(Image by Sepulchrally)
I’ve been having a lot of fun getting lost in the synchromystic X-Files analysis of Christopher Knowles (author of Our Gods Wear Spandex
These are a few of my favorite articles.
Ten Thirteen: I Want to Believe, Part I
If you asked most people what The X-Files
was about, they’d probably say something about aliens and conspiracies and monsters of the week. If you asked me, I’d tell you The X-Files was about Acid, Abuse and Ancient Astronauts.
. . .
Now to clarify, by “Acid,” I mean visionary and shamanic experience, hallucinogenic and otherwise, which was an integral part of the series from very early on. But I also mean DNA, itself an acidic compound. By “Abuse,” I mean the constant undercurrent of child abuse- systemic or intimate- that lurks beneath all of the alien abductions and tests and the rest.
. . .
Weaving throughout all of this is androgyny and psychic ability, since both are part of the alien dreaming and the Mythology throughout the series. As early as the first season, aliens were shown to be shapeshifters who could change genders. And the smoking gun of the alien component of human DNA was telepathy, which was first explained in The End.
Ten Thirteen: I Want to Believe, Part II
The so-called “Mythology” of The X-Files centered on alien abductions, colonization and genetic experimentation. The feature film The X-Files: I Want to Believe did the exact same thing, only in a symbolic, allegorical fashion. Why the reverse-metaphor? What is the film trying to tell us? And what connections does this mysterious Mythology have with the mythology of the ancient Mysteries?
There are times when art becomes reality. The pilot for X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen
, which eerily predicted a 9/11 scenario, is perhaps one of the most notorious examples of this.
Some theorists have pointed at that episode as proof of government foreknowledge of the attacks, yet if you actually pay attention to the dialog in the episode (included in the clip above), it seems unlikely that someone in the government would sign off on such inflammatory rhetoric.
. . .
Gunman Dean Haglund (“Langley”) stated that agents from the FBI and NASA would approach Chris Carter with story ideas. Haglund also claimed that the CIA would send people to Hollywood parties to keep tabs on what was being filmed, and said that before The X-Files premiered, a CIA psychic approached Carter and ensured him that his project would be successful.
Here’s what I remember: It was one of those dreams where you watch the action and then take part in it- you know, standard dream-logic. I was Mulder in the dream. I was very badly hurt and had put Scully in danger; Satan was after her. I was crawling through a front door in a house and the Sun was rising outside. In my jacket pocket I had a small book that had prayers in it. A small flame appeared on the bottom edge of a picture frame on a mantlepiece. I knew the flame was the Holy Spirit and that Scully had sent it. I rubbed my finger along the flame and I was restored. This dream lingered with me for some time after.
But the commentary track for ‘Improbable’ is something else entirely. On it, Carter goes into great detail about understanding the nature of God through the use of numerology, Synchronicity, probability, pattern recognition, theoretical physics and the like. He speaks on those topics with fluidity and ease, showing that he’s spent a lot of time working it all out. The episode and the commentary are equally interesting – and useful- in and of themselves.
. . .
The conceit of ‘Improbable’ is that God (played by none other than Burt Reynolds) is not a passive cosmic bystander, he’s constantly throwing clues at us for us to decipher. The only problem is that most people don’t bother to try. Rather than the whole ‘drama’ metaphor you might see in some traditions, the theme in ‘Improbable’ is the game. Which leads to this fascinating exchange:
SCULLY: Look, Agent Reyes, you can’t reduce all of life, all creation, every piece of … of art, architecture, music, literature… into a game of win or lose.REYES: Why not? Maybe the winners are those who play the game better. Those who see the patterns and the connections, like we’re doing right now.
Alien Dreaming and the Widening Gyre
The X-Files delved into themes explored in Altered States in the apocalyptic “Sixth Extinction” storyline. In the first part, “Biogenesis,” the alien virus in Mulder’s bloodstream is activated by exposure to radiation embedding in the rubbing of an alien spacecraft (that incidentally is an encrypted magic square).
The rubbing was the property of a Dr. Sandoz (heh), highly appropriate since it ultimately activates the deepest recesses of Mulder’s brain, making him psychic and immune to the coming viral apocalypse. The storyline also reintroduced the Navajo shaman Albert Hosteen, who had performed the Blessing Way ritual when Mulder was nearly killed in a boxcar filled with alien corpses (in an episode directed by Goodwin). Somewhere, Terrence McKenna is smiling.
Alien Dreaming and the Widening Gyre, Part II
So have they finally escaped the mushroom when the wheels come off of their reality conception in the following AAT storyline? Or were their brains blown open enough that it attracted the aliens’ attention? Did they notice Mulder and Scully noticing them, in other words?
The genius of it all is that the third chapter “Amor Fati” likewise plays with your head, presenting three separate realities: Mulder’s Last Temptation of Christ fantasy in which he and Diana are married and raise a family, apparent consensus reality in which Scully is confronted with the astral projection of a Navajo shaman, and a third dream-reality in which Mulder encounters his future son William on a beach, building a life-size replica of the God-ship out of sand.
So here we go- as in 2001, as in Indiana Jones, as in Jack Kirby’s work – psychic and/or psychedelic visions precede or accompany humanity’s encounter with their alien foster parents/genetic engineers.
This really makes me want to go back and watch the series again.
(His writings on Jack Kirby should definitely be read as well.)