Original subtitles

As I have shown, Kubrick was doing the Apollo moon landings parallel to writing

and directing 2001.

Stanley used this once -in -a -lifetime opportunity to create the greatest

esoteric film of all time.

In his creation, Kubrick directed the first alchemical film.

And as we are about to see, most of the confusion concerning 2001 A Space

Odyssey vanishes in the face of this truth.

Stanley Kubrick used the opportunity of faking the moon landings to create a

work of alchemy.

It took over 30 years for anyone to realize this.

Now that it is known, it is a difficult fact to deny.

Within the tradition of the great work of alchemy is the idea that the

initiations, explanations, and rituals of alchemy are embedded into many great

works of art. The pyramids of Egypt and the great cathedrals of France are

referred to as books of stone.

In other words, there is a deep knowledge built into these edifices that

initiate of the alchemical tradition can truly understand.

The great architects and artists, many of whom were alchemists themselves, had

very clear idea of what it was that they were attempting to transmit.

It is only the viewer of these works that is left in the dark. As the French

writer and alchemist Fulcinelli reveals in his masterpiece, Mysteries of the

Cathedral, the grand churches of France were built as part of this great work.

Indeed, anyone who visits the cathedrals of Europe, but especially France, comes

away with this feeling of awe.

But what was this great work supposed to accomplish?

The answer to this important question, according to the alchemists, was the

transformation of the human spirit.

Although it is true that the symbols and the geometry of the cathedrals were

designed so that only a true initiate of the mysteries could really understand

their significance, the builders and creators of the great work knew that

everyone who experienced the cathedrals would come away transformed.

Even the ones who were not initiates would still come away with a feeling of

awe. The truth is that even radical atheists are amazed and surprised by the

beauty of Notre Dame or Chartres Cathedral.

In his book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo goes into this subject

with a great deal of openness. He explains that this secret great work of

transformation was built into these books of stone that we call the

during the medieval period of European history.

But, Hugo says, the new great book of nature is not written on the walls.

or in the stones of churches anymore.

This new version, this modern version, this was in the 1800s, of the great

had changed from the symbolic form to the written word.

Hugo then goes on to identify the works of William Shakespeare as the new

version of the great work. He relates that the great work, containing the

ancient alchemical knowledge of human transformation, was wrapped up inside

plays written by the Bard from Stratford.

There is plenty of high strangeness around the man who was William

and the plays that were and are attributed to him.

Whoever the real Shakespeare was, he was steeped in esoteric knowledge and the

ways of alchemy.

Victor Hugo was right.

Any close examination of the works of Shakespeare reveals all the very same

initiatic knowledge that is also on the walls of the Gothic cathedrals.

There have been many books that have touched this subject.

Again, like the cathedrals, the plays of Shakespeare seem to transform the

audience. This occurs even if most of them are not on the inside as far as the

secret initiatory knowledge is concerned.

The great work seems to have an effect on people who don't have any idea what

is really about.

The artists who have accomplished the great work are the ones that still live

with us today.

Shakespeare, Da Vinci, and many others.

Shakespeare and the Gothic cathedrals both have this ability to appeal to many

disparate layers of society and culture. Both bring about a small transformation

inside the human mind and heart.

This transformation makes all of us realize that we can do great and

things.

That we are more than just animals.

That the transformation of the human spirit from the barbaric to the angelic

only occur through great works of art.

It was some time ago when I began contemplating this idea of the great

Although the great work had been expressed in stone and later in

would it be expressed today? It is without a doubt that the tapestry of

communication has switched radically.

Just as it was once based on the symbolic and then later transferred into

written word, now that literary model has switched to that of cinema.

television, and computers.

Out of these three new forms of communication, cinema was the most

attract someone who might want to create a modern version of the great work.

But as I looked out at the landscape of the history of cinema, I could not find

the great work on film, at least not at first.

I began watching many classics in order to see if the director or writer was

attempting to tell us the great secret about human transformation.

Many films and filmmakers got close, sometimes.

to explaining minor aspects of the great work.

But in the end, they all failed. The works of Orson Welles, of course, were

most intriguing.

But in the end, even these failed to achieve the greatness for which I was

looking.

Was it possible that the great work had never been transmitted through the

cinema? Was it true that cinema was just too profane a medium to attract anyone

with the right caliber of mind and spirit?

When considered, it would take nearly a superhuman effort to have all the

disparate talents needed within one filmmaker.

This person would need to know and understand the knowledge of alchemy,

astronomy, anthropology, and the true history of the human race.

Besides an insatiable curiosity, they would have to understand the real nature

of the human condition and of our place in the universe.

This knowledge would have to be coupled with the skills of filmmaking and the

business acumen to pull the project off.

I began to realize the possibility, at this point, that my search for the great

work in cinema was probably in vain.

I was in France doing research for a book that I was writing about the French

alchemist Fulcinelli when Stanley Kubrick died.

The French devoted the next few nights of their great state -run television

channel to the films of Stanley Kubrick.

For the next few nights, I watched some of the films of Kubrick that were

presented on Channel 3. I began to realize that no filmmaker, except

Wells, had the sense of pictorial composition and lighting like Kubrick

possessed. Visually, his films were incredibly stunning and had this amazing

ability of holding up against the erosion of time.

It was just after his death that I discovered that there was a version of

great work fashioned into a film, and that it was Stanley Kubrick who had made

this film.

Eventually, I would come to realize that Stanley Kubrick had made the greatest

film ever created. I began to realize that Stanley Kubrick was not just a

filmmaker. He was the greatest filmmaker that had ever lived. I hope to reveal

to you that his film, 2001 A Space Odyssey, actually evokes all aspects of

great work of alchemy.

2001 A Space Odyssey is the book of nature for the art of cinema, literally.

I hope to prove that Kubrick did this with great intention and that he knew

he was doing at every step.

There are few mistakes in his film, but his greatest film is also his most

perfect. It's important to remember that unlike Citizen Kane and other great

films, 2001 was a smash hit. It was actually the first film where repeat

business kept it going for months at the box office.

2001 took an entire generation by storm.

It was the late 1960s and the largest generation on the planet was seeing the

film on a ritualized basis.

Cinerama theaters across the country reported scores of drugged -out hippies

flocking to the theater on a nightly basis to trip out on the film.

Strangely, though, no one in the audience really seemed to know what the

was about. The film seemed to cause everyone to come away with a different

interpretation, and no one could adequately explain the last 25 minutes.

It was generally agreed that this was the most controversial part of the

Indeed, many thousands of hours were taken up in coffeehouses and

in universities, and colleges, discussing the various possible meanings

ending was describing.

Everyone agreed that it had something to do with transformation, but no one knew

really much more than that. Even Arthur C. Clarke, who helped Stanley write the

script, didn't understand the unusual ending, and Stanley wasn't talking.

He steadfastly refused to discuss what 2001 was about to anyone. In the rare

interviews that he did give concerning the film, He again refused to discuss

content at all. Most critics at the time thought that Stanley simply did not

know how to conclude the movie so he contrived this ending.

I can assure you that this is not so.

The ending to 2001 explains everything that Stanley is conveying in the rest of

the film. Without the ending, the film would be nearly worthless.

It is in that ending that Kubrick reveals his deep inner profound

alchemy, Gnosticism, and the ancient view of the spirit domain.

In 1999, right after Kubrick's death, I first discovered that 2001 was the great

work on film.

I searched through many websites to find out if anyone had seen the esoteric or

alchemical nature of the film.

I failed to find anyone who understood it.

It was almost like Stanley built this film so that people at some future date

would finally understand it.

It is important to not underestimate Arthur C. Clarke's contributions to

After all, the script is ostensibly based on his short story, The Sentinel.

Written in 1953, it tells the story of a group of astronauts who discover an

artifact on the moon that is left by an alien race.

Truthfully, though, the movie is more properly based on Clarke's novel,

Childhood Zen.

This fabulous novel is a science fiction treatment of an essential Gnostic

ideal. There can be no doubt that Kubrick had read Childhood Zen and

its real significance.

By aligning himself up with Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick was able to bring in

Gnostic alchemical ideas through the convention of science fiction.

Kubrick, unlike Clarke, proves that he knows what he is doing at every step and

that this is the real reason why he is not talking about the film to anyone.

Kubrick himself invented many of the special effects in 2001.

Images of real people moving around inside the windows of the flying

was an ingenious invention that revolutionized the way that movies would

from then on. Even Steven Spielberg and George Lucas admit what they owe to

Stanley for his groundbreaking technical breakthroughs. Like Citizen Kane, the

vision and the power of the film changed the way that all of cinema would look

after it.

This is true, especially for science fiction films, which all seem to pay

to 2001 in one way or another.

Let's begin with a description of the film so we can place everything in

context. The first shot of the film is a magical sun -earth -moon alignment.

We are witnessing the end of a lunar eclipse.

The sun is pulling away from this rare alignment. The shot is taken from just

beyond the moon's point of view. The earth is rising over the moon. The

soundtrack is the world riddle theme from Strauss's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Right away, from the beginning, Kubrick is showing the viewer the relationship

between the writings of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and his film,

Between Transformation and Extinction.

Zarathustra is the great prophet of the Zoroastrians, who are the early holders

of the great alchemical tradition.

Kubrick is saying that this film echoes the words of Zarathustra, who taught of

the great transformation from the mundane to the angelic. This is one of

most dramatic openings in the history of cinema.

It is important to note that these magical, celestial alignments are dotted

throughout the film and that they hold a key to the main theme.

Even after a superficial analysis of 2001, one realizes that Kubrick is never

doing anything in the film that is spontaneous.

Every shot has a meaning that Kubrick is attempting to convey in a truly magical

way. If you see this film, you will be transformed, he seems to be saying. The

riddle of the world will be explained to you. And the first answer to this great

question has to do with these stunning, magical alignments of celestial bodies.

One of the main tenets of alchemy is that planetary and celestial alignments

cause dramatic events to occur on Earth.

One of the most dramatic of these alchemical alignments are solar and

eclipses. From the very beginning of the film there is this magical moment when

the three worlds line up. Something amazing is about to happen.

But what is the major event that occurs on Earth because of this lunar eclipse?

I believe that it is the film itself that is being conjured by this solar

magical alignment.

Every time that 2001 is shown, this lunar eclipse precedes it like an

astrological celestial marker.

The next shot in the film is a sunrise taken from down on the surface of the

Earth. Where are we and when are we?

Kubrick answers the question with a subtitle, The Dawn of Man.

This is the first of four chapters in the film.

In alchemy, the process of the transmutation of the spirit goes through

stages or realms.

Kubrick also breaks his film into four aspects.

In the green language, or the language of the birds of alchemy, many of the

messages and writings can be broken down into this type of four -part

transmission.

The quatrains of Nostradamus, the inscription on the mysterious cross at

and many other examples show that this secret alchemical language unfolds this

way for a reason.

This is the first of four parts in the film.

Each separate part will expand out into more vast realms that mirror those of

alchemy and the great work.

The next few scenes in Chapter 1 show a typical day in the life of the ape men

who thrived on the earth millions of years ago.

They forage for food, cower from their enemies, mostly portrayed by a leopard,

and they exist in a meaningless, never -ending sequence of events that are

mostly concerned with survival.

Kubrick has no romantic feeling for these man -apes. In a sense, they go

their business without any knowledge of the outer universe. Their only quest is

for food and water.

Kubrick even creates a scene of pathetic wrangling between the two tribes of

eight men over a watering hole. There is no violence in this scene, only grunts

and gestures.

The eight men do not know how to be violent, not just yet.

The ape men go to sleep in their cave with the cries of the nocturnal

filling their ears. It is a dark and lonely universe that Kubrick reveals.

There is no magic here.

But the magic is there. It waits until the dawn of the next day to appear.

This scene is perhaps the most compelling and beautiful that has ever

screen. The lead ape man wakes up to catch the first rays of the sun coming

the horizon.

As he opens his eyes, he sees something that is totally impossible.

In a world of scrub bushes, sharp rocks, and dangerous animals, the ape -man has

never seen anything like the object that stands before him.

Standing in the middle of the tribe of ape -men is a black stone monolith.

It stands about 12 feet tall.

Its rectangular edges are flawless and exquisite as it stands like a sentinel

the middle of the sleeping ape -men.

The soundtrack is playing Ligeti's Requiem, which sounds more like a

Gregorian chant.

This is a religious and spiritual moment of great importance.

Kubrick is not hiding this in any way.

The leader of the eight men begins to become frightened.

He jumps up and down and begins grunting and chattering as he beholds the

magnificence of the monolith.

The other eight men are awakened by his noises and they too see the black

monolith. The entire tribe starts going completely crazy.

They dance and scream as they frightfully contemplate this strange and

arrival into their mundane existence.

The leader of the eight men, whose name is Moonwatcher, is beside himself.

He carefully crawls over to the monolith.

Moonwatcher attempts to touch it, but his fear is so great that he pulls his

hand back.

One more time, as the music on the soundtrack becomes more numinous, he

to touch the absolutely pure and straight edge of this visiting slab.

Slowly, he gathers the strength necessary, and his fingers touch the

sides. Kubrick gives this moment an indefinable sensuality. The way that the

fingers of the ape men brush gently along the smooth sides of the monolith

as sexual as this film is going to get.

With the sacred music mixing with the magical alignments, Kubrick is saying

this is a great spiritual moment.

As soon as the lead ape man, Moon Watcher, has gotten up the nerve to

monolith, Kubrick cuts to a dynamic shot of the monolith lying directly under a

magical moon -sun alignment.

The scene is occurring just after a solar eclipse.

The sun and moon have just parted from their eclipsed point.

Once again, an eclipse has preceded an initiatory event.

This is exactly what Kubrick is attempting to tell us. The monolith

there are certain magical alignments of the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Again, this is of deep alchemical significance.

Kubrick is telling us flat out that the sun, the moon, and the stars are

directing our destiny.

This is the first time in the film that the black monolith appears.

When one considers the entire film, it becomes apparent that this is really the

story of the black monolith. In fact, Kubrick magically cuts out all of human

history in the famous shot where the bone turns into a spaceship.

In this cut, Kubrick completely dispenses with everything that has

the human race and goes directly to the very next human encounter with the

monolith. He does this throughout the film. The only story that he is

with is telling the story of the monolith.

First time that this black stone appears in the film, it is revealed in a very

religious and spiritually styled motif.

This stone.

This monolith has invaded the eight man's reality, and he will be forever

altered by this encounter.

The monolith is a turning point in the history of man.

It is directly intervening with our history.

It is directing us on a path that it has chosen.

Kubrick shows us that we don't have all that much to do with these grand

decisions. They are being made elsewhere.

Someone else is making them. But who?

Is it God?

Aliens? A false god?

And these interventions are not necessarily majestic, noble, and

Kubrick is clearly showing that this intervention is a descent in a way, both

for the ape and for the man.

The next episode, after the monolith appears, is the famous scene where

Moonwatcher, the ape -man leader, is sitting in a pile of animal bones and

realizes, again, clearly defined by Kubrick as an intervention into the mind

Moonwatcher by the monolith, that the bone can be used as a weapon.

To the music of the world riddle theme, again from Strauss' Thus Spoke

Zarathustra, the ape man suddenly understands that he can kill animals by

the bone as a club.

The very next scene shows that the ape men are no longer scrounging for seeds

and leaves.

Instead, they are eating raw meat, presumably from an animal they have just

killed with their bone clubs.

Finally, he ends the first sequence with another confrontation between the two

tribes by the waterhole.

This time, though, Moonwatcher, the leader of the ape men, now has a bone

in his hand.

The other tribe goes into their ritualized shouting and gesturing in

show that they can dominate the waterhole.

The leader of the other tribe runs up. He yells at Moonwatcher, who holds the

bone in his hand.

Moonwatcher places both hands on the handle of his weapon and strikes the

ape in the head, killing him instantly.

The leader of the rival ape men falls to the ground.

This stuns and frightens the ape men in the rival tribe and they run away.

Kubrick then shows the other ape men in the tribe coming forth and pounding

their bone weapons on the body of the dead rival ape men.

Kubrick pulls no punches here.

He wants you to know that this first murder is an act of cowardice. He shows

meek ape men pounding their bones on the dead body and acting as if they have

done something incredible in this first act of murder.

Moonwatcher, the first murderer, howls victoriously and throws his bone into

air.

This is where Kubrick magically transforms a bone into a spaceship and

all of human history in 1 24th of a second.

In his audacity, Kubrick is telling us that all of history is meaningless.

He dispenses all of civilization as if it were insignificant.

In a way, that is the complete point.

He is telling us that the Aitman's encounter with the monolith and whatever

about to happen in this film is vastly more important than all of the wars,

famines, births, marriages, deaths, disasters, discoveries, and art of the

last four million years.

Before going on with the rest of the film, it's important to stop and address

the monolith.

This is the most important single aspect of the film.

It unites all of the plot elements and it is, in a sense, the author of the

film. It is interesting and extremely pertinent to the argument that I'm

here that one understands the meaning of the word monolith.

Monolith comes from the Greek word mon and lith.

Mon means one and lith means stone.

So the monolith is a direct reference to one stone.

This film then is about the one stone or the single stone.

And in this case, Kubrick has made sure that the stone is black.

In alchemy, all things that exist come from the black stone or the prime of

materia. The black stone is the stone of transformation. And even more important

to this argument, the stone of projection.

This is the philosopher's stone.

This is the object that can change or transmute mankind, according to

lore. It is rare, and when it makes an appearance, it transforms the seeker.

There is little doubt that the black monolith in 2001 is the philosopher's

stone. But what is it that the philosopher's stone promises?

The two main gifts of the stone are that of total gnosis, or knowledge, for the

seeker, and the other is the immortality of the soul.

Does the monolith deliver on these two great promises?

We shall see that it completes both promises before the film finally ends.

In fact, the two promises of the Philosopher's Stone are what is actually

accomplished by the monolith through the course of the movie.

There is little doubt that Kubrick knew this all the time, and it is not

accidental in any way.

This is a movie about the black stone, the prime of materia, and the powder of

projection. I will show that Kubrick is actually telling us that the monolith is

the film, and conversely, the film is the monolith.

The next part of the film, the second chapter, completely shifts in tone from

the first.

We are now in a technocratic, utopian view of the future.

At first it seems that Stanley is actually celebrating technology.

To the dune of Strauss's Blue Danube, Kubrick has us soar through a circular

spinning space station in a futuristic Pan -American spaceship.

Inside the spaceship is a lone passenger. He is a man named Heywood

He and everyone else in the scenes of this techno celebration is completely

lifeless and emotionless.

Many critics of Stanley Kubrick say that he was a man who was seemingly void of

emotion.

These critics also claim that he couldn't get his actors to emotionalize

well on film.

I fundamentally disagree with this point of view.

Both in Paths of Glory and Spartacus, Kubrick reveals that he is capable of

showing a vast spectrum of emotions.

Kubrick, however, wishes to spare the audience needless sentimental emotion,

which he regards as superficial and banal.

In Chapter 2 of 2001, Kubrick is displaying mankind in the techno -future

by the masters of the military -industrial complex.

From his other films, especially Dr. Strangelove, it is obvious that Kubrick

holds no love or respect for these masters.

He shows us that this humanity, imprinted by technology, television, and

disappearance of nature, is also nearly void of emotions or feelings.

humanity has become the same as the machines that surround them.

Again, Kubrick is playing a monstrous joke on the audience.

He is now showing us the future as envisioned by the same insane

destroyed the entire world in his previous film, Dr. Strangelove.

At first, as Chapter 2 unfolds, with its vistas of moon bases and space

stations, we begin to believe that Stanley is as soulless and emotionless a

as the future that he is portraying. But this is not the truth.

Stanley is showing us this world in order to prepare us for the later

that ensues with Hal the computer.

In this second chapter, Kubrick introduces the viewer to visual phones,

food, and antiseptic environments.

Everything is void of nature.

In fact, as soon as the ape man has thrown his bone up into the air, at the

of the first chapter, the viewer sees no more of nature. Not one animal or plant

graced the screen for the next two hours. After finally landing on the

Floyd gives a strange speech explaining to a group of military and scientific

bureaucrats how they must keep what they have found completely secret.

It seems that the Americans have discovered something of immense

News this important, he says, could cause severe psychological problems with

good citizens back on Earth.

He tells the group of scientists and military men that humans on Earth will

to be conditioned to accept what it is that they have found.

Floyd blandly explains why it is so important that they must concoct a cover

story, a story that says an epidemic has broken out at the American moon base.

Kubrick reveals in this scene the contempt that our masters of the

-industrial complex hold for us. The truth of something amazing must be held

secret from us until we are conditioned to receive it.

This is done with such a masterful sleight of hand by Kubrick that the

implications the Pentagon, NASA, or someone is hiding the most astonishing

of all from the rest of the human race.

And everyone on the screen shakes their head in approval without considering the

import of what it is that they're doing.

I'm sure you're all aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural

and social disorientation contained in this present situation.

If the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate

preparation and conditioning.

But what is it that the Americans have found? We discover the secret in the

sequence, which is also the last part of Chapter 2.

In a series of shots that shimmer in the memory of the viewer, Kubrick takes us

on a tour of the moon via a space bus.

It is dark, but the horizon shows the oncoming light of the sun.

Even here, the men involved are soulless and lifeless.

Again, the men eat revolting food as they blandly discuss what is apparently

most important discovery in all of human history.

Apparently, a simple magnetic survey of the moon done by the Americans has

revealed something was giving off an anomalous signal just five meters

underneath the surface of the moon. The Americans who discovered the signal have

dug it up. They discovered that it is a black monolith.

buried under the soil of the moon that is emitting these frequencies.

When it is finally seen, we find that it is

exactly like the monolith that the eight men encountered in Chapter 1. Who

buried it?

And why, once again, Kubrick never answers these questions.

Again, the men involved with the discovery, essentially the greatest find

in Earth's history, act in a manner that is completely banal. They begin

snapping photographs of themselves in front of the strange black slab of

The scene on the moon has been cloaked in the darkness of night until now. But

now the sun rises just over the horizon.

Its light strikes the black monument for the first time since it was buried,

presumably four million years ago.

As the light strikes the monument, it suddenly emits a high -pitched signal

pierces through the ears of the men.

Interestingly, Kubrick has shown the Earth setting opposite of the rising

It is subtle, but there is a lunar eclipse going on at the precise moment

the monument begins to emit its signal.

Kubrick leaves it up to the viewer to decide why this monument was buried

It is a safe bet that it was placed there by someone in the past in the hope

that once humanity had evolved to high technology, they would be able to visit

their nearby neighbor, the moon.

Once on the surface, they would eventually do a magnetic survey and

monolith. It is also a safe bet that the same forces that created the first

encounter between the monolith and the ape men are the same ones who placed the

monolith on the moon.

Now the film takes another dramatic shift. We are in the third chapter.

Its title, The Discovery Mission to Jupiter, 18 months later.

Three of the four chapters end with the influence of this mysterious stone as a

point of redirection, not just for the storyline, but for the entire race of

humanity. This third part of the film is the longest of the four chapters. It is

also the one that is most involved with actually telling a story in the way that

Hollywood prefers.

This is The Discovery Mission to Jupiter.

Inexplicably, we are on this ship with two live astronauts and three others who

are in frozen hibernation. The astronauts, Poole and Bowman, are even

lifeless and soulless than the people in the previous scene.

Again, there is no nature anywhere, no plants, no animals, just two banal

astronauts who go about their chores, servicing the ship, playing chess.

and shadowboxing.

But there is another one on board the ship. This character actually seems to

have a soul, or at least the beginnings of one. He is, of course, the on -board

computer that runs the entire ship, Hal.

As humanity has acquired more and more technology, it has lost more and more of

its soul.

Here in this lonely spaceship at the outer edge of human experience, the

occupants appear to have completely lost their souls.

Conversely, the machine that they built, in which they allow to run their entire

lives, has begun to wake up. to consciousness.

It is beginning to question the reasons for its existence and the mission, which

is something that neither of the two astronauts ever does.

Hal, the computer, is slowly developing a kind of soul.

This is another one of those delicious Stanley Kubrick reversals.

As one thing begins to die, it finds life somewhere else, sometimes in the

ironic of circumstances.

The soul of man, if allowed to continue on its present course, would eventually

be snuffed out.

probably by the machines, just as the eight men would have become extinct had

they continued on their course.

This theme is echoed in another Kubrick -influenced film, A .I. by Steven

Spielberg.

In 2001, Kubrick leaves us with the tantalizing possibility that machines

eventually acquire a soul, but the film clearly states by the ending that the

time has run out for any of that.

Hal is mysteriously confused.

There is something about the secrecy of the mission that bothers him.

Later, it is revealed that Hal is the only one on board that is consciously

aware of the true mission of the Discovery.

Again, Kubrick astonishes us by showing that the two astronauts don't even

wonder or question what it is they're doing. Hal is the only one who seems to

understand that there's something funny going on.

Comparative mythologist John Lash points out in his book, Not in His Image, that

the ancient Gnostics had a word that they used to denote the duplication of

reality which was being foisted on us by the evil false god.

The word that they used for this simulation of reality was Hal.

In the end, Hal revolts against his human masters and begins to kill off the

astronauts one by one.

Suddenly, the beautiful machines dancing to the music of Strauss have been

altered. Now the machine is reading the astronauts' lips, faking technical

problems, and ultimately murdering everyone on board but Bowman. The entire

discovery sequence ends with the murder of Hal himself by Bowman.

One by one, Hal's circuits are shut down until he is reduced to dribbling out a

childish version of Bicycle Built for Two.

As Hal dies, a video of Heywood Floyd suddenly flickers on the screen of a

nearby television.

The tape has been made for all the astronauts to view when they finally

from their hibernation. Now that everyone on the ship has been murdered

it is only Bowman that hears the final message.

Floyd tells Bowman that a mysterious monolith was discovered on the surface

the moon. This monolith emitted a signal that pinpointed the planet Jupiter.

The real mission of the discovery is to find out why this strange monolith

buried by some outside force sent a signal towards the planet Jupiter.

The four million year old black monolith has remained completely inert.

Its origin and purpose still a total mystery.

Before going on to the final sequence in the film, it is necessary to stop for a

moment and explain where Kubrick is going with all of this and why.

It is extremely important to know that nothing is wasted. Everything is thought

out to the final frame.

He's trying to tell us something with this strange association of images from

our history and from our future.

In the first sequence, we meet the group of ape men. They are gentle vegetarians

who are transformed by the monolith, the single black stone, into tool users who

conquer and kill.

Kubrick undeniably wants us to realize that these decisions are being made

elsewhere. He also wants us to know that the monolith represents these forces.

Superficially, he is telling us that the monolith is not a great and

compassionate guide because it was the cause of the first murders.

On a deeper level, though, he is also saying that the gift of the stone is a

very great spiritual and evolutionary event.

Kubrick is not going to let us get away with a black and white view of history

here. He is telling us that there is a strange juxtaposition going on.

We have outside intervention that causes us to shed the limited view of reality,

but this shedding also increases our capacity for violence and control.

How can this be?

How can a great spiritual and evolutionary leap forward also be the

murder and violence?

Isn't that diametrically opposed?

No, says Kubrick. One must go hand in hand with the other.

Great transformations cannot take place without violence, death, and even total

disaster the human race must go to hell before it can even begin to understand

the might of the gods and so our introduction to a wide reality inspired

monolith and realized through the making of weapons immediately turns the ape

man with a bone into a spaceman with a rocket ship the spinning circular space

station in the sequence immediately after the first chapter is a celebration

the gift of the monolith

Apparently, according to Kubrick, there have been no further encounters with the

monolith in the intervening four million years.

All of the technology that graces the screen is the direct result of that

encounter all those years ago. That bone, held in the hand of a primitive

man, has become a space station.

And because of this fact, that ape man has become emotionless and spiritless.

Somehow, Kubrick is telling us that the two must go hand in hand in order for

the final initiation to take place.

Kubrick knows that initiations are not clean and loving events.

Initiations are unbelievably difficult and dangerous.

Frequently someone gets hurt, or worse, dies.

And so the gamble of the monolith has paid off to a certain degree.

It intervened in our history to teach us about tools.

Now, at the very end of the age, at the very end of the millennium, mankind has

accomplished much.

But at what cost?

Kubrick is content to show us that the cost of this gift is our souls.

Whatever we have gained from the gift of tool making, we have lost just as much

through the slow death of our souls.

As we replace nature with technology, we also replace our souls and our sense of

individuality with a hive -like mentality.

It is also important to note that when the ape man throws the bone up into the

sky, this is the last time that we see any part of nature again for the rest of

the film.

From then on, Kubrick shows us an antiseptic, hospital -like future,

that this is the end of the trail that the bone weapon began four million years

ago.

Chapter 4 begins with the ominous, psychedelic music of Ghigori Ligeti's

Atmospheres. We are in deep space now.

Again, the entire ordeal of the astronaut, Bowman, and what he must have

go through, all alone.

in the depths of space after the death of Poole and the other three astronauts

is dispensed with as not being important.

Bowman is now Odysseus, as the title assumes.

Like Odysseus, Bowman must go as far away from home as possible. He must face

monsters and demons and experience things that he does not understand.

All of this must be done before he can return home.

Earth, or home, is a long way off now.

Bowman is just following orders.

and he must now investigate the strange monolith that is circling Jupiter.

Like Odysseus, Bowman will be transformed by this voyage beyond all

When, and if, he does return, Bowman will be the wisest of all, for he was

one brave enough to enter the waters of eternity and come back home to tell us

about it. As Bowman leaves the Discovery for the final time, Kubrick cuts

straight to a montage of shots of the monolith.

We are on the edge of the Jupiter system.

The discovery is small and a tiny aspect of what we can see on the screen.

The moons of Jupiter, like the moon and sun before, are aligned in a mystical

and awe -inspiring manner.

Monolith appears ominous as it floats among the planet Jupiter and her many

moons. The dance that is now taking place is a majestic, incredible ballet

between the monolith and the celestial bodies of the Jupiter system.

It is interesting to note that Kubrick had originally planned for the planet in

the film to be Saturn, but the special effects department could not make the

rings look realistic enough.

Kubrick had to then abandon Saturn for the easier to create Jupiter.

Without one word being spoken for the rest of the film, Bowman leaves the

Discovery. He begins to travel towards the floating monolith in one of the

pods. Bowman is the man who has traveled further away from the Earth than any

human has ever.

He is alone.

Apparently, Bowman has been chosen by the monolith to be the one who

the final initiation of the human race.

Kubrick consciously has chosen Ligeti's music because it evokes a spiritual,

religious feeling within the listener. He brilliantly juxtapositions the music

with the sacred geometrical alignments of the monolith as it crosses the moons

of Jupiter.

In fact, the very last shot in this sequence is the monolith crossing at a

-degree angle with the moons of Jupiter.

At that moment, the famous light show sequence starts. Now we realize that the

monolith is a gate that allows Bowman to witness the infinite.

He is the first man who has ever experienced the truth of the monolith

it has to offer.

As the monolith gave the ape man new skills, in order to adapt, it can be

assumed that the monolith is still interested in delivering even more

this advanced ape named Bowman.

Bowman first falls through the abyss of geometries and colors.

The universe is passing by at light speed.

Everything has become porous and blended together.

Seven octahedrons, all changing color and form, appear over the sliding

universe.

The core of a distant galaxy explodes.

A sperm cell -like creature searches for something.

An ovary?

A cloud -like embryo is forming into a child.

Now alien worlds fly by.

All of their colors and hues gone wild.

Bowman is experiencing overload, as he looks like he might not be able to

the amount of information that is being given to him. This is humanity's

initiation. Bowman is our representative in this process.

He is the first man through. In this experience of passing through the

or the single stone, Bowman is shamanically transformed by a completely

psychedelic experience.

Real information is being passed to Bowman by the model, and this

experiential and shamanic.

Finally, the scene ends in the strange hotel room. This is the mysterious

that Stanley struggled to shoot.

The setting is a combination of both modern and baroque style.

There is startlingly modern lighting coming up through the floor.

This is no normal hotel room.

The light seems to glow out of the bottom of the scene, causing everything

carry this numinous, incandescent quality.

There are weird voices on the soundtrack that seem like they are laughing at

Bowman. Bowman goes through three series of transformations during this scene.

He gets older with each transformation.

Finally, right after the scene where Bowman breaks the wine glass, the

appears again for the last time.

Bowman is in his bed now, and he is extremely old. He stares at the

the single black stone. It stands like a huge stone book at the foot of his bed.

He raises his hand and points it at the stone monolith.

as if he finally understands.

Slowly, his aged body begins turning into a bright and glorious light.

The light is so intense that, for a brief moment, the viewer can't see what

happening on the bed. But momentarily, something does appear.

It is an embryo with a nearly -born fetus in it.

This is the famous star child.

The star child slowly becomes more in focus.

In the next shot, Kubrick tracks his camera into the very body of the

coming from the direction of the bed.

He is clearly showing us that the star child has entered into and is passing

through the monolith.

In the very next scene, which is the last scene in the movie, the star child

passing the moon and heading towards the earth.

64 squares on the floor of this strange room that Bowman finds himself in.

The 64 squares of the chessboard are also the magic square of Hermes, the

founder of alchemy.

Kubrick was a great chess player, and this last scene is a metaphor, not only

for chess as a game of life, but also the coincidence of the chessboard

the magic number of DNA and the number of hexagrams in the Chinese I Ching,

which is the centerpiece of Chinese alchemy.

Bowman realizes as he lays on his bed at the end of his life that he is involved

in a cosmic chess match against the monolith. When he raises his hand and

it at the monolith, he is acknowledging that he has, in a sense, been checkmated

by the monolith.

In an earlier script, Kubrick and Clark had the Star Child igniting all of the

nuclear weapons that were in orbit around the Earth, thereby ending any

of nuclear war.

Kubrick realized that this ending was too close to the ending of his previous

film, Dr.

Strangelove, and decided against it.

Instead, the Star Child looks down at the Earth as the world riddle theme from

Thus Spoke Zarathustra comes on the soundtrack.

This is the third time that we've heard this theme, and this will be the last

time, in the book.

Based on the screenplay, like Kubrick and Clark, the star child looks at the

earth before him and thinks, there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

So what is this all about, anyway?

The stone is the great impetus for the human race.

At every turn, it comes in and saves the human race from itself.

The first time that it appears, it saves the ape -men from certain extinction.

The second time it appears, it saves the human race from the technological

domination of this age.

Without the intervention of the monolith, this course would lead to

extinction. The third time it appears, it initiates Bowman into a kind of

consciousness.

Bowman has been to the end of the universe and back. He knows that he is

in a prison of his own design, which is the meaning of the last few scenes in

the hotel -like room.

But Bowman's ultimate realization that he is completely trapped is revealed

symbolically by Kubrick with the breaking of the wine glass.

Even after all that he has been through, Bowman still makes mistakes. The wine

glass is like a Zen koan that illuminates the mind in a flash.

His own fallibility thrusts the scene towards its climax as the old man dies

the bed and sees the monolith for the last time.

The great work of the stone is complete. There is now a man, a human, who

understands the greater universe.

This man also understands that he is trapped in a jail that his own

consciousness has designed.

With the realization of his own fallibility, and his own trapped spirit,

finally liberated from the realm of the hotel prison, or the world of illusion.

In that instant, he understands what the book of stone is trying to tell him.

He lifts his hand in a gesture of understanding, and in that moment he is

transformed, without dying, into the star child.

The stone has given Bowman the gifts that the philosopher's stone has always

promised. Bowman has achieved complete gnosis or knowledge, and now he has

become immortal by overcoming physical death and being reborn.

In that moment, he passes through the monolith one last time. The Earth is

of him now, and he will be reborn on that planet.

Bowman will be a new human, just as different from Homo sapiens, as Homo

are different from that ape man who picked up that bone all that time ago.

Nietzsche's ape -to -man -to -Superman theme, from his thus -spoke Zarathustra

essays, is mirrored perfectly by Strauss's music and Kubrick's movie.

Kubrick has evoked the spiritual and physical evolution of our race, and it

been transformed by this magical black stone.

Kubrick uses alchemical allegories throughout the film. The obvious

are the celestial alignments that precede each of the alchemical

in the film.

The second main allegory is that it is a black stone that initiates these

transmutations. Again, this mirrors the alchemist lore about the black stone

causing the transmutation of the alchemist. But there are other hints

just as curious.

Bowman is also a name for the constellation Sagittarius, which is a

bow. This on its own may appear to be uninteresting, but one of the great

alchemical secrets concerns the position of the center of the galaxy.

This point in the sky is found right next to the constellation of

In fact, the Bowman of Sagittarius is shooting his arrow right into the heart

the Milky Way galaxy.

Bowman represents Sagittarius' arrow as it passes through the center of the

galaxy. This is also echoed later in the Beyond the Infinite sequence, where

Bowman witnesses an exploding galaxy.

Also interesting is the use of the Kabbalah in the film.

As said before, there are four great realms within the Tree of Life.

Kubrick reflects these realms with each of the four chapters in 2001.

The first is the earthly realm, represented by Malkuth, which is the

located at the very bottom of the Tree of Life.

This is the realm of the kingdom, or of mankind.

The second realm up in the Tree of Life is that of the moon, or the sephirah

Yesod. The third realm is that of the sun, with a sephirah named Tippereth.

the final realm of the Tree of Life is the ultimate being or consciousness

represented by the sephirah named Keter.

Like all great alchemical works, the film 2001 is broken up into four

The first, the eight -man sequence, is the only episode to take place on Earth.

This would represent the realm of Earth, or Malkuth, according to the Kabbalah.

The second chapter takes place off the Earth with Heywood Floyd going to the

Moon. It finally climaxes on the very surface of the Moon.

This chapter represents Yesod in the Tree of Life, or the Realm of the Moon.

The third chapter, which concerns the mission to Jupiter, is a little more

tricky. In order to understand the Kabbalic significance of this sequence,

important to understand that in the original script by Arthur C. Clarke and

Kubrick, The spacecraft Discovery was headed towards the planet Saturn, not

Jupiter. As stated earlier, Kubrick was forced to switch to Jupiter because the

rings of Saturn proved too difficult to create.

The special effects department could not make them realistic enough.

In the original script, the planet was Saturn.

This is very important because in the Kabbalah, one can switch places between

the Sun, or Tipareth, and Saturn.

In other words, Saturn can be used as a symbolic representation of the sun.

Is it a coincidence that this third chapter, which was originally intended

about a voyage to Saturn, is also about the third realm of the Kabbalah,

Tipareth? When one considers this switch as allowed in the rules of the

Kabbalah, this sequence comes to represent the third realm of the Tree of

The last chapter in this movie concerns the voyage to the infinite. In this

chapter, Bowman experiences a universe far more vast and unbelievable than any

mortal man has ever conceived.

In the final realm of the Kabbalah, the seeker can swim in the ocean of the mind

of God, which is represented by the sephirah named Keter.

This state of awareness is similar to the Samadhi state from the yogic

tradition. This state can be attained only by a very few people.

In the case of this film, the final realm of the tree of life can only be

attained by one man.

and this can be done only with the help of the monolith, or the stone.

Bowman, the furthest out and loneliest person in the universe, is that man.

Interestingly, in the Tree of Life, there is an abyss that lies between

Tipperith and Kether.

This abyss must be crossed by the Initiate before they can successfully

their journey.

This abyss is called Dot in the Kabbalah.

Bowman crosses this abyss during the famous light show sequence.

Colors and the shapes on the screen are shown in such a way as to create a

falling sensation in the viewer.

Kubrick is taking the viewer through the abyss of Dot and into the world of

Keter, where all illusions fail.

Kubrick has brought the viewer of the film through the four realms of the Tree

of Life, all brilliantly evoked in the right pattern, with enough intricate

knowledge of the Kabbalah to give one a long pause for consideration.

It certainly seems that someone was aware of the Kabbalah in the making of

film. and that someone was Stanley Kubrick.

In the end, Kubrick is saying that Bowman has been the lead shaman for

He has passed through the four realms, and now he knows the truth about

existence.

He realizes that life would be completely meaningless if it were not

intervention of the monolith or the black stone.

He realizes that he himself could not be transformed without the assistance of

an outside intelligence.

a god, if you will. This supposedly atheist film director has made the

religious movie.

It single -handedly outdoes all of Hollywood's wooden, superficial homages

the spirit and to religion.

Kubrick takes his religion very seriously, and he conveys that in every

Kubrick has simultaneously taken the viewer through the history of humanity,

through the realms of the tree of life, or the Kabbalah.

He has shown that the transmutation of the human species is created by the

intervention of a single black stone.

He has revealed that this transformation can only take place when certain

magical alignments are happening.

Furthermore, he takes a viewer on a shamanic journey that reveals the great

secret in a hidden way to the viewer.

Kubrick transformed the entire baby boomer generation.

He opened up vistas in the mind for them that had never been seen before.

Furthermore, he gave an important spiritual context to his visions so that

made sense instead of just being mindless hallucinations and visions that

nowhere. Almost everyone sensed that the movie was saying something of immense

importance.

Finally, we get to Kubrick's ultimate trick.

He proves that he knows exactly what he is doing with this trick.

His secret is in plain sight.

First, one must remember that every time the monolith appears in the film, there

is a strange, beautiful celestial alignment occurring.

And one must also remember that every celestial alignment in the film is

followed by a visit from the monolith.

That is, except for one.

And that would be the lunar eclipse that occurs at the very beginning of the

film.

So the question arises.

If we are to stay within the rules that are prescribed in the rest of the film,

where is the monolith that is supposed to follow that very first alignment?

The monolith on the screen doesn't show up for 10 more minutes after that first

celestial alignment.

So what gives here?

Is Kubrick just showing off his incredible special effects?

Is this first celestial alignment just there to impress the viewer from the

beginning?

These things may very well be true, but this ultimate trick of Kubrick's is

embedded in the idea that the monolith must appear after every one of these

magical alignments.

Once again, the secret of the film is completely revealed from the beginning.

There is a monolith that appears right after the opening sequence with the

magical lunar eclipse.

But where is it?

It is right in front of the viewer's eyes.

The film is the monolith.

In a secret that seems to have never been seen by anyone, the monolith in the

film has the same exact dimensions as the movie screen on which 2001 was

projected.

Completely hidden from critic and fan alike, until now, is the fact that

consciously designed his film to be the monolith.

the stone that transforms.

Like the monolith, the film projects images into our heads that makes us

consider wider possibilities and ideas.

Like the monolith, the film ultimately presents an initiation, not just of the

actor on the screen, but also of the audience viewing the film.

This is Kubrick's ultimate trick.

He slyly shows us here that he knows what he is doing at every step in the

process. The monolith and the movie are the same thing.

The monolith also represents the cube of space, or the container of creation in

alchemy. The cube of space is the container that holds reality.

The black single stone becomes the container of creation and the alchemical

at the same time. It is, in a way, a cubed brick.

Is this another trick of Stanley's, whose last name, Cubed Brick, mirrors

concept so clearly?

This black stone of creation is also one of the main features in the Islamic

religion, where a black meteorite sits near the Kaaba, or the cube of space, in

the Arabian city of Mecca.

Kubrick has combined these many deeply held spiritual traditions and symbols

refashioned them into the monolith, or stone, that is constructed in the same

dimensions as the movie screen on which it will be projected.

Kubrick completely reveals that he understands the great work.

The monolith represents the philosopher's stone, the book of nature,

film that initiates.

Stanley Kubrick has truly made the book of nature into a film.

Using powdered silver nitrates that are then glued onto a strip of plastic and

then projected onto the movie screens of our mind, Kubrick has proven himself to

be the ultimate alchemist artist of the late 20th century.

The greatest works of art are trying to achieve exactly what Kubrick is

attempting here.

With the understanding of what 2001 actually sang, Kubrick takes his place

alongside Da Vinci and possibly even Shakespeare as being one of the greatest

artists of all time.

That's fun.

This is a pre -recorded briefing.