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 from 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, not the interestn of the whole. 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.
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.
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