By brother initiate Lin Jin-feng,
Taipei News GroupHave you ever wondered what it would be like if everything you ever imagined immediately came true? In the movie Sphere, a group of elite researchers from the United States unexpectedly receives this amazing gift. And their story is worthy of viewers' serious reflection.
Early in the film, psychologist Dr. Norman Johnson shocks the US government with a false research report on "Unknown Life Forms" that describes possible contact between human beings and extraterrestrials. His report mentions some of his friends: mathematician Harry Adams, astrophysicist Ted Fielding, and biochemist Beth Halpern, all of whom have latent negative sentiments lurking in their subconscious minds. Norman has been afraid of jellyfish and sea snakes since childhood; Harry fears squids; and Beth is prone to suicidal thoughts.
Subsequently, NASA detects a spacecraft lying in the ocean a thousand feet under water, and suspects that it was left behind by extraterrestrials. It thus brings together the elite researchers mentioned in Dr. Johnson's report and launches an underwater expedition. Led by U.S. Navy Captain Harold Barnes, several members descend to a base deep in the ocean.
On the ocean floor, the explorers find a huge golden sphere that has no entrance, but seems to contain life! It is later confirmed that all those who have contemplated the sphere are able to immediately realize their feelings and thoughts. But none of the scientists is aware of possessing this "super human" ability to make every wish come true. Instead, they continuously inflict harm on each other through their negative thoughts. After a chain of terrible accidents that leave many researchers and team members dead, only three - Harry, Norman and Beth - survive.
The disasters begin with Norman, who has dreaded jellyfish since childhood. When he sees a character named Vicky enter the water, he is overcome by this phobia, which inadvertently generates a group of jellyfish that kill Vicky. Next, Harry reads a book about giant monsters at the bottom of the sea, and this stirs up his hidden phobia about squids. As a result, in a dream, his subconscious mind creates a giant squid that attacks the group's underwater base, severely damaging it and killing many people. Finally, Beth, who has suicidal tendencies, sets off the automatic triggering system of a time bomb. Thus, the negative thoughts and images hidden in the characters' minds lead to the project's failure and the loss of many lives. Once the time bomb is activated, the researchers seek to escape in a rescue submarine. And after a prolonged struggle between their positive and negative thoughts, they finally escape from danger and make it to the surface.
Back on land, they do not know how they will respond to a pending debriefing about their findings. Their underwater expedition has resulted in many casualties and destroyed their underwater base and billion-dollar equipment. Will anyone believe their story, which will appear to be nothing short of a myth? How can a giant squid, a jellyfish and sea snakes exist at a depth of a thousand feet and kill people, not to mention the huge golden sphere that has bestowed supernatural abilities on them? Their base has been totally destroyed; all the others are dead. Why have the three of them survived?
Although their supernatural powers are still with them, they are afraid that the monsters in their nightmares may appear by their bedsides. What should they do? If the golden sphere falls into the hands of evil people, there may be a major disaster, but who are the real evil ones? They feel that they are, after finding that, despite being top scientists and good citizens, once they possess supernatural powers, they harm each other with the most distorted, vile, vicious and bizarre thinking. They realize that, although the supernatural ability to turn their thoughts into reality is indeed a superb gift, unfortunately, the thoughts generated by their minds have not been to the benefit of humankind. And this renders them unqualified to possess this greatest of all gifts in human history. Finally, they unanimously agree to forget about the golden sphere and their supernatural abilities.
Thus, in the film Sphere, a fantastic golden sphere is supposed to bring infinite happiness to humankind, but instead brings only great disaster.
The film's story line relates directly to our own lives as spiritual practitioners. After embarking on the path of on spiritual practice, we too gradually come to possess supernatural powers. But, unlike the characters in the movie, in daily life we need to train our minds so as to generate only positive thoughts at all times, regardless of the situation. Only then can we be prepared to receive God's abundant and gracious gifts, and enable ourselves to apply them properly. Otherwise, even when God gives us gifts and blessings, we will be unable to enjoy them.
