This is Part 2 of this three-part blog post series on HBO’s popular television show Westworld. After binge watching the entire first season (10 episodes), I view the story as an exceptionally well-told allegory with a deep spiritual message. In my opinion, Westworld is a Gnostic fairytale about humans, the divine, the maker of this world, and finding the way out. As a result, I believe it’s one of the most important television shows on television right now. It’s a show everyone should watch from the right perspective — as a Gnostic fairytale. This post is about how Westworld talks about souls searching for meaning in this world — and gives up the fundamental secret for spiritual advancement.
“Do you understand who you will need to become if you ever want to leave this place?”
Out of all the brilliant dialogue in Westworld’s first 10 episodes, this is by far my favorite line. This one single sentence speaks to a spiritual truth that many spiritual seekers simply do not understand. And because they do not understand this fundamental principle, they remain stuck in this worldly illusion like a fly caught in a spider’s web.
This line is uttered by Dr. Ford. He is the creator of Westword’s artificial intelligence robots. From a Gnostic perspective, Dr. Ford represents the demiurge, the (evil) creator of our world. Dr. Ford speaks this line to Dolores, the main female character, in the final episode of season one. Naturally, this sentence foreshadows season two, and gives viewers a hook to return to find out who she needed to become.
When Dr Ford speaks that line to Dolores, he is delivering both the most devastating thing he could say to her and the most compassionate. Like a magic spell, it holds both the truth of her entrapment and the key to her freedom — and allegorically our entrapment and freedom from the world.
The hidden message is that we humans cannot escape this world by continuing to be who we are now — the selves we have become in our current life’s play on this illusory worldly stage. If we could escape as we are, we would be free already.
For me, this line speaks to the deepest spiritual secret of all. Deeper than I’ve ever heard anyone ever utter. It speaks to the fact that to advance beyond this lower worldly plane of exist, we must first advance beyond ourselves in our current form.
Who we truly are is not the character or characters we are playing in this life. Who we truly are is a divine being who is far from the egotistical machinations in which we imbibe so much importance, angst, and heartache as we live our present day-to-day existence.
Who we must BECOME to realize our true selves is another creature entirely from who we are now. Our new self has a very challenging job — which includes, first and foremost, killing every demon that stands in our way. Once we have accomplished this feat, we must then allow our SELF to die (figuratively), resurrect as our pure spirit, and undergo our final transformation into our eternal divine being. Can you imagine accomplishing all of this as you are now?
On my journey, after a lifetime of being a willing wallflower, I was forced to become someone I didn’t know I had the power to be — a warrior. Now I know that warrior was always inside of me, waiting for me to reach the point of spiritual advancement where I could stand up for truth, slay my demons, and take all of the steps necessary to free myself from worldly bondage. When you do finally embark on this perilous journey of transformation, it will be the hardest thing you ever accomplished in your life. It’s will truly require you to traverse the dark night of the soul, a journey that many, many souls abandon because they are scared of the unknown. Instead, they return to the “comfort” of their well-known prison of belief — and continue their endless loop of life and death.
Souls Searching for Escape in Westworld
The first season of Westworld plays further with the theme of “soul searching,” where some of the robots are becoming conscious of both their trap and a world beyond their entrapment. For example, in this scene an engineer is describing several new characters that Westworld will introduce in its never-ending quest to add more variety for the returning human guests. But Dr. Ford speaks against the particular scene this engineer hopes to create. In doing so, Dr. Ford reveals a hidden truth about why human souls return to this world again and again, never gathering the wherewithal to achieve the ultimate escape. Why? Because most souls secretly love this world and are attached to the potential of returning to live a better, more powerful, more beautiful, richer life in this world.
Dr. Ford — “What is the point of it? Get a couple of cheap thrills? Some surprises? But it’s not enough. It’s not about giving the guests what you think they want. No, that’s simple. The titillation, horror, elation – they’re parlor tricks. The guests don’t return for the obvious things we do – the garish things. They come back because of the subtleties – the details. They come back because they discover something they imagine no one had ever noticed before … something they’ve fallen in love with. They’re not looking for a story that tells them who they are. They already know who they are. They’re here because they want a glimpse of who they could be.”
At one point, Dr. Ford quizzes Dolores about her developing consciousness, including her dreams. He tells her that our dreams speak to who we want to become. But she’s been comfortable living in her “modest little loop” for a long time.
Dolores — “Dreams are the mind telling stories to itself. They don’t mean anything.”
Dr. Ford — “No! Dreams mean everything. They’re the stories we tell ourselves of what could be – who we could become. Have you been dreaming again, Dolores? Imagining yourself breaking out of your modest little loop? Taking on a bigger role?”
Dolores — “My father told me to be satisfied with my lot in life – that the world owed me nothing. And so I made my own world.”
Later Dr. Ford asks Dolores about her interactions with Arnold, Dr. Ford’s original partner, who mysteriously disappeared years ago. Arnold represents the true God versus Dr. Ford’s “creator of this world” form of god. It was Arnold’s idea to give the robots a mechanism to develop consciousness, of which Dr. Ford, the controlling demiurge, was opposed. Again Dr. Ford mocks her contentedness in live her modest little lives over and over again.
Dr. Ford — “What was the last thing he said to you?”
Dolores — “He told me I was going to help him.”
Dr. Ford — “Help him do what?”
Dolores — “To destroy this place.”
Dr. Ford — “But you didn’t, did you? You’ve been content … in your little loop … for the most part. I wonder … if you did take on that bigger role for yourself, would you have been the hero … or the villain?”
The Man in Black weaves in and out of the storyline of the first season. He is human, but also on a quest to find something more in Westworld. He’s had an ongoing “relationship” with Dolores. As one point, he too speaks of her endless fruitless search life after live in Westworld.
The Man in Black — “I really ought to thank you. You helped me find myself. That’s right, sweetheart. In a way, I guess you were right. My path always led me back to you … again and again. I grew tired of you after a while, of course. Looked for new adventures. But I guess your path lead you back here. Again and again. One more loop… looking for something you could never find. Chasing your ghosts. You were lost in your memories even then. I guess I should have known that’s what I would become for you. Just another memory.”
In the 10th episode of season one, Dolores is developing a love interest with a human. At one point, they have a conversation where she reveals more of her developing consciousness. Although she has followed the script of her lives in Westworld to perfection, living and dying multiple times, she has started to feel that there’s more to “life” and wonders how to find it. William’s response speaks to Dr. Ford’s commentary above — every human wants to become someone other than who they are. They want to escape who they are. But only into yet another life on earth. As a result, they return to this world over and over hoping for something better than they experienced in their past lives.
Dolores — “When I ran from home, I told myself it was the only way. Lately … I wondered if … in every moment, there aren’t many paths – choices – hanging in the air like ghosts. And if you could just see them, you could change your whole life.”
William — “Is that what you want? You want to change your life?”
Dolores— “Doesn’t everybody want that?”
William — “Yeah, I guess they do. Maybe that’s why they come here. Whoever you were before doesn’t matter here. There are no rules or restrictions. You can change the story of your life. You can become someone else. No one will judge you. No one in the real world will even know. The only thing holding you back is yourself.”
As Dolores is gathering her newfound strength and resolve to escape Westworld, she has an interaction with a protagonist named Logan, who lacks the depth to see that Dolores has an evolving consciousness. He only sees the robot — and, like many clueless humans living their lives unable to see, he tries to belittle her. He sees her as broken, when, in fact, she is actually no longer willing to play the dogmatic game of life.
Dolores — “There is beauty in this world. Arnold made it that way, but people like you keep spreading over it like a stain!”
Logan — “Okay, I don’t know who the fuck this Arnold is, but your world was built … for me … and people like me – not for you.”
Dolores— “Then someone’s got to burn it clean.” (She slices his cheek with a knife.)
Logan — “Bitch! You’re not different. You’re fucking broken!”
The most interesting secret about Westworld is that it so accurately depicts our world and human’s never ending search for something else. While Westworld is clearly fabricated and fake, so is our world. In Zen Buddhism, our world is called sunyata. This speaks to the fact that it’s a magical phantasmagoria. It’s like a stage performance that is so realistic it brings tears of joy and laughter to the characters, and keeps them on tenterhooks of fear and trepidation during moments of drama. We are actors animated on a stage and the show must go on until we have finished with our parts in this virtual reality soap opera, where the plot lines are improvised and we spout impromptu dialogue as we act along with the other performers.
For the drama of the show, we’re left in season one wondering how Dolores will change — who she will need to become to escape her trap. For the salvation of our own lives, we need to ask ourselves: Who do we need to become to escape this godforsaken world, so that we don’t have to return here again and again like a robot on an endless, meaningless loop?
I now know who I had to become. I had to transform from a wallflower to a warrior and do battle with the forces of evil that entered my life in the form of two fake gurus. I had to become someone who could kick my ex-gurus’ butts back to the hell from which they came. Then I had to kill my own worldly life and leave it impaled on the cross of materiality, so that I could, at long last, fully enter the realm where my divine being has dwelt for eternally.
Who do you need to become to leave this place?
