Possessed
Gone to watch the Exorcism of Emily Rose last evening. The pace of the show is ideal and it kept me glued till the end even though I was in urgent need of the loo. It wasn't much of a horror movie, although the little girl sitting beside me was covering her eyes for a large part of the show. Most of the "scary" scenes would have already been shown on the trailer and anyway, the horror ingredients are at most considered the garnish.The much talked about courtroom drama was indeed something to watch out for. Though brief in my point of view, the counters and anti-counters between the defence and the prosecutor was well-crafted and nevertheless showed the brilliance of both lawyers. Then again, to me, this was still not what the show was about.
The plot revolves ard the subject of possession, in the Christian or Catholic context. Many Christians or Catholics might view that this subject as something close to their heart and treat it as an evidence of the presence of God. Possessions have been cited and occured across all religions and all culture for centuries, be it by the dark forces, by the deities or by spirits of someone we knew. Possessions and supernatural stuff aren't things that are new to me. Having grown up in the family of a fortune telling and feng shui master, I have seen and heard my fair share of possessions, voodoos, spirits and stuff in the Taoist context. Interestingly, all his sons are Christians, thus at the same time, I was being exposed to these things in the Christian context and well. In my varsity years, I also joined a cell group for a year and attended church services for abt 1/2 a yr, where I heard stories from my cell members about occurences of demonic possession and exorcism during their retreat camps. Few months ago, I had the chance of having dinner with a living buddha, a Singaporean. As to whether he really a living buddha, I chose to give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, he described to me, or us to be exact, what he saw as possession when he was in Tibet. And of course, my own encounter with the 3rd kind when I was in a Thailand, in some deserted area. At least, at the moment, that was what I thot I saw, it could be my own imagination, I dunno. Back to the movie. While possession was the subject of contention in the entire movie, I still feel that is not the main thing.
I believe the impt thing is the difference perspectives between science and religion with respect to certain happenings. At the same time where each side offer their basis for the reason behind what emily went through, they are also trying the take other side's perspective out of the equation, debunking them totally. Coincidentally, I am currently reading a book called Destructive Emotions, where prominent monks like the Dalai Lama, neroscientists and psychologists gather to discuss about the mental makeup of human. Instead of debunking each others' theory, they worked together to relate each point of view to the other. In the discussion, it opens up possiblities for all three parties, in which they uses the studies and research of the other to attain a better understanding of the issues on hand. I believe this message is put across clearly near the end of the show when the defence made her closing, the idea of possibilities. By focusing too much on the so-called "facts", it shut our mind from all other possibilities. It restricts our perception and causes us to ignore the possibility that the "facts" might not be the right answer.
posted by Ah Loy @ 9:52 PM
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