The Labyrinth (the film) is about DID Mind Control

Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is the mind controlled victim.

Jareth (David Bowie), who controls the Labyrinth, is the handler/abuser. He created the Labyrinth for her.

All of the puppets inside of the Labyrinth obey Jareth at first, but Sarah wins them over one by one and they rally to her cause instead.

At the end of the movie, all of the puppets show up in Sarah’s mirror and ask her if she still needs them. The puppets were actually a part of her all along (dissociated personalities, created initially by Jareth to obey Jareth), since they show up in her mirror/reflection.

In the beginning of the film Sarah is practicing some lines from a play (I think? It’s like a poem), but she has trouble with the ending. She always forgets the last lines… and then the town clock bell chimes and she realizes too much time has passed. It’s made clear that she has a problem with keeping track of time.

In fact, time is a big theme throughout the entire film… and Jareth controls the time in the Labyrinth. Time is a big deal with DID.

At at the end of the movie Sarah is reciting the lines from the play again as Jareth tries to recapture her. But this time she remembers her lines… “you have no power me,” to which the entire Labyrinth literally breaks apart.

And there you have it, folk.

This has always been one of my all time favorite films since I was a kid and maybe I’m crazy for saying it but I really believe this is a story about how to break free from the labyrinth, how to break free from mind control, how to love yourself and heal, etc.

I have wanted to do this for awhile now and I don’t know what I was waiting for. Maybe it’s crazy. Maybe the film didn’t mean to say what it is saying… but I am certain now that it is saying something. At least, I am getting this message from it.

It’s about a girl who breaks free.

a reply to: geezlouise

But this time she remembers her lines… “you have no power me,” to which the entire Labyrinth literally breaks apart.

Similar to "you're nothing but a pack of cards!" No?
www.victorianweb.org...

Alice redux. Coming of age fantasy classic. Becoming one's self.

it didn't work to well on Bret...

a reply to: Phage

Oh my god!

Mind blown. I need a minute after that, lol.

a reply to: geezlouise

Great post! It's cool when a movie touches your soul like that. It's almost the same idea as the Wizard of Oz in that she can't wake up from the dream until she realizes her inner Queen (King) energy that she's the one in charge. In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy gets bonked on the head and shows up in oz. I never watched The Labyrinth but my wife talk about it making an impression on her. Maybe I'll rent it after your post. The clip you posted has me intrigued. Just out of curosity, how did the main heroine first end up in the Labyrinth?

P.S. Bowie's pants were scary tight! Great catalog of music though.

Though it was one of my favorite movies as a kid, there is definitely some occult stuff going on. There's all kinds of allusions to the meaning of this song, even suggesting that it's about taking a girls virginity.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Holy moly Wizard of Oz, too!

My mind is exploding.

Ok so Jareth lures Sarah into the labyrinth... but it's tricky.

She is babysitting her little brother and he's crying and she's annoyed so she says "the words" which invite Jareth's trolls to steal her baby brother. Then Sarah has to go through the Labyrinth to get her baby brother back.

This could be representative of the "permission" that we give that is then used against us later on, like... "didn't you want this? didn't you ask for this?" In fact, Jareth accuses Sarah of asking for this/wanting this all along.

WOW!

a reply to: geezlouise

Growing up, I've watched this movie plenty of times. I was too young and unaware of such things to ever make the connection. After reading your op, I can look back and see many DID correlations,... especially the symbolism of the shattered mirror. Star and Flagged! I anticipate watching it again with this new view. I'm sure there are tons of other oldie/classic movies/literature full of symbolism previously unknown to me, that I am yet to re-evaluate since I've become aware of such concepts. I'll never watch one of my childhood reruns the same!

I've never read Alice in Wonderland but I'm reading about it on wikipedia right now and for some reason I had to stop when the mouse gives the others a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror (in an attempt to dry them all off, that's hilarious).

I clicked on William the Conqueror (it was linked) to learn more about that, and the image there is of the William the Conqueror on the Bayeux Tapestry which I actually covered in my last Art History course... and one really interesting thing about the Bayeux Tapestry is that only one woman shows up in it. It's like hundreds of feet long covering scenes of preparation for war and battle and etc, so this one woman is interesting and no one knows what it means or who she is:

"There is a panel with what appears to be a clergyman touching or possibly striking a woman's face. No one knows the meaning of the caption above this scene ubi unus clericus et Ælfgyva, "where [or in which/during which] a certain cleric and Ælfgyua", a Latinised version of Ælfgifu, a popular Anglo-Saxon woman's name (literally: 'Elf's Gift').[21] The elided AE shows familiarity with English spelling.[21] There are two naked male figures in the border below this figure; the one directly below the figure is squatting and displaying genitalia, a scene that was frequently censored in former reproductions. However, similar naked figures appear elsewhere in the lower border where there seems to be no connection at all with the main action.[22] Harold had a younger sister named Ælfgyva / Ælfgifu (her name is spelt Alveva in Domesday) who was possibly promised to William by Harold or even betrothed to him, but she died c.1066 prior to the invasion [29]"

classes.maxwell.syr.edu...

So there's that.

a reply to: geezlouise

At the start of the movie when Sarah is in the park an owl is standing on one of those obelisk things as if watching/monitoring her. The Symbol of the Minerval Church of the Bavarian Illuminati features a watchful owl. Sarah is constantly watched as later in the film there are eyeball creatures stuck to the walls of the labyrinth.

And there is a similarity between this film, The Wizard of OZ and Alice in Wonderland where the protagonist partakes in drug-laden food. In the context of mind control programming this causes amplification effects of the programming and increases fear and terror in the victim.

a reply to: Tindalos2013

It's like these stories are trying to tell us how we get trapped in the first place, and how to break free.

a reply to: geezlouise
The stories are about adolescents. Coming of age. Becoming who they are.

I've been a big fan of these kind of stories since childhood, especially the Alice books and the Labyrinth movie. One thing to keep in mind though, is that these stories about how a young girl's head works, are usually written by older men. That may or may not mean anything to you. Lewis Carrol in particular had questionable proclivities. Look into his photography.

I like your interpretation. Mind blown.

a reply to: geezlouise

You ever read the theory of Harry Potter all being in his head? Or that he's in an insane asylum actually.

When harry dies and is talking to dumbledore he asks if this is all real or in his head and dumbledore says what's the difference? (Sorry not the actual quote)

Have fun

a reply to: Phage

Yes.

There is this recurring theme, the individual waking up to the illusion.

1. The character gets sucked into another place/illusion/dreamworld which is supposedly controlled by specific authoritative characters.

2. The character believes in the power of the authority figures who supposedly rules that place.

3. The character realizes it's all baloney, and this realization empowers them.

I think we all go through it naturally, growing up. There's this feeling like... everyone is trying to push their beliefs on you, and mold you, and you try to conform but it doesn't work so you end up breaking away from that and going your own way and yes, becoming yourself. Establishing autonomy. Also you find out what a load of crap you've been feed all along... we have all faced that betrayal.

Cool interpretation, mental health. I've have never thought of it that way. But if you're going the DID/Multiple Personality Disorder route, wouldn't it be easier to imply Jareth is the strongest of the MPs battling it out in her mind? Unless that's what you mean to begin with and I misunderstood you, you make it seem like Jareth is implied to be someone other than another part of herself. I think I prefer interpreting Jareth being an malevolent part of herself she confronts, rather than someone else entirely. It just makes more sense.

a reply to: Nyiah

That's another way to look at it.

However Jareth, for me, is a person that weaved a spell and Sarah fell for it. I know this happens naturally and sometimes even accidentally I think in nature, between two people, or one person and a group of people, like one person and a church/university/school of thought/family/political parties, and etc. It's not all in your head all of the time, other people get involved.

These stories usually follow a pattern of a girl who doesn't want to grow up, who goes into a strange land and has to sort through a lot of nonsense to find her way back. The people and situations she encounters mirror how children may view the world of adults. Once she learns to decide for herself what is true and what is good, and ultimately stop blindly obeying authority, she returns home and grows up. They're stories about thinking for oneself.

Personally, I think these stories also try to say that a person does not have to lose her innocence or purity in order to grow up. The world tries to tell us that kind people are naive, the unspoken extension of which is that cruel people are smart. These stories seem to be telling us "You know that's not true. Trust yourself!" Being childlike is not the same as being childish. As you get older, keep the parts of yourself that are most beautiful.

What you wrote about the other characters being multiple identities goes along with the territory of the dreamworld being in the protagonist's head. All of the characters will either be based on people from her real life, or facets of herself. I could get into how all of this applies to reality more than we realize, but I'm already boring even myself.

a reply to: geezlouise
Add the adolescent dream that "I'm not really who I seem to be. I'm actually a Goblin Queen" and you've got it. Thing is, it turns out that being the Goblin Queen turns out to be much worse than just plain old Sarah. "There's no place like home."




You should add Peter Pan to the list, btw. Have you seen this one? Best ever.

www.imdb.com...