Excerpts - "2001: A Space Odyssey"

From an old cassette tape ~ probably around 1968-69
No audio now exists.

Recently there was – and I think it’s been out for two years or so – there is a movie that has many of the principles that we teach in it. The movie is called “2001.” If you look at it and don’t really know what they’re playing, you’d think you’re seeing a fantastic science fiction movie. But the setting of the story is that some men are off on a very long jaunt on a space ship. The space ship is operated by a computer by the name of Hal. And the computer runs the whole show – the men merely take their orders from Hal. You can begin to get an idea of what Hal is as you watch it. 

Now, they’re putting many people into a hibernation state in this ship and so they don’t use up so much energy and oxygen and so forth – they put ‘em in boxes and hibernate them and Hal keeps little records on them – keeps ‘em all doin’ just so-and-so. And leave a very skeleton crew walkin’ around to take orders from Hal.

Finally Hal gets ill somewhere, you know, because Hal is pure program. And, of course, we are pure program, too, you know. And the Awareness in this little movie is subject to this man, you know. They’re subject to the computer. And one day the computer gets “high horse” a little bit, and so he tries to kill the boys that’s around. 

(He takes over completely.)

He takes over completely. He’s gonna run ‘em off. He let’s a whole bunch of the guys in the boxes die and he let’s these guys get out on a little door to go out and make a little excursion around the ship and he pretends something is sick back on his backside. And they go back there to fix it and he won’t let ‘em back in – he shuts the door. Blip!

So they get pretty well pushed out. Finally one man is left in it. And he decides that it’s high time that he, as a human being, takes over and that Hal only runs the technical work. So he gets him a screwdriver and he goes up and starts undoing one piece of Hal’s information at a time. In other words he re-evaluates Hal and he begins to take this out and reevaluate that one – “That I don’t need, that I don’t need, this one I don’t need, this I don’t need, this I don’t need, that I don’t need, that I don’t need.” And this one is left intact, but with an altogether different set of purposes. 

So it’s a very beautiful portrayal in a movie form of what we’re talking about. Sometime you might enjoy seeing 2001. Now, there’s many, many things in it and it’s all symbolic. And the man who directed the picture [Stanley Kubrick] and conceived of the picture has considerable knowledge of what he is doing. And he uses symbols for the things he wants to do. 

In the last end, he shows that there is a new man arises out of this whole situation. Now, it starts off as a little baby in the amniotic fluid in a membrane. But don’t jump that he’s saying “reincarnation.” He’s saying a new man comes from all this situation. 

And so you’ll find it very interesting. You’ll see where the various decisions are made starting off with “it’s important to have my way,” and we learn how to kill with a bone by beatin’ him over the head. You know? Whack, whack, whack – it kills and it gives quite a pleasure because it builds up the sense of power. These creatures look like they’re kinda subhuman.  And it’s again, like Max said a moment ago, don’t look out there and see all the Scribes and Pharisees – try it on for size. When you look at these, don’t look at all the apes, try it on for size and you will find, I believe, that you will enjoy taking a ride in the space ship and the movie 2001. And you are involved in the movie quite well. You get in the ship and take a ride once in a while.