WHAT IS NOT SO STRANGE about Dr. Strange?

Last night I went to see the new film 'Doctor Strange'. I enjoyed this film very much. Beyond the great humor and spectacular effects – it also addresses a topic which is very dear to my heart – magic.

-           Warning: spoilers    -

In this film, an egotic, proud and brilliant doctor loses the use of his hands in an accident. Having lost his career and his sense of identity he desperately looks for a way to heal himself – and so he discovers a master who initiates him in the secret arts of mystical magic.

While this issue may be considered by most as being just a fantasy – we must realize that all along human history we always called ‘magic’ things which we could not yet understand. For example – if we would go back in time to the Middle Ages and show those people a smartphone – they are sure to consider it an object of witchcraft, and us as sorcerers – which may end up quite bad for us since usually these would be thrown to a bonfire.

There is so much which we do not understand. There is so much that we do not yet know about the Universe. Medical science still cannot explain neither what defines life, what actually happens in the moment of Death, nor can it explain many cases of miraculous healing. Modern physics is still far from explaining many phenomena of the physical universe, such as how come that the Universe seems to be expanding in an accelerated manner. Since there is much we do not yet know – it is foolish and arrogant to consider that certain things do not exist just because we do not understand them yet.

In this film, Dr. Strange learns to access energies which reside in layers of the universe which are deeper than the physical level, learns to become aware of his ‘astral body’, learns to access parallel dimensions and more. As spectacular as these things sound – they are not the invention of a Hollywood screenwriter. These notions have been explored since thousands of years by many ancient traditions of the planet. In these forgotten times, wise men and women had a much more intimate knowledge of the Human Technology – being very aware of all the potential which we use. In comparison – today we use a very superficial part of our Human Technology and only little of our inborn potential.

Many of the ‘magical’ things described in this film are a matter of daily experience for practitioners of Yoga and Tantra who consciously explore their natural potentials – for the sake of transforming themselves to be in perfect harmony with the Universe. In fact, the film stops far short of the truly ‘magical’ transformations which a practitioner goes through – such as the experience of loving so intensely, so deeply and so consciously that the human love between the man and a woman expands to embrace the whole world and then becomes Cosmic, catapulting the practitioner to a state where he or she can come to touch the face of the Creator.

But – not all is good at all about this film – about this we will comment in the next post: WHAT IS VERY STRANGE about Dr.Strange!