[Legion] The Power of Delusion

One of my favourite things on television at the moment has to be Legion, a Marvel show which follows the story of David Haller, a troubled young man diagnosed as schizophrenic, who after a strange encounter discovers he has special powers that could change his life forever. A running theme through season 2 has been delusion, which is important because the whole show is told through David's warped, splintered mind as well as other thematic reasons. There's been a running monologue around the power of delusion that I couldn't find online, so I've transcribed it and thought I'd share it here.

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Episode One

There is a maze in the desert, carved from sand and rock. A vast labyrinth of pathways, corridors, a hundred miles long, a thousand miles wide. Full of twists and dead ends. Picture it. A puzzle you walk, and at the end of this maze is a prize, just waiting to be discovered. All you have to do is find your way through. Can you see the maze? It's walls and floors, and twists and turns. Good, because the maze you've created in your mind is itself a maze. There is no desert, no rock or sand, there is the only idea of it. But it is an idea that will come to dominate your every waking and sleeping moment. You're inside the maze now, you cannot escape. Welcome to madness.

And now we must speak of Shuang Zhu, who fell asleep one day and dreamed he was a butterfly. For hours he fluttered in the warm winter sun, until he no longer remembered he was Shuang Zhu. Suddenly, he awoke and he was Shuang Zhu again, but in that moment he didn't know was he Shuang Zhu who dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming he was Shuang Zhu. A delusion starts like any other idea, as an egg. Identical on the outside, perfectly formed, from the shell you wouldn't know anything was wrong. It's what's inside that matters.

Albert A had an idea, one day as he was walking he stumbled, and for a moment it was as if his right leg didn't belong to him. This is how it begins. The leg was clearly Alberts, it was attached to his body and when he pricked it he felt pain, but despite that, the idea grew. Such is the power of an idea. With every day that passed, Albert became more and more certain that this was not his leg. He decided he didn't want it anymore, and so one day he went to the hardware store. You see, an idea alone isn't enough. We have ideas all the time, random thoughts and theories. Most die before they can grow. For a delusion to thrive, other more rational ideas must be rejected, destroyed. Only then, can a delusion blossom into full blown psychosis.

Episode Two

A wise man once said, reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. For the tick, reality is a product of temperature and butyric acid. It's perception of the world is it's reality. The bloodhound has two hundred million scent receptors, it's perception of the world is based fundamentally on smell. A dog does not reason, a tick never thinks about the universe separate from its biological interactions with the universe. Human beings on the other hand...

Imagine a boy. From a young age he is taught wrong. [The rest of this bit is explained through the visuals and interactions between a boy and man, watch the show the get the full picture] Human beings are the only animals that form ideas about their world. We perceive it, not through our bodies, but through our minds. We must agree on what is real, because of this, we are the only animal on earth that goes mad.

Episode Three

You've heard of the placebo effect, but are you aware of the nocebo effect, in which the human body has a negative physical reaction to a suggested harm? Your mind has the power to create its own physical reality. Why do we yawn when we see others yawn? Throughout history there have been incidents, the dancing plague of 1518, the tanganyika laughter epidemic, the hindu milk miracle. Some believe they are a response to stress. Psychologists call it a conversion disorder, in that the body converts a mental stress to a set of physical symptoms, in this case a tic or spasm. And, like any disorder, it can be contagious. This kind of collective behavior is not limited to human beings. What we know is that in certain communities, under specific circumstances, an involuntary physical symptom developed by one person can become viral and spread from person... to person... to person... until the entire community is infected. And so my question to you is, if the idea of illness can become illness, what else about our reality is actually a disorder?

Episode Five

Have you ever seen a shape in a cloud, or a face in a knot of wood? Every few months Jesus appears to the unsuspecting in a piece of toast. Or does he? Human beings are pattern seeking animals. For thousands of years, our survival depended on being able to spot patterns in nature, to find predators hiding in the wild. And so now, centuries later, we are still looking, still searching every cloud for faces as if our lives depend on it. So strong is our belief that a pattern must exist, that the human mind will reject the pieces that don't fit. So where the pessimist sees danger hiding behind every back, the optimist sees friendship. Which is why when we encounter coincidence, we often see conspiracy.

Episode 7

Moral panic is defined as public anxiety or alarm in response to a perceived threat to the moral standards of society. The road to moral panic has several stops. The first is concern. This concern, limited at first, spreads from person to person. Amplified by cultural forces. Until rational concern becomes irrational fear. People come to believe something terrible is happening, something that they cannot see, that they can’t control. It has come for others, it will come for them. Whether or not the threat is real, the response certainly is, and it is often excessive. Ask yourself, what’s more terrifying - fear, or the frightened?

So, what have we learned? That a delusion is an idea. That an idea can be contagious. That human beings are pattern seeking animals, by which I mean we prefer ideas that fit a pattern. In other words, we don't believe what we see. We see what we believe, and when we are stressed, or our beliefs are challenged, when we feel threatened, the ideas we have can become irrational. One delusion leading to another, and another as the human mind struggles to maintain its identity. When this occurs, what starts as an egg, can become a monster.

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I thought this was incredibly thought provoking and a great commentary on the culture of outrage that we find ourselves getting more and more absorbed into. The show itself is just amazing, from the camera work and visuals, to the acting, soundtrack and story. If you don't watch it already, I hope this makes you think about trying it out. What did you think of this message? Let me know your thoughts and feelings down in the comment section and as always, make sure to follow me for the latest Cryptocurrency, Technology, Internet and Pop Culture updates. If you're a fan of strange or interesting YouTube videos, you might want to follow me on Twitter. Until next time, take it easy!

Source:
Images and text are from the show, Legion, which airs on FX

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