#myth.

i ate lunch AND dinner today

What is suggested in Twelve Monkeys is that being an End-time prophet is maddening; that is, by its nature, it jeopardizes one’s sanity. Caught between Kathryn with her beautiful world and his mission, Cole finds himself hoping, and finally convincing himself, that he is insane. “You don’t exist,” he tells the scientists of the future when they congratulate him on completing his mission. “You’re in my mind. I’m insane and you’re my insanity.” The psychological effect of seeing and experiencing two worlds is so disorienting that Cole despairingly tells the scientists of the future that he doesn’t care about his pardon, that all he wants is to get well. His disorientation is so complete that when he exclaims near the end of the film that “This is the present. This is not the past. This is not the future. This is right now!” the effect is as disorienting for the audience listening to him as it is for him as he tries to keep it straight for himself.

Whereas typically in Hinduism corpses and bodies are unclean and impure, Aghoris deliberately seek them out, dwelling in charnel grounds and engaging directly with dead bodies. They smear ashes from cremation on themselves and make implements and jewellery from bones and skulls. Aghori seek moksha (liberation) from the cycle of samsara (death and rebirth in this existence), and in order to do so embrace the idea that all opposites are illusory: ‘The Aghori actively embrace pollution and death in order to achieve a state of spiritual non-discrimination.’ They embrace pollution and impurity in order to transcend artificial social boundaries and break down reality, seeing past illusion into liberation.