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The Doppelgänger Trap: The State
of Art Cinema Today
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Between the
conception
And the
spasm
Between the
potency
And the
existence
Between the
essence
And the
descent
Falls the
Shadow
(from "The Hollow Men" by
T.S.
Eliot)
A Doppelgänger is a German expression literally meaning
a "double walker". Often this term is used to describe a ghostly or
shadowy self that is thought to accompany a person. Many times this
entity is considered mischievous, tempting or luring its host onto
the "dark" path. Seen in a broader sense, the Doppelgänger is just a
reflection of our own base nature and makes a convenient
rationalization for poor life-choices stemming from the inability to
advance ourselves spiritually. Long a preoccupation with poets,
composers, artists and filmmakers, the Doppelgänger is actually
a real thing of ethereal substance that a person forms
through spiritual neglect, i.e. by dragging the ideal of
spirituality down to an earthly level instead of striving
upwards to the great heights where human spirituality
originates. The Doppelgänger attaches itself to our beings
until we literally burn it off through a steadfast change in
volition towards the spiritual.
The problem of
the Doppelgänger really becomes significant, however, when an
artist begins to surrender to the world of his
shadow over the world of his spirit, the velvety allure of the
Darkness as opposed to the austere, demanding Light. This is
powerfully caught in the "Hymns to the Night" by Novalis, who wrote
this poem after the death of his beloved and shortly before his
own death at 29:
Have you also
A
human heart,
Dark night
What are you holding
Under your cloak,
That grabs so unseen, strongly
At
my
soul?
If there
was ever an art form with a Doppelgänger in its closet, it is the
art-cinema of today, which
is almost schizophrenic in its absorption of an
incredibly wide range of influences from the unspeakably
perverse to the sublime - often in the same scene! In reference
to the latter (the sublime), the films of Tarkovsky, Bresson, and
Reggio are now commonly taught in film schools around the world. And
with the widespread availability of these and many other great
art films on DVD, is it any wonder that present day
art-cinema has become so confident of its ability to match,
even surpass the work of the great masters? Recent films such as
"Japon", "Undertow" and "Tarnation" have been cited by
critics as nuovo art-cinema masterpieces. But can these films
really claim to be successors to the high mantle set by the great
ones? The answer can only be discerned if one carefully examines the
qualities that the films of the masters possess verses the
qualities of the new
generation.
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Let's take
"Japon" as an example. The film's director, Carlos
Reygadas, is clearly influenced by the work of Andrei
Tarkovsky. Long meditative takes, an emphasis on natural
elements in the frame, a sometimes deep sense of beauty, shooting
actors from behind, the prevalent use of classical music
- these are all qualities one might find in a Tarkovsky
film. At times during "Japon", one is actually convinced that a
spiritual journey has been caught on film.
Unfortunately, Carlos Reygadas also has other sources of
inspiration, such as the seedy, surrealist films of Alejandro
Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal. And these
influences regrettably disrupt the spiritual flow of the film,
ultimately preventing the audience from experiencing any kind
of genuine transcendence. The decapitation of a dove,
constant shots of animal carcasses, the vulgar sequence of the
laughing boys looking on as the two horses are mating and,
in one of the most disgusting scenes ever filmed in the history
of cinema, a man making love to a completely naked, horrendously
ugly seventy-year-old woman. Surely, anybody with an ounce of
regard for human dignity can see the incongruity here, which makes
the critic quotes ("Solicits comparison to the work of Andrei
Tarkovsky...abrasively sensual" - A.G. Scott, NY Times) seem even
more perverse than the film itself. When has there ever been a
moment of "abrasive sensuality" in any of Tarkovsky's films?! As
confused as Reygadas is, the critics are a hundred times worse.
Reygadas, an artist torn between his spirit and his Doppelgänger
(his baser tendencies), has made a basically good film
that has been hopelessly marred and crippled by some
serious misconceptions about spirituality. The critics, on the
other hand, in an effort to elevate Reygadas, end up dragging
down Tarkovsky by involving him in this witch's brew.
It would be
quite unfair to Mr. Reygadas if we just let the
comparisons end here. There are other very talented directors
that have also fallen into the Doppelgänger trap.
"If a human spirit permits itself to deviate towards
Darkness, it runs the risk of being drawn beyond the outermost
circle of its normal course towards a depth from which it can then
no longer find its way back in order to ascend. Nor can it step
even deeper over the extreme boundary of densest and deepest
ethereal darkness and thus completely out of the World of Matter,
as it could do in the upward direction into the Realm of Spiritual
Substantiality, because the latter is its point of origin. And so
it is constantly drawn along in the mighty cycle of material
Creation until it is finally drawn into disintegration, because
its ethereally dark and therefore dense and heavy garment, which
is also called the ethereal body, holds it down.
"This disintegration then dissolves the spiritual
personality it has acquired on its course through Creation, so
that it suffers spiritual death and is dispersed to primordial
spiritual seed." (Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of Truth: The Grail
Message", chapter "The
Mystery of Lucifer" - original in German)
In fact, many genuine seekers do
not see any harm in mixing the darker sides of human nature
with the lighter ones. They might even feel that a genuine
exploration of human spirituality must inevitably lead one into the
darker and baser areas of life. Such excursions, however, must be
kept to a minimum, if one does not wish to inadvertently "pick up"
some unclean propensity or other, for it is foolish to think that
one can come out of a swamp smelling like a rose. Some residue will
inevitably cling, and the longer one stays in the swamp the greater
the chance for the soiling of one's soul. The clearest example of
this in cinema is the case of Pier Paolo Pasolini, who started out
by creating one of the most sublime films ever made "Gospel
according to St. Matthew", and finished by creating one of the most
revolting (though cinematically stunning) films on record, "Salo".
In between these two films lay a long period of seeking in a
downward direction with such films as "Teorema", "Pigsty"
("Porcile"), "Canterbury Tales", "Decameron" and "Arabian Nights".
In the highly charged atmosphere of today's cinema, with
every film competing for attention, each director tries to outdo the
other by being "daring" and trying to let go of all
the inhibitions.
"This 'letting oneself go' takes place in the lower
regions of Darkness but, through so-called psycho-analysis, some
practitioners have already accepted it on the assumption that here
on earth also 'letting oneself go' liberates and matures.
"But what dreadful misery must the practice of this
principle cause here on earth! What mischief must it bring since,
in contrast with the regions of Darkness where only homogeneous
species are together, on earth both darker and lighter souls dwell
side by side! In this respect you need only to think of sexual
life and similar things. If such a principle was put into practice
and let loose on mankind, it must ultimately create nothing but a
Sodom and Gomorrah from which there would be no escape, and only
the most abject terror could bring it to an end!
"Quite apart from this, however, one already sees
numerous victims of similar therapies wandering about today
without any hold on life, whose little bit of self-reliance and,
on the whole, all their individual thinking have been completely
picked to pieces and destroyed when they had confidently expected
help. They are like people whose clothing has been systematically
torn from their bodies so that they are then forced to put on the
new garments handed to them. However, in most cases these denuded
ones unfortunately can no longer see why they should put on any
new clothing at all!
"Through the systematic intrusion into their most
intimate affairs and rights they have gradually lost the feeling
of shame which is an integral part of personal self-consciousness,
a part of the personality, and without which there can be nothing
individual." (Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of Truth: The Grail
Message", chapter "The
Mystery of Lucifer")
Andrei
Tarkovsky is the only director, who has intuited on his own
the actual process of the spiritual soiling of the individual,
which cinema can help bring about. That is why he
wrote:
"... the most
convincing of the arts demands a special responsibility on
the part of those who work in it: the methods by which cinema
affects audiences can be used far more easily and rapidly for their
moral decomposition, for the destruction of their spiritual
defenses, than the means of the old, more traditional art forms."
(Andrei Tarkovsky, "Sculpting in
Time".)
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BREAKING THE
WAVES OF SPIRITUALITY
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If we
were to name just one film in recent memory that has brought
the greatest confusion to the concept of spirituality, it would
be "Breaking the Waves" by Lars von Trier. Here sexuality is
presented as a way of achieving spiritual transcendence. More
than that: the whole concept of selfless love between two people is
twisted into the notion of a sacrificial offering, willed by
God and receiving unequivocal blessing from the Light (at the
end the bells ring out jubilantly). The power of this false
conception is further magnified by the true originality of von
Trier's cinematic language - something that doesn't happen often in
cinema these days. In short, the allure of the film's combination of
high artistry and sexual-sacrificial spirituality proved to be too
much for most of the spiritual seekers out there, who (perhaps,
after the initial shock) accepted the film without question as a
spiritual masterpiece. Only the complete ignorance of the basic Laws
of Creation could have given rise to this film's
conception and its general acceptance. The persistent
unwillingness to seek the Knowledge of God's Justice as It
really is (and not, per chance, as we wish It to be) has resulted in
a refusal to accept the Law of Reciprocal Action,
operating in Creation and regulating the flow of all guilt and
redemption. An accident, such as the character of Jan has in
the film is in reality never accidental, but is always the
inevitable result of the person's own past misdeeds.
It is brought about through the inflexible Law as a way of
teaching a person some necessary recognitions about himself and, if
it is used for self-improvement, as a way of liberating him from
some former personal guilt. This process of redemption is a highly
personal business and can never be undertaken by
someone else (no matter how much they may love him)
because, as the guilt encumbered was personal, so the
redemption must also be. Naturally, the ignorance about the
existence and the workings of this Law does not prevent It from
operating without fail.
"And this complete ignorance about the Laws of
Creation has permitted errors to creep in which continue to cause
harm to many people. They permeate and infect everything!
"This is the only reason why it was possible even
among all the present-day churches for the nonsensical opinion to
develop that sacrificial suffering and sacrificial death are
pleasing to God in certain circumstances! This erroneous view has
also become deeply anchored in the arts, for there the thought is
frequently glorified that one person through his voluntary
sacrificial or love-death can bring "redemption" to another!
"This only confused mankind still further!
"The Law of God, however, in its inflexible
justice, does not permit one person to intervene for the guilt of
another. Such a deed brings nothing but guilt upon the person who
sacrifices himself, and who thereby forcibly shortens his life on
earth. In addition the soul suffers from the delusion that it is
doing something great and pleasing to God. The one who sacrifices
himself becomes doubly
guilty through his presumption that he is
able to release another person
from his sins. He would supposedly
have done better to implore forgiveness for himself alone as a
great sinner before the Lord, for by his action he calls his God
an unjust judge, capable of such an arbitrary act and one who can
be bargained with!
"In addition this is also really a blasphemy!
Thus bringing a third guilt upon him through such a deed, which
stands absolutely and diametrically opposed to any intuitive
perception of justice!
"It is personal conceit, not pure love, which
brings forth such deeds. In the beyond, when they must suffer the
consequences of their deeds, these souls are soon set right, while
the other person is not helped in any way by such an action and,
if he knew about it and hoped for it, must become burdened still
further.
"It is therefore deplorable that even great
artists indulged in this accursed delusion about redemption in
their works. A sensitive artist should take objection to it,
because it is unnatural, contrary to all lawfulness and completely
unfounded.
"The true Magnitude of God is diminished
thereby!
"Again, nothing but human conceit dares to expect
from Divine justice, which cannot be influenced, that it would be
capable of accepting such a sacrifice. In this man has a higher
regard for his earthly judiciary, for such a thought never occurs
to him in legal practice.
"By such actions man shows disregard for his
physical body, not gratitude for the gross material implement lent
to him for his development." (Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of
Truth: The Grail Message", chapter "The Physical
Body")
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ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, DAVID LYNCH, STANLEY
KUBRICK
The art cinema of today has
allowed itself to be heavily influenced by the ethereal currents of
the Darkness, which are continuously assailing the Earth and
everyone on it. The above-mentioned directors are all exceptional
artists, so that they are quite naturally much more sensitive to the
invisible and yet very real influences/vibrations of the Ethereal
World. In this Ethereal World there are regions of Darkness and there
are regions of Light. Both the Light and the Dark regions send out
their characteristic vibrations/influences/images into the World of
Matter, seeking entrance into the souls of men. And each one of us
decides which of these particular influences we choose to cultivate,
nourish and spread. We decide not only through our visible actions,
but also through our choice of words, thoughts and desires - in short,
our whole inner world (and not any religious
affiliation) bears witness to who we are: mediators for the
Darkness or mediators for the Light. Art cinema, perhaps more than any
other art form, has the ability to lay bear the director's state of
the soul at the time of his making a particular film. This makes
it easy to spot his specific leanings either towards the Darkness or
towards the Light. And it is here that the principle difference
between artists like Tarkovsky and Bresson on the one hand, and Lars
von Trier, Jodorowsky, Lynch, Kubrick on the other hand, emerges
with crystal clarity.
Never before in
recorded history has art become literally the enemy of the people.
Today it swerves and dances around
fundamental spiritual concerns like a drunken, perverted,
ghoulish Fred Astair. Today art serves only the Darkness and cinema is
its right-hand man. Its goal is simple: to give the people - in their
spiritually weak state - what they want and not what they
need. Where is the director of today who will defiantly stand on
the side of the spirit's needs, like Tarkovsky did for almost three
decades? It is deeply regrettable that the most talented filmmakers
are simply not facing the responsibility of their calling. Art in its
truest sense exists only to prepare the way for the Light to enter the
parched souls of mankind. Any deviation from this objective is a heavy
burden on the filmmaker and his associates.
We were recently
approached by a young Spanish man, who was so obsessed by the "Texas
Chainsaw Massacre" movie, that his life's dream was to visit the
house where the actual grizzly murders had taken place. What hope can
this gentleman have of the ascension to greater spiritual
consciousness? Already terribly weak, with a plethora of propensities,
this film had pushed him over the edge, resulting in confusion,
lessened resistance towards nasty influences and a
further dimming of his spirit-core. How can such a film ever find
justification in Creation, when its audience-victims vastly outnumber
the victims on the screen? This is a crime against the spirit,
pure and simple. Filmmakers and critics everywhere cry foul - "This is
just entertainment, after all," they assure us.
"Just make-believe. We can't help it if people take this stuff
seriously." How much greater the retribution will be on those who
hold a blind eye to the monstrous effects their work has on their
fellow-men. And the more talented the director, the more powerful
his vision, the more devastating the end result. Such examples
can be seen in the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch and
Stanley Kubrick, among others.
"Men are in the habit of saying that thoughts are
'free'. By this they wish to imply that they cannot be held
accountable on earth for their thoughts, because these are on a level
which is inaccessible to human hands.
"Therefore they often play with thoughts in
the most careless way or, better expressed, they play in
thoughts. Unfortunately often a very dangerous game, in the
light-hearted illusion that they can emerge from it unharmed.
"But here they err; for thoughts too belong to the
World of Gross Matter, and must in all circumstances also be
redeemed in it before a spirit becomes capable of swinging itself
freely upwards, once it has severed the connection with its earthly
body.
"Therefore seek at all times to swing even with your thoughts in
the sense of my Message, in such a way that you desire only what is
noble, and do not lower
yourselves because you imagine that nobody can see or hear it."
(Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message",
chapter "The First Step")
Jodorowsky's "Santa Sangre" is unquestionably his greatest
film. It is a work that, despite its artistic panache and its
stylistic refinement over his earlier films ("El Topo", "Holy
Mountain", "Fando and Lis"), leaves one feeling dirty. Everything
- from cutting off of the mother's arms, the knives being thrown
at the naked tattoo lady, the blood spewing from the dying elephant's
trunk and its subsequent fate as dinner for several hundred starving
Mexican peasants, the scene with the enormous woman (?) wrestler,
and the final cemetery scene with the naked corpses of the women
victims seeking revenge - speaks of a highly twisted motivation behind
the making of this film. How many filmmaking students have viewed this
film in amazement at its audacious artistry and have been encouraged
by its success to seek similar forms of expression for
themselves?
On the
reputation of his "Eraserhead", David Lynch has always been regarded
as a "dark" director of disturbing, nightmarish visions. The allure of
his films rests solely in the fervent artistry with which they are
made. Films like "Blue Velvet", "Wild at Heart", "Twin Peaks: Fire
Walk with Me", "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Drive" leave the viewer
often perplexed and somewhat soiled over what they had just
experienced. While other films like "Elephant Man" and "Straight
Story" stand apart through their oddly uplifting character. One only
wonders over the results if Lynch had followed the trend of the latter
set of films, as opposed to the former set. Maybe he would have made
less films, but they would have been better films. And, most
importantly, he would not have to face the music over the
oppressive effects that he alone has set in motion. Just about every
American director has been influenced to one extent or another by
Lynch's work - a thought scarier than his films.
"Everything is working and
weaving in reciprocal action, in the centre of which you stand as
men continually forming and directing the threads, being both
starting point and final goal.
"Mighty rulers are you! Each one of you is
establishing his own kingdom in such a way that it will either
uplift you or bury you beneath its ruins....
"Even man's nearest ethereal surrounding can
contribute much to uplift or debase him. This is the strange world
of thought-forms, the vital activity of which comprises only a small
section of the giant mechanism of the whole Creation. Their threads,
however, penetrate both into the Gross Material World, and further
up into the Ethereal World, as well as descending into the realm of
Darkness. Like a gigantic network of veins or nerve-strands, all is
intertwined and interwoven, untearable and inseparable! Mark this
well!..."
"It is certainly a blessing for many that they are
blindfolded and cannot see further than their physical eyes will
permit, for the nature of the existing thought-forms would give them
a fright.
"Paralysing horror would grip many who today
naively or frivolously lead unscrupulous lives. For every thought
that is generated, like everything in the Ethereal World,
immediately takes a form which embodies and expresses the essential
meaning of the thought.
"The Living Creative Power which flows through man collects
ethereal substance through the volition of a completed thought and
moulds it into a form which gives expression to the will of this
thought. Thus this form is something real, something living, which
now, in accordance with the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous
Species, attracts what is homogeneous in this world of thought-forms
or is attracted by them, depending on the strength it
possesses.
"Just as a thought when it arises is
simultaneously perceived intuitively, with greater or lesser intensity, so its ethereal form will
bear an equivalent life. This world of
thoughts is densely populated. Through the mutual power of
attraction complete centres have been formed which, by means of
their accumulated energy, exercise a great influence upon human
beings.
"In the first place those persons will always be influenced
who tend towards a similar nature, that is, who bear something
similar within themselves. Such persons will thereby be strengthened
in their corresponding will, and encouraged to continue producing
new and similar forms which, working in the same manner, enter the
world of thought-forms.
"But also other people who do not possess these special
tendencies can be bothered by these influences and gradually be
attracted to them, if these centres are continually reinforced and
so obtain unsuspected power. Only those are protected who possess
other tendencies in greater strength, making a connection with what
is dissimilar impossible.
"Unfortunately, however, it is hate, envy, jealousy,
lustfulness, avarice and all other evils which, through their
greater numbers of adherents, form the strongest power centres in
the world of thought-forms. Far less great are those of purity and
love! This is the reason why evil is spreading with such uncanny
rapidity. In addition these power centres of thought-forms in turn
obtain a connection with analogous spheres of darkness. From there
they are specially roused to ever greater activity so that as a
consequence they are able to create downright devastation among
mankind." (Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of Truth: The Grail
Message", chapter "Thought-Forms")
Last, but
certainly not least, one should mention the work of Stanley Kubrick.
His masterpiece, "A Clockwork Orange", was the first commercial
film to really combine high art cinema with graphic
sex and violence. Its potent mix of hyper-stylized, almost
visionary imagery with a hefty dose of indulgences, shocked
audiences at the time and paved the way for a new era of
filmmaking, where the assault would become nothing short of
apocalyptic. It is a sad irony that Kubrick's last film, "Eyes Wide
Shut", is also about overindulging his sexual fantasies.
Unfortunately, to the very end, Kubrick reveals that he has
little regard for the spiritual well-being of his audience. Time and
time again, Kubrick is intent on turning the minds of his fellow-men
onto the lowest aspect of their existence: sex
(unspiritualized sex). It doesn't matter that the often
brilliant window-dressing that accompanies the subject qualifies
the film as "art". What ultimately matters is the effect the work has
on the viewer's spirit. That is all. Revealing the true inner state of
the man just as he was about to leave this world, "Eyes Wide Shut" was
Kubrick's final faux pas.
Today,
the list is endless of those highly talented filmmakers, who have
chosen to follow the preceding influences and take the dark path,
leading away from spiritual concerns. Bruno Dumont ("Life of Jesus", "Humanité", "Twentynine Palms")
Gaspar Noé ("Irreversible", "I Stand Alone"), Catherine Breillat
("Romance", "Fat Girl"), the films of Quintin Tarantino, and other
movies such as "Momento", "Requiem for a Dream", "Fight Club", "Y
Tu Mama Tambien" and "Pola X".
"Already for thousands of years this mankind have sunk
so low, and live so strongly in the Darkness, that through their
unclean volition they have built many bridges to dark spheres which
are far below this earth-plane. There live those who have
sunk deeply, whose ethereal weight would never have permitted the
possibility of their rising to this earth-plane.
"This formed a protection both for all those living
on earth and for these dark ones themselves. They are separated by
the natural Law of Ethereal Gravity. Down below they can give full
vent to their passions, and all baseness, without doing any harm. On
the contrary. There their unrestrained indulgence only strikes those
of a like nature, whose base way of living similarly also affects
them. Thus they suffer mutually, which leads to maturing but not to
further guilt. For through the suffering, loathing for themselves
may in time awaken, and with it also the desire to escape from this
region. Gradually the desire leads to an agonising despair, which
may finally result in the most fervent prayers, and therewith in an
earnest volition to do better.
"This is how it should be. But through men's wrong
volition things developed differently!
"Through their dark volition men built a bridge
to the region of Darkness. Thus they held out a hand to those living
there, making it possible for them to rise to the earth through the
power of attraction of similar species. Here they naturally also
found the opportunity for a fresh incarnation, which was not yet
intended for them in the normal course of world events.
"For on the earth-plane, where through the medium of
gross matter they can live together with those who are more
luminous and better, they only do harm and thereby burden themselves
with fresh guilt. This they cannot do in their lower regions;
for the depravity is only beneficial to their homogeneous kind,
because ultimately they only recognise themselves as they really
are, and come to abhor their baseness, which helps towards
improvement.
"Man has now disrupted this normal course in
all development through the base use of his free will, with which he
formed ethereal bridges to the region of Darkness, so that those who
had sunk there could be thrown onto the earth-plane like a rabble,
who now joyfully populate the greater part of
it." (Abd-ru-shin, "In the Light of Truth: The Grail
Message", chapter "What Separates So Many From the Light
Today?")
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Copyright 2004
by Gregory and Maria Pearse
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