Wednesday, March 11, 2026

The Shimmer and the Shadow


As you know, Alex Garland's 2018 film Annihilation has been at the center of my attention since its release. And my admiration for it only grows with every rewatch, believe it.


There are so many layers, so much subtext and so many synchronicities with this film that it boggles the mind. It's not so much a film as it is a dream, one you participate in, just by watching.

I recently did a very deep dive into Annihilation for a livestream, which is available for all and sundry. That's how important I believe this film is. 

Topics include:
  • HP Lovecraft and "The Colour Out of Space"
  • Roadside Picnic and Stalker
  • Stalker and the Book of Revelation
  • The "green hell" of the jungle
  • Ego death and annihilation throughout history
And quite a lot more besides.

The livestream is available for you to watch now, thanks to the support of Secret Sun patrons and subscribers. 



And scroll down for more Annihilation Information...

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An argument can be made that Alex Garland rewrote Jeff VanDerMeer’s novel Annihilation as a mystical (or even psychedelic) initiation allegory, focused on the goal of “ego death.”
  • Ego death is a “complete loss of subjective self-identity.”
  • The experience seems to entail a destruction of all previous reference points in the individual’s life.
  • Muslim Sufis call it “fana” – annihilation – and medieval Jewish Kabbalists termed it the “Kiss Of Death.”
  • The annihilation concept is also used in Eastern religions to describe a “permanent loss of attachment” to a “separate sense of self.”
For instance, there’s a long tradition of the ego death concept in Buddhist thinking.
  • “Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.” – Buddhist saying.
  • “Consciousness evolves when the self dissolves.” - James Austin, Zen and the Brain
New Age spiritual and psychological gurus and movements also work with the concept.
  • Jungians use the term “psychic death” — a fundamental transformation of the psyche.
In death and rebirth mythology, ego death is a phase of self-surrender and transition. Ego death is the second phase of Joseph Campbell’s concept of “the Hero’s Journey,” which includes phases of separation, transition, and incorporation.
“(Passage through the threshold) gives emphasis to the lesson that that passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. But here, instead of passing outward beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward to be born again.”

— Joseph Campbell, Hero With A Thousand Faces
There’s also a long — and somewhat more troubling — tradition of annihilation in shamanic initiations...


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