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[Subheading: Eye-Roll-Inducing Gibberish from the Local Arboretum, requiring either boredom or mood enhancers to read]
[Sub-Subheading: Who “THEY” refers to]We’ve been warned not to get too deep into the trees and lose the forest. That forest isn’t about characters or plot, but about theme and purpose. Namely —
“Why are you here?”
The question always asked in immersive theater. We each answer differently, but I believe beneath those answers is one common reason: to find meaning.
We’ve been told what the overarching answer to that question is. This is all about self-knowledge, transcending who we are in the constant search for the Self, to unify the masculine and feminine energies within, to bridge the conscious and the unconscious. Characters and setting are just vehicles.
You know, like, a clown car.
Our clues:
1) Ouroboros. I didn’t even see or recognize this symbol during Ascension but apparently it was there all along. I don’t know which of y’all I told this to, but I didn’t even know the word until I described my experience meeting the actors after The End. There was such reciprocal joy in meeting them, expressing my appreciation and receiving such beautiful gratitude in return, that I described it to a friend as if there was a circle of virtuous energy spinning between us. That’s when he referenced Ouroboros. Shadow Clint seemed to confirm this notion early on.2) Plato’s Cave. As so brilliantly discovered by our compatriots, and also effectively confirmed, it is not only about self-knowledge, but passing that knowledge on to others.
That’s why we’re here. When Nicole asked me that question, I knew it was coming. Yet I didn’t answer right away. I let it marinate to see what else might appear and “enlightenment” is what I said.
I could have said “some weeding around my ankles”, but, well, you know.
THEY
“I pledge my desire for their sacrifice and freedom”“Desire” means “long or wish for”. It’s an extraverted value, not connected to inner growth. So in normal context, it’s ultimately materialistic and self-indulgent (like this essay). In screenwriting, we learned early on that there’s a big difference between what a character wants (external goal) and what they need (to overcome some fatal flaw and transcend).
However, Noah appears not to desire something for himself, but for someone else. Somewhat noble, I suppose. And from it appears, he is determined to make it happen, although driven more out of spite for his father. Not so noble.
“Sacrifice” in this context may very well mean “the giving up of that which is desired”. Perhaps Noah is wishing that we give up those meaningless extraverted desires and, in the process, free us from those bonds?
It is desire — temptation — that leads us away from internal grace, of transcendence, in the pointless pursuit of the external. We need to recognize temptation — and the voice that drives us towards it known as The Shadow — acknowledge it, and turn away from it.
Which for most of us is, like, so not gonna happen. #LatinaBoobs
So who is “THEY”?
Is it The One? Noah’s kid? Sarah? Otis? The actors inside the OOA?
The answer: It doesn’t matter.
We should all want those things for ourselves and each other. To be freed from Plato’s Cave and experience the Ouroboros. And the beautiful thing, to me, is that we do this every time we visit with each other in person. We fulfill each other’s lives, as a community and as individuals. To that end, when @chelsea was asked at registration what she got out of TENSION, she told me that she answered that found a group of friends.
“And they are best friends,” she related.
To which I can tell you I got as choked up as a Haworthia Truncata can get.
NOAH
Insomuch as characters are the narrative’s vehicle, Noah appears to have taken on the role of the Trickster. He appears to want to elevate us, to free us from whatever sordid plan his father may have for us, although not for noble purpose so much as spite. We are being encouraged to “Sin with Perfection” by “The Investors” which Noah now wants to undermine.
So per The Fucking Little Cockroach theory, if he’s the rogue Russian agent in Switzerland, and we are the Western powers, he isn’t so much interested in advancing our agenda as “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Okay, not perfect, but at least we probably know what he’s up to. Of course, as a Trickster, he can switch sides at any time.
The other problem with the Trickster archetype is he can trick himself and bring the walls tumbling down on himself…and create collateral damage. Somebody grab Garbage Kitty on the way out.
This brings us to @bcbishop and his early encounter. I suspect Noah may have been working with Pops at that time. But something happened between then and the focus group to create a wedge between them. Pops wants to replace Noah with AI aka “IT”. The whole “Noah Way/The Seminar” is designed to encourage us to embrace our Shadow and succumb to it. They think they can do it. It will fail, of course, because AI lacks the fundamental humanity required in such interactions — even pushing us to our darkest desires.
Unless you count online porn.
@bcbishop — I wouldn’t be surprised if Noah reaches back out to you in a half-apology, recognizing that you as “an influencer” will serve his purpose. Good luck sorting that one out.Oh, and could there have not been a better Trickster-in-Crime than @meghanmayhem? Don’t tell me you don’t believe in synchronicity!
SARAH
I think Sarah was trying to protect Noah from himself. Trying to keep everything on the straight and narrow so as not to upset The Investors more than they already are.
TRASH CANS
No comment.
ANIMA/ANIMUS
These are the feminine and masculine energies residing within men and women, respectively. They serve as a bridge to our unconscious. The feminine energy allows one to see the unseen. She is the priestess, the mediator, the healer, the source of the spiritual, the Wise Woman, Mother Earth. It is in these and the many many many other amazing and radiant qualities of the feminine that men seek to be unified with to become whole. Why do we fall head over heels for someone? We project all our best qualities onto them and we believe they embody them. One truly becomes “lovesick”.
[Watch Dustin Hoffman’s online MASTER CLASS about acting. He falls apart describing that moment when Brando picks up Eva Marie Saint’s glove in “On the Waterfront” because there is Brando, men of men, experiencing the feminine before our eyes.]
In TENSION, the feminine energy was everywhere. The Handlers. Mary-Lynn. Michelle. The Processors. And as we were directly told, Sabrina. We all projected the best qualities of the feminine onto her. And what did we find there? We found qualities leading us all to more complete versions of ourselves. Feelings. Compassion. How many of us sobbed seeing the bodies?
I couldn’t help but feel the exact opposite energy at Lust registration — masculine energy everywhere. The Animus. Men storming around and slamming doors. The women were hard, aggressive, pointed, irritated, focused on the concrete — MY MONEY GODDAMMIT. LUST may be headed in the opposite direction, then.
I told my analyst that I felt surprisingly guarded with Nicole, despite having learned that immersive theater rewards emotional authenticity. My answers were more thoughtful (than usual, pfft), leaning towards the general rather than the specific, and not as gauche and raunchy as they might have been. Uh.
“You were being emotionally authentic,” he said.
“I was?” [This is why I pay for this shit]
“That conversation with Nicole was not about intimacy. It was surface. It was about her doing her job. You were guarded because she wasn’t offering anything real to you. Well, real as far as what that illusory world is.”
“Mmm. This is true.”
“Plus, you were thrown by a Trickster — Stephanie — who you didn’t expect to see there, hawking merchandise, rather than the Anima figure you associate her with as a fellow creative artist.”
“Erp.”
“And what happened right before you entered? Garbage Kitty came out of a broken window, a feline, a symbol of the feminine. So you were getting mixed messages before even sitting down with Nicole.”
Only to receive another surprise in the Red Room. The apparent forceful masculine energy was anything but that. At first, Remy sized me up and, having been accustomed to this nonsense by a certain fucking British cunt, I stared him down…
…only to have him gently remove my glasses, place his hand on my heart and take my pulse, and speak softly, knowingly. He was 100% Intuition, a quality of the feminine energy. As he did with many of us, he understood who we were intuitively. At the same time, he seems concerned with getting his money back, but perhaps is taking a more intuitive approach?
How interesting it might have been if one of us who had been handed the money and asked what would happen if we lost it had answered, “What money?”
Such grand times await us. What discoveries will we make about ourselves? About each other? How will we be thrown off-filter? What choices will we be asked to make and what regrets will we have?
LUST.
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…for fucks sake, @larry.
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Ps. Trickster4lyfe -
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@larry. Wow! So right on. And btw, there was a pretty large “Kokopelli” symbol hanging on the wall of the red office, who is the ultimate TRICKSTER god.
This really struck me:
“How interesting it might have been if one of us who had been handed the money and asked what would happen if we lost it had answered, “What money?”Before Remi asked me to count the money, he asked me if I had ever lost something? I said I lost a friend, who died. He seemed a little thrown off and fumbled around awkwardly talking about the “circle of life”. When he had me count they money and asked how I felt if I lost it… I said “that would suck”, but what I really felt was nothing. I was still thinking of my friend and how in comparison I could care less if I lost a thousand dollars…the money was absolutely meaningless.
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@sfire8 What?! Kokopelli on the wall? Nice catch! And he’s also a fertility god. LUST.
It’s interesting what people notice or don’t. I didn’t notice a damn thing in that room. Not even that it was red. Or that there was a mirror. I was tuned into the person that was there. @mike and @russell mentioned in their last podcast that there are different people to bring into an escape room because they each notice different things and have different skills.
“What I really felt was nothing”. And given the circumstances, it’s no wonder. We learn what is valuable in life when we lose something truly valuable.
I’m reminded of a riddle a Buddhist told me. Two people go to a black tie party. However, neither of them were told it’s black tie and both of them are wildly underdressed — like, T-shirt and shorts. One person is not enlightened, the other person is. How do each of them react as they enter the party?
The unenlightened person is embarrassed.
The enlightened person doesn’t even notice.
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“What I really felt was nothing”
@larry – you’ve been hearing that your whole lifeLLUUUUUSSSTTTTTTT
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I don’t claim to know much of anything about the feminine/masculine energies lying in my subconscious… but I have to agree with you on the shift towards a more masculine approach in the events I’ve experienced thus far.
Ascension had such a quiet, magnetic power. They (sometimes literally) held our hands and asked us to follow them to some scary, dark places.
Lust, on the other hand, has already presented us with some really harsh personalities, to say the least. They’re trying to get us to go down that same dark hallway, but saying, “Follow me if you want. Or not. I don’t care, but I’m going.”
The pieces that seem to contradict here are, iConfidant, Sarah/Macy/Kristen’s more desperate moments… and maybe Otis.
I find myself asking the same questions that the investors were asking us on Monday. Why didn’t Tension work? If the goal was merely to turn a profit, why go through all the trouble of breaking our hearts? Or was it a success in terms of achieving its larger goals (data, power) but only a failure to the guys with the checkbooks? Why are they changing things up? What do they actually want?
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Man, my experience at Registration was SUPER different from everyone else. Abe was pretty sweet with me, we talked about having passion in work. I’ve lost money because of missteps before, so I know how it feels to have that money go down the drain. Especially since her money came from losing her husband. I can imagine how it must’ve hurt to lose her husband AND lose the financial security he seemed to have provided her through his passing.
Totally agree with your point though in regards to the Focus Group. Def no hand holding there.
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