Introduction[]
I'm back with another blog and today's series is going to be one that I have a weird relationship with, which that being Twin Peaks. This is one of, if not the best shows on television and I figured it would be best to tackle it from a scaling perspective...Cause oh boy does this series have some shit that should not be as powerful as it is
Before I actually do start with this blog, I want to preface that there already is a blog on Twin Peaks and it's scaling but one thing that I personally am not a fan of how robust the blog is and the amount of verbose things that make it a bit hard to understand the verse for some. The thing I'm getting at here is this is not only going to somewhat simplify that but add my own spin on the matter
What is intended to be covered in this blog is just the cosmology itself and some key mechanics that underpin the verse at hand. The biggest takeaway I want from this blog is just how powerful Twin Peaks is in laymen's terms but also just how unique the series is when it comes to scaling (with it being the most difficult verse to scale in my humble opinion). So without further ado, let's grab us a cup of coffee and get into this shit
eM htiW klaW eriF
The Physical World[]
The most obvious place to start is the natural world, the universe in which we inhabit. One of the more interesting things about Twin Peaks is despite how much focus is on the metaphysical places (such as The Black Lodge and the likes), we still have a ton of information for how everything outside of such functions. For example, an in-universe blog made by a man named Bill Hastings called "The Search for the Zone" talks about concepts such as parallel universes and other stuff
“ | There have been a few articles of well-known scientists who admitted they were trying to break thru to a parallel universe, so it’s obvious even hard science is beginning to acknowledge there are indeed parallel universes. In general though science is a very dogmatic field and not open to enquiry. What’s funny is when it’s reported that science has ‘found something that shouldn’t exist’ as if the whole universe is governed by man made laws of physics. Thanks for all your work, Bill...those of us in the community commend and support you! | „ |
~ Doris |
The most obvious thing is that this is clearly what Lynch wanted to include in the series, that there are parallel universes and that our universe is one of many different worlds that exist in the physical realm. You have to remember that this is in-universe, so this even being mentioned is a confirmation of what Lynch's intent was for the series, but this isn't even a one off thing either as the same blog also states the following
“ | Recently I had an experience that can only be explained by the existence of multiple dimensions. It was not a dream of any kind or anything I had experienced in the past. Without going into too much detail, I found myself present…physically present with a close friend who passed in some other ‘space’ or ‘dimension.’ He has been gone for several years but in this elsewhere where I found myself he existed in flesh form. I know this sounds impossible, but it happened, I swear. This has completely changed my concepts of ‘life’ and ‘consciousness' | „ |
~ J. Garvey |
Once more, the intent is quite clear...Twin Peaks runs on the concept of multiverse theory and this is Lynch's way of incorporating said concepts into his work. This is further supported by the fact many things mentioned in this blog are present within the work itself, so it's not just an instance of Lynch going against his own series or just throwing in stuff for the sake of it. One thing that any Lynch fan knows is that EVERYTHING he does has a purpose to it, so it would be out of character and style for this to mean nothing and be disregarded
What's interesting about this is what was stated on the now defunct website called "Grant Chronicles", which actually goes into more elaboration regarding the nature of Twin Peak's physical world and the nature of these "parallel dimensions"
“ | The Universe is based on major 5 dimensions, and is unknown except to a select group of mankind! You are familiar with the first three linear axis of ordinary spatial volume related, x, y, and z of standard math. The fourth is time, which insights are given in the relativity paper. |
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For those who don't understand, Twin Peaks basically hints at the idea that there's infinite amounts of levels within the universe. To be more specific, this seemingly is applying the concept of vibrational mechanics to the series and bringing up the idea of higher dimensional spaces as a means to support this. What this means is that Twin Peaks has infinite higher dimensions, as these "levels" of the universe as ontologically above one another, with the use of "densities" being used denote superiority.
Another thing worth noting is this is a recount of an event in which Major Garland Briggs was abducted by an alien force into some plane of existence. This plane is also described to possess "higher vibrational quality", once again alluding to the idea it's a higher world and also to the concept of vibrations correlating to higher dimensions. The bottom line is our universe isn't alone and that the physical world is composed of infinite layers of existences, with each being ontologically superior due to their vibrational qualities
Even more intriguing is how much this is supported in series too. For example, the physical world is referred to as a "fractal" and is even said to be made of "infinite parts". This originates The Log Lady, aka the closest thing to an omniscient narrator in Twin Peaks, which in itself is explained by her direct contact with the spirit world through her log
“ | I’m on the plane now, in the air, forty minutes east of Spokane. The uncanny penumbra I reported hasn’t left me—I barely slept—but it’s fading as I travel farther east. I don’t know what to make of it. You wanted to know what happened there in that town and region, to these people you knew, whom I feel I’ve come to know now as well. They meant something to you for a reason, I think, beyond just your knowing them, beyond that they were good or interesting people in their own right: because it was all there, in that one town. All of life, cradle to grave, every shade and color of the spectrum, like a fractal, itself made up of infinite parts. The ocean in a drop of water. |
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So yeah, the bottom line is that the physical world is High 1-B when we talk about it's size, as it's basically equitable to an infinite dimensional Hilbert Space where each dimensions are ontologically superior. The term "factual" also supports this being not only in relation to spatial dimensions but also just the fact it's truly infinite but the physical world isn't even close to what the cosmology is and thus we get to the next section
The Lodges[]
This place is the central location for Twin Peaks and is the most known place in the series. The intention of this place is to act as a purgatory, which in itself is home to many malevolent spirits and can only be accessed through unique cases. Funnily enough, it's also opposite to The White Lodge, which despite what little we know of it, we do know one can enter it through various trials in which a soul will be tested to cast aside their impurities and achieve perfection, which will then allow them to enter.
The Red Room[]
Since we know most about The Black Lodge, we'll talk about that, which we can start by mentioning that it what we see of The Black Lodge isn't fully it's extend. What I mean is the place that we see when characters are apparently in The Black Lodge is actually called The Red Room and that in itself is treated as a "waiting room". Despite being merely a room within the larger plane, it's still considered superior to The Physical World and sees the physical world as merely a illusionary veil in which it underlines physical reality. Given it's one step removed from the physical world, this would make it High 1-B+ as it's just a layer above an infinite-dimensional multiverse and completely independent from it
The Black Lodge[]
Now we get into the meat of this blog, which is The Black Lodge itself and it's basically what The Red Room is to physical reality. What I mean by that is The Black Lodge is above even "The Red Room" as it's completely removed from concepts such as time and space, an idea that's hammered in many times across the series
“ | For the past few years, Hastings and his girlfriend—local librarian Ruth Davenport—had been dabbling in speculative esoteric/occult research. Together they authored an amateur blog about their work, which they posted on the Internet. They titled it The Search for the Zone. According to Hastings’s testimony, at some point during their last year together, they claimed to have made contact with a person or entity that identified itself only as “The Major.” They were eventually told they could make personal contact with this individual by entering into some sort of nonphysical or metaphysical dimension. |
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“ | He desperately wanted those coordinates from Briggs. He pursued him across a quarter century, even after an official public finding that the Major had died in that car crash, and he never relented. If Briggs ever came out of hiding—from whatever manner of “space” he was hiding in—prior to appearing in Buckhorn, we have no record of it. |
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“ | What if Jeffries, not unlike Major Briggs a few years later, had gained access to the same system of “portals,” holes in dimensional space that allowed him to disappear and reappear, in places far apart in geographical terms, more or less at will? I’ll take it one step further, Chief: What if these same portals also allowed him to come untethered from time? Wouldn’t that help explain why Briggs hadn’t aged a day in twenty-five years? Could it also explain how Ray Monroe believed that he was receiving instructions from Phillip Jeffries? |
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What this is saying is that The Black Lodge is untethered from space and time entirely, with even calling it a "space" being not fully accurate to what it is. The takeaway here is that The Black Lodge is a realm that is beyond even The Red Room and the physical world, with it also being called "metaphysical" at many points within Lynch's extended material
This isn't even the half of it as the place isn't even really a "place" but nonexistence. We know this to be true as when thrusted into said realm, it's portrayed as him falling into a deep "sea" of nonexistence, which is also namedropped explicitly by The Arm. Even beyond this, The Black Lodge is stated to be "nowhere" and this is something that's reaffirmed many times within the series. Hell, Arm and MIKE even mention The Convenience Store (which is basically just The Black Lodge or another place in it) as "not a real place."
So what one can gather from this is The Black Lodge is more or less a "deeper" level than even The Red Room or Physical Realm, meaning that it should be flat out 1-A as it's transcendent of a infinite higher dimensions and even a location that exists above the aforementioned infinite dimensional physical world
The Meaning of Electricity & Fire[]
To those who's been paying attention to this blog and or knows Twin Peaks, you'd also know that electricity and fire respectively play important roles in the series and the reason they are getting their own section is mainly out of the importance they hold in relation to the above but also because it ties into some cosmological aspects of Twin Peaks. So yeah, this is going to be a trippy section, so fair warning (and keep in mind, it only goes more absurd from here)
The Nature of Electricity[]
One thing I want you guys to not do is think of "electricity" as the standard energy in which we conventionally think of. What David Lynch is going for is something more ethereal and this can be deduced by Lynch's insistent use of "Nikola Tesla", which is apparent in The Search for the Zone. This is important given what Tesla himself subscribed to, which was the theory of the Aether, specifically that a substance permeated the universe and is a medium in which all space was occupant.
“ | According to an adopted theory, every ponderable atom is differentiated from a tenuous fluid, filling all of space merely by spinning motion, as a whirl of water in a calm lake. By being set in movement this fluid, the ether, becomes gross matter. Its movement arrested, the primary substance reverts to its normal state. It appears, then, possible for a man through harnessed energy of the medium and suitable agencies for starting and stopping ether whirls to cause matter to form and disappear. At his command, almost without effort on his part, old worlds would vanish and new ones would spring into being. He could alter the size of this planet, control its seasons, adjust its distance from the sun, guide it on its eternal journey along any path he might choose, through the depths of the universe. He could make planets collide and produce his suns and stars, his heat and light; he could originate matter in all its infinite forms. To cause at will birth and death of matter would be man's grandest deed, which would give him the mastery over physical creation, making him fulfil his ultimate destiny |
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To be more accurate with this, Tesla didn't believe Electricity was Aether itself but more akin to a external agent that imposed movement for it, which causes matter to shift, appearing and disappearing (once again returning back to the the vibrational qualities that was mentioned previously in the blog)
“ | It is reasonable to suppose that earth's electricity is generated by the atoms of which all things are composed. We and our world are not only whirling through space at terrific speeds, but every little atom in the world is whirling, too. Now there is a good reason to believe that the molecules and their atoms are really little worlds that revolve and move in their orbits like stars, causing the ether about them to spin with them, thus generating electricity, or affording the conditions suitable to its generation. |
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This might sound like nonexistence but this idea is supported by the series itself and one of the most damning pieces of evidence for this is once more The Lodge Lady and what she states in regards to the concepts of electricity
“ | The stars turn, and a time presents itself. |
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As you can see, this is clearly explicit example of Lynch following this idea and incorporating metaphysical ideas into his cosmology. This isn't even the only example or key evidences to this idea, we have others such as
- Lodge Spirits manifesting through electricity
- Traveling to The Red Room is accompanied by electric sounds
- Electricity is associated with spirts and The Lodges
- Reality phasing out is once more accompanied by an electric sound
I can go on and on here but the motif is that electricity is something more than just an energy source but akin to an ethereal essence or something that underpins reality and permeates through it. Being able to control electricity is akin to being able to control the physical world, as indicated by Nikola Tesla (which again, is what Twin Peaks is getting their idea from)
The Nature of Fire[]
While electricity might seem like an odd concept, Fire is even more odd within the context of Twin Peaks. Like with electricity, Fire is more than just fire but akin to a metaphysical element of the universe. We know this to be true as Deputy Hawk states that Fire under his faith is not literal flames but akin to a symbol that sows good and evil. What's even more intriguing is we see that Fire can do a multitude of things, such as whenever BOB alters reality, it's depicted as a wave of fire being imposed upon the victim or how about The Arm disappearing in a wave of fire and explosions. This is can also be cemented with Mr.C's corpse being shown to burn whilst electric sounds play. It should be noted that flames likely are related to, if not stand-ins for one's soul, as for example, BOB taking Windom's soul is depicted as BOB taking a literal flame from his body and this is cemented when a dead body's soul also is depicted as a flame leaving it to enter the skies above.
The Mauve Sea[]
Despite not being as touched upon in the narrative, The Mauve Sea (also called Purple Sea) is one of the most important locations in the series. As indicated by the name, the place is depicted as a endless, purple-colored world which is just merely an ocean that stretches' beyond the imagination can see. It's the home residence of "The Fireman" and "Senorita Dido". We first see this place when Agent Cooper is hurled through an infinite expanse of water and end up on the balcony of a mansion
This place is important because it seems to draw from the occultist, Kenneth Grant. We know this to be the case as Twin Peaks touches on his idea of The Atomic Bomb being a significant event in which it was an example of "explosive sciences" and their effects on reality, which comes from his book called Beyond the Mauve Zone. This book is important because in it, he believed in the existence of a fundamentally greater and more vast world in which the true self and essence of all things reside in. Wanna know something funny ? He envisioned this place as a a purple-colored swamp and that's where things fall in place
Now what relevance does this have ? Well, it ties into the meta aspect of Twin Peaks and also the general size of The Mauve Sea. Going back to Lynch himself, he sees Twin Peaks: The Return as merely a movie and this ties into his perspective that movies and stories are akin to "dream worlds".
“ | I like to dive into a dream world that I’ve made, a world I chose and that I have complete control over | „ |
So what can be gathered here is that Twin Peaks in-universe itself is a narrative and The Mauve Sea stands beyond that narrative in itself, as indicated by the fact the episodes are played on a screen and are essentially trivialized to being merely fiction. Hell, Lynch even states that Senorita Dido is beyond the movie itself and when created Laura Palma, she's putting her into the narrative, which both proves that the narrative is a "in-universe" thing and that those part of the sea stand above it's narrative
We can support this further by the fact The Sea is beyond electricity itself (which we established to be the underlying force that defines everything in the narrative), which is proven by Fireman showing Andy an image of the telephone pole that was in front of Carrie's house, meaning that the electricity going out had no effect on the realm and that all of this was within "the movie" of Twin Peaks.
As far as evidence for The Sea being above the narrative, this can be deduced by the meta aspect of The Sea's theme (which is called Interior Home by the Sea) completely drowning out all background noise, as if it were part of the soundtrack itself. Despite this all seemingly random, what this is pointing out is that the sea is above the rest of the narrative to where it takes central focus no matter the scene, whether it be a movie or even a song that is being played in the OST (in other words, it's above the narrative to where nothing supersedes it, not even the soundtrack in moments where it's important to the narrative)
“ | Life is but a dream from which we seem able to only rarely awaken. Whatever it means is beyond words. Words lose their meaning when you look at them too long. "God." "Science." "Meaning." Everything melts into silence. |
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~ The Secret History of Twin Peaks |
“ | I believe all these phenomena that our putted-up egos and busy ant minds persist in trying to label, categorize, penetrate and comprehend, all spring from this same uncanny source. This is the mother of all "others", and were we ever able to set our eyes on its ultimate nature we would find it as foreign, incomprehensible and indifferent to us as ours would be to bacterial microbes swimming in a drop of water. |
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~ The Secret History of Twin Peaks |
“ | “Why am I telling you this?” he went on. “A secret’s only a secret as long as you keep it. Once you tell someone it loses all its power--for good or ill--like that, it’s just another piece of information. But a real mystery can’t be solved, not completely. It’s always just out of reach, like a light around the corner; you might catch a glimpse of what it reveals, feel its warmth, but you can’t know the heart of it, not really. That’s what gives it value: It can’t be cracked, it’s bigger than you and me, bigger than everything we know. Those tight-ass suits can keep their secrets, they don’t add up to anything. This deep in the game, pal, I’ll take mystery every time. Ask your second question.” |
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~ The Secret History of Twin Peaks |
So all of this means that The Sea is above the framework of the verse, aka "The Dream" in which Twin Peak's narrative is. Underneath all the paranormal and supernatural stuff, there is simply otherness that is devoid of words and comprehension, devoid of meaning and any attempt to assign meaning dissolves into silence as a mystery incapable of being expressed
What's interesting is that Lynch also draws from Joseph Campbell's interpretation of a "mystery", which in other words, is a transcendental state in which categories can't be framed or used as descriptor, with it being unrepresented using words or images and is expressed by mythical metaphors and other tropes. This leads us into another and the last fundamental topic to get into
"God"[]
Surprisingly, Twin Peaks doesn't stray from the concept of "God" but it's not the type of god we think of but actually more akin to a uncategorizable force and nature, in fact, "God" is one of the metaphors as described above to describe such forces.
“ | God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being. Those are categories of thought. I mean it's as simple as that. So it depends on how much you want to think about it. Whether it's doing you any good. Whether it is putting you in touch with the mystery that's the ground of your own being. If it isn't, well, it's a lie. So half the people in the world are religious people who think that their metaphors are facts. Those are what we call theists. The other half are people who know that the metaphors are not facts. And so, they're lies. Those are the atheists. |
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~ The Hero's Journey, 2000 |
“ | JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The experience of life. The mind has to do with meaning; in here, what’s the meaning of a flower? That Zen story of the sermon of the Buddha when his whole company was gathered, and he simply lifted a flower. And there’s only one man, Kashyapa, who gave him a sign with his eye that he understood what was said. |
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The images of God are many. Joseph Campbell called them “the masks of eternity,” and said they both cover and reveal the face of glory. All our names and images for God are masks, Campbell said, they signify that ultimate reality, which by definition transcends language and art.
“ | JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The experience of life. The mind has to do with meaning; in here, what’s the meaning of a flower? That Zen story of the sA myth is a mask of God, too, a metaphor for what lies behind the visible world. As teacher, scholar and writer, Joseph Campbell spent his life in the study of comparative religion. He wanted to know what it means that God assumes such different masks in different cultures. We go east of Suez and see people dancing before a bewildering array of fantastic gods. When those people come here, well, Campbell told the story of the young Hindu who called on him in New York and said, “When I visit a foreign country, I like to acquaint myself with its religion. So I bought myself a Bible and for some months now have been reading it from the beginning. But, you know, I can’t find any religion in it.” |
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Now that we've gotten that out the way, we can fully define "God" in the sense that it's a metaphor for a higher and incomprehensible force. An extension of a ultimate mystery that underlies the dream that is Twin Peak itself. This state stands even deeper and is beyond that of The Sea itself, as it's beyond the categories and definitions that could be assigned to it
This isn't everything though because as said before, "God" is just a state and a categorized metaphor to describe something much greater. I could explain but Lynch himself goes into better detail than what I ever could
“ | The word of the LAW is Thelema. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the LAW. Love is the LAW. love under will. |
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What this is saying is that Lynch sees "God", not the metaphor but the true entity as the same concept as "God" as visualized in Thelema. What this means is that "God" in actuality is a boundless space that contains everything, all experiences and is akin to Monad, aka the concept of oneness and everything being simple a division of a perfect oneness that encompasses all things
In fact, "God" is referred to as a "clear light" and that it's basically akin to a void, a "naked, spotless intellect"
“ | Leland, the time has come for you to seek the path. Your soul has set you face-to-face with the clear light, and you are now about to experience it in all its reality, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like a transparent vacuum, without circumference or center. Leland, in this moment, know yourself, and abide in that state… Look to the light, Leland. Find the light. | „ |
What's even more interesting is the use of gold in the series and what it means for the narrative. We see it many times and this is most important with Laura Palmer being created in a golden orb, which seems to suggest that "gold" is a stand-in for souls and ascension (or a spiritual post-mortem). We can deduce this by MIKE creating a Tulpa, symbolizing a new life or the fact that the entrance to Fireman's place is marked by gold substance. That being said, this leads us back to The Fireman and it's connections to "God", with it's home being described as "the deepest wellspring" of a human's being and is correlated with the Log Lady's allusion to a "maker" who is responsible for the creation of the world
“ | There are clues everywhere, all around us. But the puzzle maker is clever. The clues, although surrounding us, are somehow mistaken for something else. And the something else, the wrong interpretation of the clues, we call our world. Our world is a magical smoke screen. How should we interpret the happy song of the meadowlark or the robust flavor of a wild strawberry? | „ |
Even more interesting is the relation Senorita Dido has with this, with it being that she's a nurturing female principle, with The Fireman being the male principal that is meant to symbolize Laura Palmer's "birth". This sounds like nonsense but then we have to return Thelema, specifically Thelemic Love, which is a term that relates to any act of union and integration, where two things are united and create a third thing from the essence. This principal even applies to things like the interaction between atomic particles, with this being relevant all of this hints to the idea that Fireman and Dido are two dichotic aspects of the individual self and creation as a whole, with one being the principal of masculine and the other the nurturing femininity
So yeah, basically Fireman and Dido are "faces" of "God" and "God" in itself is just a manifestation of a "clear light" that simply is the "void" in which everything derives from and is a division of, being merely an imperfection of the infinite "perfection" that is the clear vacuum that encompasses all things and no things at once
What Does This Mean For Tiering[]
- Physical Universe: High 1-B (Contains infinite higher dimensions that have vibrational qualities)
- Red Room: High 1-B+ (Exists on a deeper level and is above the physical world)
- The Black/White Lodge: 1-A (Exists beyond The Red Room and Universe, being completely removed from the concepts of time and space, alongside being a void beyond all things)
- The Mauve Sea: 1-A, likely High 1-A (Exists beyond even The Lodges, being completely beyond the Twin Peaks narrative and also electricity, which underpins the narrative. In addition, it transcends any conceptualization and category, being a pure mystery that is all dimensions and concepts that can even be imposed by entities of the lodge)
- "God": High 1-A (Exists beyond even The Mauve Sea, being transcendent of even the sea and any categories it could impose upon it. All concepts, ideas and the likes dissolve into nothingness upon here due to it being above all descriptors and metaphors that underpin things)
- The Clear Light: High 1-A (Even "God" is a manifestation of this and it's the a spotless void in which all things are one)
Conclusions[]
So, despite all that Twin Peaks manages to be pretty powerful. This took me like several hours to make and I think it paid off considering how much information this packs. I do understand this isn't entirely original but I do think I put a good spin over what VBW did and tried to make it simpler to understand than the blog this was inspired by.
Keep in mind, this isn't the last I'll be talking about Twin Peaks, as I completely skipped over JUDY and the many things associated with her. I felt not to include it given how long this blog is in itself and it doesn't really fit with the purpose anyways (which is to describe key mechanics and mostly the cosmology). So yeah, maybe another time but that's pretty much it