Video games and the Esoteric

I miss the good old classic video games, like Mario Brothers and Megaman.  It had music composed of pure electronic sounds that speaks to me and touches me more than regular music composed of mundane and organic sounds.  I suppose there are chiptune aficionados keeping that alive somewhat.  And early video games tended have the classic variety of levels: start out in an earthy foresty zone, and go to a watery place, a fiery place, etc.  So few people appreciate how this represents the exploration of the ancient archetypal elemental realms of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit, and how natural and obvious it is that video games started out thus.  Video games are a micro-microcosm within the earthly microcosm, exploring the evolution of consciousness, reality and the soul.  The materialist observes the world as evolved from matter, music as evolving from organic-sounding drums and flutes.  The mystic or occultist observes a world that evolved from ideas, and a desire for an opportunity to experience.  From a metaphysical viewpoint, music must have first evolved from the idea of pure tones, like those from a synthesizer, interacting and mixing with each other.

Video games refer to the occult all over the place.  I watched someone play The Witcher, which blatantly eludes to the different qabbalistic Sephiroth although it spells the names differently.  It is very common to have some version of the astral planes, like in Dragon Age we have "The Fade".  Dragon Age's description of the different demons is basically what they are like in real life.  "The tranquil" are basically people with Aspergers's syndrome. (I have a theory that autistic people, although they are usually characterized as being disconnected from emotions, spirituality and other right-brain things, are/were extremely sensitive to such things, but could not handle it so they just "shut down" at a very young age).

I find it interesting how similar basic Qabbalistic pathworking is to classic video game mechanics.  In both, we go to different temples or other type of stronghold with a variety of themes where characters give us items that enhance our abilities.  Final Fantasy X is a game near and dear to my heart.  The way Yuna goes on her pilgrimage from temple to temple, learning to evoke the different Aeons, it is so similar to what real-life magicians do.

Video game makers have become self-aware though, the games Braid and Persona 4 seem like good examples of this.  It may not seem obvious though because the game designers were smart enough not to emphasize it too too much.  They want people to buy their game, not have debates about religion or the occult. 

Persona 4 is about a kid in high school, making relationships with people and stepping into a tv screen to an alternate reality to fight monsters and solve murders.  This alternate world is obviously meant to be an analogue to the Inner Planes or the astral, (not quite sure about the terminology).  The game uses plain old Tarot cards and casually mentions the Qabbalah, so it is obvious the game makers were very self-aware about the nature of video games.

The other day I played through Braid again, and did a google search for what Jonathan Blow, the designer of the game says the interpretation of the story is.  I found he is pretty mum about it.  It's annoying but probably smart how he keeps his mouth shut about giving his interpretation of his game.

I guess I should discuss what the game is like for those who have never played it: Basically we just have some douchey-looking white dude in a suit solving puzzles in a platformer game.  In between levels there is a vague disjointed plot you read from little books, one minute it's about saving a princess, and the next it's about wandering around a modern city, then he's talking about dissecting animals.  I can see how it relates to the puzzles in an abstract sort of way, but it just confuses most people.  Mr. Blow should have just stuck to one simple plot.  Despite my negative and critical tone here, I do say it is a wonderful, original and must-play game though.

I thought it was quite unfortunate he chose to mention the creation of the atomic bomb in the end.  So now when many people come to that they think the whole plot was about the atomic bomb all along.  Atomic bombs are a bit dramatic, to put it mildly, to materialistic minds they engulf and overshadow the esoteric and philosopic themes of the game:

In Braid I found the princess to be a heavy-handed metaphor for Nirvana or enlightenment.  If I remember correctly, the game speaks of the hero of the game starting out with the princess, but he had to leave because staying there with her deprived him of certain experiences;  The same way mystics speak of the soul venturing away from god or Nirvana in order to learn and grow and experience.

The ending level illustrates a very important lesson on the illusory nature of reality of perception, and how things and observations can be real but not necessarily be what they appear to be, how people's intentions can be misguided or not what they appear to be.  To those who have never played, basically what happens is you go through this level where you think you are saving the princess, and then you see the events happen with time reversed what actually happened is that the princess was running away from you.  I think this is a metaphor about how people look for meaning or satisfaction in life by overanalyzing things and trying to reach so many goals, they think there will be dire consequences if they stop, but meanwhile living like that is in actuality chasing away what their soul desires. Life isn't to be overanalzyed, it's to be felt and experienced.  Like Bill Hicks said about life: "It's just a ride".

And then at the very very end, the hero has a castle made up of blocks representing each of the levels in the game.  This represents how the purpose of life is the journey and the experience, not the end result.  It reminds of the Cosmic Doctrine, which discusses how the physical world is built upon previous stages of evolution which have been completed, "solidified" perhaps.

Planescape : Torment deserves a mention.  I just started that game, I kept reading about what a wonderful classic it is.  I think the world is a bit too open-ended.  You are an immortal being who has lost your memory, and you travel around to different places through portals using "keys" that can be anything, even a memory, or a scent.  So... basically you are in the astral and you travel just like you would in the astral.  Yet for all its supposed original-ness and open-endedness, you are still in a dark, violent, depressing world where everyone is greedy and racist and unfriendly.  I still want to play through the game eventually though.

I must also mention elementals.  I won't do the subject justice here... I'll just mention that the video game character Kirby is basically just an elemental, and then there are the "mimigamas" in the game Cave Story. 

"You're Not Worthy"

In the beginning of the magical path, the humble internet seeker is often confronted with hostility and unhelpful people.

For instance, a beginner asking for how to manifest some money is often confronted with the questions like "Why do you want money?" or "Why don't you just get a job?"  To a beginner who lacks confidence, that just sounds like "Go away, you are not worthy, muggle!"  Those are indeed worthwhile questions, but it is not helpful to just leave it at that.

Instead, it should be explained that in the beginning a magician should focus on changing things inside: bad habits, undesirable emotional reactions and moods, unbalanced personality traits.  This is because an early lesson to be slowly learned over time is that the boundary between the inner world and the outside physical world is illusory.  But because most of us by default believe in that boundary, it is easier to do inner work.  After doing inner work, soon enough, the magus observes the results in the outside world, they see things that seem a bit too coincidental, even miraculous.  This gives the magician a feel for how to manifest change in the physical world, and it builds confidence since if we can do something once, surely we can doing something again.

For instance, suppose John wants to lose weight, and decides to use magic to do so even though he is a beginner.  He does a working to give himself more discipline to stick to a diet and exercise regimen.  As part of the working he visualizes himself happily doing his diet and exercise, and also feeling healthy and thin in the future, looking at the the number on the scale with glee and his clothing feeling loose, etc.  All he really wanted to change was his inner world though, his own behavior, nothing very magical or miraculous.  But then, unexpectedly and coincidentally, something outside of himself comes along to facilitate his weight loss.  Maybe he will come across an article about how iodine supplements can help an imbalanced thyroid and help with weight loss.  Less happily, maybe he will catch a parasite or some other illness that will make him lose a lot of weight.  In either case, if he pays attention, John will notice this coincidence, and will get a great boost in confidence in his magical ability.