Now, here is my theory, which aligns to your concluding thoughts. If we look at how we all make choices, don’t we explore the ‘what if’s’ within each one?

In the context of the movie, it seems like we see a linear, yet non-linear timeline of choices, potential outcomes, and realities emerge. It’s as if the entire movie was slowing down the apex moments of one man’s life, playing out several possibilities, having the ability to ‘go back’ and make different choices and have different outcomes ., the flashback(s) are just those apex decisions moments and the various realities revealed and experienced as different timelines.

I’ll leave it there for now .. thanks for reading

So I wrote a bunch of nothing. What did I get from the movie? I like the focus on the Education of Fred…
It is about his awakening to himself. His true self which is not who shaped him or the invasive entity. To separate from that identity he had to be educated and then finally make his choice. So he took the Blue Pill. Because he wanted to. Taking the Blue Pill would mean it is a psychologic treatise to all that has happened and life is normal. Taking the Red Pill would be being opened to the possibilities of the less liberal explanations and the more uncomfortable route.

A.D.

The blog author did a great job in giving options to encourage the audience to experience the possibilities fully. That is my impression at least.

I see both the literal & “beyond” options being on track. They are both occurring. I am aligned with Brian’s comment as well as the more literal psychology comments. For me The education of Fred is about choice when given the options. He ultimately chose the Blue Pill. We all dream of knowing the Truth but ultimately we end up taking the Blue Pill, but it is our choice. Humans gravitate towards safety and familiarity. What we “Should Be”, “Should Do” due to fear. There is a rationalization for things to be in their proper place. This the common normalizing thread I see in the different explanations on other sites (which can be valid as well).

Mother:
One of the supernatural clues for me is that his mother is somehow miraculously cured of her disease at the exact right moment to help him with the final step of his Education. There were elements of Oedipus in some of those scenes as well which made me uneasy…ha. It was also kind of like a life review without getting too new-agy. The mother is obviously who shaped him the most in his development years and throughout his teenage years. “Don’t let your mother put her fears into you” -PF. When he thought that she was the invasive entity was right before he realized that she is another element that shaped him. This is blaming external things for control of your life. When he realizes and comes to the understanding (she did so out of love), he is able to be free and make a choice and be responsible for his life. She said, “I do not know you anymore”. That is him doing things that would take him outside of what she was shaping him to be. The final exams, the presentation are intertwined with the lesson as well.

Prophet:
Thank God that the blog author transcribed the “Prophet” monologue. When watching I got a lot of the words but not all of them. I believe this is a central point to the movie for those who are willing to go there. The brilliance of the movie is having a “central point” for many different viewpoints of the audience. If you gravitate towards the literal, then are literal central points as well. But they can both be accurate, just in different spaces of thought (layers of existence). I lean towards Consciousness as being an irreducible priory. It is emergent in biological systems and experiences the awareness through a biocomputer called the brain. Could the invasive entity be the Ego? There are also similarities to the demiurge in neo-platonism where we are trapped light in matter. Life can be a trap that we can be free from within it. Nevertheless there are parallels to different mythologies and good writing triggers contemplation about them. There is both the psychology of life & the “Reality” happening simultaneously…

Girl:
The girl is a way to Freedom. He is shown a way to Freedom and in one scene where they enter the desert, he is feeling kind of lost in the car, whereas she enters the desert with excitement to explore. The desert is symbolic to me. She is the Morpheus archetype. She talks about the Cave of existence. He feels trapped in his current life which triggered the memories of his experience which gave him the Education he needed to be free. Although he did not choose her freedom, he chose. That is his freedom for if he just followed her, it would be her leading his life. She is the mysterious catalyst character that does not seem real. Like an invisible guide in his life that can be experienced through memories/realities in the Now. The word “now” was said many times with the final “Now” being accentuated with silence before and after. Maybe for the audience to feel it through the character.

A.D.

Only hang up is the reality that plays out at the end as if none of the prior issues with work and Karen leaving had ever occured.

Oof what a movie with so many layers.. absolutely loved it!

I also agree with the comment above that our actual human bodies are the invasive species keeping us from experiencing time in the way that’s portrayed while on the merc.

The invasive species is the human being. Hear me out. From the point of view of our soul/consciousness. Our consciousness is all knowing, time traveling and is aware of multiple timelines. It is once our body traps it in our “prison” that we are forced by the body into one timeline, linear time. The human body is the invasive species.

I think the mother thing where he keeps remembering being a baby and such. I think this was the first time his timeline split. He had a timeline where he goes out of the room and falls down the stairs. Maybe he is killed, permanently handicapped I imagine there are multiple timelines with varying degrees of injury.

He kept drawing pictures of what we thought was Cindy. Nope, I think it was his mother. He obviously loved her but he was also scared of her and possibly hated her. He didn’t know he was drawing her specifically. When she caught him out of his room and stopped him from falling down the stairs she yelled at him. This traumatized him. This was why her mouth was central. This is why he says “it was you” he has been traumatized but never knew why.

I think all the different “trips” were possible outcomes of his life. I think people were able to interact with each other through different trips.

Cindy chose a life of merc addiction. She didn’t die. She just never finished high school, never became anything. She just disappeared. If she died people would have remembered,his teacher would have remembered.She told him she saw 1000 skylines. I think this points to her being a merc addict. I do believe she saved him that night, whether mouth to mouth or just talking him down on his bad trip. I think he did hit they guy with the lamp and that might be why he blacked out some of this.

When they are in the drug house on the mattress and he gets the necklace and it breaks. She says “I’ll find it again”. She says this because it is a trip. And she knows it, she is obviously more experienced on merc.It is one of the possible outcomes for his life. Like the desert and the house and painting her. But he ultimately chose the life he seemed bored with.

While tripping on merc he saw all his timelines,he had multiple with Cindy but he ultimately did not choose her.

This movie is pretty good and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it a week later.

I’m sure I missed something and I’m not sure I’m even close on these.

When i heard the Prophet’s monologue, my mind instantly interpreted it as being influenced by Hinduism’s Vedanta school of thought.

In Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, it is believed that Consciousness(Supreme Reality) comes in contact with a force called Maya(Illusion). Maya is “the powerful force that creates the cosmic illusion that the phenomenal world is real.” The Consciousness in each of us believes itself to be the Body which decays and dies but the Consciousness itself is infinite, immortal and all-pervasive.

Cindy also says in her monologue about labeling things which are “infinite and unknowable”.

The life form that is mentioned in the Prophet’s monologue trying to control our consciousness seemed to me to mean as the force of Maya.

P.S. Been following this site for 3-4 years now. I almost exclusively watch movies/shows that demand an explanation and invariably i come to this site immediately after watching any movie. A Big Thanks to Taylorholmes for all that he does!

Cheers!