IDENTICAL! Mass Effect 3 & The Law Of One (spoilers)

[Spoiler-free section]

After weeks of toiling at the controls of my Xbox 360 console, I finally beat Mass Effect 3 today. The game was great, really enjoyed it all, but as i played through i was surprised to notice that the storyline featured hints of the content from The Law Of One series. After completing the game and watching the ending sequence, i was nothing short of floored - the ending was a near exact take on the Law Of One concepts.

First of all, for those unfamiliar with the game;
Mass Effect 3 (Wiki)

Secondly, for those unfamiliar with The Law Of One series:
Law Of One resource page
Law Of One books 1-5 (pdf versions) (free)

I should get out of the way that i have read all five of the Law Of One books and found they adhered very closely to my pre-existing system of belief. So i do have a fairly decent knowledge on the content within those books.

Also, just for the record (and given all the internet heat), I also wanna say that i thought the ending was amazing! Understood where they went with it, i think, and loved every second. Except that all my effort with Jack (an in-game female character) went nowhere!

The Similarities

Ok, so what first made me link the Law Of One with Mass Effect 3 storyline?

The Reapers' Purpose

The over-arching theme of the game's 'bad guys', The Reapers, is that they are huge synthetic lifeforms tasked with wiping out pretty much all life from the galaxy every 50,000 years. This mass cleansing episode is referred to as 'The Harvest'.

The term 'Harvest' is referred to directly in The Law Of One material. It is the name given to the cycle of time whereas every 75,000 years the 'Harvest' occurs and essentially gives every soul a chance to take a ‘step-up’ the spiritual evolution ladder - it acts as a 'Catalyst' for spiritual evolution leading to an ascension-like process.

Catalysts

One of the basic concepts in The Law Of One is that we are given certain 'catalysts' that act as a platform of opportunity for the experiencer/person to make certain 'choices' which could contribute to their spiritual evolution, aligning them with further opportunity to 'evolve' so to speak. (It sounds a bit more 'out there' when summarized so heavily like this though.) These choices lead us to polarize one way or the other – Service To Others or Service To Self.

The above paragraph, with its references to 'choices', is an apt description of the main in-game mechanism to advance gameplay and storyline - the game is all about hard choices. Just like in real life, the catalyst can present itself in unexpected and surprising ways, allowing the experiencer to make any choice s/he thinks are right and therefore advance his/her own storyline. Much like The Law Of One, the choices/catalysts in the game also have a polarizing effect on your in-game character by making you Paragon (good) or Renegade (bad).

These are subtle and fundamental examples of how this link between the two sources reveals itself, there are other examples that i won't include – don’t want this to go on for too long. However, when looking at this idea, the game's ending drove it home even further.

[SPOILER SECTION]

First and final warning for MAJOR SPOILERS below
First and final warning for MAJOR SPOILERS below
First and final warning for MAJOR SPOILERS below

Remembering that there are apparently 17 different endings available (with only 2 actual major different ending-types though), here is a video of the ending i got for Mass Effect 3:



The ending basically went like this:

A massive weapon designed to destroy The Reapers was constructed, called 'The Crucible'. This weapon had to find a'Catalyst' in order to be able to be activated. The game's storyline revealed that the Catalyst was actually a massive space station sanctuary known as 'The Citadel'. Once the Crucible and the Catalyst were brought together, the Harvest was able to be avoided (or so we were led to believe).

In the end, the Harvest was bound to succeed as it was the all-seeing, beyond divine ‘creator’ characters bidding. The reason for The Harvest is due to more Law Of One-like concepts.

Universal Laws

The Law Of One refers to, but does not fully extrapolate on some specific universal Laws – two of these are known as The Law Of Confusion and The Law of Free-Will. The Law Of Confusion, for example, seems to dictate that certain beings in the universe cannot know certain information at certain times as it would interfere with their spiritual evolution by changing the way they make their choices – kinda like a way to avoid real-life spoilers. Point is, it’s a universal Law or protocol, put in place to ‘manage’ life-forms and their evolution and ensure none ‘jump the cue’ (again, this sounds a bit out there when summarized so heavily).

In the Mass Effect 3 game ending, we encounter this ‘creator’-type character who informs us that the reason for The Reapers wiping out all organic life every 50,000 is based on The Law Of Chaos, that is, that The Reapers are creation’s ‘solution’ to chaos. By releasing The Reapers every 50,000 years it ensures chaos will always exist. The wording and feel behind this Law, that of 'universal spiritual management' felt VERY much like the wording and feel of similar Universal Laws in the Law Of One.

Ultimate Sacrifice

The final nail in the coffin for this idea that Mass Effect 3 borrowed heavily from The Law Of One, was the final tough choice for the main character, Commander Sheppard. In a nutshell, Sheppard must choose to take either the path of destruction and destroy The Reapers (but have them likely return next cycle) – a Service To Self choice (or Renegade); or sacrifice himself so that the next cycle commences without the Reaper threat (despite a sever technological reduction galaxy-wide) – a Service To Others choice (or Paragon).

This was the moment that floored me. The fact that game had reflected the Service To Others/Service To Self dichotomy so perfectly and manifested it in a great sci-fi storyline showed me that they were serious about including this Law Of One material as the spine for its storyline. The fact that The Harvest was unavoidable also strongly reflected the Law Of One. If The Harvest had been avoided through heroic action then I doubt this thread would exist – but it didn’t, and the game developers took a MASSIVE gamble on making sure The Harvest was unstoppable, just like The Law Of One - a gamble that the majority of gamers seem to have hated.

So what does anyone think? I know this is WWAAYY too much thought and analysis on a simple video game, but I find really fascinating the seeming exposing of The Law Of One material in a subtle way to the mainstream, especially given that this is 2012. I could give many more examples including DNA upgrades, positive outcome stemming from negatives action and vice-versa, 'windows of opportunity', universal energy and other ideas which proliferate in The Law Of One material and which also appear in the game, but it’d be even more overkill than this thread already is to include it all lol. Remember, Law Of One was channelled in 1981.

Let’s discuss

They've been putting out clues left and right. that is the good guys have been, not the evil ones.

reply to post by srsen


This is a well explained thread. I enjoyed it. Now I wish I had money for an xbox360... Maybe I'll come in on the next gaming cycle, if we're still here.

Looks like I have some new books to read. I really like the premise, and I am always looking for new info, about what I may be doing here, and what I may want to do differently. Thanks for the links.

I actually had a dream about a month ago that matches this exactly. Let me see If I can relate it clearly.

I was on a bus presumably on the way to college classes. I looked up and saw a planet peaking through the clouds, and then I saw more, and moons too. These planets looked beautiful all different colors and everything. In my dreams whatever I "notice" get's noticed by all other dream characters, so now the energy on the bus went round and round, haha.

Now everyone around (never had a full city in any dreams and sooo many people before) has noticed; everyone is looking up into the sky. The first thing anyone says is this. "that's fake." I'm thinking about project blue beam at this point, but I argue that they have to be real. At this point everyone seems to go back to their normal day. I go to get some pizza, and even pay for it with exact change (specific and weird for a dream). I never got to eat it.

I did not get any pizza because I dropped it on the floor. In the distance ahead of me all these robots were hitting the ground like they were launched from some orbital platform. Think Space marine orbital bombardment. They unfolded into all different robot shapes and different weapons and such. I guess you could compare them to transformers, but imagine that there is about one robot for every 10 people.

These guys are killing everybody, and I am running like mad trying to get away, but they are about 20ft tall and fast, well some are slow, the ones that had tracks instead of legs. They had lasers and grenades and homing anti human missiles.

I fought these guys for awhile and kept throeing grenades back at this one particular robot that keeps locking it's lasers on me. I'm jumping around flipping and going crazy throwing bombs. He finally blows up and drops a health pack and 12 grenades, which is really funny because I havn't gamed in about 7 years.

To cut this short I had blown up enough of the guys close to us, that our presence was now a secret. However they re-engaged us from the air again. My dreams always know where I am dang cheaters, haha. I realized I was only prolonging the terror and dread with my futile heroics. I stepped out into the light, and Zap.

I wake up hungry for pizza and having a weird erie feeling that this was no dream. I go to catch the bus and ride off to my morning college classes. I think about this everyday, and I guess I wouldn't be too surprised to see it come to pass, heck who knows.

THE END.

Hearing your story made me feel much better about everything. Sort of the nothing matters, cause you always get a reset to try again feeling. I have had it forever, never worrying about death. But now I don't even worry about losing games bigger than life. My experiences and stories like "the one," have freed me to lead an honest life unto myself, and give up the fear.

Also in Warhammer 40K one of the teams or races are these non-living non-dead guys whos whole purpose is to wipe out life...

Time to go READ!

Life is a crazy ride.

reply to post by Ghost375


I have noticed this in games from when I was young. Games for the most part involve service to other mentalities, and are good learning experiences. My kids will be playing games, whenever I have kids. After I play them first hah.

I wish I could think of some good examples, and some examples of hidden knowledge that I have noticed. Strange metaphors and hidden insight are in so many games. It's like there is some agenda to help people along.


To the OP:
Is this the Ra Material?? I have also been meaning to read that. But it seems this may be ONE(haha) in the same??

reply to post by Dustytoad


Yes, The Law of One is commonly known as the Ra Material.

Much love!

Edit to add: For a much shorter and in my opinion easier read check out the "window of opportunity" thread on our own ATS forums that srsen alluded to in his OP. Much of the underlying message is very similar.

Edited down version

ATS thread

reply to post by Dustytoad


Haha mate it sounds like you dreamt the Mass Effect 3 game lol!!! Awesome dream though

As far as further reading goes, The Law Of One is quite advanced stuff. Not the easiest read in the world. But if you can get through it all, its amazing stuff. I took some really great things out of it, most of which just re-affirmed my own belief system, but i couldn't recommend it more! I hope you enjoy it!!

I think many games haves endings where you can choose to be evil, or good. Star Wars games have alot of these.

Originally posted by soulshn
reply to post by Dustytoad

 

Yes, The Law of One is commonly known as the Ra Material.

Much love!

Yeah, either works for me. I just refer to it mostly as The Law Of One as mentioning Ra often makes people incorrectly link it to Egyptology, so Law Of One works for me a bit better But yeah Dusty, as Soulshn says, its the same thing.

Originally posted by mr10k
I think many games haves endings where you can choose to be evil, or good. Star Wars games have alot of these.

your absolutely right, it is a common theme, but the way this was done the words that were used, the general context of the happenings, it all SCREAMED Law Of One/Ra material. I'm still dumbfounded by the similarities to be honest!

Originally posted by srsen
your absolutely right, it is a common theme, but the way this was done the words that were used, the general context of the happenings, it all SCREAMED Law Of One/Ra material. I'm still dumbfounded by the similarities to be honest!

I am just blown away by the increasing frequency with which i am seeing this material mentioned in my online travels here lately. Of course, with us progressing rapidly through 2012 could it be any other way?

reply to post by srsen


I like a good hard read. They're the best. I recently came in to possession of "The Red Book." by Carl Jung. It's kind of along the same vein in that it's about overcoming the dark side. He fought his shadow self went into insanity and came out the other side as the Hero character.

Understanding psychology is an important first step to throwing off any kind of controlling techniques no matter the source.

So yea Advanced concepts is the name of the game.

Sorry for a little off topic-ness. My mind is going in a lot of directions, as always when I get intellectually stimulated.



EDIT: to soulshn YES I almost said that. These books want me to read them, no, NEED me too.

reply to post by Dustytoad


I edited my earlier post so you may not have seen it. For a much shorter read while still getting a taste of some of the ideas presented in the Law of One check out the "Window of Opportunity" thread i linked above. i think you will enjoy it immensely.

reply to post by srsen


Ya your right, I have not even finished the second mass effect, much less part three. But there is a lot of coincidences in the story plots to be anything but coincidental. I however do not think the story plot is all that great, its a good game for sure, but is it something great. Nah in my opinion it could of been better.

And I know what you mean, it's like the developers have been trolling ATS particularly the more crazy threads looking for ideas. Oh and the ideas are just waiting for them to be found. I have not read the whole law of one thing because I got a habit of becoming bored easily, and a bit half way trough it I did just that but it does not surprise me that there are some concepts from that have been brought into videogames, or vice versa.

However there are a lot more influeces in the whole mass effect world then that, for instance one of the obvious is the whole Cthulhu Mythos and it's deities. I mean it's kind of pretty obvious, since the main enemies in the game are giant synthetic robotic understandable to current human minds creatures, that just happen to live in the depths of the void/space and come around every once in a great while to harvest and destroy all life. The old gods, or as the geth call them in the game the old machines.

And not only that but the reapers look like giant mechanical squids as well. And I suppose it's also got some of the myths of the Greek primordial gods in there as well all with a new age mechanical twist.

Originally posted by soulshn
I am just blown away by the increasing frequency with which i am seeing this material mentioned in my online travels here lately. Of course, with us progressing rapidly through 2012 could it be any other way?

Well you cannot unhear truth right? So the material is slowly getting grester exposure and its speaking to people. Its a great thing - as you seem to be aware, the principals contained within the Ra material couldn't be any more open to free will and an individuals interpretation if they tried. If more people read those books, the world wouldbe a better place i reckon.

Originally posted by Dustytoad
reply to post by srsen

 

I like a good hard read. They're the best. I recently came in to possession of "The Red Book." by Carl Jung. It's kind of along the same vein in that it's about overcoming the dark side. He fought his shadow self went into insanity and came out the other side as the Hero character.

Understanding psychology is an important first step to throwing off any kind of controlling techniques no matter the source.

So yea Advanced concepts is the name of the game.

Sorry for a little off topic-ness. My mind is going in a lot of directions, as always when I get intellectually stimulated.

EDIT: to soulshn YES I almost said that. These books want me to read them, no, NEED me too.

edit on 3/18/2012 by Dustytoad because: (no reason given)

edit on 3/18/2012 by Dustytoad because: (no reason given)

Then hold on tight mate and get downloading - you will really like em! Also, maybestart with the link Soulshn suggested - The Hidden Hand thread. That was what originally led me to the Law Of One and i thought it was a great intro to wet your appetite!

Originally posted by galadofwarthethird
reply to post by srsen

 

Ya your right, I have not even finished the second mass effect, much less part three. But there is a lot of coincidences in the story plots to be anything but coincidental. I however do not think the story plot is all that great, its a good game for sure, but is it something great. Nah in my opinion it could of been better.

And I know what you mean, it's like the developers have been trolling ATS particularly the more crazy threads looking for ideas.

Oh and the ideas are just waiting for them to be found. I have not read the whole law of one thing because I got a habit of becoming bored easily, and a bit half way trough it I did just that but it does not surprise me that there are some concepts from that have been brought into videogames, or vice versa.

However there are a lot more influeces in the whole mass effect world then that, for instance one of the obvious is the whole Cthulhu Mythos and it's deities. I mean it's kind of pretty obvious, since the main enemies in the game are giant synthetic robotic understandable to current human minds creatures, that just happen to live in the depths of the void/space and come around every once in a great while to harvest and destroy all life. The old gods, or as the geth call them in the game the old machines.

And not only that but the reapers look like giant mechanical squids as well. And I suppose it's also got some of the myths of the Greek primordial gods in there as well all with a new age mechanical twist.

Haven't read any of the Cthulhu material but will one day - i had no idea the Mass Effect series borrowed ideas from it.

Also, i think if you finish playing through ME2 then hit up ME3 you'll find the story fleshing it selfout beautifully - it really pulls you in and then knocks you down at its conclusion!

reply to post by soulshn


very cool, will do!

What's the relation of the linked thread and the short version of the book's ideas??

Before I jump in blindly..

reply to post by Dustytoad


It is two 'different' 'people' sharing the same information but going about it in different ways. I would recommend reading the edited down version as it is just the relevant questions and the OP's answers. That way you will not have to wade through a bunch of garbage to get to the 'core' of the message. It starts off a little slow for reasons you will very quickly realize, but one you get half way in you will be very glad you stuck with it.

Much Love!

reply to post by soulshn


So the thread IS the edited version just with added comments that could bog me down? So just skip the thread? or would I miss some valuable insight from 3rd parties, and in such a case skip the edited version and go right into the thread?

Skip the thread, read the edited down version.

reply to post by soulshn


I actually read this a long time ago... I don't think I understood it last time. My Soul knows what this person is talking about. This is for real. They are telling the truth. I feel it in my spine. This fits the BIG game as I call it. I also now realize that the book I read "handbook to a new paradigm." was written by these people.

It uses much of the same wording. However it was going for a positive harvest. "I am a human becoming, help me to become." It talks about the same Laws and that we needed to stop having victim consciousness, because it draws victim experiences for our lives. And that there was a power here stopping us from advancing, but the book withheld who the enemy was, saying that that knowledge was unimportant because we needed to focus on ourselves and solutions not problems and enemies.

It talked about not waiting for a savior to come, because it's not going to happen. It would violate free will.

I am reawakening to my old path of self expansion into the light. And how did I forget all of this knowledge on my path?

[color=111986]"Then there is the Orion Empire Group. Their purposes in visiting you are more along the Negative lines. They mainly target the ones you have called "Lightworkers". They try to put them off their assignments and try to spread fear. They will not actually 'harm' you physically. Mainly their modus operandi is to restrict you, and deflect you from your path. They often engage in psychic attacks that the 'Lightworker' is unaware of, but it does often drain away much of their energy, and make them lack motivation."

I think I got my answer. This is actually the reason I stopped meditating. There was a time when I lost much sleep for months. This is something I must always deal with.


I cannot tell you how much I owe you for bringing this to light for me. Is your Name Soul Shine? That's how I keep reading it. Very fitting if that's what it is.


thank you, thank you,

Thank You!

Glad you find Hidden Hand stuff interesting - wait till you crack Ra material open!!

Will be back tomorrow to discuss guys - till then, keep reading and/or playing Mass Effect 3

Let's hope we can get some more discussion happening.

Also, Dustytoad - the thing i loved most bout this sort of info is that is lets you realise that paths to spiritual evolution, so to speak, dont have to be so regimented and stiff. I always had a feeling too that being so restrictively spiritual you cant breath was not a good idea!