"It's happening all around you. They aren't coming. They're already here."
--from the website for "augmented reality" game "Ingress"
"This is the future, and humanity is all but extinct. We have been invaded by another species, who erase our minds to take our bodies."
--from the trailer for the upcoming movie "The Host"
Last post, I discussed a couple of interesting features of the new Google massively multiplayer "augmented reality" game "Ingress." I pointed out the similarities between the game's interface and that of another current Google initiative "Project Glasses," as well as the prominent "conspiracy"/esoteric imagery used in the game's" trailer. I also wondered aloud why the latter was being marketed to the "young, hip" demographic -- rather than to kooks like myself.
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| The "O" in the title has the glowing blue "Stargate" type "look", as well as a "mirrored" one in the sky on the right. |
I might have found something to illuminate (if you will excuse the pun) this subject a bit further -- if not to exactly answer my questions, then to at least add another layer to bring out more details. And that something is to be found in, of all places, a trailer for a movie based on a novel by Stephanie Meyer. Yes: Stephanie Meyer, author of the "Twilight" series of books. Those easily offended by seeking esoteric meaning in mass-market content created for teenagers may bow out now from this post, and I shall totally understand.
Still with me? Okay, here goes:
First, let's go back to the "Ingress" game itself, and the rest of its trailer. Around 1:13 in the trailer, a woman "playing" (here reality is blurred...playing, or experiencing?) "Ingress" looks up from her smartphone (your "tool" in the game) and stares with suspicion at a tall man in a suit also looking at his phone. This is her narration:
"What if they are already among us, but we don't realize it?"
In context, this could refer to the other "players" in the game. But the next lines muddy things up a bit. Here, a male narrator speaks (this is the young "hip" dude we saw in my previous post -- only this, time, we get a close-up of the "key" he is wearing around his neck):
"I must be prepared to work with them -- or fight them."
Another male, older narrator, accompanied by the following image:
"They are coming."
They? What, the other players in the game?"
Yet another voice-over:
"Something's wrong out there in the world -- this doesn't seem like a scientific study."
The last part of that line is interesting, when we think of the intersection between Google's "Ingress" and what is presumably a "scientific study" of some kind, "Project Glasses."
The mystery of "Ingress" is related to a fictional research company/facility called "Niantic." Before the announcement of the game, Google conducted a "viral" campaign, making Niantic seem like a real entity complete with its own website, unique YouTube videos and Google+ postings. Going into that aspect of the game would be an entire post in itself, so I'm going to table it for now; just putting it out there to think about.
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| "real" Tweets related to the "Niantic Project" |
Anyway, let's go back to the subject of "They." Who are "They?" How are they already among us? Are "They" masquerading like us? Why?
Now let's move on to the "Host" trailer.
"The Host" is about aliens who have infiltrated human bodies (hosts, obviously):
These aliens (some in the UFO community might refer to them as "walk-ins") look just like humans. And they seemed to be linked to this energy portal/stargate:
Coincidentally enough, such portals and "stargates" seem to be essential elements to "Ingress," and its trailer is full of them:
What comes through these energy matrixes and portals? In the "conspiracy"/esoteric lore -- from which both "Ingress" and "The Host" seem to borrow from heavily -- "stargates" are access points from which "aliens" can enter our world (and vice-versa).
These "energy portals" have had many names and designations in popular-culture in folklore -- one might think of the "gate to hell" in "The Amityville Horror" (located in the basement of a house) and "The Sentinel" (in the penthouse suite of a posh building), the wardrobe in the "Narnia" books, the blue portal where Loki and the Chitauri hordes invaded New York in "The Avengers," and the myriad of caves and "dark places" in the works of Lovecraft.
Important to note: the Chitauri -- also known, to comic book fans, as "Skrulls" -- are shapeshifters, using their power to infiltrate humanity. While in the movie "Avengers" they do not shapeshift, Loki (via the "Cosmic Cube") possesses human bodies to essentially be alien vessels -- as in "The Host."
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| Alien portal in "The Avengers" |
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| Loki with Cosmic Cube |
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| "The Avengers" -- Hawkeye essentially under "alien" mindcontrol |
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| "The Host": "You Will Be One Of Us" |
"Ingress," "The Host," and "The Avengers" all features narratives of (blue!) energy portals and the possible "takeover" of the human body (and will) by outside forces. But I could sit here all day and list hundreds more movies, comic books, TV shows, novels, and video games that feature the same elements.
Why do these elements repeat themselves so often?
And why, in the case of "Ingress" and "The Host," are these "entertainment" projects being specifically marketed to younger, "hipper" audiences? Why does the imagery of these two trailers sort of mirror each other, featuring similar energy portals and even willowy female protagonists?
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| "The Host" |
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| "Ingress" |
I am only asking questions, as I am a Pattern Recognition hobbyist. I do not suggest, as some theorists might, that this imagery and "mirroring" is happening on the part of some overt massive conspiracy carried out by an elite group to either manipulate society or even, as some postulate, "gloat" over their nefarious takeover "in plain sight."
But what I do suggest is that reality and fantasy seem to have a far more "playful" and interdependent relationship than is commonly accepted. We see this countless times in events "happening" in a movie or comic book right before it happens in real life, or an actor whose most important role seems to bleed out into their personal lives in startling ways. Or you might notice this phenomenon happening in your own lives, in the microcosm, as you continue your journey towards self-realization.
I merely point out patterns and suggest possibilities.
