John Carter (2012)

[joeyv23]

Disney released a movie in 2012, that I don't see or hear many people talking about that often, that included some awesome bits of disclosure in it.

I've finally gotten around to working on integrating the RS's fundamental postulates into the psyche point-by-point. Bold, bracketed text is my attempt at applying those fundamental principles to the different concepts presented herein. I will also attempt to tie different aspects of this allegory to relevant information as related to our human experience here on Terra.

Wiki plot synopsis + visual aids:

After the sudden death of John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), a former American Civil War Confederate Army captain, Carter's nephew, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara), attends the funeral. As per Carter's instructions, the body is put in a tomb that can be unlocked only from the inside. His attorney hands over Carter's personal journal for Burroughs to read, in the hope of finding clues explaining Carter's cause of death. Meanwhile, the mysterious Therns are secretly keeping watch on Burroughs' goal.

The anecdote recounts back to the Arizona Territory, where Union Colonel Powell (Bryan Cranston) arrests Carter. Powell, knowing about Carter's military background, seeks his help in fighting the Apache, insisting that Carter owes it to his country. Carter refuses, stating that he paid any debt he had when he lost his family. Carter escapes his holding cell, but is pursued by Powell and his cavalry. After a run-in with a band of Apaches, Carter and a wounded Powell are chased until they take to hiding in a cave that turns out to be the object of Carter's earlier searching, the "Spider Cave of Gold". A mysterious being, called a Thern, appears in the cave at that moment; Carter kills him but accidentally activates the Thern's powerful medallion, and is unwittingly transported to a ruined and dying planet, Barsoom (Mars). Because of his different bone density and the planet's low gravity, Carter is able to jump high and perform feats of incredible strength. He is captured by the Green Martian clan, the Tharks and their Jeddak (chieftain) Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe). Tars instructs Sola (Samantha Morton) to watch over Carter which results in her feeding him a liquid that enables him to understand the Martian language.

The Therns are an inter-dimensional species that serve The Goddess. They have no problem intervening in the affairs of a civilization, and in fact this is how the movie begins, them giving over a blue lightning technology, reminiscent of Zeus's bolt / Thor's Hammer, that's based on the usage of the "9th Ray of the Sun" so that one faction of Martians, who populate the city, Helium, will gain the upper hand over the opposing faction, who dwell in the mobile scavenger city, Zodanga, thus ending the war that's been raging on the planet between the two, and uniting them as one race. It's explained later in the movie that the 9th Ray can also be used to re-stabilize the atmosphere on Mars/Barsoom before it completely falls away and the planet's surface becomes uninhabitable.

Matai Shang, Thern


The 9th Ray:

If it's not explained in the movie, then all that's left is the explanations in the original books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. From A Princess of Mars (which is here on Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately, there's no one succinct explanation that includes all nine rays of the sun, so I've summarized it. (The book is in public doman, so the link to it, above, is perfectly legal and from there you can download and read the entire book in several formats.)

The first 7 rays are the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet [discrete units of motion]. In the books, the 8th and 9th rays were colors not seen on Earth and one place John Carter sees them is shining from a jewel on the man who runs the atmosphere plant that generates the air so everyone can live on Barsoom.

When he sees this man, wearing a diadem, the diadem scintillates in all 9 colors of light, including 2 we've never seen on Earth, the 8th and 9th rays. Again, this is in the book. The 8th ray is what makes light move -- it's a propulsion ray that propels light away [positive scalar progression of motion / "expansion of the universe" / Yang energy] and is what they capture and store in the bladders of their fliers so they can fly. (When a bladder bursts, this ray leaks out and the flier falls.) The 9th ray is never explained in detail, but it's critical for them to use in the atmosphere plant to provide enough oxygen for everything on Barsoom to live.[assuming this tech not the same "yang" destructive tech that we use[1], I'm seeing this '9th Ray' as being simple harmonic motion/SHM[2],

Handing over the 9th Ray weapon

The Green Martians are fifteen feet tall (males) and twelve feet tall (females), have four arms and eyes mounted at the side of their heads. They are nomadic, warlike and barbaric, do not form families, have little concept of friendship or love and enjoy inflicting torture upon their victims. Their social structure is highly communal and rigidly hierarchical, consisting of various levels of chiefs, with the highest office of Jeddak obtained by mortal combat.

The Green Men are primitive, intellectually unadvanced, do not have any kind of art and are without a written language. While they craft weapons, any advanced technology they possess, such as 'radium pistols', is stolen from raids upon the Red Martians. They inhabit the ancient ruined cities left behind by civilizations which lived on Barsoom during a more advanced and hospitable era in the planet's history.[35] They apparently arose from a biological experiment which went awry[citation needed] and as with all other Martians, they are an egg-laying species, concealing their eggs in incubators until hatching. Tars Tarkas, who befriends John Carter when he first arrives on Barsoom, is an unusual exception from the typical ruthless Green Martian, due to having known the love of his own mate and daughter.[26][43]

In the novels, the Green Martians are often referred to by the names of their hordes, which in turn take their names from the abandoned cities they inhabit. Thus the followers of Tars Tarkas, based in the ruined ancient city of Thark, are known as "Tharks". Other hordes bear the names of Warhoon, Torquas, and Thurd.

The Tharks

Elsewhere on Barsoom, the Red Martian city of Helium led by Tardos Mors (Ciarán Hinds) and the mobile scavenger city of Zodanga led by Sab Than (Dominic West) have been at war for a thousand years. Sab Than is armed with a special weapon obtained from Matai Shang (Mark Strong), the leader of the Therns. He proposes cease-fire and an end to the war by marrying the Princess of Helium Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). Disguised as a soldier, the Princess escapes in a Helium ship.

Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium


My impression of the 'Red Race' of Helium is that they symbolically represent We the People, and their opposition, the Zodonga, represent the attempt by oppressive groups of governing bodies to bring/maintain humanity here under complete (preferably willing) control. This would leave us with the Thern who strike me as a symbolic/allegorical representation of the yang aspect of the SM interaction with human of beings from the Orion (Feminine/Yin dominant worshipers of the Divine Feminine / Mother Goddess) and Sirius (Masculine / yang dominant society from which we inherited our passion(sic) for control by oppression) star systems.

On Barsoom, ships "float" on light instead of water. They use solar panels to achieve this. They operate better in sunlight than they do in the moon light, but this does not mean that they cannot fly during the night. It is just more complicated and sloppy.[3]

Artist's rendering of a Helium ship[src]

When Tarkus wants John Carter to show off his jumping abilities, a Thark states the sightings of one ship from Helium and one ship from Zodanga scattering the Tharks to their hiding place. John Carter takes action and saves Dejah from falling. He does manage to kill some Zodanga soldiers and have a brief fight with Sab Than. Following the fight, which leads to Sab Than's ship retreating, John Carter is hailed as Dotar Sojat (which roughly translates to "My Right Arms") by Tars Tarkas due to his strength and skill. Tarkus even has Dejah given to him as part of the Thark spoils. Sometime after that, Carter, accompanied by Dejah, tries to find a way to get back to earth, and stumbles upon a temple ruin sacred to the Tharks where Sola encounters them and tries to stop them from entering, but fails. After discovering that an inscription stating a way back to Earth in the sacred river of Iss, Carter, Dejah, and Sola are caught by Sarkoja (Polly Walker) and Tal Hajus (Thomas Haden Church). The three of them are sentenced to death due to the Thark code, but they are helped to escape by Tars Tarkas, who reveals to Carter that Sola is his daughter. When Tal and Sarkoja find the prisoners gone, Tal states that Tarkas has betrayed them.

Carter, Dejah, Sola, and Woola (a Martian Calot - which is somewhat like a mixture of a lizard and a dog) [who runs faster than any land animal here on our planet] embark on a quest to get to the end of a sacred river to find a way for Carter to get back home. They obtain information about the "ninth ray", a means of utilizing infinite energy and also the key to understanding how the medallion works. But they are later attacked by the Green Martian Clan of Warhoon, which were manipulated by Matai Shang to pursue them, as part of a new plan by Sab Than. After initially fleeing, Carter decides to buy the others time by fighting the horde himself as atonement for not being able to save his family. Though defeating many Warhoon, Carter is ultimately overpowered and is saved when a Helium ship intervenes. Sab Than is also in the company of Tardos Mors as he mentions that Sab came alone and stated that he organized the rescue party. The demoralized Dejah grudgingly agrees to marry Sab Than as Carter is taken to Zodanga to be healed.

Woola can be viewed in a similar manner as the Thern as the yin aspect of SM interaction with us, and is given as an Aryan(lizard) / Sirian(dog) chimera/co-operation, since he bonds with and exhibits protective, yin-like behavior towards the hero, John. The events of the film leading to the 'chance' encounter of John meeting Woola are forming in my mind a representation of the aggregation of units of motion (in this case the entities that are John Carter and Woola) due to inward gravitational motion. Separately, they form two individual units of motion, two beings.. their identities are limited to their stationary reference point of "I am Here" awareness. Together, these separate, discrete units of motion form a combined/expanded being (net relative motion).. no longer the 'me' that is the primary unit of motion/consciousness, but now a larger 'me' that is the sum of the combined units of motion. The timing/speed at which they gravitate/aggregate is proportional to the mass of the separate units of motion, John and Woola, and the intervening spatial distance between the two. Perhaps meetings that can be labeled as synchronicity or serendipity can be explained using this line of thought in respect to RS.

Worthy of note here, in the film during the fight between John Carter and the Warhoon Clan, flashbacks are seen of John's past, showing the events surrounding the loss of his family. There is a feel of quantum entanglement, showing how events [another form of a discrete unit of motion] can be displaced non-locally and are intertwined in a way that may be more easily identified as karma, which may be a way to spatially understand the temporal displacement / stages of progression inside of an event [discrete unit of motion] across 3-dimensional space/clock time.

It occurs to me just now the probable connection between this J.C. and the other J.C. as saviors being the hitch that allowed this story to get out into the public in order to keep the master/slave(ior) mentality in check.

Carter and the Thark army charges on Helium and defeats the Zodangan army in a huge battle, killing Sab Than. Carter marries Dejah and becomes prince of Helium. On their first night, Carter decides to stay forever on Mars and throws away his medallion. Seizing this opportunity, Matai Shang, in the form of a Helium Guard, sends him back to Earth. Carter embarks on a long quest, looking for clues of the Therns' presence on Earth and hoping to find one of their medallions; after several years he appears to die suddenly and asks for unusual funeral arrangements — consistent with his having found a medallion, since his return to Mars would leave his Earth body in a coma-like state. [It is discovered in the film that Carter himself wasn't actually transported to Mars/Barsoom, but rather a copy, or avatar was created there as a container for his consciousness. We find out that his physical body lay in wait in the cave where he originally killed the first Thern he encountered and whose medallion he activated, sending him on his epic adventure]. He makes Burroughs his protector, giving him clues about how to open the tomb.

The film reverts to the present, where Burroughs runs back to Carter's tomb and opens it, only to find it empty. Matai Shang, who had been following Carter over the 10 years he'd returned in the form of a man with a bowler hat appears holding a knife, having followed Burroughs. But as he prepares to kill Burroughs, both himself and Burroughs see the tomb as empty. Carter then appears and shoots Matai Shang, killing him. Carter then tells Burroughs that he never found a medallion. Instead, he devised a scheme to lure a Thern into revealing himself in order to get that Thern's medallion. After suggesting to Burroughs that he enjoy his life on earth and to try writing books (alluding to the fact that Burroughs is the real-life author of the "Barsoom" novels), Carter takes the Thern's medallion, whispers the code, and is then transported back to Barsoom.

There is one thing worth adding here that I noticed about the film. When I first saw the movie, the inter-dimensional Thern beings struck me as being quite familiar, and it didn't take long for me to realize why. I had seen one before! As a child of the 90's, one of my favorite shows coming up was the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and subsequent seasons where 'Mighty Morphin' had been dropped from the title. For anyone that might not know, maybe you've been able to avoid a TV for the past 20 years, the Rangers are a group of teens selected to act as protectors to humanity on Earth and beyond to all life in the galaxy/universe. In the original seasons, the being that brought the teens together was an inter-dimensional ET with the help of his android assistant, Alpha-5, named Zordon. Zordon is usually seen as a disembodied head floating in a large crystalline tube, very Wizard of Oz-esque. In the first major Power Rangers feature film, Zordon is attacked and his crystal tube shattered. Imagine my surprise(sic) when I realized that the Thern of the John Carter universe look and behave in a similar way as the leader of the group of heroes that became a foundation for symbolism/allegory in my psyche.

Zordon, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers


I brought this correlation to the attention of a friend who also pointed out the similarities between these two (seemingly) separate entities and the alien race from the film Prometheus



I hope my attempts at finding applications for understanding some of the fundamentals of RS won't have gone too awry. As always, I appreciate any and all input that may come in regards to this attempt at application of concepts.

[Ilkka]

I liked this movie. Saw it "ages" ago.

The 8th and 9th ray would be impossible to percieve IMHO. Human eye can only see so much, at its current state and might never be able to even detect such things.

[joeyv23]

The 8th and 9th ray would be impossible to percieve IMHO. Human eye can only see so much, at its current state and might never be able to even detect such things.

The first 7 rays are the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet [discrete units of motion]

Been thinking about this a bit this morning and I remembered something Daniel told me in discussion over at CH about the firmament that:

... the colors aren't really "color," but speed. A color is a frequency, cycles per second ...

I'm attempting to process what's written in Etidorhpa about the increase in rate of fire of a gun with infinite ammo, as the interval between shots decreased, the frequency increasing, at one point the stream of bullets could be seen as color..

So color is the perception of a photon or stream of photons in motion at a varying frequency. Electromagnetic radiation / bio-energy / auras can be perceived by the mind as color but wouldn't necessarily require the use of physical eyesight in order for perception to be achieved. A color we can't / haven't perceived yet would be frequency outside of the range of our sensory input at this place in time, so would this be photons or other particles in motion moving faster than unit speed into the (2-x) speed range?

The other thing I'm thinkering over is simple harmonic motion. Would toroidal motion be an example of this? Or is toroidal motion the effect of a property like gravity... I imagine a the electromagnetic field that surrounds a person. The fixed point of reference is usually seen as coming from the heart center, perhaps the (lacking something here, can only come up with) photons that travel along the threadules that constitute the toriodal form are pulled back in because of the recessive motion of gravity proportional to the mass of a person, thereby negating it, the torus, as a primary motion?

[Ilkka]

Been thinking about this a bit this morning and I remembered something Daniel told me in discussion over at CH about the firmament that:

... the colors aren't really "color," but speed. A color is a frequency, cycles per second ...

I'm attempting to process what's written in Etidorhpa about the increase in rate of fire of a gun with infinite ammo, as the interval between shots decreased, the frequency increasing, at one point the stream of bullets could be seen as color..

Well bullets would need to move fast enough to have actual coloring effect. It would be possible I think. Would most likely see a "red streak" like in that new "The Flash" series.

So color is the perception of a photon or stream of photons in motion at a varying frequency. Electromagnetic radiation / bio-energy / auras can be perceived by the mind as color but wouldn't necessarily require the use of physical eyesight in order for perception to be achieved. A color we can't / haven't perceived yet would be frequency outside of the range of our sensory input at this place in time, so would this be photons or other particles in motion moving faster than unit speed into the (2-x) speed range?

The human aura, nice insight haven't thought about that before actually. Only the "mind's eye" can perceive an aura. <--- Just came to my mind this one.
I think that those "colors" that we can't perceive/see would indeed be the scalar motion out of our phase, which are faster than unit speed (2-x) and probably (3-x) ultra high speed also. I also came to think about if there is one phase before this phase even. Which has the opposite side of the speed range, evenly hard to imagine such thing as it would be hard to imagine cosmic sector, maybe there is something, maybe not.

The other thing I'm thinkering over is simple harmonic motion. Would toroidal motion be an example of this? Or is toroidal motion the effect of a property like gravity... I imagine a the electromagnetic field that surrounds a person. The fixed point of reference is usually seen as coming from the heart center, perhaps the (lacking something here, can only come up with) photons that travel along the threadules that constitute the toriodal form are pulled back in because of the recessive motion of gravity proportional to the mass of a person, thereby negating it, the torus, as a primary motion?

I am not familiar to this just yet, I feel like my IQ has been dropping one by one each day into this depressingly dark and cold winter. Maybe its just the regular winter depression, nothing is really interesting etc. the usual. Still doing my Nei Kung practices every day though, well haven't been doing much standing meditation which is equally as important as the usual sitting meditation.

To me harmonic motion would be two motions in perfect balance. The angular motion and the something that really is out of my grasp now, it just slipped my mind totally. What I actually think now is for the "experts" to help so Daniel or LoneBear who have more intelligible understanding about this, than I do, maybe I have more understanding than I know or can say, mainly because my native language is different and I am also from different place with different education, experiences and so on. My point is that our understanding of things is unique experience to each individual so I only can communicate with common terms that we have been taught, but never you could experience something exactly like I have exprienced it, we can only use our terms so far.

Oh yes, one can perceive i.e. detect. But not see with physical eyes, its just not what eyes have been made for. Or universe is not built that way for us to see to the cosmic sector, with our eyes, in order to differ this realm. Schizophrenic would probably see those things, through their pineal gland which isn't meant to be functioning in such way, as being "online" all the time, or most of the time. I wasn't sure about the things I saw when I was under the influence of psychedelic drugs some times back in 2011 and 2012. DMT was the strongest It showed so clear imagery I think that human eye couldn't even keep up with the resolution of those things, because I remember the image being so "ultra high res" that nothing that I normally see really can compare to that "sight unseen" (Sight unseen is the name of one episode of Stargate SG-1, where they had alien tech that showed the people all kinds of things that were not there really). I remember seeing a orb that had 2 white and 2 black squares in it and it was spinning quite fast around. The background was just "mush" of colors green and red I think I remember to be most distinct, but basically whiteish. Oh and also this spinning orb was not in the middle but the left side, it didnt even move when I moved around physically. I didn't even get "proper" trip out of it, since I dont have smokers lungs to keep those vapours in.

And I dont even know why I just spend alot of time to write this down here at this hour of late night

[joeyv23]

Well bullets would need to move fast enough to have actual coloring effect. It would be possible I think. Would most likely see a "red streak" like in that new "The Flash" series.

I think this is a perfect example, and might just be the exact reason for his red color.

The human aura, nice insight haven't thought about that before actually. Only the "mind's eye" can perceive an aura. <--- Just came to my mind this one.

I know of someone who does claim to be able to 'see' the colors visually so I can't say with certainty that the auras can only be perceived internally, since there's the possibility that the eye can be formed/trained to view more than the normal band of the spectrum.

Since you shared your experience, I'll add my input on DMT. I'm a psychonaut and have tried many things. Haven't tried DMT, but after I saw the documentary that was released a couple of years ago, have been quite curious about it. I noticed I was going through a similar pattern that Graham Hancock, as far as connections being made are concerned, so I delved deeply into his work to help me understand what the chemical does for us. Even with the information given, I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of trying it myself. That was until I read the Homo Sapiens Ethicus paper. The explanation of options available during the reincarnation / ascension process put together a few pieces that took away any uncomfortable feeling I might have had. I'm not actively seeking this chemical, but now I'm not opposed to it either, having a better idea about what I might experience. I've visited some of the places spoken about in the descriptions given by Hancock in his work.. a place with 2 suns where 'everything is known' but have not personally experienced outside of what might be considered projection to an astral plane. If I have, I don't remember it right now. That movement beyond is what's kept me from trying DMT. I needed more info, and daniel's paper gave a helping hand in this regards. Again, not actively looking, but not as reserved as I was before either.

[Ilkka]

Since you shared your experience, I'll add my input on DMT. I'm a psychonaut and have tried many things. Haven't tried DMT, but after I saw the documentary that was released a couple of years ago, have been quite curious about it.

It is very powerful that I can tell you, I think you might have heard of Ayahuasca which is mixture of atleast two different plants, it has DMT and maybe Harmaline/Harmine or some other MAO-I. MAO-I is for DMT to take effect before it is destroyed in stomach, by Monoamineoxidase, thats why the inhibitor must be present. If you would only have just DMT powder(salts) or crystals, you would need to vaporize and inhale them, in less quantity than what is needed for ayahuasca. Never tried Ayahuasca myself, like you said I am not pursuing it either, but if opportunity takes place I would try it out. I know of plants that contain both MAO-I and DMT, quite none of them actually grow in these parts. I think the closest would be "Syrian Rue" which contains Harmaline. Although the common reed/grass contains DMT in very low quantities almost nothing even, which grows in this country. But never really tried to get it extracted from it. Would need many kilos to get few hundred milligrams of DMT. If I remember correctly "Chachruna" plant (Psychotria viridis) contains DMT the most in percetanges than any other plant life, according to wikipedia that is. Also with a quick look just now at the wikipedia there are much more info on psychedelic plants than before I was searching about these things.