When there is a gateway or crossover, either dimensional, or metaphysical or imaginary. They say that all screen are portals, TV’s, computers, cameras, mirrors etc. That they all are a window to something we cannot see with our limited viewing capabilities, but often we can sense it. And they say the eyes are the portals to the soul, a viewing mechanism, but does it only work one way? When you think the mirror is looking back at you, not the reflection, but the actual mirror. Is that just a feeling we create, is it because we know about two-way mirrors? Or is it something else, that we can feel something just beyond our view, but we can’t see it. I’ll mention a few movies that may have added to my thoughts on this, they all have a strange aspect to them, but quite varied in genres.
The Ring – although there was an entire movie, I’m sure the bit that stayed with me perhaps stayed with a great many people. The well, and the crawling out of the television. Horror stepping through into this realm.
Pleasantville – a good film that took me years to get round to watching, but it was enjoyable. Where you become part of the show being watched.
Nightmare on Elm Street – tripped out scene in the 4th or 5th film, when the realities between what’s on the screen and in the room start to blend. But obviously the whole premise of the films was that there was a portal between being asleep and awake, and that something could come and get you. I guess that crosses over into my article Doors of the mind, which I now realise should have had these films noted as reference too.
Tron – Where they get sucked into the computer game, and have to work it all out to survive. Fighting against a corporation, main computer or power source.
Jumanji – an updated version of Tron perhaps, where they are also sucked into the game and have to complete a set of trials and tasks to survive and get back to the ‘real world’.
Last action hero – not one I have actually seen, but believe they also come out of the television, rather than someone going in.
Batman Forever – the Riddler character in this one, having a genius idea of a machine, that interacts between peoples mental energy and televisions, harvesting the information, knowledge, thoughts and ideas from people.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Mike TV. The kid that gets transported to inside the television. A rather sinister film all round so not a surprise to have this concept in it.
So, while there are many theories about our existence, it is of course entirely possible that we are a hologram, a simulation, a construct, a signal, a dream. Or that perhaps we are stuck in the levels of hell as in Dante’s Inferno, and we are just running upon a doomed cycle with no escape, which is why we seek it so. But whatever our origin and ultimate purpose, we find that we are here and now, taking part in this current version of reality we have created for ourselves and each other, or have allowed to be created for us. So, maybe just for a moment, like Alice stepping through the looking glass, or Coraline crawling through into the alternate world, we should step outside of where we think we are, and step towards where we would like to be…
