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November 08, 2001

K-PAX

We went to see K-PAX last night...
(SPOILER sections - click away if you don't want to know)

With Tracy being a psych nurse and me being a sci-fi fan (and multi-discipline geek), naturally we had two different takes on the movie. I think the conversation afterwards was just as stimulating as the movie itself.

Naturally, she was able to explain away just about everything with Psychobabble. She was just about convinced that it was all psychological. There were parts she had trouble explaining...yet she defaulted to the convenient "savant" excuse. She admitted that to think otherwise was scary. She *had* to believe that the psychological explanation was true. (Note: she said that all the meds and other psych stuff was on the money and realistic.)

Naturally, I was able to explain away just about everything with "fringe" science. You know...no one ever said that this was based on a real-life event. So therefore we're looking at whether or not the story is plausible. I thought it was (for the most part).

Contemporary physics states that no object should be able to travel faster than the speed of light. I've always remembered this when I've watched sci-fi stuff. It's the one thing I think they get wrong - and the one thing that I think Stargate got right. Unless the fabric of space-time folds back upon itself, we're not going anywhere. I think the places where it folds back and touches itself are the portals that we could use to get from here to there. That is - IF we plan to take our bodies with us.

Vague recollections of University Physics classes rambled through my brain as I watched the movie. He corrected the doctor's conception of physics with "a body traveling at the speed of light tends toward infinite mass." I remember that. But, what about a soul or consciousness? He said that on Earth he looks like a human on K-PAX he looks like a K-PAXian. Would that not imply that the consciousness inhabited the body instead of the body itself traveling through space? This would also explain why he left the body behind. Is this already happening? Has it already happened before? It reminds me of the night that Napoleon spent in the Great Pyramid. Did the Pharaohs really travel to "another place" to get their insights? It makes you wonder what Napoleon saw that he would never speak of... And that savant excuse is a bit too easy to throw about. It reminded me of the Dogon tribe and their celebrations (for many many many years) about the Dog Star (Sirius A and Sirius B) and it's exact placement and period of rotation. It still hasn't been explained how that tribe knew about both of these and built a mythology around something that has only recently been confirmed to be true.

I didn't like the regression. It was not very realistic. I've done a number of regressions myself - through self-hypnosis and through being hypnotized by another person. I can understand the abbreviation of the process for the movie... But there were four things that didn't sit right with me. The first thing that didn't wash was his agitation during the session. You don't have to "bring him out" because he's getting agitated. Someone who knows hypnosis would know - before you regress someone, you should give the suggestion that they are viewing the events from a detached perspective. You can also give that suggestion as the subject is becoming troubled by what they see. If you can witness and experience your own death without becoming agitated, you can experience any traumatic event without ripping apart the room. The second thing about the regression I didn't like was the pinpoint accuracy of the regression. The original suggestion to go back to his earliest memory went to an all too convenient point in time. This is how some hypnotists found past life regressions (and inter-incarnation memories). It's not that precise and convenient. When he specified the date in another regression, _that_ was more plausible. The third thing I didn't like about the regression is the 5-4-3-2-1-snap way of getting him out of it. People can pull out of hypnosis themselves if they are aware enough to trash a room. They may be a bit groggy for a while, but they're aware and don't need the snap of the fingers. And they remember the regression. I've always been aware of what I've seen, felt and experienced in any regression. The last thing I didn't like about it was the singularity of the regressed person. There were two souls/consciousnesses in that body at the time of regression. And they kept switching back and forth between the two as far as memories go... it should have been more singular. Robert should have spoken, or Prot should have spoken, or they would have mentioned there were two and asked which one the doctor wanted to talk to ...

But aside from the regression, I liked the rest of it. It almost broke my heart when we saw his choice. I knew it was coming, but it still got my eyes watery. You know we're going to get it as soon as it's available for sale...

Posted by BlueWolf on November 8, 2001 03:27 PM