I think
interstellar is spiritual, metaphysical, scientific, and has some
Biblical themes. It never really mentions God, but has, I believe, a few
distinct Biblical
themes. The main one is that the lead character and his daughter are
called
the 'bridge' that brings the knowledge across worlds by means of love
that saves the world - that is a pretty strong Christ allegory. In the
Bible this is called the Logos, that which makes God accessible to
humanity; the logos is one with the divine human - Jesus. The logos
brings the love and understanding of God, it brings knowledge of
heavenly things to earth, which was otherwise completely lost. Bringing
intelligence, and the right information into the unknown is extremely
important in Interstellar. At great peril Cooper and Tars, the
intelligent robot, bring love and intelligence into the black hole. In a
spiritual and
metaphysical way it is emphasized that love is
the force that will guide them to the answer. When cooper and tars
travel into the wormhole Cooper ends up in the presence of his young
daughter from the past whom he
has
been yearning to return to the whole time. By way of science the story
says
that the quality of one's love leads them to the place they belong in
the
spiritual world.
It
is
also Biblical that Cooper, his daughter Murph, and the Hathaway
character, Brand, are the 'brokenhearted'. They are racked with grief
from personal loss, but submit to the higher need of humanity. Without
clear cognitive communication or assurance they are led by a
higher power (superior aliens simply called 'they') that guides them to
saving the world through a wormhole. This is much the way it is with
faith and God in life. We must trust that God has a purpose in spite of
the pain and grief we suffer. What also makes this Biblical is the truth
from scripture that the 'Shepard will seek and save the one as much as
the many'. In the movie the significance of the human drive to do what
is right for the whole of humanity is demonstrated, but also the
significance of the love of one person is held high as having universal
repercussions. In addition, in the end their 'tears are wiped away' when
they are saved at the end (it is implied the Brand is saved by love
with Cooper).
Swedenborg's
principle that love is a container gives a lot of insight to the movie
too. He says that contained in love is all the particulars of wisdom
that serve that love toward its end use. This is what happens in the
movie,
the intense love of the main character and his daughter leads them to
the information to be the bridge. Tars supplies the data from inside the
black hole, transmits it to Cooper, and cooper taps it to Murph who
must have the intelligence to receive and interpret the morse code. She
struggles with her deep personal pain and bitterness, yet she has the
inner drive and love to overcome all the obstacles to understanding,
receive, and complete the task. She and her father communicate between,
what is called in the movie, the 3rd and 5th
dimension. Cooper accomplishes this by taping on the gravity stream that
moves the second hand on the watch he gave to her before he left.
Allegorically this can be taken as representing the communication that
takes place between the natural and
spiritual world by what is known as correspondences (See the article in
this blog on correspondences). The intense love and admiration between
father and daughter carried within it the knowledge and
wisdom to accomplish the deed that brought both personal redemption, and
the redeeming of humanity on earth. In the end we see the new society
built in an enormous space structure that was made possible from the
information received from inside the black hole. It is shown that Murph
puts together the equation of the great scientist, brands father, and
the information from the black hole. She is revered as a sort of savior
in the new society.
The
movie is remarkable in that it realistically shows the tremendous tole
put on human emotion by space travel. This is shown in many ways but
most effectively when the Mat Damon character awakens for long term
sleep, sees he is with people, and instantly cries convulsively on
Cooper's shoulder. He says later how hard it is to go without human
touch and presence. This underscores the importance of love and
affection, and also represents the universal truth that love and wisdom
can be expressed only through a body. The Damon character also
demonstrates how the human soul can be broken from lack of love, and
seeking only self interest. He turns out to have some kind of space
psychosis. He sets up a bomb in a robot and kills one scientist, and
almost kills cooper also.
The biggest weakness of the movie is the way it depicts a pessimistic view of earth's future; this is not consistent with our current scientific trajectory, or with a spiritual view of earth. For a scientific movie, the explanation of how earth is losing oxygen has little realistic foundation. It also makes no sense how poorly prepared people are for the recurring dust storms and loss of atmosphere. Perhaps they are trying to make an environmental point with this; but mostly it seems, it is essential to the plot line that the world is ending, and dust is the vehicle that reveals the gravity anomaly.
The biggest weakness of the movie is the way it depicts a pessimistic view of earth's future; this is not consistent with our current scientific trajectory, or with a spiritual view of earth. For a scientific movie, the explanation of how earth is losing oxygen has little realistic foundation. It also makes no sense how poorly prepared people are for the recurring dust storms and loss of atmosphere. Perhaps they are trying to make an environmental point with this; but mostly it seems, it is essential to the plot line that the world is ending, and dust is the vehicle that reveals the gravity anomaly.
Brand
makes an important speech in the movie when they have lost all other
options and are deciding on one of two planets to go to. In spite of her
scientific mind she speaks of love as the transcendent force in nature
that will bring the answer. In light of this speech and the events of
the movie it will bring great meaning to the movie to reveal a cosmic
correspondence that Swedenborg affirms as a truth from the spiritual
world: The force of gravity in the physical world corresponds to the
force of love in the spiritual world. In the physical world we are
subject to time and space, but in the spiritual world there is no time
and space, but all is based on ones state of being, or the ruling love
on ones soul. In the physical world any body with mass attracts to it
other bodies by the force of gravity. In the spiritual world every
person gravitates to the society they belong by the like quality of love
in that society. Love attracts and holds a person (spirit or angel) in
the sphere of that society where they are in great happiness and use to
each other.
There are two other remarkable scenes that emphasize the power of love and how it is expressed through the human body and most importantly that it is the nature of the universe ultimately to serve embodied love . When cooper is in the black hole he realizes and expresses that the 'they' is himself, and that his desire and presence created the structure in the black hole to accommodate his human form to communicate to his daughter. Since love is the internal correspondent of gravity, gravity folded space so that he can be in the presence of his daughter from the past. The subtext in this scenario is that God or the supreme power is providentially creating and guiding them to this point. Formerly this supreme power was expressed as 'they', and now it is scene that 'they' is within him. The second scene that emphasizes this has two parts; Earlier in the movie a presence reaches out to brand and she identifies it as 'they' spiritually reaching out to her; and she, with great wonder and passion, shakes its hand. Later as Cooper is moving through wondrous lights out of the black hole he sees Brand in a spiritual way and holds her hand with love and care. These two moments are one in space folded. Another principle this is showing is that love is pre-conscience, yet it is the true formative power of our life and seat of our being. In spiritual psychology this means that our internal self determines our true state, but we are most often unaware of it; also that God knows our true state of love better than we do. For instance, Cooper's love for brand is awakened in the black hole experience when he touches Brand's hand, but he only fully becomes aware of this consuming love at the end when his daughter tells him to go to her.
When cooper is behind the bookcase in the black whole he can not directly communicate with his daughter. This is a depiction, or allegory, of how it is between the spiritual and natural world. The spiritual world exists in us in a very internal way, but not in the external except by correspondences. Put in a linear way, there is a discreet degree between these worlds that cannot be crossed bodily or physically, but affection from our soul in the body can be felt. This truth is depicted in the movie by Cooper being called Murph's 'ghost'. Affection or love is the bridge between the physical and spiritual world. The internal state of affection is pre-conscience until our desire and circumstance (God's providence) bring us to the point of integration where our real state of love becomes an awareness, - and this is a very spiritual thing that inherently includes an acknowledgement of God. It is a universal principle of spiritual psychology that all thought is preceded by affection, and that the influx of love and wisdom that created and sustains the universe comes from God.
There are two other remarkable scenes that emphasize the power of love and how it is expressed through the human body and most importantly that it is the nature of the universe ultimately to serve embodied love . When cooper is in the black hole he realizes and expresses that the 'they' is himself, and that his desire and presence created the structure in the black hole to accommodate his human form to communicate to his daughter. Since love is the internal correspondent of gravity, gravity folded space so that he can be in the presence of his daughter from the past. The subtext in this scenario is that God or the supreme power is providentially creating and guiding them to this point. Formerly this supreme power was expressed as 'they', and now it is scene that 'they' is within him. The second scene that emphasizes this has two parts; Earlier in the movie a presence reaches out to brand and she identifies it as 'they' spiritually reaching out to her; and she, with great wonder and passion, shakes its hand. Later as Cooper is moving through wondrous lights out of the black hole he sees Brand in a spiritual way and holds her hand with love and care. These two moments are one in space folded. Another principle this is showing is that love is pre-conscience, yet it is the true formative power of our life and seat of our being. In spiritual psychology this means that our internal self determines our true state, but we are most often unaware of it; also that God knows our true state of love better than we do. For instance, Cooper's love for brand is awakened in the black hole experience when he touches Brand's hand, but he only fully becomes aware of this consuming love at the end when his daughter tells him to go to her.
When cooper is behind the bookcase in the black whole he can not directly communicate with his daughter. This is a depiction, or allegory, of how it is between the spiritual and natural world. The spiritual world exists in us in a very internal way, but not in the external except by correspondences. Put in a linear way, there is a discreet degree between these worlds that cannot be crossed bodily or physically, but affection from our soul in the body can be felt. This truth is depicted in the movie by Cooper being called Murph's 'ghost'. Affection or love is the bridge between the physical and spiritual world. The internal state of affection is pre-conscience until our desire and circumstance (God's providence) bring us to the point of integration where our real state of love becomes an awareness, - and this is a very spiritual thing that inherently includes an acknowledgement of God. It is a universal principle of spiritual psychology that all thought is preceded by affection, and that the influx of love and wisdom that created and sustains the universe comes from God.
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