posted October 15, 2020 07:47 PM            

Silent Hill Mythology - God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-yjzAs6PB8 [15mins]

You can set the speed to 1.5x and it's still easy to follow as the narrator speaks slowly.

One of the most fascinating ideas is that both 'God' & 'Time' did not preexist in the Universe until such was summoned into reality by the pleas of people/humans who were trapped in what's described as a timeless Nightmare of Suffering... and that it was their cry's and ritual that birthed 'Her' (yes, God is Female from Silent Hill's POV. Though this gets alitte more complicated later in how God manifests with an element of Duality (both Physical and Spiritual), and it's in these instances that God often takes the roll of an Antagonistic Evil at different times in the story.

All of which doves tails into the ideas of how God is a 'Unity of Opposites', contrary to the concept of God being All Good (Christianity).

Anyhow, totally worth a look and also brings into focus aspects of Carl Jung's ideas on the Self, and why we even create Images of God that become our focus of Worship (not unlike the Cult of Silent Hill and their attempts to rebirth their form of Salvation).

posted October 16, 2020 10:44 PM            

While my memories are fading of it, that does remind me of what I learned of the Kabbalah and Western Mystery Tradition (which one side of the Tree is the Left Hand of God/Evil and linked to the Right Hand/Good, ultimately leading to transcending both, much like Baphomet). And though his focus was on western mysticism and religion (along with Jung), it applies equally well to Hinduism, the oldest organized religion on this planet whose roots are lost in prehistory.

And this ancient theology is explored here mostly from a western perspective (even Plato's thoughts on it, but apparently humanity has learned the wrong lessons so far) with a focus on Christian thought, but also Buddhism and Hindu thought:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology

My knowledge of Buddhism is sparse, but I bet that despite its Jewish and Christian elements that Buddhism and the seeking of Nirvana better describes the journey of Silent Hill.

I can understand why people turn God into cotton candy: the protector, bodyguard, and for a surprising number of people, the avenger who the believer is convinced God punishes those who offend or harm them (some say that of Karma, but rarely contemplate that what they endure that angers them might be their own punishment or karma, just blame someone else rather than rising above it), but this is a mix of Ego, Superego, and wishful thinking. Some take it so far that they think God doles out parking spaces for them. There have been people who ran stop signs sure God wouldn't let anything happen to them with their talismans (that is religious objects) with them.

Of course the delusion of the "just universe" (at least as it's commonly defined) causes far more harm than good to many who suffer, which includes someone I knew abandoned by her priest and fellow church members when she needed them the most (to top it off, the one who destroyed her life had the same name as the icon used to bless her apartment for safety like a week prior).

Speaking of which, she'd be a perfect character to "wind up in Silent Hill"! (Or more accurately, realize she already was, she's just now realizing it.)

So Silent Hill can be seen as a metaphor of our world, and our quest to escape it through spiritual means while being confronted with our dark side, and the dark side of the cosmos itself.

Some have described their out of body near death experiences as "learning the patterns they were caught within" life to life, and an understanding of how to try to break the pattern so that they could finally be free, and that fits in with other aspects of the Silent Hill game.

Speaking of which...behold what was Created (and this is a sanitized version!):

Btw, I could post a scene of chimpanzees that marched very much like a human army, one following the other and very quiet, when patrolling. Their cruelty and kindness to each other was also very human like. Because of the cruelty depicted, I've chosen not to share it, but it would add that we do live in what Silent Hill represents, we just have more consciousness to understand the plight of our situation (note, I didn't say we DID understand our own plight, just as many in Silent Hill don't).

Note that the horrifying xenomorph of Alien was based on a real world insect (I forget offhand). Zombie apocalypses (at least of specific hives and hills) actually do happen among insects through fungal spores. The horrifying diseases once can catch in water to this day...or others if your body hasn't developed an immunity, something missionaries would think about more if they were truly compassionate rather than egotistical in the name of their god.

I'll skip how apocalyptic 2020 has been and how differently it would be interpreted in the USA by evangelists if we had a different POTUS. Ironic, as this year has been so bad I might've found myself to at least consider it. (I'm tempted to go into the sordid tale of Jack Van Impe given that there's a Halloween connection, but I'll skip that, too.)

The point being, we're already in Silent Hill. It's just Silent Hill is the language of the subconscious that describes it.

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd mention something else that has baffled me at times: people say I'm too cynical (yet most of the times I'm wrong is because I'm not cynical enough), and can act horrified over what happened to me in my childhood, but I've known joy and happiness, just as I have despair and sorrow. I don't consider life or "realism" to be unrelenting misery the way much of the media (and its viewers) do, which raises the interesting question, if they try to embrace the positive, then why subconsciously promote the opposite and say that's what's real?

I have two thoughts on that: one, TV and such is a way to vent the forbidden aspects of ourselves, and I've noticed that if not banned by law, that plenty of the most successful will embrace the dark side we try to ignore in ourselves, our tribes, and our society.

The other is because I have accepted that we live in a "Silent Hill" world, that I don't feel entitled to what so many commercials, politicians, and religious leaders promise if I just embrace them. Therefore I can shrug some things off while being more resilient to the evil, which allows me shining joys that others miss because they're obsessing over what they don't allow themselves to think about (which is a vicious circle that I don't feel like explaining now).

A Greek philosopher (one of the lesser known ones) went into this, like how the tyrant who always has food takes little joy in feast days while driven to suicidal despair if he can't eat even on a normal day while those who accept their life is miserable shrug off the hunger and take great joy in the feast days that bind them together in joy.

And I'll add what Freya (you may call her Ishtar or a host of other names) revealed to me, of the pain being the fire that forges us (whereas, as that one guy said, the paradise they seek is a boring paradise for castrated sheep), though that doesn't necessarily mean one has to become callous (another problem in our society is the insistence on false dichotomies, typically dualistic and extreme, like people who think they know my entire world view from a single thought I've shared, whether they embrace me as one of their own or make me of the metaphorical Devil, even as they act like a Devil themselves without knowing it so that the Devil they condemn is just their own reflection, and vice versa). It's BECAUSE I know life is Silent Hill that I've reached out to others to help them...if I believed in a just god or karma taking care of everyone, why would I bother? Community is part of who we are and what we should become, but humans just haven't gotten it right yet. (And if there is some divine or karmic reward for doing so, then I bet it's worth more knowing I did it without expectation of reward.)

Btw, it just so happens I'm giving Revenge of the Sith (novelization by Matthew Stover, one of my favorite books even back when I hated the movie) a reread that touches on a lot of this. Funny, that. It's like a strange pattern (or maybe I'm just seeing shapes in the clouds based on what I'm thinking of at the time). 'Course Jedi and Sith thinking is another false duality (one that gets challenged in the novels, now known as "Legends" since Disney screwed it up)...I personally align with the Gray Jedi, neither Jedi nor Sith (and likely what the Jedai, the original group that later splintered into Jedi and Sith, were like):

Flowing through all, there is balance

There is no peace without a passion to create
There is no passion without peace to guide
Knowledge fades without the strength to act
Power blinds without the serenity to see

There is freedom in life
There is purpose in death

The Force is all things and I am the Force

x

I'll leave one of my favorite songs set to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (plus Angel spinoff):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckIxasNlS0k

posted October 20, 2020 05:12 AM            

There is a further set of vid's that explore more the Occult Nature of the Silent Hill Story (The Narrator makes mention of this if you wanted to follow up on those also), where it seems very clear the Designers/Writers are very clued into motifs of the Ancient World, and found a way to express that through a more Jungian Approach. However unlike a standard Hero's Journey (and conclusion) I often felt that the Player (or maybe the town?) was starting at the end and trying to find their way back to a point of innocence (before the horror, since 'The World' of SH is what both you and the protagonist of the Story are first presented with)... which mirrors the concept of even the Cult of Silent Hill in how they are trying to bring about the rebirth of their Savior and return their Universe to a 'time before suffering' that they believe exists (or will exist).

Yet this too is paradoxical because according to their own Mythology, that even before 'time', there was nothing but Suffering... so it's hard to fathom what they must conceptualize as their Heaven to be like, but in truth you can say that about pretty much most if not all Heaven's no matter what the creed.

Many times during the story the Town you are exploring transforms into a Hellscape that becomes very unnerving for the Player... and yet in order to progress you must face down these fears to further the path to a penultimate truth or personal revelation, which given the Nature of Silent Hill (the town/reality pocket) it's as if the dial on ones power to directly influences your surroundings/reality (The Secret) was turned up to the max... often exposing the darkness of the protagonist as they try to rationalize how God would choose to reveal itself to them in such a horrifying way.

And to be honest, we can ask those question of even our own World that we call reality... where it's equally difficult to come to terms with how Evil pervades so much of what we call existence, to where nothing makes sense... only that both Good and Evil do exist and neither can be separated or truly defined without the other in a form of Union Opposition...

In many ways as a teenager I was blind to the deeper aspects of the Story/Silent Hill Universe, but the concepts resonated with me on a subconscious level, and I believe my sometimes obsession with playing these games and scaring the absolute hell out of myself, was in-part... an effort to both confront and control some of the horror I had been experiencing in my home life, and likely felt that if I could somehow survive and will my way to the end... I would be better prepared for those Dark Nights where I'd have to face off against the Monsters that stalked the halls of my own reality.

The Universe is a terrifying place when you really start to think about how rampant both Chaos & Evil appear to be let loose, and if anything... no game I have ever played more embodies that idea than Silent Hill, and I'm inclined to agree with the possibility that perhaps there is little difference in thinking that the very reality we inhabit currently could be another version of Silent Hill that we must face off against, since such is also an inescapable true reflection of both God AND ourselves.

I guess you could say there are different layers to the Journey of the Self that we can experience through many mediums, and with regards to video games... I feel they often have the edge over most other Vicarious Methods such as Movies and Books/Comic because of the element of 'Action' which must be preformed, leading to decisions that effect the outcome based upon player choices... where the horror we confront is often of our own making (which can ring true of our normal reality also, excluding random chaos (or cruelty) that appears as pure cosmic indifference).

There is another vid I found that deals directly with Silent Hill 2 (which is both the best and also my favorite SH game of the series), which talks about the concepts of Karma, and asks the question of WHY our main character is drawn to this town etc... and reading your reply, I found myself thinking... couldn't we say the same of this Universe? And ask why are we drawn here (Humanity)... or is what we view as 'God 'searching for these same answers and perhaps opens up all hell for us to explore and encounter as it's tentacles/feelers of experience? Only a Madman would create our Universe as it is... which I think is often reflected in the irrational Nature of the Old Testament / Ancient World God(s) versus the incredible appeal of something else that offers a different view of God such as that of All Good (God trying to redeem itself?). . Though if Silent Hill taught me anything as a Teenager... God is one tricky sonofabitch to pin down... (which I felt was a damn sight better at making sense out of our world than the Catholicism I was raised on).

Anyhow, here is the vid for anyone curious (and again, playing the games is not actually a per-requisite but definitely helps).

Silent Hill 2 and How Depression Affects Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcJ8PjTo0oo [13mins]

posted March 11, 2021 09:33 PM            

Happy Belated Birthday, Lei_Kuei (Mar 9)

While this thread was active, I read through (and listened to) the materials here. I felt too saturated by other things to respond-- but I've always enjoyed the chemistry and environment of a thread that you and Pixie Jane were a part of.

Brilliant Minds, and Good Hearts!

Good Health, Prosperity, and Peace be yours in your New Solar Year

posted March 12, 2021 04:47 PM            

Yea, I took some time off to relax over my Birthday (much needed).

And I've ear marked a few things that I have been meaning to post both on this forum and on UC, and I will try and do such soon!

Hope you are well also

posted June 18, 2021 01:43 PM            

(J)esus the perfect gray (J)edi. Not sure he can fight as a warrior but Jedi in other ways. The first human who came back and told us about the dark and light side of the creator (in creation).

In star wars they showed all young Jedi's executed by the dark skywalker if I remember. Evil wanted to kill the goats (as is in caprocornians) in their temple. They want to stop the ages where the earth travels to parts of the universe where truth is not filtered or distorted but spreads like fire.

Hence Saturn wisely represented by Vedic astrologers when you learn their astro science, as to the period when the harvest season returns.