Philosophy and Alchemy in Serial Experiments Lain

I wrote an analysis about the anime for my blog, I won’t share the link because it is in Portuguese (Brazil) and is on the onion network (deepweb).

Here is my contribution, and if anyone reads it and wants to add something or correct it, feel free.

get the popcorn

Philosophy and Alchemy in Serial Experiments Lain

Hello, welcome very much, I initially developed this text as a series of articles aiming to create a podcast (audio), but my time and space led me to the more conventional, writing. Which has a very good side, as through writing, I can better organize ideas and be more detailed. Well, to begin, it’s important to warn that this project contains many spoilers, not only from the anime but even from your life, so I recommend watching the anime first, then reading this… and then watching the anime again. You’ll appreciate it more. In addition to the anime itself, I will also talk about how it inspired me and why I adopted this name.

Although I have already mentioned this in another book. And for those who don’t know, I have always taken to writing; the book is called “The Notebook of Lain.” Here, in this present treatise, we will have greater consistency in the course of the discussions about the adopted name itself. To start, I found it interesting to begin with what we have as material about the anime, its metadata. Okay? Follow along with me!

Layer: 00 — Prologue

SEL is from 1998, initially created as a game for the PSOne console (PSX), but already with the idea of becoming an anime.

To undertake this project, I sought the illustrator’s interview, as well as the game’s gameplay, and reread a thesis called “Wired Protocol 7: A study on Serial” by Lídia Zuin dated 2011. There’s also a oneshot where Lain tries to bring her stuffed dog to life…

And, finally, I watched the anime for the fourteenth time. How many times could you watch the same anime… with its 13 episodes? Each one averaging 23 minutes, excluding the opening and ending credits. That’s almost 5 hours of anime. Correct?

In this 22-year period, thanks to this project, I completed my 70 hours of Lain. Plus, a gameplay of 1 hour. Yes, I watched it all. So, in my mind, I have a PhD in Lain. Haha.

This time, I watched the anime pausing to take notes, which consumed more time than planned. Are you excited yet? Huh?

Well, my child, what you’ll have in this book is not a presentation, nor a critical analysis of the work, which would fall far short of what’s necessary. What I deliver here is a hermetic initiation!

I had to take many notes to avoid getting lost, and often digress from the subject for better explanation and approach to interpretative possibilities. Please forgive the long digressions; I promise you won’t be bored.

I also don’t know how much time we have for this project. I hate things that stretch to buy time, stall (filler). But, on the other hand, when I get into a subject I really like, I fall into an infinite loop of possibilities. So, you’re lucky I chose to write everything instead of doing it live on a podcast. :)

Before we start, another warning, beyond the work’s spoiler: There are things it’s better not to know. And that’s why some people don’t understand Lain because their minds want to protect them, so it confuses, deceives, treats many of its aspects as fictional, and fictional aspects as real.

To help maintain your sanity, I usually don’t assert things; I usually use the preposition “WHAT IF”…

What if it’s true? What if it’s real…? etcetera. Deep down, I get agitated and saddened because you can’t see reality. But as the episodes progress, it will be harder to use this preposition.

Curiosity: Serial Experiments Lain was the original name, with the protagonist’s name Rain, which means “Rain” in English. But the difficulty the Japanese have with R and L turned it into Lain, which is an uncommon English name… I believe because it resembles “liar.”

Another curiosity: The English translation was not faithful. There are alchemical terms, for example, homunculus, which was translated to “artificial human.” And to make matters worse in the Portuguese translation… they failed miserably. Grotesque, right from the start with Chisa’s suicide. She states that she killed herself because “God is here.” And the Brazilian translation changed it to “God is not here.” Which, for the narrative of the work, left it very confusing. I believe it’s on purpose; people try to soften things. And because of that, it ruins the work. It’s more common than it seems, books, cartoons, movies. When it’s something original, that deviates from the norm, there are always distortions, either due to lack of information or out of fear, ideology, among other reasons. And just to be clear, the Brazilian dubbing is excellent; I’m criticizing the translation.

Another example: Once I was watching Doctor Who, and in some future, there’s a dialogue between the Doctor and a priest/soldier, and in the dialogue, the Doctor mentions that the ancient civilization of that region had two heads and married themselves. And he praised freedom and such, then he says to the priest/soldier something like “no offense.” In the original, he responds that he doesn’t care. In the Brazilian dubbing, he gets “deeply offended”… (I didn’t follow the English dubbing)

In Doctor Who, there’s a lot of that, actually. In Lain… I didn’t get past the first episode.

Let’s start! …And I have some very bad news right away.

It’s good that we make an ascent from darkness to light, right? Well! The series director passed away (died, if you prefer).

The Lain series (produced by the Triangle Staff studio) was conceived by three people: Yoshitoshi ABe, character illustrator, Chiaki J. Konaka, creator of scenarios and scripts, and Ryutaro Nakamura, director. The latter passed away in 2013 when the three had finally reunited for a new project called Despera, which would be a steampunk fiction, referred to by fans as the “Serial Experiment’s Lain 2” from the triad. The other two members tried to continue, but unfortunately, rumors about the project also faded away. Chiaki is responsible for the script for both Lain and Despera. So there’s still hope… distant, but there is.

Don’t be sad, not now. You’ll have a new opportunity later. Save your tears for the shock of reality. Haha

About Ryūtarō Nakamura: he passed away due to pancreatic cancer. He has an extensive list of animations in which he was part of as a director; you may know some of his works, such as Lupin III, Popolocrois the game, Love Hina, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

About Chiaki J. Konaka: He worked on Armitage III, Digimon, Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, where he composed scenarios and scripts. Hellsing, Ghost Hound, also in Cthulhu’s Strange Record… the list is also gigantic.

I suspect he is the disturbed mind behind all this.

But it’s not clear who the creator of Lain is; no one takes full responsibility.

In addition, we have the soundtrack:

Opening theme Duvet Sung and composed by: Bôa — British band, not the singer. Lyrics by: Jasmine Rodgers

Ending theme Tooi Sakebi Sung by: Nakaido Rei´ichi

I found it important to mention because they were made for the project and fit perfectly.

Now, a bit about Yoshitoshi Abe’s interview: a professor at a university, manga artist, and scriptwriter.

Well, I watched the interview more because I like to draw and wanted to know more about his techniques than because of Lain.

And it was very cool; he talks to us about the relationships of photography, the observation and contemplation that his work as an illustrator requires. And he reveals that he has great difficulties with photography, that drawing and photography are opposite techniques. Which was very interesting to me as an artist. He says, “Illustration begins with observation, where you imagine how the subject moves to build a composition; in photography, it’s the photographer who moves around the subject to compose it.”

In the interview, he thanks his friends who helped him, giving him many opportunities, and demonstrates the traditional Japanese reserve and even a certain professional humility.

I say this so that you contextualize yourself about the kind of people involved in this project. Probably, this doesn’t interest you now. But that will change by the end of this book.

Yoshitoshi was invited by Mr. Ueda for the Lain project, which was not yet an anime but a game for the Playstation.

His job was to create the characters, based on the story, explaining the visual characteristics of each one (briefing). And Lain’s character was composed and accepted in the first presentation. Which surprised Yoshitoshi. Like — They told him: “keep it up.”

Lain (especially the game) became quite a dark project, and to alleviate the tension, and not let people get depressed, they proposed to Abe and the team to alternate with another much lighter project, NieA Under 7, a comedy manga, quite picturesque.

Then he went on to the anime Haibane Renmei, which is also very cool; it’s shoujo. But if you see (or have already seen), you’ll notice tense parts that those who watched Lain will find quite familiar, beyond the stroke. The narrative itself. Even though the story has nothing to do, a bit of Lain dripped into this work.

About the game Confusing is the best way to describe it. I’ve never seen anything like it. In the game, you must organize memories, flashes of memories; recollections, events, which are like cuts from an anime. And progress through the story. Lain organizes everything; you assist her. In the end, you put it all together and get a sort of OVA of the anime.

Original Video Animation The OVA usually comes out after the anime, drawing elements closer to the original text, usually the manga, but it can be a book. The game is darker and more disturbing. It’s almost always raining. Rain, right? In the game, Lain experiments with things, like controlling people’s minds, and gathering information… connecting with people. The game starts in a psychiatric consultation… and the game’s mechanics are like a diary.

Lain actually keeps a diary to aid in her treatment. Oh! And it even shows the stuffed dog that is the focus of the oneshot. Where she tries to give it life. The psychiatrist mentions Savant syndrome (or wise syndrome), common in autistics… the person has great genius in one area but has problems interpreting information. Like a computer, it calculates, knows the laws of physics and such, but struggles with questioning and interpretation. Well, Lain’s life is different from the anime; the mother remains distant, the father sometimes gets drunk and beats them, there are comments about divorce. In the game, Lain is an ordinary person… at least not very clear, just with psychiatric problems. So she tests things, gathers information… cuts herself, says the body hinders. Tries to build a robot.

Gives up on everything and destroys the creature (robot) that feels pain. And yes, it’s bizarre. I found the setting interesting; she fixes up an abandoned industrial warehouse to set up a lab there. After she kills people, urges suicides, astrally invades houses, and kills people again, finally another version of her appears to her one rainy night, on a bridge, and tells her that everything is ready, they smile… she uses the term “it’s over,” the other responds that no, it’s just the beginning. And finishes with “From now on, we will always be together.” They seem happy, smiling. Lain takes a gun from the shopping bag, puts it in her mouth, trembles, hesitates, but… fires. End of the game? Negative, now we are starting the game, and we go to the main menu, where Lain is this absolute entity. And you have access to all the videos and audios of the game. Then there are the credits, and at the end, there’s a teddy bear with claws running around. And it’s over.

The game has little information that deviates from the script, unlike the anime. But for Japanese society, which has a monstrous history of suicide… it’s quite heavy. The game frequently brings messages of feeling unwell, requests to feel better, and then comes a death or suicide. Game review I found it complicated, this part about liberation and such. As an original, alternative work, I found it truly incredible. But it became very clear that it goes to the point of encouraging suicide as if it were something good. The anime deals with the theme more carefully. But there are no shortages of rumors that in Japan, both the game and the anime led many people to suicide, mostly teenagers.

I don’t recommend you play, also because it’s in Japanese, it was only released there. And because it has nothing more to add, it stays in this discussion of searching to understand life, and death as the solution. I imagine the damage it would have done during the time of the Blue Whale. Fortunately, they didn’t include it in the catalog. When we get into this theme in the anime, I’ll bring more information about life and death. Anyway, I read other documents on the internet, which talked about marketing relationships of the time, curiosities about computers, logos of companies. And other documents like a thesis, which is very good (I can’t mention the person’s name here, but it’s not hard to find). However, it stays more in the cultural, everyday part, like influences and how it influenced society and other works. I will refrain from these subjects that everyone is tired of seeing on blogs and YouTubers.

I did this project because I felt that there was a lack of analysis from a more psychological and spiritual (occult) point of view. And it’s not that I have a background in this, but I have always liked the subject a lot, so many elements in the anime were intuitive to me, whereas for many people, they went unnoticed. And that’s what I want to explore here. So, saying that I bring news about an anime from 20 years ago. And yes, I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I never did it because of a lack of time and the care and attention with which I wanted to treat this work. But there’s a Lain inside my head that won’t leave me alone until I do it. …She said she’ll never leave me alone. So be it! And finally, let’s get into the anime! Yes, that was the introduction. Are you comfortable there?

Bibliographic Data or something like that
Gameplayer
Interview Yoshitoshi ABe

Layer: 01 — Weird

It’s interesting to note that the opening and ending music fit perfectly. The lyrics provide a good introduction to what will come.

Well, in the first episode, we have one of the most serious points in Japanese culture, as it involves suicide, and suicide in Japan is something “cultural”. A terrible element, yes, but it is embedded in its history, dating back to feudal Japan. Where else did a ritual suicide for honor exist? Hara-kiri (or Seppuku), where honor was cleansed through a meticulously rehearsed death. The ritual was as follows: The practitioner opened the stomach with a dagger, and an assistant then cut off their head. And it even had witnesses.

Later, in World War II, there were the kamikazes, soldiers dedicated to the empire, making a one-way trip against enemies. And those who couldn’t kill themselves felt shame for the failure. I saw an interview with an elderly man who lived in São Paulo, and when he was young, he participated in the war, but his plane crashed into the sea, and he survived. For many years, he felt shame. He said that only after moving to Brazil did he reflect more on life and overcome the trauma of having stayed alive. If you can understand this, you are reading the right book. Welcome. :)

Nowadays, they still have this taboo. In Japan, they do things like putting blue lights in subway corridors because they calm people down; the idea was to reduce the number of suicides there. So, it’s a serious problem.

And beyond this problem, the predominant religion is Buddhism, which is very good; I really like Buddhism. But there is a branch that says there is no problem in killing oneself, and some go further, saying that if you are totally at peace, in harmony, you could have a virtuous suicide, but you probably wouldn’t wish for it. It’s quite complex, considering that in Eastern culture, they believe in reincarnation, so suicide would be a reset, a new beginning. And when you achieve Enlightenment, like Buddha, you no longer need to reincarnate, basically that’s it.

So, despite the sadness it causes, despite the efforts of authorities… Suicide is a cultural fact, meaning it is part of the customs and history of the people.

Oh! I almost forgot, the Suicide Manual is Japanese… Yes, there is a book with this title.

Okay, I just wanted to contextualize you about Japan’s situation regarding suicide.

In the anime, when Chisa goes up on the building to jump, it is, right away, the first time we see shadows sprinkled with blood. For me, this reveals a duality in the universe because no matter where you go, there is and coexists in that same place something hidden, dark, soaked in blood. And sometimes you awaken to this place and see it. But of course, it’s a metaphor; it’s not dark, but hidden, it’s not blood but torments and life itself.

Later on, this becomes clearer.

People laugh at her (Chisa); she goes up and says the fateful words: — I don’t need to stay in a place like this. The words are not audible; we follow them in the weird network, archived on the internet, right? Here enters another central point of the work, the internet, which is like an ocean of information that people access with electronic devices. But some believe it’s possible to extrapolate and connect their minds directly.

I won’t go into details now, but this is inspired by some real-world Initiatic Orders, and not a simple fictional allegory by the author.

So, a portrait of society is painted, with the girl’s body on the ground, no one knows, no one saw, some surprised, others wanting to escape the scene because they were with a prostitute and such.

…Normal.

Then we follow Lain, in her first appearance, leaving home for school, taking the train, and starting to hear voices. It’s the first strange disturbance, usually manifested in schizophrenics. In parapsychology, it would be telepathy, the ability of one mind to communicate with another, and in spiritualism (of which I am a sympathizer, and you will read a lot about me discussing this here)… Well, in spiritualism, this is a mediumistic ability, that is, communication between spirits. When it is between living people, it is called anímica, and when it is between the deceased (or dead), we call it mediumistic.

Upon arriving at school, she stops and sees her shadow transform into something fluidic; shortly after, everything around her turns white and disappears. This effect is also described by some schizophrenics and, once again, in some cultures and religions where people enter a trance. Basically, she doesn’t even know how she got to the classroom; this is left suspended in the plot. But a person in a trance does things they don’t remember.

Next, there’s another message inviting to suicide… those colorful, semi-translucent messages come from the Wired in this case, or the spiritual or astral world, if you prefer.

Now, Lain is in her class, and a girl is crying. Juri received an email from Chisa after she died. We are also introduced to Lain’s limited knowledge; she doesn’t even use email, doesn’t deal with computers or anything.

It’s important to emphasize this because we follow Lain on her Initiation path, as it would be an initiation into the mysteries revealed only in secret orders, such as Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Priory of Sion, Martinism, among others. The anime will guide you on this journey, starting with death, as you well noticed, right?

In alchemy, we have what is defined as The Great Work, in which the adept must go through three operations.

Actually, there is some interpretation as to whether it is four steps or three, and most of what you will find on the internet is fragmented. But it’s on purpose.

The first phase is the black way, or Nigredo, death, darkness, density. It concerns mainly the death of ignorance that the material world sustains, this illusion. Celtic culture calls it ‘mayah,’ the Orientals, as in Buddhism, say that when you can detach yourself from the illusion of the world, you leave ‘sansara,’ the wheel of incarnations. Illusions in this sense are: love, hate, attachment, suffering, vanity, in short, selfishness. And we Westerners call it reality. lol

Chisa’s character took it literally and committed suicide, seeking God. Which is not far from the reality we live in. There are many reports of people killing themselves, either out of madness or to seek the divine. That’s why it’s so challenging to delve into occult studies without guidance, without someone to guide you. If it’s just with books, you run a great risk.

The second phase, Albedo, the white way, is purification, innocence, naivety, it is the process of knowledge and self-knowledge. The search for the philosopher’s stone.

And the third and last, Rubedo, the red way. It is the actual making of the philosopher’s stone, the alchemical marriage. But, wait, we’ll get there.

Let’s go back to the anime.

After the dialogue that explains Chisa’s email, the class continues, and Lain struggles to read the board. Smoke begins to emanate from the tips of her fingers. Once again, this is a visual effect described by some schizophrenics and, yes, by some mediums.

Any religion that customarily involves laying hands in prayer, seeking to help others, has this effect described, whether it’s just a sensation or even seeing this “smoke.” In spiritualism, it is studied and called ectoplasm, which is also studied by science and parapsychology. It more frequently emerges from orifices such as the mouth, ears, and eyes, but also from the hands.

Note: Yes, you’ll get tired of seeing me make these comparisons.

And… What does it feel like to die? — Someone asks Chisa… probably.

The answer is “- it hurts a lot! :)” I believe it’s an attempt to lighten the subject. Because dying… is absence. All suffering comes before death when the brain still responds to impulses. But here in the anime, unlike the game, they try, with praise, to lighten the situation. The pain of death, in the spiritist (Kardecist) conception, is more related to attachment and lamentation for a poorly managed life, regrets, to put it better.

Well, from the game to the anime, I can say they have different audiences, the anime being much more extensive.

Well, Lain gets home and curiously receives an email from Chisa too. But she’s not scared, just curious.

The email tends to want to confirm it’s not fake, talking about prophecies… so Lain asks: — Why did you kill yourself?

And the email, which shouldn’t respond because it’s not a chat, answers: — because God is here.

This point is very important; remember we’re talking about an Initiation (mystical). And, to begin with, I shouldn’t even be writing about this.

Note that Lain didn’t care that an email responded; on the contrary, it was natural. What she didn’t understand was the message itself. “What do you mean, God is here?” She didn’t doubt that it was Chisa, and she didn’t care that technology was doing something it wasn’t programmed to do. And shortly after, you see that in Japan, they study C++ in school (it appears on the class board, and Taro explains about assembling a PC Navi found in the schoolbook). So she knew that there was a lot wrong there, physically speaking.

But, for a person who is ready for initiation, only the right questions matter.

I am sure that after this study we are doing, there will be more questions than answers. There is still a lot of confusing stuff to see; there are things that won’t be possible to explain. But my stubbornness will try.

It may seem like I’m forcing some interpretations… But as we go along, it will make sense. Probably, if you’re really interested, you’ll read this again and watch the anime again. It’s natural… well, let’s continue.

Lain’s father is a very nice guy, unlike his game version, where he is only mentioned, practically. Here, he has a concept that says: — Whether in the real world or the Wired, people need to be connected; that’s how society works.

We will return to this concept shortly; he is not entirely wrong.

So her father asks her, why the sudden interest in the Wired, to which Lain responds that she wants to find a friend.

In fact, what she wants is answers. She wasn’t that close to Chisa; they barely knew each other.

So we have the second step of initiation. Do not confuse it with the Alchemical Ways.

The first step is to be prepared, ignore the trivialities of the world, and focus on the right questions.

The second is the search. Wanting answers.

I will return to the first step to make it very clear: — I once saw a Bruce Lee movie where he taught a young man, saying: — Kung-fu is like a finger pointing at the moon, and the boy looks at his finger. Then he pushes the boy’s head and says: — The finger doesn’t matter; it matters to observe the moon.

So here we have the same thing. It doesn’t matter that a dead person is talking in real-time via email, but rather the question… “What do you mean, God is here?”

Furthermore, I will make a huge parenthesis now, okay?

It’s just a footnote that we can explore further later. At the moment, it will be mere curiosity, okay?

Chico Xavier (Brazilian medium) gave an interview in 1971 on a Rio de Janeiro program called “Pinga Fogo.” It’s on YouTube. He covers various controversial topics, including politics, sexuality/homosexuality, aliens, among others — it’s quite interesting. But what concerns us here is about technology. He says that if, after 50 years since man landed on the moon, there is no massive extermination war (nuclear war), then there would be difficult times, but everything would soon improve. People would have glass domes with plants on the moon, and around the year 2050, a technology would be “discovered,” he says, similar to television, with the ability to communicate with the dead.

This is not a prophecy. According to Chico, it was a determination where cosmic leaders decided so, and his spiritual mentor (Emanuel) witnessed this meeting as an observer. And he transmitted these matters to him.

Well, this was in 1971, and in 2019, 50 years after man landed on the moon (which was in 1969), the Chinese planted on the moon; check out the Chinese Chang’e-4 operation. And fortunately, we didn’t have a third world war (which would obviously be nuclear).

So, I just wanted to leave this note that the idea of technology and conversations with spirits is quite old. We will talk more about this at the end of this treatise.

Back to the anime. Lain is curious about the email, “God is here…”

In the next scene, Lain finds herself on the train again, heading to school. There is an accident. Soon she sees blood on the power cables parallel to the train, and this vision puts her in a trance, allowing her to see other places. Until she sees the accident, which was, in fact, another suicide. When she comes to, she is back at school.

These are the same principles mentioned before, appearing in schizophrenic individuals and also in mediums. You must have noticed that when a person can’t understand or deal with mediumship, they become ill and are treated as schizophrenic, right? But I will continue to consider both possibilities because it makes more sense for me not to force my point of view, even though I know I failed in advance. But you chose to read this from someone who adopted a pseudonym like Lain…

If you stop to think about it, not wanting my particular view would indicate that you are the schizophrenic… ever thought about that? Haha!

Oh! Just as an explanatory note, in Spiritism, we are all mediums, even animals. Some of us to a greater or lesser extent due to our development and also the objectives of reincarnation. It is a natural process, material, and even genetic. Let’s not delve into it because it’s a serious and lengthy study. I mention this just to say that it’s nothing special and is quite natural. Also, mediumship is amoral.

…Ok? The end of the first episode is quite significant. Lain bumps into Chisa in such a natural way that we might think… Does she not bump into people who have already died every day, and because she doesn’t know they’re already dead, they go unnoticed?

Then Lain asks THE question: “Where are you?” To which, somewhat sad, Chisa gives a smile, as if to say she’s ready, she understands. Because that’s the most important thing. “Where.” Where is the weird?… It was right in front of her. Why would someone ask “where”?

Only someone who begins to understand the duality of the universe would ask such a question: Like, I know you’re here because I’m seeing you, but where are you really, given that you don’t have a body? What is beyond matter? So, this apparent duality will unfold into a multiverse soon.

With Chisa’s smile, there is a fading and dissolution of her fluidic body, as if made of ectoplasm. In Spiritism, this is called the materialization phenomenon, where the medium provides ectoplasmic fluids to shape a being or object. This can be done consciously or unconsciously.

And this is the end of the first episode. :)

Layer: 02 — Girls

In this episode, we are introduced to a type of drug called “accella.” It is a synthetic biological device, but a better description comes later. Also, this is where one of the men in black appears for the first time. He is observing Lain from behind a pole. He has no shadow. It’s not a mistake; the camera angle changes, and he remains without a shadow in the next scene. He’s not really there; they are starting to investigate her through the weird network. But Lain can notice them.

He continues to observe until, without realizing it, she arrives at school. This time she doesn’t remember taking the train. Now, Lain meets her classmates. They talk about a girl who looked like Lain the night before at Cyberia, a nightclub, a popular spot. They also mention Chisa’s email. Lain questions it, but now everyone believes it’s just someone playing pranks. It’s how things are in our world. To move forward, our minds attribute a certain logic and end up disassociating. This will be emphasized in the next episode to highlight how the mind works because it’s important to be aware of how people instinctively seek to forget to continue their lives.

Accella: Accella is a drug that, despite claims otherwise, due to its behavior in the body, has similar effects to drugs. Nowadays, there are intelligence-enhancing drugs that expand brain capabilities, as well as drugs used by soldiers that suppress sleep and pain for days. These things aren’t widely known, despite being legal; they are expensive or restricted. Here in the anime, the drug plays the more common role of entertainment, the search for something new and exciting, but it ends up having side effects. The most evident is that users become more vulnerable to manipulation, not much different from our world, no matter the drug. This becomes clearer at the end of this episode.

So, Arisu, Lain’s friend, convinces her to go to Cyberia at night. In the next scene, Lain is walking through the school corridors and sees spirits, the same as the girl who killed herself on the train and other specters. She shows visible shock. This kind of thing is more common than it seems, but like Lain, people usually don’t talk about it. They are considered crazy, and they themselves don’t want to remember/believe in these strange phenomena or “glitches in the matrix,” as some like to call them. But they are natural, in a way.

Lain returns home, and her new PC has arrived. After setting everything up with her father, her friends call, and she needs to go to Cyberia. We reach a very important scene. The same guy from the beginning, who was experimenting with accella, now shoots two girls. Then he sees Lain and says something trying to justify himself, like: “- You are that omnipresent god, I have nothing to do with this… you don’t have the right to do this… why did you make me do this? The weird shouldn’t influence the world.” And Lain assumes another personality, walks up to him, and says: “- No matter where you go, everyone is connected”. The sentence works like a command, a password, or a trigger, and the guy kills himself. The phrase also solidifies the belief that the two worlds coexist. Death is not the end, and we are all directly or indirectly connected.

Well, I need to make some points in this episode.

First, about the Men in Black. Remember the movie MIB? Well, before the movie, the legend goes that whenever a strange event occurred, like meteor showers, lights, and such, men in black suits would show up, asking questions. One characteristic of them is that they didn’t blink, and sometimes they would disappear with some people. So, these characters from the Tachibana Laboratory, which we’ll see later, the same laboratory as Eiri Massami, who hasn’t entered the story yet, are inspired by these men in black. You can find videos from security cameras of an incident on YouTube. A guy talks to a girl at a reception; he looks like he’s from a movie, bald, wearing a black suit, and doesn’t blink. Then the girl tries to pull out a gun, but he stops her and hypnotically leads her away, and she’s never seen again. Of course, you’ll watch the video and find lots of people saying it’s from some independent production. Maybe it is. The problem is, no one ever finds the name of the movie, actors, or director. If you find it, please let me know.

Alright! Here in the anime, it’s just an inspiration. In other words, they’re the guys who go after anomalies. OK!

The second point is about Lain’s other personality. It hadn’t appeared to us yet, but apparently, it created that whole scenario, conducting tests. That’s the name of the anime: Serial Experiments Lain. There’s more than one Lain, each doing something different. And there’s one in a physical body, which is also an experiment, and that’s the one we follow in the story.

Finally, there’s this subtle analogy that those who use drugs are more easily influenced to do anything. It’s a natural process because you set aside critical thinking, disrupt a series of hormones, and cause disorders that culminate in the low immunity of your body, not to mention killing neurons. Each drug has a worse effect than the other, starting with alcohol, which kills neurons. I’ve said it in another article: Those who drink aren’t stupid, but they will become. The alternative is meditation. Some people can have extremely rich and interesting “trips” without external devices and even improve their health.

Well, I won’t go on, I just took the opportunity for some logical awareness. In the next episode, things get weirder… It’s gradual.

Layer: 03 — Psyche

At the beginning of episode 3, Lain’s family disappears, intentionally avoiding involvement with the police, probably on Eiri’s orders. It’s at the start of this episode that Lain begins to have more affectionate feelings for Arisu, the only person who genuinely cares about her, due to the events at Cyberia (murder followed by suicide). The next day, everything seems normal at her home. However, upon leaving, she encounters the men in black in a car. Soon after, someone speaks to her inside the train, in her mind: “You are not alone.” Upon arriving at school, the same voice talks about Psyche, a computer processor that goes beyond the limitations of hardware. We can deduce that it’s someone from the Knights in the service of Eiri, who is like a god to them.

A girl appears, telling Lain that having a body is not important because she continues to exist. I’ll neglect this for now, the issue of suicide. We’ll address it at an opportune moment; it’s a recurring theme in the work. Next comes a question: “Who is Lain?” — which repeats several times. At first, we can deduce that it’s interference. But there is no chance. It’s part of initiation. You need to ask yourself who you are. And Lain apparently had never done this. There are initiation rites that limit themselves to this: a person asks you, “Who are you?” and you answer, once, twice, three times, and she starts asking faster before you can answer, and there will come a moment when you freeze, or you find yourself, or… some people break down in tears. Depending on the intonation and psychological pressure, there have been cases of fainting. This reminds me of a DDoS attack for those who understand more about internet protocols. It’s the same principle: an overload of a philosophical nature. Cool, huh? :) And they’ve been doing this for at least 700 years.

And this, like everything in life, can go two ways:

1. a true initiation, where the person is guided to self-discovery;
2. fanaticism, subjugation/brainwashing to an order/sect;

Which is quite common. They do it more subtly in evangelical churches and in some Catholic orders. Well! We move on to the locker room scene. Very important, as we return to that question of how our mind tries to protect us, preserve our sanity. They talk about the incident at Cyberia and how it doesn’t seem real, as if it were a movie. And that’s how the mind works. Anything extremely strange, your mind will prefer to ignore. Like extreme violence, a revelation, a conspiracy, aliens — things far outside the scope of the everyday — your mind tends to ignore, find a justification within reason, sometimes ridicule, etc. At this point, Lain receives the Psyche processor anonymously, in a brown envelope, which the girls think is a love letter.

Here, allow me an interpretation; it might seem forced to you. In alchemy, the philosopher’s stone is said to be not something physical but your own mind, which must be worked on and polished until it becomes brilliant. So, we have this processor that looks like a stone and is named Psyche! Its function is to facilitate access to the wired network. For us, it would be a mix of the internet with the spiritual or astral world. It’s interesting to think about this because the internet is nothing more than electrical impulses, and the synapses in our neurons are too.

A few years ago, they created a modem, a device to access the internet through the power grid. The idea was to take advantage of the existing network. And it did work, but unfortunately, the power grid is very unstable. Anyway, it works. I haven’t mentioned the power poles and transformers that accompany the series because I wanted to get to this point. We are all connected. We are electrical devices. The wires only emphasize this connection.

And beyond that, in hermetic traditions, there is the collective subconscious. Where we are all connected, ancient traditions speak of this parallel reality that unites us in thought. As if our brains were a kind of Wi-Fi antenna, and you connect with everything you want. See, I’m talking about hermeticism and alchemy here, not the fiction of the animation. In spiritualism, we call it the “universal cosmic fluid.” It’s as if we were inside a cosmic ocean. Everything is in constant communication: your fears, desires, prayers. Have you ever dreamed of someone, and that person called you the next day? Have you heard reports of mothers who know their children are in danger? I have a silly ability that testifies to this. I dream about books. Strangely, it only works with books. The way I’ll buy them, the type, whether they’ll be there or not, whether they’ll come torn. I know it’s kind of crazy, right? But it’s happened many times. So my mind has this thing or connection to books. I know, it’s bizarre; there are so many things to connect with, to seek… but my mind thinks books are cool.

But it’s natural. There’s no point in insisting on asking for the Mega-Sena numbers. My subconscious mind only cares about books. It doesn’t want to know about health or money. Hence the importance of initiation, having focus, discipline. This is accessible to everyone, and that’s what the series teaches. They are ancient instructions, a self-initiation, for you. Still in hermeticism, which is where alchemy originated, we have the Akashic records/files, said to be a fundamental element, or the history of everything. Imagine a library that contains everything, the entire history of this universe, of every living being, inhabited planets, and even all possible future stories. That’s where some “predictions” come from, which are statistics, various probabilities. Well, it’s all there, according to tradition. All knowledge. Many have killed and died in pursuit of this. Without understanding, some have fallen into madness. In the series we’re studying now, this character is Eiri, who finds part of it and thinks he’s a god, as we’ll see later.

For now, that’s enough. Let’s get back to the anime. I call it a documentary, but I’ll treat it as an anime so you can be more comfortable. Upon arriving home, Lain realizes she has Psyche in her pocket. And automatically, all internet security protocols are lost. She sees everything, can’t differentiate between news or someone’s mind, trivial things, company reports, rumors, legends, including an account of a little man with big eyes who makes people paralyzed in their beds… yes, a description of a gray, a curious little alien. Commented on in various urban legends. I’ve seen something similar. I’ve written about it on the blog; check it out later, “My Experiments.” Anyway, Lain has access to everything about this world. And she receives the invitation again: “Why don’t you come here?” It’s recurring. And this happens a lot in occultism; people tend to have suicidal tendencies. Something on the other side tries to guide towards this, or because they believe it’s the best, as happened with Chisa. Depression comes from the shock of realizing that our current reality is so insignificant. But there’s a big difference between knowing something intellectually and experiencing it. For example, maybe you believe that life is not just about matter, but when you experience this, the world loses some of its color and flavor. And this needs to be reconstructed, correctly and free of illusions. It’s a lot of work. It’s not just drama in the work; it’s actually recurrent for those who study occultism and are in the process of initiation, especially self-initiation (without help). That’s why it’s not recommended to study these things; that’s why there’s always a lot of coded language; that’s why they put these things in a drawing, in an occult way. They want the right people to have access to this; for others… it’s just a drawing, a movie, a comic or book, entertainment.

Back to the anime, Lain’s sister, Mika, meets the men in black at the front door. She threatens to call the police, and they simply say she never saw them; they’re not there. This makes an analogy with what I explained about them in our world, which became an inspiration to create the characters from Lab. Tachibana, where Eiri was an employee. The third episode concludes with Lain welcoming her sister into her room with another personality, apparently. And Mika says something like, “It can’t be,” as if someone had already warned about this, but she didn’t believe it until now and was surprised.

Layer: 04 — Religion

Episode 4 begins with a very different Lain. At the start of the anime, she was an apathetic creature with no interests. Now, she is eager for knowledge. The family has noticed the changes, and her parents know more than they let on. Then we see a drama of a guy running from a little girl. As a curiosity, the stuffed puppy is the same as in the oneshot and the one that appears in the PSone game.

The little girl is playing hide-and-seek and uses the term “Gotcha,” which is an American slang for “I got you,” widely used in the 80s and 90s. Then the guy dies. At school, rumors circulate about suicide. And now Lain is well-informed and communicative; everyone notices while she talks and hides a C programming book, which she was reading as if it were a shoujo manga.

Phantoma, one of the players, talks about the game. He downloaded it from a pirate site, and this version is linked within the wired to a child’s catch game. Some bizarre experiment. Another death occurs, this time of a child. And then the Knights enter, as possible programmers of this distorted version of Phantoma. We’ll talk about them later.

The wired is just a means of exchanging information for people to communicate, and it shouldn’t be confused with reality,” says Lain’s father, trying to give her good advice. To which she responds, “You’re wrong; the boundary between the two is not well-defined like that.” Her idea is to go inside there with total freedom.

Anyway, Lain continues to navigate, absorbing information. There’s even a moment when she goes to Cyberia’s J.J. to get information about the game, but… she goes through the wired, without a physical body.

And then, the end of the episode is the men in black being sent away from Lain’s doorstep by a psychic power. When you move or explode something with your mind, it’s called telekinesis in parapsychology. Apparently, she didn’t even see what she did, exploding one of their eye trackers. This phenomenon is also seen in Indian rituals and cults; it is said that so-called fakirs could levitate. Similarly, it is studied in spiritualism with a more accessible and less mystical methodology.

In the context of the anime, the Navi of Lain notices and warns that the intrusion has been interrupted, emphasizing that the physical world and the wired really do not have a clear demarcation of boundaries. Here, the idea, at least for those watching for the first time, is that the men in black are the Knights.

Layer: 05 — Distortion

This episode begins with a man explaining how humans are stagnant, no longer evolving. In his view, it’s a contemptible species. Fortunately, there is a way out — the internet. So Lain asks who he is, and he responds, “I am God.” This still gives me shivers, even today. It’s a very powerful storyline.

Next, we see Mika, Lain’s sister, depicted with promiscuity. She’s having sex with a guy she doesn’t care about, just engaging in physical relations. Emphasizing what Eiri said (self-proclaimed god in this case). He still hasn’t introduced himself, but it’s Eiri Massami.

The next scene is more interesting: Lain is in her room, asking a doll to tell her a story. You probably didn’t notice, but her room doesn’t have computers, and by now, she should have had at least five. In other words, she’s in the wired and not in her real room. The doll is an avatar on the network, but it’s not just any other person; it’s a “system.” The doll tells Lain that she already knows all the stories and that it can’t tell her a story that doesn’t exist. If it were a person at a terminal, they could simply make it up. But the idea conveyed is that she is in contact with something deeper. Hermetists (or alchemists) call it Akashic Records (as mentioned before), containing all the information in the universe. So, she created an interface in the doll to channel this dialogue, an abstraction within her mind, to access information. This is a common practice in occultism.

In some traditions, there are Guardian Angels; shamans use totem animals. The practice involves deliberately choosing or intuitively seeking a figure to be more accessible and connect with the universe. Then the doll continues, “For every event, there is a prophecy. An event can only exist if there is a prophecy.” Lain asks, “Who writes the prophecies?” The doll doesn’t answer, but it’s straightforward. It’s in her C++ or Java book. The programmer. The programmer makes the prophecy of the system’s events. We call it God. Lain begins to realize this, which will be Eiri’s downfall in the end. Everything that exists has been declared and structured. What Lain will do with this information is test, obviously.

In various occult traditions worldwide, it is believed that we are co-authors of our destinies. Yes, there is a destiny, but we can and should reprogram it. But it’s a bit more complex than just changing a few variables. You are a variable receiving values from various sources — material, spiritual, and yourself. It’s a very heavy programming, to tell the truth. I can’t go into details here; there’s no space, and it would go beyond the scope.

Next, Lain talks to a samurai mask resembling Darth Vader. He says that the prophecy will come true. Lain had already started a new experiment. The mask explains that history is not linear; they are lines forced to follow a path. I think he meant that they form a kind of network.

At this point, hacking begins in the traffic system, and Lain’s face appears on screens throughout the city. Not the work of the Lain we’ve been following. Remember, our Lain in the physical world is just an experiment, and there are others trying to do other things, including taking her place just to see what it’s like.

Bringing it a bit to the occult side of things, you are not just what people see every day. There are other versions of you inside your mind. You can’t lie to me. After all, I can’t hear you; it’s a text, it’s one-sided. But there is certainly something inside, some persona that you don’t even know exists. Perhaps you’re afraid of it. Well, it’s common in more exotic mystical initiations to try to invoke this face to learn to deal with it and finally gather them all to work together. Obviously, it’s dangerous to tamper with and can lead to schizophrenia. An interesting study is Carl G. Jung’s on archetypes and the shadow.

I’ll digress with a short, amusing story I remembered that illustrates this in practice. There were two women, mother and daughter, walking down the street at night. The mother was afraid of a mugging, and the daughter said, “If a thief appears, I’ll smash his head!” And the mother said, “God forbid, my daughter! You have to run or stay quiet! I’ll freeze!” A block passed, and the thief appeared. The daughter froze, just like that. And the mother attacked the thief tooth and nail, chased him, caught him, a policeman intervened. The next day, the woman went to the police station, pointed her finger at the criminal, and said, “It was him!” It’s a very summarized version, but it really happened and illustrates how little we know about ourselves.

Back to the anime. The next entity that Lain interviews has the form of her mother. Now you notice an evolution in her mind, first a more familiar symbol, a doll, then something more tribal, a mask, something even authoritarian, and finally something more personal and close to her reality. It’s like this in practices too. You start with objects like totems, worship images; you find this in almost every religion, ancient and modern, worldwide.

Another example is when you have a dream with a person, deceased or not, who conveys some information to you. And you think: — But ‘so-and-so’ wouldn’t know or never say that. But it’s simple; the image of that person was adopted because it seems more acceptable to you than, for example, the small being with a big head and eyes. Right?

Let’s continue. Lain’s pseudo-mother says: — It is acceptable to compare the Wired to the real world and place it in a higher layer. Technically, not to be a better place. And in such a way, the real world is a hologram.

She goes on to say that everything is information, which travels through the Wired, and that even the human body operates by electrical impulses, synapses, and so on. Except for the doll, these last two manifestations seem to be human, knights, or Eiri himself trying to share information or even indoctrinate Lain.

Bringing it to our world… it’s challenging to distinguish who is speaking to you (in the spiritual or astral realm). So, you have to focus more on the content of the message, whether it’s good, useful, overly exaggerated, or fantastical. It’s very problematic for a person with a big ego.

For example, a spirit claiming to be Archangel Michael arrives and says you were chosen to bring God’s word to this decadent world. Then a weak person with an ego the size of the world says: — Yes, what do you want me to do? I’ve been waiting for this my whole life! \o/ While a prepared person says: — Prove it! — Which is a crucial point in the study of Spiritist doctrine.

In summary, there are “demons” with sweeter poetry than any poet who ever lived. I’m just drawing a parallel. Let’s continue.

When Mika finds herself taken from the dining table to the middle of an intersection, she is placed in a kind of portal with a moon, typically seen in Japanese temples. However, we’ll see later that it’s a closed compass, which is the symbol of the Knights.

That’s why I suspect that the mask with whom Lain was talking was one of them, helping in this programming or prophecy, as you prefer. Mika falls into a cycle, evolving to dissociate her mind from the real world.

Next, Lain talks to her pseudo-father. He says: — It may be that what flows through the Wired is not just electricity. He mentions that in the real world, God is only a concept, but in the Wired, there must be some kind of structure or corporation like a god (someone who programs).

He responds to Lain about this and says he doesn’t know if he can be called a god, but that this power is described in myths. And it’s possible that the god of the Wired already has enough power to interfere in the real world through prophecies.

Lain seems to ignore… indicating that it wasn’t her, the same Lain who was conducting the experiment with her sister. She still hasn’t grasped the concept of prophecies. In case you didn’t understand, there’s only one way to predict the future… by making it happen. We call this prophecy. And in programming, it’s a declaration.

Finally, Mika arrives home, visibly shaken, and then she sees… her other version, paying no attention and going her own way. It wasn’t a duplicate but a dissociation, as happens with Lain, with me, and with you. Sometimes you want to hide a part of yourself, and you do it unconsciously. In the case of the anime, it was forced by someone else.

In our world, this could be forced by hypnosis. It’s not easy or simple, unlikely, but it’s possible. It requires many elements for something like this to work, and a lot of time, brainwashing. But, come on, it’s a work of fiction, so the people doing this in the anime are super talented.

At the end of the episode, Lain’s room looks like the spaceship from Alien: The Eighth Passenger. And she changes personality again, seeming to be the one who did all that to Mika.

Layer: 06 — KIDS

This episode is about immortality and how, if we manage to connect, we would become immortal.

Right at the beginning, Lain’s father enters her room and is amazed by everything. Her room is now completely dark, filled with equipment from who knows where. The most likely scenario is that she hacked companies to deliver them there.

On her monitor screen, the word “coma” is written, which has the same meaning in English, referring to a lethargic state of sleep.

So, Lain is in a trance. Connected.

Inside the Wired, she is talking with the Knights. They are explaining some things and having fun. Lain asks why they are helping her. It’s not clear, but as the plot unfolds, we understand that, believing in Eiri (as a god), they saw in Lain a kind of herald, someone who would announce a new world, a new protocol. Facilitating access to the Wired.

We move on to a strange phenomenon. Children start raising their arms in worship to something in the clouds, and soon we see Lain’s silhouette among the clouds. Well, it is said that children, up to the age of 7, naturally have more contact with the spiritual world, so they are the first to see things of this nature. Over time, the spirit, let’s say, anchors in matter in the physical body, and the problems of day-to-day life also demand our attention. You probably saw a lot of things in childhood that you now attribute to your imagination, or even forgot, so as not to have to confront logic and reason.

But nowadays, just go to YouTube, strange phenomena in the sky amidst the crowd is what there is the most. Yes, much of it is fake, but if you analyze calmly, you’ll find it. In the anime, someone is using Lain’s image to “mock” around… that’s what we think at first glance, and Lain herself behaves this way. Pointing to the Knights as the authors. On the internet, rumors were of a natural phenomenon or some very expensive prank.

Within the Wired, Lain goes after Professor Hodgeson (pronounced: Rudison). In the physical/real world, the professor is dying, in a coma. But in the Wired, Lain manages to connect with his mind. Lain asks about the Kensington KIDS experiment. Where he tried to combine the psyche (mind) of various children, generating energy, probably to open a physical portal to the Wired. That would be our equivalent to the great alchemical gate… which, most likely, you have never heard of. It would be like stretching what we call a “wormhole” in Quantum Physics, but it’s by way of analogy, because it’s something that exists and we have limited perception of; his idea was to expand access. And in the end, he didn’t even know what he was doing.

Imagine transitioning to the spiritual plane in life and having access to the Akashic Records. It’s more or less like that. Maybe you’re reminded of Full Metal Alchemist… But that anime only borrowed some symbols from alchemy.

Well, then the professor says that the experiment 15 years ago ended in failures, and the children died. He destroyed everything, but someone stole and implemented it. In his terms, “someone learned from the trash.” And now Phantoma (the game) had been combined with others to access the children via the internet (Wired) and link everyone to the new prototype of the KIDS project, which now wouldn’t need external receivers (those helmet-like ones from the beauty salon). Because now everything was online.

Lain deduces that it’s the work of the Knights group and tries to talk to them. Since they are putting children’s lives at risk. It’s the first time she’s bothered by an experiment. They stop talking to her. And that’s when the Men in Black appear again.

Lain goes down to talk to them, as if they were the Knights. And at this moment, someone from the Knights group explodes her cooling system. So for the plot, it’s a very important part because we safely disassociate the Men in Black from the Knights group. For our somewhat occult analysis, not so much. Just the symbolism of connection, the opening of a passage to another world. When you see the KIDS project laboratory, in a circle, children lined up… it strongly resembles ancient, shamanic, pagan rituals. And the act of gathering people… In Jesus’ words: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am.” Right?

This symbolizes that, indeed, if we gather our mental powers (psyche), we are stronger. That’s how some initiatic schools work, Freemasons, Rosicrucians (AMORC), Martinists, as well as Wicca with their covens, Hermeticists, Christian churches, Satanism, and many others. All know the importance of the meeting of minds, communion. Some go so far as to deceive, not only to get people’s money but in pursuit of using this power.

Perhaps you are associating with Morpheus in Matrix, comparing the human to a battery, which is also correct. Notice that I stopped assuming things? It’s because now I’m talking about things that are happening right now, for better or for worse… or similarly to the professor, out of pure curiosity and research.

This fictional world presented to us in SEL is very real for many people. Especially the part where Eiri tries to reach his divinity by force. There are many people like that in our world. Wanting greater power, wanting to find themselves as gods, wanting to control things. It’s more normal and routine than you imagine.

Layer: 07 — Society

“- I will tell you about what is happening with this society… just because you don’t know”.

Right at the beginning of the episode, Lain is talking to someone about her other persona, who is acting differently from her within the Wired. It’s already natural for her, as if she were really talking about someone else. This Lain we follow in the real world also doesn’t know what happened to her sister (Mika).

Then enters the madman, walking through the streets, talking about existing in two places at the same time. Which is correct, through the Wired or even in our common internet, you can manifest in more than one place at the same time. But in his view, that’s where it stops. He is unaware of what really happens in the world.

In Tarot, the Fool symbolizes “the quest,” the experience of exceeding limits, spontaneity, carefreeness, admiration, impulsiveness, unconsciousness, and alienation. I wanted to make this analogy because in this character, it is quite evident. You can find references to the Tarot in other characters; if you take Lain, Eiri Masami, Arisu Mizuki, Yasuo Iwakura (Lain’s father), you can invoke the meaning of various cards. But it’s not as evident as in the Fool; you could say I’m forcing an interpretation.

A curiosity: Arisu is ‘Alice’ and was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. And you can notice that if the protagonist were Arisu, it would be a very interesting anime as well. Her point of view, coming into contact with Lain’s world, is very similar to Lewis Carroll’s tale.

Let’s go back to the Fool! He (the Fool) wishes to initiate himself into the great mysteries, to be part of an Order (Knights). But his worldview is immature, and the worst part is that he believes he already knows everything. This is the difference between a fool and an initiate. Someone who is going to be initiated obviously has their vision. But they are open to the new. The fool, on the other hand, is not. He walks towards the precipice. He is sure, he is right, and that hinders others.

In the anime, he walks around with a PC on his back, a camera on his face, a Wi-Fi internet router, an umbrella, and certainly a very large battery for the anime’s time. Anyway, crazy stuff!

But the episode goes beyond the crazy guy; it’s about society. So we are introduced to the first member of the knights, a young businessman. He opens an email and asks, “- What game do you want to play this time?”

He is referring to hacker games, which nowadays are summarized in CTF (Capture The Flag); they are pretty cool, and today, they are at a professional level. I have participated in some, created some. But here, in Lain’s universe, they go way beyond. It ranges from a Pac-Man competition to… plugging children’s consciousness into an online server and altering reality, leading some people to death just to test the limits.

They are hackers, for better or for worse. Their objectives are not clear; all there is are rumors.

Then there’s a chubby guy with a Rambo headband, boasting about how much better he is than others. His house is a mess. This is the second member to appear. And there’s a purpose to be like that, which I’ll explain when the third member appears.

Next, Lain muses about the world not being as real as it seems. Then Arisu comes to cheer her up and talks about how they just wanted to cheer Lain up, but she is depressed again.

Lain apologizes and thanks Arisu because she cares about her. In fact, she is the only person who has truly shown concern for Lain. Lain’s father also cares, but he has his limitations. You can clearly see that he is respecting certain boundaries. Some limits are his own, of not being able to reach Lain (his worldview).

Here you see the construction of a friendship, a bond of love. If it were a tarot, “love” would be Arisu’s card. But it’s a fraternal love.

Knights: Very well. Now we have a formal presentation of the Knights — The Eastern Knights of Calculation. A highly influential group in the Wired, whose members are unknown. They create various things, hardware, software, participate in “games,” create chaos on the network, sometimes just for fun. But they also have an activist, religious side, etc.

The relationship of their symbol with that of the Masons is undeniable. Next, there is a search for information about Lain. It’s like those forums on the deep web; you ask a question, some say they don’t know (which was much better not to have spoken up), others make jokes, and suddenly someone says something that goes beyond common sense, talking about power, divinity. It’s very similar to our reality, especially on the onion network (deep web). I found it interesting that the familiarity in the anime is like this.

Then the third member of the Knights appears. A delivery guy rings the doorbell of a housewife. He hits on her because she is very attractive and offers to teach her how to use the computer. She politely sends him away, calling him Gokuro-sama. In the subtitles, they put “Mr. Stud,” but Gokuro-sama is an old and popular story in Japan, similar to our Don Juan. You see this recurring in anime. She reveals herself when her son asks to play at a friend’s house, and she tells him to do it online, concluding: “Wired and the real world are the same thing.” Looking at a sign produced by the Knights.

Of course, this doesn’t mean she is part of the group, just that she bought something from them. But further on, things change. MIB Now one of the scenes that disturbed me the most when I first watched the anime. The Men in Black politely invite Lain to get into the car and accompany them. It may seem like a normal and silly scene. But when I first saw the anime, all I could think was: “This is how they make people disappear.” “Don’t get in there, girl! Don’t go!” <o> Check out YouTube for “mib alaska.” It’s one of those movies produced by… nobody knows who, not even the country, and nobody knows the actors. There’s a lot of that on YouTube. And thinking about it, I really had a different (even privileged) perspective watching Lain because I already had an interesting background.

The Fool Back to the fool, and as I mentioned, he now believes that, by wearing a spectral camera on his face, he is breaking the barriers of the Wired. If you take certain equipment today, you can see spectra of colors from everything, radio waves, Wi-Fi, etc. If your eyes could see a wavelength more or less, you would have difficulty walking down the streets because of the “invisible” pollution we have. In the fool’s mind, this is magical. But it’s just junk. It’s like people who see “floaters” and think they’re seeing spirits. But it’s actually a type of protein crystallization in their retinas.

Well, the fool is walking around. Probably running a sniffer, capturing passwords, and trying to access local networks as he goes. You can easily do that today without carrying so much weight. And at the same time, he is sharing this live. In his mind, he is a very smart guy and wanted to show that to get the attention of the Knights, hoping to be invited to the club. But he got too much attention. This fool’s problem is recurring in the occult. Those who venture into something reserved, forbidden, usually enter in this wrong way. Which is very dangerous.

Back to the MIB team, who are actually members of the Tachibana Laboratory. This laboratory is in an ordinary residential building, seen by the postal style on the wall and narrow stairs. But here, it’s just the office… an empty room. It’s very much like interrogation rooms. And that’s what happens, indeed. Lain helps an old man connect his old PC to the internet. It may go unnoticed, but when she removes the jumper and installs the board, the authentication screen has her name “lain,” meaning she performed a configuration beyond hardware. After all, it’s an old computer she has never seen, let alone that old man. Then we have the link from the fool; we see what he is seeing on the old monitor, and he sees Lain.

The fool continues his eager quest to become part of the Knights, full of innovative ideas. Lain sees that and is shaken; after all… there are many Lains. And she has no control over it. The fool continues his search and finally finds the Knights, the three who were introduced, the successful executive, the chubby Rambo, and the attractive housewife. It was done on purpose to symbolize that the Knights are ordinary people. There are all kinds of people there, technicians, religious, playful. But they all deal with a common ideal. In this case, we can deduce that it is the fusion of the Wired with the real world through the belief in God (Eiri). It will become clearer in the other episodes.

Back at the laboratory, the old man starts asking questions. Who are you? Are you the same Lain from the Wired? Are your parents your real parents? When did they get married…? And so on. There is an analogy with some rites of passage. Self-questioning is the most important thing; self-knowledge is crucial. In some, more hardcore, sects, they even put the person on a stage and humiliate them. They insult, even throw things. According to these sects, it is to strengthen. In the end, they embrace and welcome the person after they break down in tears. In reality, this extrapolation is a form of brainwashing. The true adept walks this path alone. I’ve talked about this; the act of repeatedly asking oneself, “who are you?”

But by doing this with Lain, her alter-ego emerges to defend her. This happens with those who have multiple personality disorders. Another personality is created to deal with certain situations. And it’s automatic. It changes the entire biological sensation; like the heart was beating fast, crying, suddenly everything stops and calms down, usually in opposition to all that, and starts laughing. It’s evident that the people in the laboratory know less than Lain. They suspect that the barriers between worlds are diminishing. And they find it very dangerous, whereas Lain finds it fun. As Lain leaves, she is very different, the same as in Cyberia, and one of the men holds her arm to tell her that she is the dangerous one. She doesn’t care. And the old man calls his attention, and it’s the only time we hear his name, Karl. Perhaps, and only perhaps, a reference to Carl Gustav Jung, which has everything to do with the series. I mention it more to serve as a reference for anyone interested in studying more about it. And he concludes that something really interesting is about to happen, and they will just be watching for now… MIB, right? The episode ends with the death of the fool. As if it were one of those classics: “Moral of the story.” On his screen is the symbol of the Knights, which makes visible who killed him.

Layer: 08 — Rumors

Do you want to hurt yourself too…?

Feel like your heart is being scraped with a file?

In this episode, Lain begins a more intense investigation to find out who the Knights are and what they are actually doing. The main target is the Tachibana Laboratory. At Lain’s house, she attempts a dialogue with her parents about the conversation she had at the Tachibana Laboratory, stating that she is not their daughter. However, they just stare at her, as if to say, “That’s right.” But they are sadder than usual, probably because they understand what was done to Mika, whose mental disturbance is now quite evident.

God Lain encounters God for the first time amid a lot of communication noise, where she hears things like financial information, thefts, rumors, love lives, and UFOs. God talks about being omniscient in that world, which logically reflects in the real world. He claims to control Lain in the Wired, and that the Lain in the real world is a program.

In the real world, Lain is in her classroom, and one could deduce that it was just a schizophrenic hallucination. I’ll bring up this reference here because in the context of our world, many people report things like being pursued or talking to someone, some strange being they’ve never seen, not even in movies, and in an equally strange place.

From the occultist/spiritual point of view, the mind does behave like a communication network, extremely fast (instantaneous); therefore, you are where your mind is. It’s hard to delimit where the astral or dream world ends and the spiritual world begins. How would you delimit the protocols of the internet? At what point did your device enter another network? Perhaps a corporate network, a VPN, or the deep web. Do you feel that you changed protocols? That you changed reality or the world? Have you ever lost yourself in thoughts so much that you completely ignored the reality around you?

Well, next, we have rumors. Lain from the Wired did something very unpleasant. And Lain from the real world starts searching, like software, without electronic devices, her mind is directly connected to the Wired. And she exceeds the limit due to an emotional impulse. There’s a scene where she sort of shifts space while crying behind the school.

She practically spent the day searching. Her subconscious mind continued working independently of her rational will. Until she finds the rumor; someone had leaked on the network that Arisu is in love with the teacher. And we see Arisu masturbating while thinking about him. This is important for the romantic context of Lain and Arisu because it emphasizes that it is a ‘fraternal love.’ Arisu genuinely cares for Lain without any kind of interest. Given that she is sexually attracted to someone else. For those who enjoy Yuri, it shouldn’t be hard to find “rule 34” applied to these two.

And as we are in a very “mimimi” moment in the world, full of people getting upset for being part of an absolutist minority that dominates the world. I need to say that, indeed, there would be no problem at all if they were lesbians; I would find it cool too. But the author found it more interesting to highlight a fraternal love and not a carnal one. I also found it more opportune because, in the context of the work, it would be like clickbait, totally unnecessary.

Now we have a very interesting concept, but you’ll only understand it if you already have some initiation in the subject, whether occultist or philosophical. Lain sees her shadow expand, that same shadow splattered with blood that is everywhere, and now she is this shadow. The shadow that surrounds her is the acceptance of the dark part, usually interpreted as something bad or evil that we struggle so hard to ignore and hide. To the initiate, only when they reach this stage can they truly evolve. You can read everything, learn everything, but without this practice, without this confrontation, it’s all in vain. You don’t progress. And it’s something very personal. The description is always symbolic. An image, an idea, or a hint. When someone guides you, they say they can only take you to the Gate; from there on, it’s up to you. It’s a very tactile experience, wordless, that teaches a lot.

Here, in the anime, you see a very peculiar conflict. Something really schizophrenic. Lain encounters her evil self and tries to strangle her, while the other Lain just laughs at the suicide. Then she sees herself surrounded by other Lains, kind of like puppets. And God (Eiri) explains that she always existed. And that he has always been watching. That Lain is like him. And that all he did was share information on the Wired, which is the right thing to do; information should be free.

But let’s remember that he is talking about the information that Arisu was masturbating to the teacher. This emphasizes the concept of information. Everything is information! You are information. And who are we to define what is important? What is important to me may not be important to you. So we need to share without restraint… right? Information should be free! This concept inspired me for a long time. But today I have my doubts. I wouldn’t say we should categorize information (right or wrong, useful or not), but it is necessary to attach a good classification.

Well, that’s a topic for another post, more appropriate. I just wanted to introduce this concept more thoroughly, giving you a more accessible introduction. The anime dialogue is very fast; it can go unnoticed.

Returning to the dialogue with God, Lain refuses to believe that there is more than one of her. The refusal is not about what she is but rather about what she has done. You don’t want to accept your shadow. The initiation process (ritualistic) is not over. It’s not the fact of being another you that bothers you; if it were an angel, you would take it well, but it’s a demon, and you don’t want to accept that. And you will only solve it by accepting who you are. If you ignore the problem, you can’t analyze it; without analysis, you can’t correct it. Yes, I’m talking to you, not about the anime.

After a revealing and relatively tense dialogue, Lain accepts, saying, “- If I am what you say, I can delete the memory of people who saw this Lain.” To which God responds, “- Yes, you can try. You were born with this gift.”

It is part of the beginner’s journey to conduct tests that ultimately do not solve the problem, but if one does not go through this, they will never reach the next step. The next day at school, no one remembers anything, and everything returned to normal. However, because she exceeded the limits of the Wired, Lain’s manifestations became more autonomous even in the real world. One of them rushes in and takes Lain’s place (in the real world); she wants to go to Cyberia, have fun.

And our Lain becomes somewhat depressed, trying to understand if she is real. If there is only one of her.

But I am me! I am real. To which another Lain appears and utters the fateful words: “Lain is Lain”. — Smiling.

We follow this context, with Lain being portrayed as a “special” creature, created by God. But it’s a metaphor for you. You are also a special creature, created by a God. And there are many of you inside your mind. Who knows in other realities… (?) We are still studying the subject from a scientific point of view. I confess it is interesting, but I also cannot accept that there is another me. That is, if there is a parallel world and there is another me there, exactly the same, I would still think that at some point we are different, we are individuals. This is because my mind is conditioned to believe that everything has a purpose. So, a perfect copy of me to do the same things would be purposeless. I may be wrong, yes, but it doesn’t make sense.

I diverged a little from the subject… let’s get back. Our issue here is more spiritual. And it’s about you! You have various facets within you. Mythologically, we call it Mephistopheles (the demon of a thousand faces), present in Johann W. Von Goethe’s work — Faustus. And extensively in the works of psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, who explores many aspects of archetypes, especially the shadow. This also relates, symbolically, to the Tarot. I mention this to help you understand the association of things. An old saying goes, “- All roads lead to Rome.” This is because Rome was the center of the Roman Empire and civilization. Of course, it wasn’t quite like that. But the figure of speech is powerful even today.

Understand that, whether it’s a book, a novel, a documentary, a ritual, a scientific analysis, a comic book (H.Q.), or an anime, they are just different ways of addressing the same subject and delivering some form of knowledge that is forbidden. But who forbade it, and why? We’ll leave that for the end of this series of articles, where I will draw a conclusion more relevant to the entire context. For now, this episode is enough.

Layer: 09 — Protocol

If you want to be free from suffering, you must believe in God.

Whether you believe it or not, He is always by your side.

This episode begins by discussing the Roswell incident (1947), where an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) crashed in New Mexico, USA.

Lain is in her room, hears a noise, and looks to see who is entering. At the door, there is a short being with long arms and a disproportionately large head, with its big black eyes, and it smiles.

This being is mentioned a few times in the anime as background noise; there are at least two instances where Lain picks up on someone talking about a short man observing inside the house.

At this point, Lain is quite depressed, not paying much attention. It doesn’t matter what it is, whether it’s an alien observing or an avatar from someone in the Wired. Depression has this power to ignore everything. So, in the narrative context, it doesn’t make a difference.

But what did the writer intend with this inclusion?

We continue in the episode, now learning about MJ-12, a document that links U.S. authorities to the cover-up of supposed UFOs, which later led to the creation of a military department called Blue Book (and today we have a Netflix series about it). It involves various cases researched and covered up by American authorities.

In the MJ-12 document, there would be a supposed exchange of technology with extraterrestrials in exchange for people (abductions) on American soil.

Next, we are introduced to the Memex, an idea from the pre-internet era, before computers were invented, where documents would be archived in text. Later, Ted Nelson (creator of hyper-text HTML) proposed the Xanadu library, based on this scheme, which would create a global network to access texts from anywhere in the world through a satellite network. We also have the presentation of the ECCO project (Earth Coincidence Control Office) — where John C. Lilly used drugs and isolation tanks to make people unconscious, believing it could connect them to cosmic entities.

This is one of the most disturbing episodes. In addition to the information accessible to you through the internet, it shows Lain’s parents talking about the end of everything, and it’s the only time her mother shows any reaction, while Mika, her sister, answers an imaginary phone simulating a dial-up connection. It would be a horror anime if the focus weren’t on Lain.

Lain starts talking to Taro in her room about a volatile memory that would overwrite her memories. Taro talks about the Truth of the Knights, which is powerful because it is true (remember the introduction of the episode? — God is there, whether you believe it or not). They uphold this hidden truth as a power. They behave like a decentralized religious organization. There is a truth that unites them, but beyond that, each follows their own guidelines. They are not dogmatic, with the only exception being this absolute truth.

Apparently, she uses the memory, which leads her to see when she entered the house for the first time. Two men in black push her inside; her father, mother, and sister are waiting, and she is dragged to her room. Later on, it becomes evident that her father worked at the Tachibana laboratory, along with Eiri, and obviously agreed to such an experiment, bringing it into their home.

Schumann Resonance There is a resonance, detected by scientists, that comes from the planet itself. At a frequency of 7 to 8 Hz. Its influence is not exactly known. Rumors say it is important for human health. They say that spaceships have a simulator of this resonance.

Douglas Rushkoff proposes that there is the same number of humans in relation to the number of neurons and that the consciousness of the earth itself will awaken when all humans are collectively connected.

Another interesting rumor. In spiritual circles, it is said that on April 4, 2020, there was a meditation for the planet, due to the pandemic, and graphs showed that there was a peak in Schumann Resonance, as if it were a reset. This had never happened since it was first detected in 1952.

Others say that this resonance is Gaia’s (Mother Earth’s) music from Celtic/shamanic culture. In the end, Lain talks about the Truth. That it is God.

Then there is a connection that ties together all the facts presented so far and blends Eiri Massami as if he were part of our reality.

Massami wanted to connect people’s consciousness without devices. Then we see a photo of him with Lain’s father in a laboratory. Then things within the family start to make sense.

In this case, he encoded the Schumann resonance into the seventh-generation protocol of the Wired. But this is already fiction. Massami does not exist in our world, only in the anime. After being fired from the Tachibana laboratory (which discovered his experiment), Eiri killed himself. Eiri is the guy with long hair, arms, and chest bandaged with blue high-fusion tape, and in the next episode, he treats us to a somewhat confusing dialogue.

Layer: 10 — Love This episode already starts outside the norm. The initial sound of the crowd’s conversations on the street is replaced by a decline, as if it were a deepening, somewhat depressive. And there is no traditional opening phrase summarizing the episode.

Well, now we have Lain’s dialogue with God (Eiri). “- There is only one truth. God.” Here we need a lot of attention because Eiri’s voice has an echo, and they will change their point of view (bodies) and continue talking. They are information; the body is just an avatar/a nickname. The dialogue is already complex, so the writer indulged in confusion with this idea.

Lain asks if he is God. And Eiri responds with his reverberating voice that yes. Then he asks with his normal voice to Lain: why are you God? <- It is already Lain who asks through her body. This exchange also refers to them getting to know each other, observing each other from the inside.

She said that someone without a body, a dead man, cannot be a god. To which Lain (with Eiri’s voice) responds that he discovered he didn’t need a body. Dying is just abandoning the flesh.

Lain doesn’t take this very well and remembers Chisa. Eiri continues talking about the protocol he created for the Wired and how there is information about him (information about him and the protocol) embedded in the network. Because he observes and influences the entire network, he is a God. But that doesn’t make him a God; he still needs someone to worship him. In his theory, if no one remembers, then it never existed.

And Lain concludes by saying that the Knights worship him. That’s why he is a god. “You don’t need a body anymore, Lain,” says Eiri. Lain contradicts him by accusing him of lying.

Back in the classroom, Lain notices that her seat has been removed. Not even the desk is there, to emphasize and dramatize the situation. Then she begins to question herself about being real and existing because no one can see her.

But she says something more complex: “- I always tried to prevent something like this from happening.”

This sentence expresses a certain determinism. Because deep down, she already knew. So Arisu concludes, “That’s right, Lain, you are no longer needed in the real world.” Just like a vision. This makes it clear that someone else did that. Erased Lain from the real world. Probably the Knights to force the breaking of barriers, believing that Lain is ready.

I say this because Eiri considers himself a god and wouldn’t directly influence such an event. And the other Lain doesn’t care about influencing anything. And Lain (physical) leaving the world is a very important event that should be natural, but apparently, it was forced.

Lain walks back home with her shadow splattered with blood. There’s no one at home. There are some pots with completely dried-up plants, indicating a long time, at least a few weeks.

Lain’s father returns to say goodbye. And when she asks him not to leave her alone, he responds that she was never alone, and if she connects to the Wired, everyone will be there to welcome her. Apparently, everyone (Knights and followers) believed that Lain had awakened, that she now understood her real nature. But someone interfered, forced it. She wasn’t ready yet.

Now Lain is in the Wired, and a software asks her what she wants to do. The sky is a microprocessor circuit. Lain wants to know who the Knights are. And another source of information tells her that they are hidden on another layer, the collective subconscious (as if they used people’s own mental network as our VPN or onion network), one of them claims that they (Knights) were there before the Wired existed.

So it’s a very ancient sect. Making references to initiatory schools once again. And we have so many, but because of the compass, it’s more relevant to make an analogy with Freemasonry.

Lain concludes that the Wired God (Eiri) is a god because he has followers. And she is going to expose them for interfering in various things and changing the course of her history. This also references initiatory orders, which throughout human history have interfered for their particular objectives, often forcing an idea of a greater good or common good for all. Virtually every war or political movement.

Many people know this and would love to expose institutions like the Masons, and some Vatican branches as well. Don’t be deceived (see: Opus Dei). Occasionally, they reveal some scandal, but it’s far from the totality of the facts. It’s just “conspiracy theory” stuff. Well, that’s not the topic here. Let’s not dwell on it.

In the anime, Lain leaks the list of Knights’ members, and the newspaper announces a series of “suicides” around the world, demonstrating the size of the organization. Indeed, some may have been suicides, but the majority were murdered by the men in black from the Tachibana laboratory. They feel responsible because of Eiri Massami’s protocol.

They go to Lain’s house and tell her what is being done around the world. It was like a courtesy visit to thank her for revealing the identity of the Knights. They explain that Eiri will be erased, and the seventh-generation protocol will be redone. But they don’t have a complete understanding of the facts; they don’t know that Eiri is not just memories from the network. Nor do they know what Lain is. If they knew, they would kill her, certainly.

And Karl concludes: “We don’t know what you are, but we love you.” His assistant just smiles. As if to say, “You have no idea!” In their minds, she is a kind of genius hacker or something more, but she escapes their understanding.

Lain returns to the Wired to talk to Eiri. Now he has no more worshippers, so he can no longer be a god. No one knows he exists. Then he says, “But as long as I had one person, I will be a god.” And he explains that Lain is that person, as he created her, and he kept her in the Wired. He explains that Lain from the real world is just a hologram of a program created in the Wired. And he uses the term homunculus, which was translated as “artificial product” in the subtitle.

He suggests that she must love him since he is her creator. Because he loves her. Then Lain asks about the other Lain. To which Eiri responds, “There is no other, that is the real one.” And that’s when things get complicated because she incorporates this other Lain and says, “As if that mattered!” Pushing Eiri away. Who clearly doesn’t have control. Lain is far above his power. So, there is an evident manifestation of an alter-ego, not an external and independent entity.

Well, what we can understand is that Eiri did find something in the Wired and created this human interface, somehow executed in a body. But he didn’t create her from scratch. Otherwise, he would have total control. Let’s go back to the term homunculus: It is Latin for “small man.” This term became known because alchemists wanted to create a perfect human entirely artificially. In theory, it would be perfection in all aspects. Philosophically, it became a moral quest. But what became more popular were the bizarre tales of creating deformed and monstrous creatures. This is because the alchemists, wanting silence about their activities, usually hired people whom society had an aversion to due to their horrendous appearance, partly to help these people, but mainly to avoid gossip. Since no one wanted to approach these deformed individuals. So, medieval urban legends were created.

The concept that Eiri clings to is the initial one. A perfect human form, with all the potential that a human being can achieve. Unlike another anime (Full Metal Alchemist) that treats homunculi as monsters with magical abilities, who envy humans for being able to die. If you want to study alchemy, stay away from this anime. It’s cool as an action anime only. It borrows some symbols and that’s it. “Equivalent exchange” is not even an alchemical term; it’s more of a simple capitalist market term: “Everything has its price.”

Back again! The episode is a bit confusing precisely because people in the real world don’t exactly know what is happening in the Wired. Not even the Knights really knew what Lain was. For them, she was a kind of prophecy/software that would unite the two worlds.

For the men in black, the Knights, and Eiri, they were manipulating the world in various ways, with Eiri being dead, the Knights doing everything under his inspiration, and not direct command. And you notice that it’s not quite like that; he is not just software; he has emotion, makes mistakes. There’s that human part saying that Lain can experience whatever she wants, as if he hadn’t deduced that from the beginning.

Lain’s father and mother, in Eiri’s service, facilitated this experiment, which is actually an initiation. Initiation, in case it wasn’t clear, is a long-lasting rite that concerns self-knowledge and knowledge of the world around you. And that’s why Lain needed to come to the real world, to experience in practice what the world is like. Otherwise, she wouldn’t know how to influence it, maybe not even be interested in visiting it.

Metaphor? According to Buddhists and Spiritists (Kardecists), we incarnate in this world (one of infinite ones) to learn. At this point, you can understand the world as a kind of hologram. Because it’s not real. Life is beyond dense matter. And you keep reincarnating here until you learn what you need. I’ve talked about this in other blog posts.

So Lain’s existence itself is an analogy for our own lives. From Eiri’s point of view, he would use her to solidify his protocol. From the Knights and followers’ point of view, the worlds would merge… but in their minds, it wouldn’t be much beyond what they already had access to. It’s as if they believed that, by having certain information (code/magic), they could access/manipulate anything on the network after Lain fulfilled her purpose. They believed it had already happened. They were satisfied when Lain decided to expose them. In other words, she exceeded the initial idea.

As I said at the beginning, it’s impossible to say where the boundaries are. At what moment does your computer enter the onion network or a VPN and return with information? When, while you sleep, do you move from the dream world to the spiritual world? It’s impossible to define, establish certainties, and many don’t even believe; they just enjoy. That’s how the Knights were.

So, there’s criticism, not just of Freemasonry, but many orders that gather individuals wanting something more. They should seek “self-initiation” but only pursue earthly manipulations… At least the author wants you dead. (laughs) And you can’t even be mad; the director has already passed away.

My particular view, both regarding Freemasonry and other orders, is that, initially, it’s something very good. My grandfather was a Freemason and left me good life examples; he never spoke ill of Freemasonry, except once when, after much insistence on my part, he mentioned why he left: “He told me that ‘brothers’ swindled him. They cheated in business, land sales, those things.” However, he always praised the principles and content of the order. In other words, the books are there, but no one reads them. “Fraternity, equality, and justice”… for whom?

I had the experience of joining AMOC (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis), which has a direct influence from Freemasonry, as well as Martinism. They also preach this fraternity. So you go there… and no one even wants to know what you went there to do. At the time, I was young and wanted to be part of something. Sorry for the venting, but I was better received in an evangelical church. I noticed that everyone in AMORC was rich, and after a while, I thought it was better not to go back; it didn’t make a difference. And, in fact, I already had more knowledge than they did, studying on my own… Don’t take it as arrogance; it’s just that they don’t study at all. Like any church, they stick to their pamphlets and dogmas.

Certainly, there are orders and lodges, both in Freemasonry and AMORC, that are different, formed with values, and that really adhere to the original proposal, hard to find… but they must exist.

But the reason I’m talking about this here is the same as in the anime… You don’t need to join these schools. It’s not worth it, not even the effort. After all… we are all connected. Right?

Layer: 11 — Infornography

This one also lacks an introductory phrase, which usually summarizes the entire episode. More than half of the episode consists of Lain’s memories; she is doing a checkup of her data. Considering it’s quite long, one might even consider it just filler material. However, there are many interesting things; there are events she hadn’t participated in before, but now she is there, like during Chisa’s suicide, as if another version of Lain were there watching the leap.

There’s a logo from the anime sponsor, “think up different” — Think differently. There’s a collection of characters, phrases, laughter, morbidity, memories of all kinds. There’s also the scene of Lain being handed over to her family, and then a scene of her contemplating suicide.

After that come memories of Arisu being concerned about Lain, and finally: “-A passionate heart is looking for you.” Like those email chains from the nineties. Yes, it’s quite bizarre. It’s an interesting and important segment because the protagonist is really putting her memories in order. For the plot, it was unnecessary; it could have been much more concise. But in the context of emotional involvement, with the background music and impactful phrases, we end up concluding that it was opportune.

Beyond that, the almost schizophrenic frenzy of the scenes demonstrates the disturbance of thoughts, which is how this episode tries to immerse us. Then Eiri arrives, talking about how Lain managed to download a navi (PC) into her brain and emulate it. He mentions that it’s dangerous for her brain’s current capacity. Lain responds, quite depressed, appearing to have motor difficulties: “- Don’t talk to me as if I were a machine.”

Eiri continues: “- I’m sorry for that; you’re not a machine, you’re software and not hardware. A program executed in flesh.”

Next, we have Lain walking through the streets in just a nightgown, telling everyone to be silent. It’s impossible to know if this is in the real world or the Wired.

Hearing various voices is quite common in schizophrenics or mediums. Who hasn’t heard of someone like that on the street? From a humanoid shadow passing in front of her, Chisa appears, somewhat depressed. On the other side, the guy who killed himself in Cyberia says, “- Dying, Lain, is very easy.” Chisa, visibly sad, tells Lain that there is nothing easy about dying. The boy continues to influence Lain towards suicide. Lain already has the gun in her hands, and he keeps inducing her, saying that she called him there, and it wasn’t fair. Lain continues to disagree until Chisa calls her. When Lain turns around, she faces a strange network. It looks like a trench, and in the distance, the energy towers become like giant pins of an electrical circuit.

Lain is startled, and the visual narrative emphasizes this. However, it’s challenging to find a real meaning for this scene. I inferred it to be a superior network, even broader. By analogy. But here, I must apologize, as there really isn’t enough data, and I am forcing an interpretation.

So, let’s go with an analogy. Lain encounters Chisa, brought from something obscure. Chisa brings a message: “Suicide is not cool.” It wasn’t what she expected. We can understand that it was a politically correct way for the anime to evolve, based on the previously mentioned game. But it’s much more than that; there has been a significant evolution of content from the game to the anime.

On the other side, the boy invites her to suicide, saying that the body is useless. Lain finally decides; she won’t kill herself. Then, she is introduced to a network even larger than the Wired. We can say that the Wired is our astral plane, dream world, or spiritual world. These terms are interchangeable because they are quite close, but that doesn’t matter. But when Lain turns around and sees this gigantic network, she is introduced to something even greater, which the anime barely illustrates: a Cosmic Network.

This could be akin to the Buddhas, enlightened beings. A layer of communication superior to the spiritual plane. I deduced this because, in the next episode, she talks to a woman through the Wired, who has no reference. She doesn’t speak like a machine, which was the standard for conversations with artificial units within the Wired. And the Knights no longer exist.

Continuing with the narrative, Lain visits Arisu, with her alien body. It’s unclear what happened. Whether Lain went deeper, found some entity, and merged or if it was just a rumor she found amusing to use as an avatar in the Wired. The fact is that the writer really wanted to include this in the anime, this connection, so much so that he created a script error. This emphasizes my cosmic network theory, connecting other worlds, galaxies… who knows. Arisu is scared of Lain in that form, and Lain tries to explain that it wasn’t her who was spying; it was, in fact, another Lain. And that there must be other Arisus out there.

It’s a very interesting dialogue because it reveals Lain’s common nature and her uncertainty about being a special case. The whole anime converges to this; all the visions, events, phenomena, none of it is original; everything is part of everyday contexts that people tend not to talk about to, as Lain herself said, “avoid being strange”.

Well, Lain tells Arisu that she will erase the memory, and no one else will know. And she thinks she can already do that. In her words, “- It seems I’ve broken the barrier separating the real world from the Wired.” The interesting thing about this is that it is, in fact, quite empirical. There is no metric that tells you that you’ve leveled up in occult sciences or what you have access to. That’s why so many people who venture into it become more or less crazy, deluded, etc.

Arisu is very scared. Most of the things Lain said weren’t even for Arisu; they were for us, the audience, as they didn’t make sense to Arisu. The next morning, no one remembers. “And if no one remembers, then it never happened”.

This is a script error because Lain had already done this. But there’s so much complex text demanding our attention that this ends up going unnoticed. However, she corrected something that had already been corrected about two episodes ago. But this is the only script error I found, so I can’t complain. xD

But then Lain appears. Arisu is shaken, trembling, and mentally asks, “- Lain, are you…?” To which Lain responds with a smile. A soul-tearing smile. Because it’s saying, “- Sure, it’s all good, you’re friends with a God.” But there’s no way to be fine because that smile can turn you inside out or erase you from reality. For me, the anime could end here with praise! But, of course, the alchemical marriage is missing, and our ritualistic journey has not yet come to an end.

Layer: 12 — Landscape

We return to using phrases that summarize the entire episode, and Lain is talking to someone. “Oh! So that’s how it works? I had no idea the world was this simple. I always believed the world was big and scary, but when you understand this, everything becomes so simple.” And a female voice responds: “See, I told you it would be.”

The episode begins with Arisu being surprised that Lain is in the classroom all communicative, totally different. Then Lain realizes her thoughts and sends a message to her cell phone… not that Lain had time to grab a phone and type something; she sent it from her mind via the wired. The message said: “You just need to rewrite bad memories.” Lain didn’t even turn around. She keeps looking at her. There’s a short scene, and voices calling Lain, and in the middle of the city, between the buildings, those giant pins from before are now more visible, a twisted and organic cluster. In the best Ginger style (Alien design from Alien the eighth passenger). They are structures that extend from the buildings, as if they were natural/organic. It probably makes sense for those who have seen it. Remember that my knowledge is limited; I’ve never had formal initiation into these studies, so I struggle to understand certain aspects. If someone could explain it to me, I would be very grateful.

Then a journalist appears talking about Protocol 7, which should allow the transfer of information between the wired and the real world without data loss. Then he says, “Next news: Everyone loves Lain!” ~ That still brings a smile to my face. There’s a caption that was translated to: “Amen Lain!” Today, you can do that with some software and a powerful PC. But the idea in the anime is that someone hacked into the journalist’s mind. Apparently, it’s an old and manipulated news piece. Protocol 7 was already running, perhaps not officially. So, maybe it’s a fabrication. Next, we have an explanation from Eiri about the human being. Starting with the place of his suicide. He says that everything in the human body can be understood, that it’s nothing more than a machine. That this could mean the end of the human species. Because if information is not shared, it becomes useless. But humanity can evolve by its own power. He is explaining to Lain (and to us) that he reconnected human beings, that this is their real nature. On the other side of the city, the men in black are waiting for contact in a parking lot while talking. It is quite clear that they didn’t know much. They suspect that Eiri is not dead.

• Whether he has a body or not never mattered.

The manager of Tachibana Laboratories pays them and recommends that they flee to a place with no satellite coverage or electricity. In other words, there’s no way to escape. Here we must remember that Lain mentioned in the previous episode that there aren’t many of her, just memories. In the end, it’s the same thing. She tried to organize and delete some memories. But it’s not possible. At this point, we understand that Tachibana has always been linked to Eiri, cooperating, even indirectly, to break the barrier between worlds. Similarly, Lain’s father. And that the knights initially helped but were now hindering. Probably because they wanted exclusive access, like a “secret society.” And the others, as Eiri mentions, had an interest in reconnecting humans, like a pragmatic and functional religion. Bringing everyone back to connecting. Religion comes from Latin: religare = reconnect with the primary source.

They ask what he wants by reconnecting the real world with the wired. To which he replies: “Something wonderful must happen. Don’t you want to know what?” This makes it clear that they still don’t understand, neither do they nor Eiri really know what will happen. In their eyes, at most, humans would have access to everything, a profound change would occur in society, with everyone having total access to everything. And I’m talking about things beyond bank accounts, politics, and business, but a transcendental reality that would make many human things obsolete. For example, if you are sure that you don’t die, and when you die, you might be able to incarnate on another planet and continue learning things. Would you care about the local politics of your small town? Well, this is just a supposition in the face of what is coming.

Because technically, there are still at least two Lains. And the other one kills them. In the next scene, Arisu walks to Lain’s house. Everything is abandoned and vandalized. And she still manages to take off her shoes to enter. In the middle of the way is the specter of Mika, still trying to connect via dial-up. It’s just an image left, probably because it was forced and repeated too much. Yes, we studied this in spiritualism.

Arisu finally arrives at Lain’s room. She is pale and withering. Arisu asks, “What did you do?” And Lain replies, “Nothing, I’m just looking.” “What?” Arisu continues. There’s no answer. Because she sees… everything. And as it is beyond the real world, it’s too much, the word ‘everything’ loses its meaning. So Arisu continues. She questions why Lain left her memories alone, why she has to remember such terrible things, why Lain hates her so much (?). Then Lain explains that it’s the opposite, that she was her only friend, even though they were not connected. Lain loves her. Lain explains that originally humans were connected by the subconscious, and that she didn’t do anything special, just reconnected. Then she accepts herself as a program created to destroy the barrier. And she continues: “You and everyone, Arisu, are just applications.” “The truth is, you don’t need a body.” Arisu puts her hand on her face and says, “You’re wrong, I don’t understand what you’re saying, but you’re wrong.” Arisu puts Lain’s hand on her chest/heart to feel it beating. Because she is very scared. But this shows life. Then Eiri arrives, saying that she suffers because of memories. And that Lain just needs to erase and leave what is happy and pleasant. Lain refuses to connect with Arisu to erase her memories. Arisu becomes more frightened because she is talking to “herself.” Then Eiri says he will need to debug because Lain has a bug. Eiri’s hand is visible to Arisu, but Lain is not interested. Still a bit confused, she believed that the body was not important, but Arisu showed her otherwise. The body is much more than a machine. Then a dialogue begins about how the more evolved human has the right to have more access and not need devices, according to Eiri. To which Lain questions, “Who gave you that right?” She questions if he himself implemented the seventh protocol to elevate human consciousness. If the idea was really his? To which, furious, Eiri realizes that there might be a true god who may have influenced him to do what he did (determinism).

And Lain concludes: “It doesn’t matter, without a body, you can’t understand.” Eiri’s madness makes him materialize, and Lain has to kill him. She found it all very natural, while Arisu is in panic. An important thing, which may be just a narrative device to make the anime interesting. But when he gets emotional, violently, he materializes. Similarly, way back, when Lain breaks down in tears and despair, that’s when she can connect and erase everything. It might just be that, a narrative effect. But, on the other hand, emotion is a trigger for these spiritual and/or psychic activities. It’s not only studied but applied through rituals. From the most tribal ones with drums and dances to meditation. I mention this as an aside because it’s related to the topic of feeling life and being in a body. There are many things that life teaches us simply by being alive. This “reality” is important in itself, whether as a school or laboratory of the spirit. We learn things here that we wouldn’t learn in another reality. There, we’ll learn many other things.

Layer: 13 — Ego

Before the opening song, Lain appears, confused about who she really is, questioning the existence of a true Lain. We revisit the scene where Lain kills Eiri in her room, defending Arisu. She realizes the importance of the body. Then she reconsiders that it was probably a mistake not to erase Arisu’s memories, as she is now in a state of panic. She initiates a major reset, surpassing the limitations of memory. The everyday scenes no longer include Lain — her walk home, leaving school. Her old family returns to normal, and nobody remembers her. The shadows remain, everything is as it was, but Lain no longer exists. Only Lain’s father and Arisu retain some trace of what would be a memory, likely due to genuine love. We see Eiri Massami walking down the street, frustrated, talking about resigning, and the people who worked for Tachibana Laboratories dealing with wiring. Everyone is alive, as if nothing had happened. Indeed, if no one remembers, then it never happened. Then a message appears on the screen, quite positive: “What is not remembered never happened. You just need to rewrite that record.” The interesting thing is that technically, you can do this with self-hypnosis. The anime deals with something deeper, but it’s worth noting this practical aspect, as you can learn and improve your life.

Now we have the usual phrase “Present Day… Present Time”. This time it only appears in the middle of the episode because it makes a real reference to the great reset Lain did. She accepted herself as a deity, and with all the content she possesses, it no longer made sense to stay in the physical world, let alone interfere in human affairs. She is now part of a kind of cosmic community but has not ceased to be an individual. Who still retains her fears and regrets. Lain begins to talk to another version of herself and questions what Wired was really connected to. Her other version responds with another question: “Do people really need to know?” Look at how far they have come (humans). This version wants to start over, become God. Observe, test, and experiment. It is a remnant, literally, of her alter ego. Then Lain deletes her without knowing who she is because another version asks: “Then what are you, Lain?” Next, we have the encounter with her father. Something very nostalgic that never happened before. But Lain needed comfort, to vent, so she fabricates this “reality.” They are at the dinner table, which is floating in space. And Lain talks as if he were real. She talks about people. And her father says, “You love them, don’t you?” Lain cries, and he talks about making tea with cookies next time. It may seem surreal and totally unnecessary. But for those who can reach a certain level of consciousness within dreams, this becomes an incredible experiment. From personal experience, I don’t control, but I have lucid dreams. It’s as real as the reality that surrounds you now. Colors, smells, sounds, temperature. Absolutely everything. But I can only be aware inside and remember. I can’t manipulate, like flying, for example. When I try to do something that isn’t in the programming, it simply doesn’t happen, and if I force something, like changing things, I wake up. Someone more developed can shape everything, including deciding which dream to have and with whom. Some more hardcore ones can even contact disembodied beings (dead) and other dimensions/worlds.

Legend has it! xD “So, memories are not just from the past but can be from right now or even tomorrow”, Lain continues to tell us. However, this is the concept of Akashic records. Arisu is now an adult, meets Lain on the street, thinking she is one of her students. They say goodbye, and Arisu says, “See you later; we’ll meet anytime.” And Lain confirms. Because for her, just erase everything and redo anything at any time. Lain seems to be happy and at peace. Finally… Lain says, “I am here, and I will be with you forever.” Finally, Lain managed to accept herself and find peace. This is the Alchemical Marriage. There is no way to go back to what it was before.

Conclusion

Here, I will address my final thoughts on this analysis, but I need to divide it into two parts.

Firstly, regarding the work itself. Serial Experiments Lain doesn’t bring anything new. You can see that it’s the same thing in different works, books, comics… consider Matrix (which came after Lain, in 1999) for example (Matrix is influenced by Lain, but mainly by Ghost in The Shell), or Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. It’s exactly the same message. Another interesting reference would be Friedrich Nietzsche’s Übermensch (Superman or Overman), which fits perfectly with this ending. But, of course, Nietzsche’s vision tends to be interpreted only in the context of the material or real world. We also have Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which, like Lain, deals with a journey, a spiritual quest.

However, in SEL, we have a much more profound concept, extremely relevant from a spiritual/occult perspective, as it extrapolates the natural condition of human evolution, giving it a more methodical character, which is a natural theme in occultism and spiritual communities in general.

So, we have a unique combination where the creators efficiently combined ancestral cultures, occult techniques, and current research on the paranormal. They romanticized a narrative that reveals much about initiatory schools. Even in works like The Divine Comedy, which is mandatory reading in some initiatory schools, it doesn’t have the content that SEL has.

The doubt I have is: was a significant part of this work inspired, or did they really participate in orders, acquire certain knowledge, get disappointed with some aspects, and leave? This seems evident when they declare the death of the Knights. It reveals a great disappointment with orders like Freemasonry, which obviously possesses great knowledge. The knowledge of these orders goes beyond mysticism and ritualistic practices, even dealing with beings from other planets. But, on the other hand, its applicability in our world seems to have been lost.

The first time I watched it, I thought to myself: this is not an anime; it’s a documentary about initiation, only romanticized. Someone really wanted this to reach the public. Even the game (prototype) is the kind of subject that doesn’t create a great impact. It’s curious and interesting, but the lack of understanding naturally prevents it from being profitable material. And they knew this from the beginning.

I believe that in the future, this “anime” will still help many people seek answers. Part of this I am doing now, giving you hints about things I have understood, making relevant some questions that, for those who don’t know the basics of the subject, might go unnoticed. But there is still much here that I can’t decipher.

These are the aspects of the work itself. I have never read or seen anything with so many elements arranged in such a methodical way in a work about occultism. I could list a series of books and treatises, from black magic to ufology, and they would not be as expressive as this anime. In summary: In a few hours, you were introduced to a new world. You may think it’s just fiction/entertainment and let it go. It doesn’t matter; it doesn’t change the fact of the truth. On the other hand, you can understand that someone made use of one of the best means of communication to send a useful and timely message.

In a more personal aspect… Moving on to the second part of my analysis, I thought about writing a new treatise. However, it would be totally useless.

A day will come in your existence when there is no turning back. Maybe not in this incarnation. But you will be frustrated for being different, for not being able to influence people’s lives with what you discovered. Simply because things need to follow a natural course. We all need to go through this course.

The process that alchemists refer to as The Great Work is not something special and on the margins of society, quite the opposite. It is something natural that we will all go through, sooner or later. Just like Lain, waking us up to a greater connection, accepting ourselves, having enough love to respect the evolution of others, respecting the limitations, including those of the body, which indeed has many limitations but is an incredible machine of learning, experience, and feelings.

We will transcend the material world. It’s not an option; the question is only when?

Studies in occultism, alchemy, hermeticism, and spirituality in general give greater importance to this path. Many confuse it, as we saw in characters like Eiri and Chisa. Some people want to be liberated, others want power, and they enter occultism with these proposals.

Well, I have nothing more to say on the subject. I am happy to have finally managed to write this. And it’s been more than ten years that I wanted to do it.

Certainly, it is subject to revision. And I also know that there are many aspects I couldn’t reach. I ignored at least two topics to avoid worsening your understanding. From the layman’s point of view, I would be forcing the interpretation too much. Even so, I managed to conclude.

And as Hermes would say: — Complete is what I said about the Operation of Lain.

Reference: The Emerald Tablet, by Hermes Trismegistus.