Initiation and Individuation In Ari Folman's 'The Congress'

by dAvE@whenthenewsstops

(Warning: this analysis contains film spoilers) When I first watched Ari Folman's 'The Congress' (a celluloid adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's novel 'The Futurological Congress), I had no idea what to expect. I was immediately mesmerised by the symbolism and the 'twilight language' at play, and after reading Lem's novel, I decided to undertake an analysis of this strange film and some of the deeper thematic elements at work. The narrative set up begins as live action, and via a plot device, the films troubled protagonist, Robin Wright, playing herself, enters an animated dream world, into a vision of the future crafted by the 'Futurist' illusionists of Hollywood. My reading of this film centres around a cyclical esoteric initiation of its protagonist through the Sephirotic Tree Of Life, to a state of exoteric individuation, realised via a society hallucinating itself to death at the expense of a rotting ideology masked deep at its core...

Here's a taste of the film through its trailer. The Congress - official UK trailer Robin is in a process of a withdrawal from the world of screen acting to help her son cope with a degenerative disorder, which is reducing his senses of sight and hearing. In the opening scene, her agent, Al (played by Harvey Keitel) is breaking her down psychologically in order to convince her to take an imminent deal being offered by a studio. The opening shot is of her crying, as her agent berates her for all the terrible choices she has made, particularly breaking contracts on set, in order to prioritise the care of her son. This is not a happy mis-en-scene, as it is apparent that she needs work, but is torn between her job and her family. Robin, her son Aaron (Kodi Smit-Mcphee) and her daughter Sarah (Sami Gayle) live in a converted air hangar next to a busy passenger airport. Here, her ailing son distractedly flies kites close to the path of landing jets, as he becomes further detached from his receding sensory reality. Here her son gazes longingly at the flying symbol of the kite, a portrayal of his desperation to transcend his fate, the onset of 'Type 2 Ushers Syndrome'.

The story begins with kites and a theme of soaring desire grounded by the limitations of apprehension. (Left) Here in the opening scene the audience sees flapping kite like ribbons as Robin lets go of her emotions as her agent gives her a painful reality check. (Middle) Aaron encourages his mother to fly the kite on her own, symbolising that she is beginning her initiatory journey. (Right) In Robin's meeting with Jeff at Miramount studio, the proposition to scan her for posterity is made, the

model airplane on the stand symbolises the potential for her to transcend her fears in order to individuate, which I posit is the key element of this film. The prevalence of so many winged symbols in this film could be reflecting aspects of the concept of Monarch mind control programs. However, it is more prescient, that given the high degree of occult symbolism at play, a better comparison would that of a mystery school initiation (itself a more ancient precursor to modern forms of mind control). To tie both of these threads together, in both of these forms of initiatory control, the personality of the chosen initiate undergoes a degree of public degradation, for the new personality to appear like a butterfly.

A Monarch Butterfly is seen in the foreground as Robin is walked through an idyllic 'Garden Of Eden' after waking from the symbolic death of her old 'celebrity' personality. The monarch butterfly is symbolically used in the more modern 'Monarch' form of 'personality rebuilding', because of the metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, a winged symbol that transcends the old personality. This is the way our culture so dominated by narrative structures works, especially film, where the audience’s empathetic identification with the protagonists’ journey is so vital.

Symbols Of Transcendence "What we call 'symbols of transcendence' are the symbols that represent man's striving to attain this goal [the full realization of the potential of the individual self, through union of the conscious and unconscious mind]. ... These symbols are manifold in form. ... …One of the commonest dream symbols for this type release through transcendence is the theme of the lonely journey or pilgrimage, which somehow seems to be a spiritual pilgrimage on which the initiate becomes acquainted with the nature of death… ... Initiation is, essentially, a process that begins with a rite of submission, followed by a period of containment, and then by a further rite of liberation. ... " - Joseph L. Henderson, from 'Ancient Myths and Modern Man', Chapter 2 of 'Man and His Symbols' C.G. Jung and Associates (1964) I feel that in the instance of 'The Congress', this is a central theme to Robins journey from the world of the literal into the symbolic and back through the veil of illusion into the cold, hard light of the truth. Once she has passed through these initiatory stages, she finds her subjective and sought after peace, as she comes to terms with her life and the choices she has made.

Reflecting his impending sensory depravation, during the dinnertime conversation, Aaron sees a vision of a plane coming right at him, its lights and the roar of its engines overpowering his sensory imagination. He is processing his fate.

Jungian Individuation and the 'Union Of The Opposites' There is another prevalent theme in The Congress, and that is the union of the opposites.

The Holy Wedding, as Robin and her guide unite in an image of the 'Coniunctio' as alchemical 'King' and 'Queen'. Robin's passion is ignited, and a further stage of her initiation is reached, the blooming flowers symbolise the opening of her chakras. ‘Union of the Opposites’: The coniunctio, an alchemical king and queen meet naked in a pool and make love. A king and a queen retain separate authority even when they are lovers. The coniunctio represents the opposing forces of the universe uniting in a harmonious balance The magical goal of the alchemical union, in neurological terms is the alignment of the activity of the two hemispheres of the brain, to create a 'unified being'. So symbolically it is an internalised union of the masculine and feminine. Interpreted on a physiological or biological level, to create life or bring a 'new consciousness' into the world, a genetic 'agreement' or 'transaction' between the two sexes must occur. The symbiosis between male and female elements, even in a laboratory, is a vital element for the continued regeneration of the human species. Later in the symbolic hallucinatory world portrayed in the film, Robin’s guide, Dylan (Jon Hamm), shows Robin where her

daughter (Sarah) is living out her existence in the pleasure gardens, 'breeding the old fashioned way'. At this point in the story, given that the majority of the society is under the influence of a mass hallucination, I considered what must the raw reality of the 'pleasure gardens' look like through the eyes of those in a proverbial of sobriety? Thankfully, once Robin leaves the world of illusion to face the grim, unfiltered reality of a society hallucinating itself to death, the director Folman spares us this direct vision of a 'hobo orgy', and leaves this aspect to the audience’s imagination. Maybe this is more horrifying; as there is no limit to what an unreserved imagination can subsequently think up when left to its own devices. Jung argued that a true meeting of opposites is the source of psychological renewal in many cases of depression or psychosis. Both he and his associate asserted that in a large number of diagnoses, it is sometimes better to allow a patient to 'go through' a depression or psychosis, in order to resolve the dissonance between the conscious and unconscious mind. Thus a re-balancing of the two aspects is achieved to form a stronger personality. This process of 'inner alchemy' can help to strengthen a sense of self, and forge a stronger personality as a result. Jung called this process 'alchemical individuation', where a stronger sense of one's individual identity emerges in order for one to reintegrate and function better in society as a whole. "People when they have a conflict either are fighting with outer reality - outside things are wrong and they want them corrected - or they are in trouble with their unconscious. Something from within, or something from without, is in opposition. If the unconscious overwhelms consciousness and there is a psychotic interval, the Moon has destroyed the Sun. Always, when conscious and unconscious meet, instead of love there might be destruction. ... The coniunctio takes place in the new moon, in the underworld ... In the deepest depression in the deepest desolation, the new personality is born." -Marie Louise Von Franz, from 'Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology' (1980)

Alchemical coniunctio. Rosarium philosophorum, published around 1550. “... The sad truth is that man's real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites - day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, that joy will defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end." -C.G. Jung, from 'Approaching The Unconscious', Chapter 1 of 'Man and His Symbols' C.G. Jung and Associates (1964) When Robin has sex with Dylan in the scene which symbolically refers to the coniunctio, is the point in the narrative where her fractured psyche is made whole, and ready to accept the truth of the illusory reality which she first entangled herself in by entering the animated zone. In the following speech by Aaron earlier in the film, given at the dinner table in one of the opening scenes, he gives a symbolic

reference to his soaring kite as a ’Queen’; Robin will become an initiated 'Queen' once her initiation and individuation are complete. What I mean by this is that she will have understood an ultimate, objective 'truth' about the reality in which she finds herself, reaching the 'crown' chakra, becoming a self realised, symbolic, alchemical or 'enlightened' Queen. Aaron : "My lady flew like a queen over the runways ... It looked like a match made in heaven. I thought that at any minute, they were going to unite. Those colours, that red, that white and the black clouds. It was really powerful." Beyond his symbolic day dreaming, from a character development perspective, Aaron's indifference to the dangers of trying to fly his kite into an active flight-path can be interpreted as an attempt to feel visible, rather than fade into obscurity with his declining senses. His proximity in this activity to an active flight path could also be interpreted as flippancy towards the severe consequences of his actions. The already enraged airport security services have justified concerns, in terms of the danger to landing aircraft posed by the kite. This behaviour on Aaron’s part, which the audience has now observed, is clearly not an isolated incident. Another factor to consider in this risk taking behaviour is the stress and pressure, which the offspring of famous and wealthy people often feel, to match up to the achievements of their successful parents. This frustration can frequently manifest in behavioural terms as extreme forms of adolescent rebellion, in an attempt to be seen from under their parents shadow. This in turn can reflect the inconsistency or scattered parenting that a life in professional acting can often bring. “In a world full of danger, to be a potentially seeable object is to be constantly exposed to danger. Self-consciousness, then, may be the apprehensive awareness of oneself as potentially exposed to danger by the simple fact of being visible to others. The obvious defence against such a danger is to make oneself invisible in one way or another.” -R.D. Laing, from 'The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness ' (1960) The Overarching Control Of The Hollywood Studios And 'Culture Creation'

"Cinema is the Art of Appearances. It tells us something about reality itself. It tells us something about how reality constitutes itself. ... There is nothing spontaneous, nothing natural about human desires. Our desires are artificial; we have to be taught to desire. Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire, it tells you how to desire." -Slavoj Žižek, from 'The Pervert's Guide To Cinema' (2006) Robin finds herself pulled back into engaging with the Hollywood studio system in a meeting at a fictional studio 'Miramount' (a fusion of Miramax and Paramount studios, this gives the audience the impression that this fictional studio is representative of the whole Hollywood machine), where a proposition is put to her by the chief executive, Jeff Green (played by Danny Huston). Here she is told that in order to preserve actors and their talents, the studio wishes to digitally scan her for posterity, in order for her image to remain timeless and continue on as studio property for future projects. By agreeing to this she would have to legally agree never to act again, not even in an amateur capacity. This would be her final Hollywood contract as a performer. Reminiscent of the 2002 film S1m0ne, starring Al Pacino, where a frustrated producer creates an entirely digital movie star after 'creative differences' with the difficult behaviour of a young starlet (Winona Ryder) stalls his production, this is a modern retelling of the 'Pygmalion' myth from Ovid's poem, 'The Metamorphoses'. The titular 'Pygmalion' is a Cypriot sculptor, who falls in love with the sculpture of a woman he is carving out of ivory. He longs for a real woman in the likeness of the sculpture to love, and the goddess Aphrodite gives life to his sculpture, and Pygmalion begins a relationship with this simulacrum. To tie this back to Robin Wright in the Congress, after mulling over the proposal of Miramount studios, her agent, Al convinces her, with the help of studio lawyer, Steve (Michael Stahl-David), that this lucrative deal, would leave a lasting legacy for Robin, as her image would live on for eternity. In reality, the death of an actor hasn't halted the production of certain films. Brandon Lee's fatality on set in 'The Crow', where a digital avatar of the actor was inserted into the unfinished scenes of the film. Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator' utilised a similar technique due

to the untimely demise of Oliver Reed during production. Even the passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman last year didn't halt the production of the final chapters of the 'Hunger Games' films. The common reaction amongst movie fans when a beloved actor has died, after the initial sadness of the news has sunk in, is to wonder about the loss in terms of potential film roles that will never happen, or relief that they completed a series of films. Many fans of the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise find it irritating that the character of Dumbledore changed from Richard Harris to Michael Gambon due to Harris' death. This notion of an actor becoming a 'digital asset’ would be something that many of the media consuming public might welcome. This serves to highlight the studio executive Jeff Green's position in the film, where he wants to 'own' Robin's image for "all eternity". To try and sway Robin's decision, Al and Steve show her and her children a demonstration of the end result, in a film of a fellow actress 'Michelle' (Sarah Shahi), who has already undergone the digitisation process, and the studio has begun to churn out her likeness in seemingly trite films. It becomes apparent that the process still has a few glitches and bugs, as evidenced in this scene below. The Congress Movie CLIP - That Is Michelle In this scene, the left eye glitch is highlighted and trivialised, but there is more at play here than a simple computer glitch. Students of esoteric symbolism, particularly of Egyptian mythology, will recognise, that the 'Eye of Horus' is traditionally represented as the left eye. Horus was a falcon headed God of the sky, whose varied mythology and representations were central to the ancient Egyptian pantheon. His association as a solar deity, as the 'lord of the horizon', frequently saw his right eye as the Moon and his left eye as the Sun. I wish to look at the eye of Horus as a symbol indicating to Robin that she is to undergo a process of initiation. It is a veiled message to her, and the audience, that she is being encouraged

to 'ascend' to the crown chakra of the Sephirotic Tree Of Life, and some form of personal 'enlightment' by beginning the scanning process and embarking on a journey of 'initiatory individuation'. This is a reference to Kabbalah, a Jewish form of occultism developed after the time of Christ, which many prominent actors in Hollywood have been known to engage in and join veiled orders (or cults) to achieve this form of 'initiation'. It is a trend, which many 'stars' have followed. The Eye Of Horus is also approximated to be a veiled reference to the pineal gland, or 'third eye', widely regarded as the seat of the human imagination, or 'minds eye'. It has become largely accepted via an interpretation of neurological science that the pineal gland is the point in the human brain which hosts the corporeal seat of individual consciousness. Certainly the pineal gland is the point where DMT is released into the brain during sleep to enable dreaming, and from this perspective it would seem to be integral in bridging the subconscious and conscious in the human mind. As the 'Congress' is itself, at least on one level, a narrative about the permeating indoctrination of Hollywood and it's prescribed imagination and ideology, this reference to the pineal gland via the Eye Of Horus, strengthens my own interpretation of the symbolism at play here.

The Eye Of Horus Compared To The Human Pineal Gland. The implication for Robin at this point is that in order for her to become 'free' of the studio system, she will have sell her essence or soul, which is embodied in the sacrifice of her personal control over her acting career.

Robin journeys into 'Malchut' the 'anus' of the now psychemized futurist Hollywood, or 'Abrahama' City', and its intended world-vision. Here she will renegotiate the terms of her initial 20 year contract, and discover that she has become the symbol of the planned 'chemical revolution'. As researchers such as Jay Dyer have pointed out, within the esoteric doctrine of occult practitioners such as Alesteir Crowley and bizarre creation myths of cults such as that of Jim Jones' 'The People's Temple' Cult, the Eye of Horus can be interpreted on the human body as the anus, the point of degradation, the base chakra 'Malchut', followed by ascendancy through the tree of life to the Sephirotic crown 'Kether'. Crowley is rumoured to have frequently engaged voluntarily in sodomy for these reasons, and culturally anal sex is frequently regarded as a form of ultimate

degradation and control over women, as can be observed in the proliferation of harsh pornography which extols in this act. In many Western Christian countries it was illegal to engage in any form of sodomy until relatively recently, and in some conservative states in the United States, it is still considered a criminal act, even if engaged in consensually. On a biological level, sexual intercourse through the anus serves no practical reproductive purpose, other than simply gratification or the pleasure of sensation. It's prevalence in rituals of

Monarch Mind Control through the anal cavity...

control and domination can be seen as a marked degeneration of the purpose of the sexual act. This often-painful sexual exploit can be seen in a spiritual sense as a traumatic opening of the kundalini, an enforced shortcut through to the pinnacle of the tree of life, with little personal reflection. One could see it as similar to reaching such a peak state of higher being by taking a massive dose of psychoactive drugs, which is exactly what is happening to the society portrayed in this film. Robin's encounter with what Hollywood has become at the futurist congress, is a vision of society geared solely towards the pleasure principle, where chemical alterants of perception are being peddled, so that people can be whatever or whomever they want. Perhaps this is why Robin's symbolic entrance to the new Hollywood in the film, resembles a path between two buttocks. It is worth noting here the obsession of the current 'culture' in pop music with the anus, popularized by such 'singers' as Niki Minaj, and the endless twerking of Miley Cyrus. Jay Dyer also touches on this prescribed cultural obsession with the anus, linking it to the architect of the Wicca religion, in his analysis of 'Escape From Tomorrow', a black comedy/horror film set in Disneyland, and exploring occult and pagan themes associated with the corporation.

This is central to Robin's journey ahead, as she must cyclically traverse through the chakras of the tree of life, beginning with some form self denigration followed by compartmentalised self realisation, in an initiatory sequence of esoteric individuation towards her own personal 'godhood' and self acceptance of the choices she has made. The Tree of Life and its link to Freemasonry, are quietly embodied in the pause button at the top left hand corner in this screenshot below of "Michelle's" glitchy left eye.

The Virtual Image of 'Michelle' displays a left eye glitch or 'wink', symbolic of the 'Eye Of Horus', the peak of the tree of life. This is the capstone on the third, central 'invisible pillar' of Freemasonic initiation, referenced here by the 'twin pillars of the pause button on Robin's home entertainment system's screen. The twin pillars have classically been seen throughout man's civilisation as the gateway or entrance to sacred places, or even as their guardians. They mark the passage towards the otherworldly or unknown. It is also generally accepted that 'Boaz' and 'Jachim' represent the balance between the two opposing forces of the universe. "In the Jewish mystical kabbalah, Joachim and Boaz are the left and rightmost pillars of the tree of life ... Jachim represents the male polarity of the universe, light, motion, activity, the electron. Boaz represents the female polarity of the universe, darkness, passivity, receptivity, and silence." -Will Wyrd, from 'Joachim and Boaz (Mercy and Severity)' [symbol dictionary.net] (2009)

The 'Star Of David' as a coniunctio (here encoded with alchemical symbols of the zodiac), a self contained 'union of the opposites', the upward pointed triangle representing the masculine, and the down turned triangle representing the feminine. The passage through the tree of life to the sphere of 'Kether' (the crown) ends on the centre of the third, invisible column of masonic symbolism, after the crossing of the abyss 'Daarth'. In Kabbalistic meditative practice, the passage to the Golden Flower through the Middle Pillar of the Tree Of Life corresponds to the 'invisible pillar' of Freemasonry, and the aim is the union of the two opposing forces. So in a sense, the twin pillars as a representation of the Sephirothic Tree Of Life is a version of the alchemical coniunctio, and it's path of Trinitarian balance towards a state of mystical 'enlightenment'. The middle pillar of 'Beneficence' is the balance between the left hand pillar of 'Severity' and the right hand pillar of ‘Mercy’, which leads to the 'Golden Flower' of 'Kether'.

"The whole of life-it is in fact the law of nature itself-seems to be dominated by these extremes or opposites. 'Two contending forces and one which unites them eternally. Two basal angles of the triangle and one which forms the apex. Such is the origin of creation; it is the Triad of Life.' …The Father and Mother may be said to correspond to the two pillars of the temple, to the two extremes or opposites. In this sense they are the tendencies exhibited by all the phenomena of nature. They are the extremes of spirit and matter, love and hate, life and death, ebb and flow, systole and diastole. Nature itself is the embodiment of the two extremes, the two opposites of the Trinity. ..." -Israel Regardie, from 'The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic ' (1938) The temptation by Robin's agent and the studio lawyer is towards an unattainable goal, as very few have the strength to cross the abyss to a desired state of ultimate, objective truth, or ascend upwards through the ranks to the higher 'hidden degrees.' To be initiated into the truth is to be subjected to a rigorous program of control, reinforced with the 'trust' that to reveal this higher level of understanding to the 'uninitiated' carries severe penalties. The comparisons to power play through ritualised forms of traumatic mind control are easy to make, and any journey of initiation into many occult orders should not be undertaken flippantly or lightly. A seemingly flippant remark by Steve, the lawyer, in this scene dismisses the glitch to Robin, but the undertone does seem to have less trivial implications. Steve : "Just wait until you see that wink in the sex scenes, it'll crack you up." One could argue, given the hidden reading of this film that I have posited thus far, that this line is an allusion either to sex magick rituals, often associated with initiation into cults; or to forms of submissive and ritualised trauma based mind control, where the fracturing of the victims personality is rumoured to frequently occur. Another inference, which has relevance to the studios later revealed plans to revolutionise the world through chemistry, could

be to the revolutionary doctrines of the Marquis de Sade, forever remembered for his insatiable sexual perversions during the era of the Jacobin revolution in the late 18th Century in France. The irony within the films narrative, is that Robins own 'sex scene' in the film is the point at which her psyche reforms and heals. It is the opposite of the referred to 'cracking up', as making love to Dylan is when she individuates to a point of strength and is able to reach a state of realisation about the world in which she finds herself, and cope with it. Robin's journey will be one of esoteric individuation, where she will come to terms with her pain as a mother losing her identity, as she is unable to ultimately help her child. This self-realisation comes after the exoteric revelation of this search for meaning and Robin's discovery of her place in the world that she has found herself immersed in. “It has been well and truly said that in the exoteric church the ceremony is performed by one person for the benefit of the congregation; but in the Lodge the ceremony is performed by the congregation for the benefit of one person.” -Dion Fortune, from 'Esoteric Orders and Their Work and the Training and Work of the Initiate' (1928) The later 'Futurist Congress' and its plan for Robin, is similar to the subjective hallucination of Ijon Tichy, so central to the vision in Lem's novel. Both characters discover their self-realisation by experiencing the sanitised delusion of 'choice' prescribed to the un-perceiving masses. Folman's interpretation of the novel chooses to explore this idealised notion of choice, and Robin's choice to instigate her own initiation is not given lightly. Al: "You were always their puppet, the producers, the directors, they told you what to do. They told you how to behave, how to act, how to smile, how to love. And they gave you the subtext, every fucking crappy line they churned out." Robin : "The gift of choice being taken away." Al: "Wake up Robin! This is your gate to freedom!"

The decision to undergo the scanning procedure, which proves so pivotal to the Miramount vision for enslaving the world’s population, comes to Robin through a discussion with the ENT doctor who is monitoring Aarons deteriorating senses, played by Paul Giamatti. So central to this story, Aaron builds replicas of planes, and Dr. Barkers observation of the way he replicates the inaudible words to give them such resonance to his inner state of mind, is so central to where Robin later finds herself, in an internalised replica of the world. Dr. Barker : "Aaron has a beautiful mind. He's taking the information in, and translating it, as he will. It's a gift, he hears 'throne' says 'alone', but he is perfectly aware of what he is doing. Now imagine what movies will be like in 50 years. I think that this is somewhat similar to what Aaron is doing.” Robin : "In what way?" Dr. Barker : "In the way that, the movie guys will just have electronic stimuli that our brains translate according to what is in our subconscious. See, people will be given 'story data', and they'll cast their mother, or their girlfriend as Marlene Dietrich, or you. All depending on what is in their particular 'box.' And this is exactly what Aaron is doing now. He's a rare case, and he is out of his time by God knows, how many decades." It is with this insight in mind that Robin decides of her own free will, so vital to any process of initiation. The surrendering of free will is the first stage towards any form of control, and it is by her own choice that Robin returns to meet with Jeff Green and negotiate the terms of her contract. The caveats to Green's demands to own her essence are not without a sense of irony, given the film in which she is currently playing a version of herself (another celluloid instance of this self contained method of an actor playing themselves in this tongue in cheek fashion is that of John Malkovich, in Spike Jonze's "Being John Malkovich". The first is that she does not wish her image to be used for science fiction, as Al elaborates that it is 'a dumb genre'. I would consider 'The Congress' as part of the science fiction genre, and this self-contained joke by Folman satirises the film industry beautifully. The second demand she has is no pornography, and it would seem that even the director Folman is

bound by this, as the animated sex scene in which Robins character individuates leans more tastefully towards erotica than pornography. Her third negotiation, carefully laid out by Steve, is that of a 20 year contract, which Jeff finds disagreeable as he clearly wants to own Robins image for life. Steve's response is that in many societies, a life sentence is only roughly 20 years. Jeff concedes, and tells Robin that Miramount will "make her young forever", to be 33 (another symbolic reference to the visible degrees of Freemasonry), or 34, forever. With a sense of immediacy, she now states that the scanning is to be done now, or not at all, and thus one of the most pivotal scenes to Robins journey is to begin, and have reaching consequences. De-patterning and Splitting The Psyche So now, Robin is committed to undergo the process of 'hermetic scanning' in a geodesic /sephirotic scanner. This scene is pivotal to the reality envisioned in the latter part of the film. She is to be scanned by a cinematographer with whom she has worked before, and Folman exploits the trust relationship in what I find to be one of the most disturbing scenes of the film.

The Geodesic dome "Hermetic Scanner." What is highly unnerving about this scene is that the 'Hermetic Scanning' machine is an entirely real contraption. The choice by Folman to use a real device, anchors the setting so viscerally in the real, which when coupled with the de-patterning of Robin, gives this scene so much resonance. The Congress scanning scene The audience, in this scene, witnesses the de-patterning of Robin. Al, whom she trusts, reduces her to her base drives, by

revealing how he has used her. He extracts a genuine emotional range from her for the scanning, and destroys his relationship with her in the process. Robin breaks down into genuine emptiness, and the symbolism at play is the fracturing of her psyche, as can be seen in the camera pan, where she is first framed in the 'feminine' half of the Star of David (a simplified symbol of the Sephirotic tree of life), followed by a framing in the 'masculine' half. In digital terms she is being split into the 'on' and 'off' dichotomy, the basis of the world of the digital.

Draft for a medal sent by Leibniz to the duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1697. The inscription reads "One has made all from nothing / A one is a nought." (Einer hat alles aus nichts gemacht / Eins ist noht.) The medal shows an "image of the creation" (Bild der Schöpffung[sic]) as addition and multiplication of binary numbers.

"What is the distinguishing mark of digital technology? It is based upon a fundamental opposition between "0" and "1." The former is "off," the latter is "on." “Leibniz's mathematical theology might be epitomized as follows: 'Zero' is the radically simple, all-encompassing Monad, undeveloped, and unscissioned. The 'one' is the developed Monad, developed because differentiated. The Monad longs to long, to move toward Itself. ... digital technology is based upon the 0-1 meta-opposition." -James Kelley, from 'Anatomyzing Divinity: Studies in Science, Esotericism and Political Theology' (2011) The medium of film itself and certainly of television, is reliant on this on/off opposition, embodied in the flicker rate, flicking on and off millions of times a second, which gives the medium its illusion of movement. The moving image medium initially emulated and manipulated the brains perception of reality at 24 frames a second, and the evolution away from this perceptual standard towards higher frame rates (paired with better resolution), gives the audience a closer facsimile to reality. When the Hobbit director, Peter Jackson, released the first instalment of his much-anticipated trilogy in a higher frame rate, the effect disoriented many audiences and in many cases induced nausea. The current gimmick of 3d, also works on the tricking of the brain, and my personal feeling, after watching James Cameron's ghastly 'Avatar' in 3d, and the ensuing afternoon of headaches and seeing blue people every time I blinked, made me choose to avoid watching new film releases in 3d. This duality at work in analogue and now digital film is a reflection of the alchemical process of 'Solve et Coagula', or dissolution and coagulation at work. As the audience, our perception is filling in the rapid gaps of flickering images to immerse ourselves in the illusion. The symbol of the two Freemasonic pillars, in the scene where she was swayed towards undergoing the scanning by Al (her predatory handler), serve as a reminder to the audience of this process of initiatory division to come. It is important to note, that just like any

form of initiation into an esoteric order, she had to engage into the process of her own free will. This scanning process is effectively a de-patterning of Robin, which reduces her to her higher and base drives, compassion and emptiness. These two extremes of emotional experience, and their integrated union are often associated with esoteric realisation or enlightenment. So to extract a viable avatar from the scanning process, it is vital that Robin must be wrenched between the two extremes for posterity.

In turn her extracted avatar will appeal to the base and higher drives of the masses, in a form of reflection and public projection, as Dr. Barker so succinctly mused earlier. This is how her virtual avatar later becomes such an effective and iconic tool as their revolutionary symbol. The desire to create a synthetic reality through the cult of personality, so central to this narrative, is as old as Hollywood, if not even older. The studio has it's desired result, as it can now rebuild and reintegrate an imitation of her 'image' to be manipulated to their will. Her virtual avatar is to be remade from the reunification of these two parts, into the symbol of David, the 'beloved', or 'favourite'.

The splitting of Robin's psyche, in neurological terms, the spiritual goal of 'unifying the opposites' is synchronising the two hemispheres of the brain, creating a harmony between the analytical and the creative aspects of the psyche. As Robin's "Hermetic scanning" was so raw, and split so effectively between real compassion and genuine emptiness, because of the effective breaking down of her personality and psyche, the studios virtual avatar of her becomes extremely malleable and this is why her image becomes so popular with the public. This is also why later on, the nefarious studio executive Jeff Green is effectively

able to manipulate her to renew her contract with the studio after 20 years; he knows her mind and how to twist it to his will. The manner in which Miramount seeks to own Robin's image, is a reflection by the Director at the so-called 'Golden age' of cinema, where actors and actresses working within the studio system in Hollywood faced gruelling schedules, and watertight contractual arrangements. The studios in many cases considered their stars as assets, and in many instances, such as that of Judy Garland, were almost kept under a form of house arrest to ensure that they would keep churning out picture after picture to keep up with public demand. These celebrity prisoners of their own fame would frequently manifest psychological damage, and it is widely rumoured that Garland was kept in a drugged state by the studios to keep her under their control. A modern urban mythos has sprung up around the subject concerning celebrities such as Britney Spears, and other former child stars brought to fame by such programs as 'The Mickey Mouse Club'. The implication here is one of synthetic celebrity image presented to the public, whilst behind closed doors forms of ritualised abuse and brainwashing mould these minds into malleable receptacles for exploitation and control. The actor/agent relationship, displayed in the scanning scene as one of predation upon and exploitation of the 'asset' by the 'handler', echoes the structure of intelligence gathering within agencies such as the CIA. “I think there are probably quite a few. I think that Hollywood is probably full of CIA agents” -Ben Affleck in an interview with 'The Guardian' (07/11/2015) Indeed, the exploitation of Hollywood for propaganda purposes is a hot topic of debate, and even tends towards an interpretation of weaponised fiction to spread ideological gains. Who knows who are the witting and unwitting? Or whether the engagement of intelligence services beyond the offering of technical advice extends to funding and steering desired narratives? The actors, in this light, are the assets with which the desired image is to be portrayed into the world. "image, idealized : 1. Generally, an inappropriate priate sense of one's positive aspects. In classical psychoanalysis it is assumed

to develop as a defense against the demands of the ego ideal. 2. In K. Horney's theory, a neurotic, unconsciously held image of onself. Identification with this idealized image results, in her theory, in the development of an idealized self. image : The term derives from the Latin for imitation and most usages in psychology, both obsolete and contemporary, revolve around this notion. Hence common synonyms are likeness, copy, reproduction, duplicate, etc. ... imitation : The process of copying the behavior of others. Imitation tends to be used with the sense of intentionality, the one imitating wants to and is trying to model his or her actions on those of another. Distinguish this connotation from that of the related term mimicry. The term also tends to be used so as to imply that the imitative actions are rote and mechanical, a characterization that somehow seems somewhat misleading. A child who imitates his/her mother's way of walking or who adopts his/her peer group's socia-interactive manners at play is not 'just imitating'. Such learned behaviors are most complex and mechanical processes are clearly inadequate as explanations or even descriptions. Imitation of this kid involves the notion that the child must know, in some implicit fashion, the underlying rules that govern the social patterns of his/her peer group. modelling, which is the term preferred by many because of the simplistic connotations associated with imitation." -From 'The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology' [this excerpt is from the second edition] by Arthur S Reber. (1995)

The studio's highly successful new godlike 'Image' or 'Imitation' of Robin.

Robin's outfit, the position of her arms, the lighting and the framing of her in this above shot from Miramount's 'Triple R' series (20 years on from the her initial hermetic scanning), is a reflection of the below engraving. This comparison between the two images, gives an indication that her avatar has now moved into the realm of an iconic symbol for the studio. Her 'imitation' is now a figurehead reflecting a semblance of the divine, embodying highly accentuated feminine energy (as observed in the inverted triangle of Robins outfit) to represent Miramount Nagasaki's plans for spreading their 'new religion' of a chemically altered reality beyond the boers of 'Abrahama' into the rest of the world.

The Divine Triplicity, contained within the Unity and the Circle of Infinity. From a 16th Century German engraving.

The subversion of the divine feminine principle to further a nefarious agenda can also be seen in a real world reflection with the choice by the disseminators of news media to label the terrorist group DAESH, who are so currently prevalent in the terrorism narrative, as ISIS. The choice to give a catchy name to a prevalent threat for Western audiences, could be seen as a hijacking of the ultimate new age symbol of feminine energy, the Ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, renewal and healing who shares the same name. In the case of 'The Congress', the studio uses the archetypal feminine energy to further it's own projection of control, using a fusion of the cult of celebrity and an evolution of the psychotropic to entrap the collective mind in the realm of the delusional. Chemical Engineering and 'Revolution' Robin now journeys by car to the Miramount hotel, to renegotiate the contract for her image 20 years later. Here she enters the animated dream world of 'Abrahama', and this is the point where Lem's original novel begins its narrative, with Ijon Tichy returning from space and travelling to Costa Rica to attend the Eighth Futurological Congress. Before entering the 'restricted animated zone' of 'Abrahama City' as a 'distinguished guest', Robin first has to pass the gatekeeper, who informs her that the only way to leave the animation zone, will be when she meets him again, on her way out. This is reminiscent of the ferryman on the River Styx in Greek mythology, whose payment was the only way in or out of the underworld of Hades. Again, the implication here is that Robin is giving up her soul for this contract. His hat, which has the Miramount logo of an all seeing eye embroidered on it, can also lead to an interpretation of the Masonic hierarchy of him as a 'worshipful master' the traditional gatekeeper to the initiation ceremonies of adepts into the varying degrees.

The gatekeeper to the animated zone of Abrahama wears the "All Seeing Eye" of the enlightened, or "crown chakra" on his hat, the logo for the Miramount Nagasaki Corporation. To enter the animated zone, Robin has to comply with the overarching rule of the animated zone, which is to imbibe nasally a psychoactive substance which will alter her perception so that all she will see is a subjective hallucination laid like a veil over the "real world". This is the disturbing entrance into a synthetic psychedelic overlay of reality, which in Lem's novel represents the projected grandeur of Soviet era communism in his native Poland during the Cold War. It is interesting to note here, that the psychoactive drug Robin has to take to enter what Hollywood has now become, begins to take effect as she initially looks at her image in her rear view mirror. The mirror is frequently seen as an entrance to the otherworldly, where we project our desired image of ourselves, and depending on the construction of the mirror, this reflection often gives a distorted view. The use of the mirror in "the Congress" symbolises the reflection now becoming the reality, in this instance as Robin enters the subconscious world of illusion or 'Maya'. “Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook

shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached "reality"; but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Maya [illusion]. ”-Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, from 'Secret Doctrine' (1888)

Robin drives over the chakra rainbow towards Abrahama City, 'Enlightenment is just over the horizon!' This journey into the animated zone, in passing reminds me of the scene in 'Who framed Roger Rabbit', where Private Eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) has to grit his his teeth to hide out from the law in the strange (and highly irritating) animated zone of Hollywood known as Toontown. Sarcastically evoking the true crime plots of film noir classics such as Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown', and mixing it with a PG friendly subplot of cartoon characters working in Hollywood alongside real-time actors, this film captured the imaginations of young audiences in 1988, and has always held a form of sardonic cult status ever since. The blending of a large animated component into the narrative of 'The Congress', however, does have a more adult appeal, and the technique is used in a less goofball, and more biting satirical fashion. Nevertheless, the comparison between the two scenes from the different films is worth consideration, both journeys in both films are a transition into a surreal world of insanity.

The narrative structure at this point in the film leans more towards a focus on the symbolic, and a dreamlike representation of the illusion presented to Robin, where she and everyone around her is creating their own reality as they choose, via the aid of chemical enhancers. I must admit that when I initially viewed the film, this portion of it became highly subjective, as the screen is flooded with details, which I only began to be able to analyse on subsequent viewings. I'm sure this was Folman's intention with this rich tapestry that immerses the audience into Robin's subjective 'trip'. There is far less expositional dialogue needed at this point in Folman's narrative, and much more room for the audience to introspectively interpret the visual feast which is laid on. The entrance of the monolithic hotel, decorated with an all seeing eye, topped with a crown, which rests on Palladian columns, forms the base of huge ivory tower. As Robin looks upwards, the hint is another reference to impending 'enlightenment', far above the lobby at the peak of what later be revealed as a sacrificial ziggurat, which she will later tumble downwards from into the Abyss of a symbolic death.

The colossal ivory ziggurat, reminiscent of the Tower Of Babel,

doomed to collapse under its own self imposed might. The interior of the hotel is a place of insanity, where weird characters imbibe test tubes with the 'essence' of celebrities, and Robin describes it to Aaron, linked via a weird evolution of Google glass, as "like a genius designers bad acid trip". As she passes a bizarre fish tank filled with carnally symbolic fish, Robin catches her own reflection and states to Aaron "I look like a combination of Cinderella on heroin and an Egyptian Queen on a bad hair day. Nobody sees me, I'm just an old lady to them."

Robin walks past a tank full of fish resembling sexual organs, and catches her reflection symbolising the public's projected desires, and her own desires to be free of the restrictions of celebrity. This revealing complaint to her son reveals that Robin has not yet fully let go of her previous life as a celebrity, a vital aspect of her journey towards individuation that is yet to come. Her desire will eventually become unencumbered from the public perception, and she will become able to pursue her own desires on her own personal terms, without the overarching pressure of social responsibility which many celebrity personalities become so inextricably intertwined with at the hands of their publicists. One of the most frequently heard complaints of career celebrities such as the stars of Hollywood, is the inability to live a normal life once the spotlight of fame has been placed onto them by the publics desire to emulate them and their lifestyles.

The public 'consume' their desires now, becoming the experience of iconic Hollywood stars. This is the beginning of a 'chemical revolution' contained within the animated zone of Abrahama, where Robin has become an entirely symbolic figurehead of the 'futurological congress', an icon or role model for the masses wishing to live out the illusion of being their favourite celebrities.

This progression from virtual celebrities to the direct experience of them on the part of the public is even further than Doctor Barker's observation about the evolution of the cinematic medium. The public will now move beyond experiencing their entertainment, they will literally live it. Celebrity will now become akin to a fashion accessory, as this scene in the hotel lobby reveals to Robin.

The chaotic scene in the lobby, where Robin begins to realise that she is now the symbol of Miramount's planned revolution, and her image is regarded by the public as an icon of the new chemical age. Nowhere in the narrative is this simulacrum culture, ever moving away from any sense of originality, more subtly portrayed than when Robin gives her name to check into the 'Abrahama Miramount Hotel', and the robotic, sex doll receptionist informs her that she is 'the sixth one in today.'

Robin checks into the Abrahamah Hotel, against a backdrop of insanity and organised chaos, the backs of the ever present screens blaring out her image have the symbol of the 'light bringer' Horus.

Here I will refer occasionally to quotes from Lem's 1971 novel, which in many respects the film mirrors in terms of Robin Wright's journey from here onwards. This is the point in the film that Folman chooses to reference Lem's narrative, both in terms of structure and in terms of visual in-jokes, which reference Lem's satirical commentary on the Soviet ideology at work in the communist dictatorship that controlled Poland during the Cold War. Towards the start of the book, there is a pharmacological attempt on the part of the Costa Rican government to pre-emptively subdue a brewing rebellion, firstly by placing psychotropic drugs in the water supply to influence the mood of the populace: "The water from the tap. Of course. These changes in me had begun the moment I drank it. There was something in it, clearly. Poison? But I'd never heard of any poison that would ... Wait a minute! I was, after all, a steady subscriber to all the major scientific publications. In just the last issue of Science Today there had been an article on some new psychotropic agents of the group of so-called benignimizers (the N, N-dimethylpeptocryptomides), which induced states of undirected joy and beatitude." -Stanislaw Lem, from 'The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy)' (1971) Similarly, in the film, Robin begins hallucinate after drinking the water from the tap, and it is at this point that she realises her inner state of mind directly affects her psychotropic perception of her environment. She has this realisation, in her room shrouded in darkness, after again looking into the mirror, and seeing herself as an old woman. Robin: "Does this make sense, or is this just in my mind?" Room Service: "Ultimately everything makes sense, and everything is in our mind." ... ... "Everything is in our mind, if you see the dark, then you choose the dark."

Robin realises another great truth on her initiatory journey towards individuation, here another veiled reference to the left 'eye of Horus' and the tradition of the Mystery Schools, and ‘testing by illusion’ is observable. This is another direct clue to the vision of the world to come, and Robins impending, and horrifying revelation of the truth lurking under the surface of the chemically altered world. I will address this later, but the crux of Lem's novel is a satirical portrayal of the way in which ideologies mask the truth of reality, sold through propaganda and an idealised utopian vision of how things could be. "Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves." -Eric Hoffer, from 'The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms'(1956) The best example, which Lem is directing his analogy at, is the dream of a 'workers paradise' promised by the theory of Marxist idealism, which when put into practice turns into crippling austerity for the masses, and the groupthink of social control, enabling the elite members of 'the party' to rule, and a system of privilege which mimics the very system it professed to have destroyed. "Socialism is nothing but the capitalism of the lower classes."-Oswald Spengler, from 'The Hour of Decision Part one: Germany and World-Historical Evolution ' (1934) The notion of steering a potential revolution by pharmacological methods is revealed in Huxley's 'Brave New World', and indeed

this key player in the presently emerging technocracy of our current age intended this vision from his novel to be enacted in the world. It is no secret that the rise of the drug LSD in the counter culture of the 1960s is widely theorised to have been disseminated amongst the burgeoning politically active youth movements of the time by the Central Intelligence Agency. Lem's novel and it's film adaption choose to portray the initial administration of hallucinogens to steer the anticipated 'revolution', delivered via the drinking water in the hotel. This harkens back to the first recorded mass administration of a neurotoxin, which many of us in the West consume without a second thought in a similar fashion. I refer here to Stalin's use of fluoride in the drinking water of the Russian Gulags in the 1930s. This was undertaken to make political and other 'difficult' prisoners complacent and thus easier to control. In the German concentration camps during the Second World War, the incumbent populations also found themselves subjected to water fluoridation for similar reasons. "At the end of the Second World War, the United States Government sent Charles Elliot Perkins, a research worker in chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology, to take charge of the vast Farben chemical plants in Germany. While there, he was told by German chemists of a scheme which had been worked out by them during the war and adopted by the German General Staff." "This scheme was to control the population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water. In this scheme, sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place." "Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination by slowly poisoning and narcotising a certain area of the brain, and will thus make him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him." -From "An Address in Reply to the Governor's Speech to Parliament", Mr. Harley Rivers Dickinson, Liberal Party Member of the Victorian Parliament for South Barwon, Australia (recorded in the official Hansard report on August 12th, 1987) To return to Robin Wright, and her unpleasant hallucinations in her hotel room, she now fights a battle with her subconscious, which

reveals her apparent desire to break free from the restrictions which surrendering her celebrity image has imposed upon her. At this 20-year turning point in her contract, she mistakes the hallucinogens in the water supply as being targeted solely at her, to bend her will to the studios control again.

Robin dreams of her victimhood at the hands of the studio and the 'Abrahama' it has created. Jeff appears as a commandant to arrest her for breaching her contract by performing. In her hallucinated dream, Robin croons a version of Leonard Cohen's 'If It be Your Will' in the animated world of the 'Abrahama Miramount Hotel'. This is follows her concession to renew her contract to alleviate the mood altering drugs she has ingested via the tap water in her hotel room, where her image in the mirror has become tortuous. Jeff Green appears as a commandant whose jack-booted thugs have cleared the bar, as he barks at her that she has 'gone too far' by performing in any capacity. Here she admits that she 'used to be' Robin Wright, without her identity as an actress, she feels purposeless and lost, the studio has possession of her soul. She wakes from her vision to prepare for her anticipated meeting with Jeff Green in person, the final negotiation of her contract renewal. Whilst waiting for this meeting with Jeff, Robin meets the only other 'authentic' celebrity left, Tom Cruise (voiced by Evan Ferrante). The Congress - Clip #1 - That Guy Jeff Green reveals in this scene, that the next stage for the Hollywood machine is to move beyond the screen and directly into the subconscious of the audience. The vision he reveals is the literal consumerist evolution of celebrity culture, where Robin’s personality or essence will be consumed like a milkshake. This references back to Dr. Barkers speculation about the future of entertainment, where the audience can directly insert themselves

into the position of protagonist, and live that experience directly instead of passively watching it and empathising with it. The plan is revealed to the masses in the Congress scene, where the chemical celebrity cult excitedly revel in the prospect of this new form of immersive entertainment which they will be able to consume. The President of the Miramount Nagasaki Corporation, who enthusiastically addresses his flock to the accompaniment of tribal drumming, has been crafted to resemble in some aspects of a young Bill Gates, one of the billionaire gatekeepers of the current technocracy.

The President Of Miramount Nagasaki preaches the Abrahama ideology with shades of the technocratic oligarch Bill Gates The bold proclamation that the corporation has "cracked the chemical formula of free choice" is accompanied by the President, who transforms himself chemically into religious symbols, such as Jesus Christ (a figure whose mythology is based on the Egyptian God Horus). This statement, endemic of extreme identitarian politics, seeks to make the concept of free will to meaninglessly choose as the central tenet of this emerging cult mythos. This entire scene is reminiscent of the theatrics observed in the Nazi rallies at Nuremberg, or the more modern spectacle of awards ceremonies, such as the Oscars or Golden Globes. Robin is presented as the "everlasting symbol" of this new "revolution", where the gathered masses are told by the excited CEO of Miramount Nagasaki, they will be "free of frustration" as a "Neo-God creation". "You have a dream? Be your Dreams! For God's sake!"

The Masses are promised a world with "No Evil", and told to "Be Your Dreams!", as the CEO alters his essence magically in front of their eyes from archaic icon to the new symbol of individual actualisation. This idealistic vision of a society choosing their desires bears some similarity to the 'illusion of choice' which Western capitalist societies and their liberal ideology professes to give the masses. One can choose to dress or consume however ones wants to, but that choice is ultimately empty as it amounts to the choice between drinking Coke or Pepsi. This analogy could also be applied towards the left/right paradigm in politics, and the awkward truth that perceived freedom doesn't really come down to choosing who rules you and makes decisions on your behalf, that's just another form of control. This perceived misappropriation of altering subjective reality for entertainment or recreational purposes spurs Robin to point out, when given her opportunity to address the Congress, that this technology could have been used for so much more, to benefit humanity. She uses the example of Aaron, and how this chemistry could have been used to find a cure for him, or at least help him integrate into the world by compensating for his degenerating senses. Robin : "If you think, by releasing your chemistry to the world, you'll dictate how we desire; I just want to tell you, by doing that, you'll be releasing your conscience as well, and your conscience will devour you, and you'll die of guilt. We will die of guilt. Look at me, I'm a prophet of doom." This is not well received, and in a real world setting one could compare it to the debate raging between recreational and medicinal usage of narcotics, which has fuelled the political dimension pushing the so-called "war on drugs", which has stunted

research into the beneficial aspects of many demonised psychoactive substances.

The 'Pirates' board the studios ship. The assassination of the Miramount President during this scene, by a bizarre looking sniper, proves to be the catalyst, which signals counter revolutionaries to storm the Miramount Hotel, now represented in Robin's minds eye as a vast land-locked ship. These countercultural revolutionaries symbolically represent the subtle reference to the threat of ‘piracy’ to the Hollywood system.

The 'pirates' are sprayed with subduing censorship. The ensuing chaos sees a mass spraying of hallucinogens onto the area by the local authorities, in an attempt to 'censor' the piracy uprising. Robin is now saved by Dylan, an animator who has worked on her facsimile for 20 years (and like Pygmalion, he has fallen in love with her image), who hides with her in the basement of the hotel, alongside the hotel management.

Robin and Dylan hide in the basement (subconscious) with the hotel management, in a scene straight from Lem's novel. It is here that Robin, after receiving a high dosage of hallucinogens in the aerosol spraying, begins to shift in her mind between delusions of rescue and capture. She is no longer able to establish what is real, and enters an apparent delusional state of psychosis. In the first of these hallucinations, she is 'rescued' by Miramount security and whisked away in a helicopter, reminiscent of the closing scene of Oliver Stone's 'Platoon' (1986), to then be rescued from their clutches by her son, who flies a kite into the rotor blades, giving Robin a glimpse of the symbolic death of a hallucinogenic experience. Her old 'celebrity' personality is longing to die, and soon she will reach the crescendo of her psychedelic experience where her psyche will be reborn.

Robin envisions Aaron saving her from her hallucinated 'extraction' from the combat zone. Her second period of intense hallucination, is where Dylan professes his love for her, as he has fallen in love with her image, which he breathed life into as the chief animator working on her avatar. Here Robin sees blooming flowers growing from Dylan, symbolising the vitality of the desire he offers her, a subconscious hint at the importance of the alchemical union that she will later engage in with him to unify her opposing forces.

Robin begins to explore her desire for her rescuer, symbolised by blooming flowers emanating from him. This scene of intimacy is interrupted as hotel workers rush into the basement, proclaiming that the revolutionaries will bring down Miramount, and that they can 'be real again.' This comedic statement reiterates the earlier warning of the gatekeeper that Abrahama is an 'enforced animated zone', with no exceptions where everyone is trapped in their animated characters. Of course the studio wouldn't want anyone to peer behind the veil of their

dreamland, otherwise sustaining its idealism no longer works, as the magic would be lost. Robin now sleeps, and dreams of her avatar's role in 'Triple R', a rip off of ‘Dr. Strangelove’, Stanley Kubrick's black comedy about Mutually Assured Destruction and the Cold War. This film is widely considered to be his best film, and the crassness of Miramount remaking such a celluloid classic is a definite comment on Hollywood's lack of originality in considering nothing sacred. The current trend seems to be one of remaking pretty much any successful classic film, and remaking them badly in most cases, seems to project an air of desperation in the big studios. Even Directors such as Steven Spielberg have declared in recent years that ‘movies are over'.

Miramount defiles a classic of cinema with Robin's avatar. Robin wakes to find herself alone in the basement, and a third, more sinister hallucination takes hold. Again, this is a central part of Lem's novel, where the protagonist mistakes an apparently real scene at the hands of a death squad as a harmless delusion. In Folman's version, Jeff Green appears out of the sewage as a frogman, who states that everyone else in the sewer has 'hallucinated themselves out to freedom.' He now confronts Robin and forces her to look at her reflection as he breaks her 'celebrity' personality down in preparation for her symbolic death to come.

Jeff : "You're not a symbol, you're nothing, the symbol is what we created of you. Robin look at yourself. Does that look like a symbol?"

Robin faces her reflection, and is made to see her own mortality by her subconscious antagonist, now embodied in her fascistic vision of Jeff Green. This vicious act of de-patterning, deep within Robin’s subconscious, effectively shatters her will. Her defiant attempt to subvert her symbolic celebrity status and halt the spread of the frenzied cult of the Congress beyond the borders of Abrahama has now degenerated into victimhood. Robin now envisions herself as a helpless prisoner of Miramount at the hands of Jeff Green’s death squad. Dressed in a uniform with a symbolic ‘one’ emblazoned on it, Robin is marched out onto the pinnacle of the ziggurat style tower of the Miramount Abrahama hotel. The number on her uniform is a reference to the Monad, or original, a philosophical comment on the emanations from the source of creation in terms of the plurality of Gods within pantheistic belief systems such as those of Ancient Egypt. The indication here is that Robin, and her initial decision to have her soul wrenched from her body in the scanning scene, has given birth to this universe of ‘copies’ created in her image. She is the creator deity upon which Miramount has created their religion that has been propagated by the cult-like desires of the public to become her. This is the basis of celebrity and the culture that is propagated through its image; in fact this is precisely how

Hollywood functions as an ideological extension of the ideals representing the American experiment. In this scene, Robin still clings to the hope that her capture by the death squad is a hallucination; its leader Jeff, whispers in her ear that is in fact real and proceeds to shoot her in the head. As Robin’s body tumbles from the top of the enormous hotel, reminiscent of the lifeless bodies of sacrificial victims of the Aztecs tumbling down the pyramid steps, she symbolically enters the Abyss of Daarth, leaving her celebrity ego behind once and for all.

Robin becomes the sacrificial victim, as her status as the ‘original’ Robin Wright effectively dies. Back in reality, it becomes apparent that this moment of total submission was in fact a hallucination in Robin’s confused mind. She has, in fact, been transported to a hospital with a severe case of ‘hallucinogenic poisoning’. The Doctors working to save her decide that she is to be cryogenically frozen until the tools can be made available to un-convince her that her whole life has been a hallucination.

During her hibernation, Robin reconciles with Aaron (Horus), the ‘Son Within’ who will help her on the journey through the ‘Central Pillar’ towards apotheosis.

This freezing process in an icy sarcophagus is a literal embodiment of ‘symbolic death’, where her psyche will be given the chance to heal from the ordeal of destroying her celebrity ego. "In certain schools of magic, where the rites of initiation were celebrated by adepts who at one time thoroughly understood the technique they employed, initiation ceremonies depicted the burial of the higher self and its rebirth by means of a technical system of magic and meditation. Therein, the higher self was always represented by some sacred figure of the major religions - a man who was nearly always shown as the Son of God. The essence of the ethical injunctions of these systems was to develop the Son within. ..." -Israel Regardie, from 'The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic' (1938) Waking Into The Dream Of The Future

A vision of Grace Jones greets Robin as she is revived into the biochemically manufactured society. Upon waking from his freezing in nitrogen to combat his delusion that reality is a delusion, after ingesting an overdose of hallucinogenic weaponry, and after being apparently shot by a death squad he believed was a fiction; Ijon Tichy is faced with a pharmocratic society in 2039 where everyone is experiencing a chemically altered reality (Robin has already entered this

pharmacratic dreamscape in the film. When she is awakened after her extraction from the violent destruction of the hotel, the whole of society has been entranced by the vision revealed at the congress). This concept echoes the infamous speech by Aldous Huxley at Berkley University in 1962: “There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution” Huxley initially revealed a world similar to that of Lem's vision in his dystopian 1932 novel Brave New World , where a similar sentiment to his infamous Berkeley speech comments on this 'benevolent' vision of a willingly subdued society: “A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” Huxley's vision, revealed in 'Brave New World', is becoming an all too familiar reality, and I would extend the same observation to Lem's satirical portrayal in the 'Futurological Congress', which is so vividly realised in Folman's silver screen adaptation. The situation presented in the novel is not solely one of a society centred on self-gratification, it is revealed to Tichy that the citizens also have pharmacological methods of internally inducing solutions to jealousy and anger, in an effort to curb crime. This is explained to him by a neighbour, (who, it turns out, is integrally involved in the management of the illusion) through the following justification: "you are aware that we live in an age of pharmacocracy. Bentham's dream of the greatest happiness for the greatest number has been achieved - but that is only one side

of the coin. You will recall the words of the French philosopher: 'It is not enough that we are happy - others must be miserable!' " -Stanislaw Lem, from 'The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy)' (1971) Revelation and Lifting The Veil of Maya

The ‘World Of Choice’ has now spread to the world, here we see Robin walk past someone who has symbolically chosen to be Horus, who frames a ‘trinity’ of people copied in Robin Wrights ‘divine image’, finally framed by a person who has chosen to represent themselves as the Goddess Isis. The Mystery School teachings, and the ego driven ideology of the ‘New Age’ have now spread to the Masses. There is a philosophical line of thought, that supports the notion of metaphysics, particularly that the materialistic worldview only obstructs our ability to see beyond the particulated veil of the material world, or 'Maya' as it is called in eastern spiritual philosophies. It is worth noting here that the pioneering 3d computer animation and modelling software favoured by Hollywood carries the name ‘Maya’, or ‘illusion’. So in the final act of the Congress is the animated, chemically induced world of choice and personal illusion the reality, as it is based on consensus experience, as the majority of the population is immersed in it? Or is what is referred to as the world of 'truth', the decrepit and decaying real world of the elite wardens hiding underneath the surface the reality? The animated, designed world, as Dylan states to Robin, is a world of choice and intention, where you think about what you want and choose to manifest it. This echoes many so-called new age concepts such as the 'Law of Attraction', and the ethos of cult-like living in the 1960s, popularly called 'communes', and which have now cunningly rebranded as 'intentional communities'. The underlying ideology of idealised cultural Marxism or even communist idealism are all too apparent in this cinematic portrayal,

but the underlying filth it is masking at its core once the veil has been lifted cannot be ignored. Is it better to accept the world of the hallucinating prisoners, complying with the lie of a slave existence under the watchful eye of a demiurgical elite? Or is it better to move towards a form of gnosis, and come to terms with the truth about existence, and to attempt to move closer to a state of personal divinity and ascend above both states of existence and join the 'enlightened' elite? "I guess one could see the whole mass media as it stands today as some sort of extension of Gnostic faith." ... [The Gnostic faith is] basically a dualist heresy in that in Gnostic terms the Christian God is the wrong God ... there is no good and evil, only spirit and matter, but matter is inherently evil, and we have to constantly strive towards the spirit. The Christian God who created the world is seven days is actually evil for doing that, for trapping our spirits into matter. ..... maybe cinema itself is acting as some kind of hand maiden to the Apocalypse. Culture thrives off cinema as well. Death Metal and Apocalypse Culture seem to be a part of a siren song toward self-destruction, which I think cinema sells to people. Cinema always works best when dealing with nihilism. ..." -Richard Stanley, from 'Interview in Kinozake #1' (1994) In the Congress, this vision of an empty apocalypse, or 'lifting of the veil', reveals the emptiness of nihilist ideology, where a choice to not believe in reality and live in a world of fantasy has led to the death of the society around it. The illusion has become all consuming, and has eaten away at the very fabric of civilisation. The culture, which has been prescribed to fill the void, has destroyed culture itself. For Robin, now that she has made her peace within herself, and reunited the split aspects of her psyche by making love to Dylan, and now wants to pursue her matriarchal instincts to find Aaron. To do this she has to take the 'whiteout' pill which will lead her towards Kether (the crown chakra on the tree of life) which Dylan has revealed to her (his parting redundancy boon granted to him by the 'imagineers' of Miramount as a reward for his service as an animator) to dispel the illusion and find the objective truth of the world.

Robin must now lift the veil of 'Maya', and accept the horrifying truth about what the world has become. In the scene below Robin walks through a parade of icons, who look away from her one by one as she moves out of their idealised world of illusion and into the cold hard light of truth. It is here that she can finally see what the vision of the culture creators is masking, a decrepit wasteland of souls literally hallucinating themselves to death, this is the 'choice' which Dylan has told her about, choosing to believe the lie and ignore the harsh realities of life and death. An EPIC scene from "The Congress" “Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion.” -Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, from 'The Voice of the Silence' (1889)

Robin sees the gatekeeper, and will now leave the 'animated zone' of the world, and cross over to the other side of reality, where the controllers of the world live. The Cold Light Of Day The world Robin now faces resembles the cold hard light of day hitting the revellers at an underground rave, where everything no longer seems sparkly and shiny. The drugs have worn off and a layer of thick grime covers the participants. Agents in HAZMAT suits administer drugs via aerosols to maintain the illusion, overseeing the subjective delusion at the request of Miramount, who have become the caretakers of this dying world.

The New Faceless Gatekeepers, who watch over the masses, hallucinating themselves to death on the other side in the world of illusion. Here Folman utilizes Lem's vision to horrifying potential, and the scathing indictment of the culture creation industry is exposed for its emptiness and shallowness in the face of a world of modern drudgery and elite control. This dystopian vision of a world to come serves as a stark reminder that mankind has to be careful not to cross over completely into the controlled hedonistic world of the virtual and symbolic. In many respects, one could make the fair assertion that Western culture is entertaining and drugging itself to death, as our national infrastructures are decaying around us, and is being sold off piece by piece to the interests of corporate bidders. Allegorically, this could be read as an interpretation of Folmans thematic adaption of Lems novel, as the powers that be have moved beyond subversion techniques and, in this instance, resorted to outright pharmacological control to quell any chance of rebellion or mass uprising. As I have already alluded to, the similarities to the world Huxley revealed in 'Brave New World' are obvious in this central narrative theme.

The Horrific Reality Robin now sees is a decrepit, rotting shell where the drugged citizens are hallucinating themselves to death under the administration of the Miramount Nagasaki Corporation. In Folman’s film the tableau is set as a clandestine coup of sorts, by the ‘culture creators’ of Hollywood to exert a final desperate form of control over an out of control society. At the present moment, this agenda of dominion can be seen in the ‘humanitarian’ driven actions of celebrities attaching themselves to causes such as Climate Science, championing the rights of refugees, or direct appointment to United Nations bodies with unrealistic rallying cries such as ‘halting rape in war zones’. The disconnecting factor in the public eye is the same reaction most of us have to self-righteous authority, in that it is all too easy for those in a position of extreme privilege to preach to us ‘lesser mortals’ how we should live our lives. In Lem’s novel, the self appointed elite are the Futurists, at whose conference Tichy is exposed to such drastic measures to control the inevitable overpopulation of the human species with such measures as birth credits, breeding licenses and enforced dysgenics programs to weed out those deemed worthy of reproducing. The real world parallels to such social engineers as those who sit on the think tank panels of public policy institutions such as the Royal Society, the Council on Foreign Relations or the Club Of Rome cannot be overlooked. It is not surprising that Ijon Tichy’s highly subjective hallucination leads him to such a horrific dystopian vision of a society blinded pharmaceutically en masse, with no choice in the matter. "We keep this civilisation narcotized, for otherwise it could not endure itself. That is why it must not be disturbed." -Stanislaw Lem, from 'The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy)' (1971)

The discovery in Folman’s adaptation after Robin has pierced the veil, is that the ‘elites’ of this new world are not the celebrities and the cult surrounding them that were used to create the arbitrary fantasy. The elites are in fact a priestly class of doctors ‘elevated’ in zeppelins high above the dreamers. Robin reaches them by ascending in a basket, which is guided by a kite very similar to the one that her son was playing with so earnestly and dangerously at the opening of the film.

Ascending Jacobs ladder to heaven... "No more churches, the place of worship is now the pharmacy. The men in white robes and silver miters aren't priests, they're pharmacists. It's interesting that, on the other hand, you can't find a drugstore anywhere." -Stanislaw Lem, from 'The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy) ' (1971) Rather cynically, once Robin gains access to the pristine interior of one the Zeppelins, the Miramount logo is clearly displayed, indicating that the revolution in Abrahama was part of a larger plan to disseminate the chemical dream into the world at large by clandestine means. The very wording of the titular and overarching studio ‘Miramount’, can be translated via a loose etymology as ‘seeing mountain’. This very name gives an indication towards Robin’s journey of ascension towards a state of god like gnosis, as she has seen all aspects of the consequences resulting from her decision to be initially scanned, and so willingly give over her soul to craft this dystopian nightmare. The studio name, and its logo, as I have previously discussed, gives another indication of her journey through the Tree Of Life, towards a semblance of Godhood and enlightenment through varying sequences of death and rebirth, stripping away her personality to help her understand an objective truth about reality.

The decaying world lurking under the illusion can be read as 'Daarth' the abyss, again she is cycling through the tree of life. With each revelation towards objective truth she finds another layer to peel back, first her celebrity ego, and now the horrific idealism that her celebrity has unleashed onto the world. Her final ascension via 'Jacobs ladder' to the zeppelin to see Dr. Barker leads her to a pristine, white space, where everything is clean and maintained, this is a portrayal of the final chakra sphere of 'Kether', the crown from where the scientific elite administer their prescription of a sanitised reality to the masses. Robin has journeyed to heaven to find answers, only to discover that the elite too, are merely 'waiting for death', but they are facing the world as it is, instead of hallucinating themselves out of it. So here we see that objective truth is an unattainable goal, as perhaps one only gets a glimpse of its serenity upon the threshold between life transitioning into death. It is in this heavenly sphere that Robin is once again reunited with Dr. Barker, the Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor who so accurately predicted a vision of the way Hollywood entertainment would evolve. It was his initial insight, which inspired Robin to begin her journey towards deification at the expense of society’s mass hallucination.

Control of the illusion, what is real? “Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached "reality"; but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Maya [illusion].” -Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, from 'Secret Doctrine ' (1888) Robin finds herself in the unique position of having experienced both the illusion towards death, and the harsh reality of a dying, decaying world, which the culture creators are hiding from the masses. This is one the central themes of Lem's commentary in his novel, where he uses the metaphor of Tichy's vision of a

future, filtered mass perception to underlie the propaganda of idealised communism versus the non-idyllic reality of a practical application of the ideology. Despite most guidelines for narrative construction demonising the revelation of a story as 'merely a dream', and being symptomatic of lazy catharsis, Lem manages to pull this technique off masterfully in 'The Futurological Congress'. As Tichy peels back the layers of the psychemized society, and finds himself in direct confrontation with one of its architects, he awakes to find that the whole experience has been a colossal hallucination induced by the psychedelic weaponry used to quash the Costa Rican revolution. He finds himself back in the sewer, where he and his colleagues have taken refuge from the chaos. The persistence of the multi-faceted hallucinogens he fell victim to, after failing to deceive him on the first two passes, took hold of his mind and satirically showed him a nightmarish 'solution' to the overpopulation problem discussed at length during the Congress. In fact, the ridiculous possible solution was to mask it, brush it under the carpet and hope that society would die quietly, in ignorance and false bliss. For me this highlights the farcical attempts of social engineers throughout our times, making outlandish decisions and obfuscating truth in the hopes that everyone will ignore the fact that everyone and everything will one day die. There is no escaping from this truth that everything has a finite end, and one's passage through one's time is to know oneself. You are the only thing you can take with you when you go, this has to be accepted, however difficult that may seem. "Dr. Barker : Being on this side of truth, is not so brave. Nothing has really changed has it? Once we just masked the truth with anti-depressants and drugs that concealed and lied. Now we reinvent the truth. There's not such a big difference. The drugs have just gotten much, much better. Robin : Then there is no choice?

Dr. Barker : The only choice is between waiting for death here in this filth of truth, or hallucinating over there. Maybe it's better over there, dreaming." The catharsis to Robin's journey in the film is like the start, not a happy one. She crosses back over to the world of Maya to attempt to find Aaron, but the subjective visions that she sees are the experiences he has had throughout his life. Robin has to endure the pain of watching her decision to leave through Aaron's eyes, the waiting for her to wake up from her cryogenic coma, and Aaron's decision to 'cross over' into the subjective world of illusion Robin has just moved beyond to try and find him. The indication in the imagery here is that she is finally letting him go, and possibly letting go of life itself, choosing her idealised illusory experience, and the comfort that her son has lived out his dream of being a 'Wright brother', instead of remaining in the cold reality of the truth and the empty wait for death with the 'enlightened' such as Dr. Barker. The ending is difficult to decipher, and there are different ways to interpret it. Perhaps the final vial which Robin imbibes is a message of comfort left for her by her son, perhaps the hallucination she enters is her idealised hopes for her son, or perhaps she has now died, and this vision is her entrance into heaven as Isis, 'The Great Mother', to be with her ‘son within’, symbolising Horus/Jesus 'The Light Of The World' for eternity. Robin's lonely journey of symbolic and literal individuation is at an end; she has made her peace and let go of her anxieties, worries and pain. She now truly knows herself through her trial by illusion, and the reintegration of her psyche it has brought. She has freed herself from the trap of celebrity and the abuse of her image at the hands of the cult-like 'Congress', and their synthetic trap of a false reality enacted at her symbolic expense. “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” -C.G.Jung, from 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections' (1963) You have to make your own peace with yourself and the world around you at the end, otherwise what was the point of the journey?

“We take spiritual initiation when we become conscious of the Divine within us, and thereby contact the Divine without us.” -Dion Fortune, from 'Esoteric Orders and Their Work and the Training and Work of the Initiate' (1928)