspective instead of a conventional, materialistic one.

A Metaphysical Interpretation of Transcendence

Dr. Will Caster, played by Johnny Depp, is billed as the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He creates a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known by humankind. (In theosophy and anthroposophy, the akashic records represent the collective knowledge of humankind from the beginning of the world).

Caster’s wife Evelyn, played by Rebecca Hall, was the first person to encourage him to make his experiments public. (Sounds like a bite out of the proverbial apple, especially since the first three letters of his wife’s name spell EVE)!

Caster’s highly controversial experiments make him famous – and infamous – by making him the target of both anti-technology extremists (who represent fundamentalist religion’s science phobia) and the U.S. government (which symbolizes our human willfulness to perpetuate egocentric power).

Will (or is that God’s WILL) is fatally wounded by a detractor when he is accused of attempting to ‘create a new God!’ (Spiritually speaking, God’s WILL is that humankind will collectively express its innate divinity so there can truly be peace on earth).

Evelyn comes up with a plan to save Will’s essence by uploading Will’s consciousness into a quantum computer that Caster has built. (In Genesis, Chapter 3, Eve eats an apple and gets Adam to eat one as well. In verse 7 it reads, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened…”). His best friend Max Waters, played by Paul Bettany, also a researcher, decides to oppose him. (Max represents the ‘Doubting Thomas’ in us).

The government is deeply suspicious of what Will’s uploaded consciousness will do, orchestrates a plot that results in the anti-technology extremists taking the blame for stopping Will, who has become omnipresent! (Metaphysically, omnipresence is one of the qualities assigned to God, the Eternal Presence).

Will uses his omnipresent intelligence to build a technological utopia in a remote desert town called Brightwood (which stands for our worldly consciousness that is being raised to its super-conscious – Christ Conscious – level).

However, Evelyn has been swayed by anti-Will proponents to carry a virus into Will’s compound at Brightwood in order to destroy him. Will – now in an organic body identical to his old one – welcomes her. She hides behind the dogma she’s been told, and tries her best to appear devoted to him, but he knows instantly of her deceit. (Spiritually speaking, Eve represents that part of us that is still attached to sensory experience, which is a virus that contaminates our spiritual growth and compromises our ability for higher, more esoteric thought).

Evelyn is injured during the ensuing attack on Will’s ‘kingdom,’ but Will say he can protect her by uploading her consciousness. (Spiritually speaking, no matter what challenges we face in this human experience, we have within us the wherewithal to transcend any and all limitations by aligning our human self with our Divine Self. This conscious alignment requires ‘upping our consciousness’ to the realm of Spirit by eliminating our over-consumptive worldly appetites and addictions).

Will, as his organic body is dying, explains to Evelyn that he truly is Will (one with the Eternal Presence), and says he did what he did for her sake (The Eternal Presence incarnates through the Christ which expresses Itself in human form as us). He tells her that saving the planet (placing material pursuits first) was her wish; to learn the secrets of the universe (to know who we really are) was his.

The ‘virus’ kills both Will and Evelyn (if we’re not careful, our egocentristic virus will ‘kill’ any chance we have for a more enlightened spiritual outlook), and a global technology collapse (the collective consciousness of humankind forgetting the metaphysical teachings and spiritual laws that underwrite our spiritual unfoldment) and blackout ensues (we continue to flounder because we have forgotten we are spiritual beings having a human experience)!

As the movie comes to a close it shows that three years have passed. (Metaphysically, the number ‘three’ can represent the Trinity; our subconscious, conscious, and super-conscious; as well as Divine Order).

Max finds himself at Will and Evelyn’s garden outside their old home in Berkeley. He notices that their sunflowers are the only living thing in it. (Metaphysically, sunflowers represent aligning our human self with our Higher Self by focusing on the light, spiritual aspirations, instead of darkness, egocentric ambitions).

Upon closer examination, he notices that a drop of water that falls from one of the sunflower’s petals drops into a puddle, which is polluted with oil. (Spiritually, the omnipresence of God underwrites everything. There is no geography in Spirit). Almost instantly the puddle is cleansed. (When humankind stops denying the innate divinity in all 71/2 billion people that inhabit our planet we will be able to create peace on earth). That is, we’ll be able to cleanse our human consciousness, (earth) from error!

Max realizes that the copper Faraday cage (also called a Faraday shield) Will installed to ‘protect’ the garden from cell phone transmissions has also protected a sample of Will’s nano-particles. (Our illumined consciousness, Faraday shield, blocks external static, error thoughts, from forming outposts in our consciousness).

Max infers that Will and Evelyn’s consciousnesses are still alive within the active nano-particles, giving the world a second chance at Transcendence. (Metaphysically, every time someone becomes consciously aware of his/her innate divinity and the innate divinity in others, humankind’s collective consciousness is raised to a higher spiritual octave. Transcendence is built into humankind’s DNA because we are God expressing in human for as us)!

Your Spiritual Adventure for this week: Go see a movie – it could be this one, or some other one on your list of must-sees – and view it through the eyes of a metaphysical interpretation. We guarantee you will have an enriching experience, and take away some a-has that could transform your life … as you walk the spiritual path on practical feet!