AFTER EARTH

 

“Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create”

I watched the new Will Smith movie After Earth this week and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed with both the subtle ‘message’ and of course the level of predictive programming.

 It was an eventful trip too (not my usual cinema) and between the guy with Tourette's at the back and the lovers two rows in front who seemed to be taking "petting" to another dimension (what happened to the back row), I thought I'd entered the 'twilight zone' ... but the film rolled on.

After Earth is another movie that depicts a hostile now abandoned Earth, what again? 

But there is a little more to this narrative than first meets the eye, as we shall see.

The story unfolds showing one thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from the Earth (big yawn) to another off planet base called Nova Prime, which has become mankind's new home. The opening narratives are cleverly aimed at reinforcing the nonsense called 'human caused climate change', and again the sub theme of humanity's inability to act as custodians to their home planet, while ‘messing’ with alien technology, which led to the ‘trashing’ of Gaia.

Cypher  (Will Smith) says:

Our time on earth, for millennia, was a consistent slow technological evolution.  But an extraordinary event changed our course. We used the alien technology to make astronomical leaps.  But our unnatural acceleration was too much, causing us to destroy natural resources, ravaging our planet for own consumption.  Mother earth fought back. In 2071, forced to leave home, we found refuge on a new planet. We never thought we would be back.

 

World government goes off planet

The story goes that one thousand years later, The Ranger Corps, a peacekeeping organization commanded by General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), come into conflict with the S'krell alien creatures who intended to conquer humanity's new home - Nova Prime.

 

The S'krell's  secret weapon was the Ursas, large predatory creatures that hunt by "sensing" fear. 

The Ursas are clearly a reptilian-hybrid creature and the S’krell I would suggest are Archon like robot intelligence, and again we have similar themes that are found in other films, of alien intelligence hunting humanity and taking over humanity's world - reality. 

The Ursas

I also couldn’t help but notice the subtle connections to Ursa (Ursa Major/Minor Constellation) and the myths associated with the Draconis – the once Pole Star. It is said that Thuban in the constellation of Draco, the heavenly Dragon was the Pole Star before Ursa and this connection can be linked to the tree and the snake in the garden of Eden, ‘the fall’ and the end of an age (the golden age?) documented in many ancient myths. You could say it was part of the events that led to ‘after Earth’.

The recent Star Trek movie Into Darkness, which I have resisted blogging about, is a fine example of a fully fledged world 'galactic' federation that polices the Earth and of course any other planet/star system that it sees fit to interact with. Interestingly Into Darkness (I think the title says it all really) is a film that clearly hints at alien races and a superhuman race (Khan) and the threat of War or Terror on a catastrophic scale. A threat that is kept in check by a global federation ...  It's all about the 4 letter word Fear as always. Fear of death being the ultimate ‘fear’.

“I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.” Woody Allen

It may well be that human DNA was ‘coded’ to activate ‘fear’ due to an ancient predator on Earth, one that hunted humans above and beyond the Alpha Predators we love and know?

 

Rangers and Jedi Knights  

Legendary General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai (Jaden Smith). His teenage son, who is in training hard to follow in his father’s footsteps and after not qualifying to be a Jedi (sorry Ranger wrong film), instead embarks on a mission to transport a Ursas elsewhere to be used for ‘Ranger training’. 

 The Rangers are the ultimate fighting force that emerged due to the alien onslaught that brought havoc to Earth and Nova Prime.

Ranger/Jedi, et al.

  

On board the space ship Kitai's curiosity gets the better of him and ventures into off limit regions of the craft to see what their cargo actually is. Here he starts to realise more about the nature of fear and what he eventually will face as part of his own initiation. The quote by Dante applies to Kitai’s fate:

Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.”  

When an asteroid storm damages the craft Cypher, Kitai and the Rangers are travelling in, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth (a now quarantined Earth). As his father lies dying in a very futuristic cockpit with its holographic technology (which Cypher uses to track and communicate with his son), the dire reality of their situation is fully realised.

 

 

 Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to prove himself as a Ranger like his father, so now of course he gets his chance as he starts a dangerous trek to fire a beacon (a space flare) so to signal for a rescue.

 

Alien Cube Invasion (same old story)

Just to digress slightly, the obsession by film directors and producers with the topic of alien invasions, or alien/zombie rampages across the Earth in some form or other is beyond hilarious. Watch out for World War Z coming soon.  I've seen m any movies now that have subtle 'Saturnian' symbolism that appear through the use of very ‘dark’ atmospheres – energies, not least the use of the colour black and the vibration that relates to Saturn, Satanism, Death Cults and of course an apocalyptic and devastated Earth. See my recent blog on the movie Oblivion.

Another movie in recent years called Super 8 (a Speilberg production) has a similar looking alien to the Ursas in After Earth. Bring back ET any day. 

 

Super 8 is based on six children in the late 70’s that make a zombie movie with an 8mm camera. But while filming at the local railway depot they realize that an extra-terrestrial was being carried on that train and is now loose in the community! The alien technology found by the kids is of course a cube (small pieces of the alien's spacecraft). The cubes are assembled or disassembled via elctromagnetism, which the Alien can control.

Beats a rubiks cube I suppose?

 Of course Alien invasion related themes were exposed by Dr.Carol Rosin the first woman corporate manager of Fairchild Industries, and the spokesperson for the acclaimed scientist, Wernher Von Braun back in the 70’s. And Steven Spielberg’s films are littered with themes that are connected to the Freemasonic/brotherhood (underground-history) Alien technology, with films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are just a few examples of Spielberg’s level of knowledge and much more besides.

ET - When aliens were all lovely and cuddly.

Along with Lucas, these two directors have pretty much covered every possible ‘theme’ when it comes to hidden forces, alien technology, evil tyrannies (that use Trade Federations to wage war and levy sanctions) on planets being attacked by either  Galactic confederations or Empires that operate off world dictatorships, more on all that in another blog.

Facing the Fear, becoming a Ghost

The film shows how The Rangers struggle against the Ursas until the ranger Cypher learns how to completely suppress his fear, a technique called "ghosting". After teaching this technique to the other Rangers, he leads the Ranger Corps to victory (see above). Meanwhile, Kitai Raige blames himself for the death of his sister Senshi (Zoë Kravitz) at the hands of an Ursas when they attacked their home.

In the bubble or facing your fear?

A scene that shows a younger Kitai protected by a shield a tank that hides or ‘contains’ his pheromones and the smell of fear that the reptilian Ursas use to locate their prey.

 In this sense, fear is exactly that – a vibration, a state of ‘mind’ and even mainstream science say that the ‘smell of fear’, is founded in fact, which has been shown through tests done on military personal, sky divers, etc. People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers, to name but a few examples.

People who are frightened of dogs tend to always attract them, and of course it is said that the dog can ‘smell’ the fear and therefore responds to the pheromone. Research has shown that the ‘smell of fear’ is real and can be triggered by a heightened response in brain regions associated with fear, according to tests done through Stony Brook University in New York State. The research suggests that like many animal species, humans can detect and subconsciously respond to pheromones released by other people. Of course a Pheromone being a chemical that ‘acts outside of the body’ is in essence a ‘signal’ a ‘vibration’ or ‘transmitter’ operating through our cells or DNA. We are biologically ‘programmed’ to fear, and we succumb to its grip too often. ‘Sent’ is hugely connected to our DNA (MHC Genes) and the types of partners both men and women are ‘attracted to’.

 

It’s all in the movies so don’t worry

As the above article and others have shown massive amounts of funding has been spent through the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with a view to isolating the fear pheromone for use in warfare, perhaps to induce terror in enemy troops? But according to reports DARPA denied that it had any military plans for fear pheromones or plans to fund further research into the field.

Its getting harder to tell the movie from, er, the 'Movie'.

I doubt that! DARPA’s robot technology along with other technologies could easily be used to ‘hunt’ humans in a long planned take-over of the Earth, as outlined now in endless movie themes. ‘Super Soldiers’ are another constant theme too, not least the links to biochemical and trans-humanist technology. The history of the Pentagon’s connection to Hollywood isn’t new too, David L Robb’s book , Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies, outlines many examples of how the military industrial complex run the movie industry  when it comes to films that involve these type of subjects. What did Orwell say? “All art to some extent is propaganda”.

 

The technology already exists. The United States Government Near Field Infrared Experiment NFIRE, a weaponized satellite, for example,  is said to be capable of striking and destroying any spot on earth. Chris Floyd writing for the Moscow Times back in 2004 went even further, when he said:

“God’s Rods” [NFIRE’s ] will be accompanied by orbiting lasers, “hunter-killer” satellites, and space bombers that needn’t bother with silly-billy legal worries about “overflight rights” from other countries, but can descend out of the ether to swoop down on any uppity nation that displeases the world-Caesar in Washington.”

And of course the ‘Roman’ (Saturn) symbolism, the power behind America can be discussed at another time.

 

As I said earlier Extraterrestrials are high up on the list of ‘ideas’ for a ‘threat’ to world peace, (by those that seek to take over Earth), but how do we know that the weapons in space have not been placed there for use against humanity? Isn’t it funny how the movie industry coincidentally produces films and themes that also become part of political agenda - Starwars anyone? With or without the need for extraterrestrials, the saturation of extraterrestrial related themes in the media has been filtered into society since the 40’s and 50’s, so as to prepare people for a “staged” alien invasion or threat of one. Added to that is the ‘threat’ of a pandemic or Zombie infestation, a subject I will return to another time. Of course it was Steven Spielberg who left us with the re-make of HG Wells War of the Worlds, back in 2005…

War of the Worlds - Creating an 'After Earth' scenario

Ghosting - Can you Feel the Force?

I personally have had a sense of what is called ‘ghosting’, because it s a familiar zone that feels like daydreaming minus the battle with an ET of course (only in my dreams).  The feeling gives a total awareness of the ‘moment’ a feeling of ‘timelessness’ and that of connection to what we truly are – a creative power (force) to be reckoned with. The Japanese Samuri had similar codes and teachings and in some ways the theme of being able to ‘cut out fear' through being still and using their bodies as a sensory weapon through meditation and calming one's mind, is the 'Ghosting' referred to in the movie.

 

 As Will Smith says when instructing his son, “take a knee”, “feel the presence of the moment”, be aware of your surroundings. Just as the master Jedi say be "mindful of your thoughts". The little green reptilian fella Yoda says: ‘Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will...’

 

The root of fear relates to placing ourselves in the future, the ‘what if’, the ‘possibility of something occurring’ that is powered by our imagination and then fuelled by our fear.

As Yoda says in the Starwars movies: ‘Careful you must be when sensing the future Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.’

The idea of loosing ‘something’, someone, our possessions, our money, our life, etc, is the foundation for Fear. Our imagination, activated by a possible danger or anxiety so that we can easily dwell ‘in fear’ over that ‘something’ (that has not actually happened), has to be part of our ‘programming’ from childhood and beyond?

Or as a friend wrote on my Face Book wall in response to this image below and a similar discussion:

Fear is negative imagination fuelled by the protection impulse. Conscious imagination guided by you is the opposite and it is expansive rather than limiting.

I would say that the creative imagination is the greatest power we possess, it can bring into existence All Possibilities and all potential, despite our fears.

The reptilian complex, also known as the R-complex or "reptilian brain" also relates to the primeval ‘fear’ that we all have, because of the nature of the human triune brain. The R complex is reactionary and Kiati in the movie certainly 'reacts' lots, before he understands how to master his reptilian brain. I suppose it takes the children's Barney theme song to a new level of understanding, as the song goes: ‘Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination, Barney's friends are big and small and come from lots of places...’

Yeah I know, I've seen them.

Ayahuasca anyone?

Interestingly, the 2002 movie ‘Time machine’ hints at themes that cover the nature of the reptilian brain, the hive mind and the fear of being hunted by a species bred to consume humanity on a future Earth. The character Über-Morlock (ecountered by time traveller Dr. Alexander Hartdegen in the year 802,701) is a member of the telepathic ‘ruling class’ of the Morlock who are a race of underground humanoids descending from us after the moon broke apart.  Readers of my blogs will know that the Moon ‘breaking apart’ or being used as a base is a common theme for a ‘future Earth’ – one that the current ruling classes and their 'masters' would lap up I am sure.

Just as Humanity are forced off planet in several recent themes in movies, Another ‘World (Earth) changing event forces the Morlock race (above) to live underground as they feed on the peaceful human race of the Eloys that live on the surface. The Uber morlock (played by Jeremy irons - above) controls the minds of the other members of his species telepathically  like a 'king bee', just as the Ursas in After Earth are bred to hunt and kill humans - through sensing their primeval fear. The themes relating to a genetically mutated species living underground or alien species that could  be part of the Earth’s diverse evolution are well documented in Micheal Mott’s book, Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures: A Study of Subterranean Mysteries in History, Folklore, and Myth

On Earth – Fight or Flight (or both)

Back to the planet Earth: As Kitai embarks on his journey he is attacked by giant baboons, not least because he refuses to listen to his father’s instructions on how to enter is own power, be still and calm his ‘fear’. During his escape, he is bitten by a poisonous leech and has to administer an antidote. The type of world that greets Kitai reminded me of an Avatar-like Earth, one that has succumbed to fear caused by the invasion of that outside force.

 

The following day, Kitai reaches a mountaintop, and Cypher learns about the lack of oxygen capsules that are keeping him alive. Knowing that the only way to make it with 2 capsules would be to skydive, Cypher orders Kitai to abort the mission. But believing his father still sees him as a disappointment, he skydives from the mountaintop (takes flight), which for me was very symbolic of facing our fears and jumping into the unknown.

 

Kitai is captured by a large condor and eventually wakes in its nest, where he is surrounded by tigers – he goes form flight to fight quite literally.

Flight of the Condor

 

Kitai eventually escapes and reaches a river, builds a raft to continue along his journey. Scenes of cave paintings crop up in the film and they hint at the ‘prehistoric’ period on Earth, the time after the major cataclysms that changed the Earth forever. Tired, Kitai falls asleep on the raft and he dreams of his sister, Senshi who both reassures him and urges him to wake up and when he does, before another thermal shift nearly freezes him to death. For a second time Kitai is rescued by the condor, who sacrifices itself for him. Of course the condor is a symbol of creative power, incarnation, illumination through other states of awareness and initiation to certain shamanic cultures, and when Kitai initially takes flight and then is later protected by the condor there is a subtle hint at Kitai being reborn to face his destiny.

Fear is a product of the imagination

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free”

Jim Morrison

That night, Kitai listens to Cypher tell him a story of when he was attacked by an Ursa, how he realized that fear is merely an illusion created by the mind's thoughts of the future, and thus he first began to "ghost" himself from the Ursas, choosing to live rather than to let his enemies, (both fear and the Ursas), decide his fate. As cypher states:

Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But fear is a choice

If we bring this concept back to our world and our reality, it is true that what we fear, we can attract to us and if we choose not to fear, then we can alter our reality and shape our world (experience) to be very different.

 

Or as the sci-fi writer Frank Herbert wrote: “I must not fear. Fear is a mind-killer. fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. “

What remains is the essence of the ghosting, the state of awareness that cypher mastered and his son understands as he defeats the creature that feeds off his fear.  

In our world, fear is ‘our’ creation and it is ‘our’ thoughts that fuel our fears and of course depending on the individual can aid in manifesting the ‘reality’ that came out of those ‘fears’.

 

Its true to say that people of all backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, etc, will all fear different things, the common ground is that the fear is based on our thoughts. Collectively a group of people can be persuaded to ‘be in fear’, it could be a horrific news story that breaks or a collective ‘programmed’ strong belief that asks individuals to conform in extreme conditions to someone or something, a God, ‘the devil’ – all through Fear.  What terrifies one person will have no effect on the other. Why? Because fear, or what we fear and whether we fear, is our individual choice, our creation.  As I write the acrobat Nik Wallenda, king of the high wire is all set to cross the Grand Canyon without a harness, something that would terrify most (me included), but not him.

Nik Wallenda

 

 

There are hundreds of examples all over the world that match this story. David Icke sums this up well in his book I am Me, I am Free:

 Fear of specific things often has a past life origin, such as fear of heights, water, etc, and it is always an expression of something within us that needs dealing with. This is why we attract to us what we most fear because we need to face those terrors and work through them, otherwise our evolution in the area of our lives related to the fear will come to a dead stop.

Fear is like a cruise missile to our self esteem. It explodes it apart. We are embarrassed at being frightened of something and as that leads to low self esteem and frustration, it creates an emotional cocktail that often affects our whole lives. Fear can also become so panicked that it thrashes out first in violent confrontation, like some cornered rat.

The pursuit in the movie of Kitai by the reptilian looking Ursas, depicts this ‘cornered rat’ effect quite graphically (who wouldn't feel that way?). Of course fear of something that has not occurred and will not necessarily occur, is like living in the ‘shadows’ as opposed to centering our connection in our power in the light of the moment. The Creative Imagination is ours to use, not to control our thoughts through illusionary fears.

The finale

Kitai reaches the tail section and retrieves the emergency beacon along with another communicator, weapon, and more oxygen capsules. The communicator only allows Cypher to see and hear Kitai, but not for Kitai to hear him. The emergency beacon does not activate and Cypher realizes that the atmosphere is blocking the signal. Kitai heads to a nearby volcano from which he can launch the beacon, and is injured when the Ursa attacks him.

Kitai is able to control his fear and ghost himself from the Ursas enough to kill it, just like St George would kill the dragon and Apollo would kill the Python, we have subtle hints of the classic hero figure myth. Once free of the Ursas Kitai launches the beacon, sending the signal back to Nova Prime.

The blocking frequency along with his fear are part of that symbolism entwined  (in my view) with the now hostile Earth, and by signalling the beacon and facing his fear, he frees himself and frees his father from death. All ends well and A rescue team arrives to take father and son back home. The character Kitai is motivated out of love for his father and more importantly love for himself and with this power he transcends the dreaded 4 letter word – Fear. 

I’ll leave you with John Lennon:

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

Until next time.

Neil