So I recently watched the movie "Contact" with Matthew McCaughnahoohah and Jodie Foster and I was very pleasantly surprised.
I was very intrigued by the idea of a more "realistic" and "modern" alien contact genre, and this was a good fit... Except for the conflict the movie has within itself on the subject matter of religion. But, it was a good fit... For the time period.
That's where my opinion begins to deter and I think more and more of the people who were children back when that movie came out, would agree with me, today.
I believe we, as free thinkers of the world, are moving further and further away from religion, especially when it comes to interfering with most processes nowadays, in Government, (save for only a small few issues that are still being fought over today). We try to not let religion define us as much since the 1980's, when the story was originally written. I do love the inclusion of the subject of religion, however. I just think, when you have an educated woman who has been working on the project for as long as she has, the answer to the question "Do you believe in God?" shouldn't matter. It's about the destination, the possible answers she might find, and the psychological repercussions that may occur due to the sudden realization of your very existence.
Think about it! She suddenly learned that the entire human race is not alone in the Universe, and when she gets back, everyone thought she was crazy, because she received the answers telepathically. She didn't physically go anywhere........ Except completely beyond all space and time. But your mind is what holds the key to the answers. Her consciousness was brought into the world of the dead, where existence is ever-flowing, and eternal. Then, her consciousness was put right back in its place like nothing ever happened.
As for whom the movie was dedicated to; Carl Sagan, the author of the original book, certainly had an amazing mind and perhaps even held "the answer."
Yes, THE answer. The one that the world (in the movie) both scrutinized and prayed for, by the end of the film. The all important wonder of "What are we? What is 'existence'? What is the meaning of life?" And it seemed like Carl was so very very close to giving the answer, but he told you exactly why he couldn't give it to you:
It's not something you can be told, it is something you must see and experience for yourself. In that moment, you have an experience that is far beyond your intellect, and is so awe-inspiring, that you suddenly feel a wave of understanding and completion.
Ellie experienced that in the movie, and he gave SO MANY MANY answers away, but you have to be really paying attention to get them.
First, it began when she was dropping, while in the sphere, which to those of us "on Earth" was just a few seconds.
She technically didn't go anywhere, but she DID take something "with" her. (You'll understand why the quotes are where they are later). She took the camera! Which recorded 18 hours of static! (So the Press Secretary said, at the end of the movie, even though they said the machine didn't work, and she plummeted straight through and only seconds passed. Hmmmm!
The electromagnetic field that the rings generated became a "transport" of sorts (It was even stated that way in the script) I believe it didn't actually take the body anywhere, though. It instead transports the conscious state to another part of the universe. The universe is not just the place we live and breathe and exist in on this planet, it is everything and all things everywhere and they are all happening all at once in all places of space and time, consecutively.
Yeah... That's a pretty huge idea right?!
lol Anyway, it's because it is. Ellie's conscious state was pulled from her body (I believe the same thing happens when we go to sleep and enter a dream) and it was taken to another part of the universe.
Speaking of consciousness leaving and the idea of dreams, possibly being related, I think that when we dream, our conscious state escapes to another part of the universe for a period of time, which is why the universe is always growing; because there are always conscious beings dreaming and creating new "life"/stars in the Universe. Anyway...
When Ellie was on this planet, I think the consciousness of her father appeared before her, having left his Earth body, and when she said "This isn't real" he said "I thought it would be easier for you [to appear as your father]" which is interesting. So, pure conscious beings with no body don't actually have real form? Thus the wet-looking, "mirage-y" form. Now the reason why I think he's consciousness, and not an alien, because he says to her "You have your mother's hands." Only her father would know that.
I think, in a way, Ellie saw "Heaven". But! It's not what Christian's assume it is. It's so much more than that. But on the same level, it's also very personal, and incomparable to what may be other's versions of "heaven".
And the reasoning for that is the fact that life itself has been given a definition of reality that is true to this Earth, but is also consciously false.
We remember days prior to this and so on and so forth, but only truly up until a certain point. After that, it all just seems like a long lost dream. The reason for this is because we all exist in the same universe. We all wake up in this universe (after our consciousness escapes when we sleep), and regardless of whether or not we "dream" per se, our consciousness is away for a time, and then eventually returns here. Dreams seem like hours, sometimes days or weeks at a time, because our conscious being cannot be measured by time. We live whole lives in our dreams that we forget once we wake.
Perhaps, the purpose of us all waking in this universe day in and day out until our bodies serve no purpose to this planet any longer, is so we can do something truly extraordinary as a species, together. I think, somewhere along the line, humanity forgot its true purpose, and now we're all stuck here until we can remember...
It's like you're living in a REALLY long dream... you just don't remember that you went to sleep a long time ago. And what happens when we "awaken" from THIS universe? The eternal slumber of death may also bring about a reawakening somewhere in another part of the universe...
