Revolver - the movie

Revolver, the movie, released in 2005 in England and re released 2007 in Hollywood, written and directed by Guy Ritchie was shown on television tonight. I thought of the Beatles sound track when I surfed it but stayed because Jason Stratham of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Transporter was the lead. I came in on the movie somewhere after the beginning and yet was nonetheless captivated.

The greatest con of the ego is to convince you that it's you, was the idea that ran through the movie.

I'd just looked up a passage in Spiritual Brain by Beauregard in his discussion of the experiences of those who were clinically dead and had near death experiences, NDE's, 'there is judgement, to be sure, but the reports appear to be in agreement that all judgement comes from within the individual, not from the Being of Light. It seems, in fact, that all God is capable of giving us is unconditional love."

At the end of movie Revolver which may well have been named after the firearm given the number of shootings that occurred, there was Deepak Chopra and a whole group of the PHD's and MD's commenting on the spiritual meaning of the ego, the devil and projection and other constructs in the movie. I'd seen this in the Bling but was surprised to see it at the end of a shoot em up.

So I looked Revolver up Wikepedia (God I love Wikepedia) and sure enough the philosophical and theological substrate was intentional. English screenwriter Guy Ritchie was apparently studying the Kabballa (Jewish mystical writings) at the time of making Revolver. The trinity of characters are named after the patriarchs with Jake short for Jacob, Avi short for Abraham and Zach short for Isaac. The 23 enigma and 32 are numerological references and always there's reference to life as the 'game'. .

It didn't do well at the box office for some reason. Not for acting as Stratham and the others were in top form. It now seems likely to become cult classic. Long after many other movies are dead someone will play this movie backwards and hear "John is a live. John is alive."

"Almost any religious system which fosters unearthly love is potentially a nursery for mystics" Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism

Perennialists believe that "The world of individual consciousness and matter is only a partial reality, which reflects an underlying divine ground". Beauregaard, The Spiritual Brain

"Be the change that you want to see in the world." Mohandas Gandhi

The main goal of this functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to identify the neural correlates of a mystical experience. The brain activity of Carmelite nuns was measured while they were subjectively in a state of union with God. This state was associated with significant loci of activation in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right middle temporal cortex, right inferior and superior parietal lobules, right caudate, left medial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulated cortex, left inferior parietal lobule, left insula, left caudate and left brain stem. Other loci of activation were seen in the extra-striate visual cortex. These results suggest that mysteical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems. Beauregaard, The Spiritual Brain.

Be assured that the more progress you make in loving your neighbour, the greater will be your love for God. His Majesty loves us so much that he repays us for loving our neighbor by increasing our love for him in a thousand ways. I cannot doubt this. Theresa of Avila (1515-82)