Just a thought of some films, where the main character, or feature of a certain aspect for it is a special power. Telekinensis, often coupled with telepathy. With a particular focus seemingly to be how that ‘power’ came about. The following films are the ones that came to mind for this.

Firestarter (1984) – taken from a Stephen King story, and starred Drew Barrymore. A memorable watch and actually a good film. In this one, she developed pyrokinesis though being the offspring of two people who had been used for military testing, who themselves had developed abilities through that process.

Ascension (TV Mini Series – 2014) – a one series flash in the pan, but rather interesting for what it was. This will contain spoilers – the premise was a bunch of scientists decided to create a simulated space mission, where the occupants didn’t know it was fake. And they stole a number of bright children, put them into the ‘program’ and created an illusion of being on a craft, travelling through space. With an extra layer that they had been doing this for two generations already, and it had these weird rules and systems around breeding and what jobs you were assigned or what your allocated purpose was. But, the strange twist at the end, was that something happened to one of the younger members of the ‘crew’ where she sort of went atomic for a moment and created an energy charge caused by emotional distress. The ones monitoring and controlling the experiment seemed awfully happy with this occurring as they had theorised it would. And then they ended the series, so we’ll never know where they were going with that, but I will speculate on it shortly.

Stranger Things (TV Series – 2016) – a really well thought out and executed series, at least the first and second one. Went a bit weird in the third one and lost me, but the idea initially was great. Similar I suppose to Firestarter, the main focus being a young girl who is the offspring of someone affected by military testing of drugs. And who themselves have developed telekinetic and various linked abilities.

Carrie (1976) – another Stephen King one, where an isolated, lonely teenage girl discovers horrifying telekinetic powers when pushed to the emotional edge. Again, well done and worth a watch.

Dr Jean Grey (X-Men films) – A running character and one of the main ones, but has the highest ability afforded in any fictional character along these lines.

Now, having telepathic characters, or angry women who are ‘activated’ when needed to use special abilities isn’t anything new, or technically out of the ordinary when you are talking fiction or science fiction. But, when I looked at those storylines (have to admit, didn’t think of any featuring boys as the ones who get that same power), it struck me how they were all girls or women. And the running theme of most of them, is that it needs to be suppressed if it can’t be controlled. Now, that could just be a classic analogy to recreate societal ideals, or it really could be about fearing something in females, that hasn’t necessarily become known. I already speculated on women having more power than some would like when it comes to reproduction in The Creator and the Destroyer. Another film comes to mind too with that, Species.

But for a wild, fictional, speculatory theory one could say that women have almost been feared at some point, and it was deemed necessary to bind them, hold them down and condition them to believe they are weak, and powerless in the bigger scheme of things. At the mercy of patriarchy and male domination, beholden to rules and standards set and enforced by them, leading to a rather downtrodden percentage of the population. I also notice though, that isn’t entirely true, as if you look back through history, and fiction, women have possessed great power, or authority. To the point of terrifying in some cases, witches, goddesses, sirens and more. Vengeful, devious, filled with rage and unforgiving torment in more than a few stories. And it may well be that it’s trying to be brought out and harnessed, as it always is portrayed in the films, caused deliberately with a view to control it. But that kind of thing surely is just fiction, isn’t it?

(c) K Wicks

Further to my article The Three D’s of Conversion under Coercion – I realised there are others, that go a long way towards people’s ability to be part of ‘the system’. Things which seem to facilitate the indoctrination process or at least make it a smoother process, at least for mayhem. It causes quite the stir when people or society are just trying to be ‘normal’.

Delusion – this plays a big part of many lives, whether it be a personal delusion, or a group one, people have a great ability to indulge them. And there are plenty of things that will play into that, ego, experience, need and circumstance. And I can’t always say it is a bad thing with a destructive end, as it may serve to help people as a coping mechanism at certain points in their lives.

Desensitisation – being switched off to reality, seeing it, experiencing it, but not feeling it. Again, there are a few reasons that may occur, but if you add to the amounts of toxins and chemicals we willingly ingest, that could play a key role there. More Than Pain gets Killed goes into that a little more.

Denial – or lying as some like to call it, for what it is. Lying to yourself or others, it is denying the truth. Which to some may not seem like a lie, because you think it is an opinion. But as in my article, If Truth be Told, there are two truths – personal ones and absolute ones. And the personal ones are the opinions and what you hold true to you, and the others are supposed to be facts. But the lines are being blurred between the two currently, and personal opinion is being touted as absolute fact. Disturbing to say the least. Yet it is the mechanism for denial that allows that trait to run riot, to override logic and reason is clearly there in many, the consequences of which we are seeing in society as it is also being facilitated by certain areas of society. To what end we can only wonder, but it seems to be there to destabilise cohesion and create a discord within oneself and others. Perhaps.

Deception – seems to be a strategy trait, to gain an advantage over your ‘opponent’. Because once you go down that road of deception, you are playing a game, and that person becomes your opponent, whether people are actively aware of it or not. You want to win, or to have more than them, or to keep something from them so are seeking to deceive for a purpose, and more often than not, it’s for a selfish purpose.

Dysfunction – not quite as easy as the others, although they can all be down to perception and opinion. But if someone adapts to the dysfunctional, therefore does it then become normal? And if you are surrounded by it, and act in the same way, how are you to really know it even is dysfunctional? And by default, doesn’t that then make it ‘normal’. Which is why maybe when you see people living in different conditions to you, or in a different way, it might only seem dysfunctional to one side of the view. Or what we now see as normal, was once viewed as batshit crazy. All a matter of timing and perspective, I guess.

Once you start to really look at how people function, and how much of it has been moulded by institutions and society as a whole, I guess the big D of disturbing comes into play, to overshadow all of the above, dragging with it doom, disaster and destruction as they might like us to believe. But I can’t help thinking that is just how it appears, that delusion has been used against us all, to keep us playing along with what we are told is the bigger picture, and the ‘greater good’. But maybe it needs to be scaled back a bit, for more personal responsibility for your thoughts, and to refocus on your surroundings and life, before they take your full attention for something happening somewhere else, to someone else. There is a time to be mindful of out there and others, and there is a time to bring it back to you, it’s about knowing when which one is right…

(c) K Wicks