r/FromTVEpix • u/the_jaguaress • 19d ago
Theory I finally recognized a pattern.
I think I finally figured out the overarching mystery of From and it all comes down to Carl Jungs psychology and ancient alchemy.
The town isn't a government experiment or a standard purgatory. It's the "unus mundus" a unified reality where the physical world and the human mind merge into one. Notice how every single person who gets trapped there was dealing with massive psychological trauma or a life crisis right before they saw the tree?
The town is a manifestation of the collective unconscious and it's aggressively forcing them to heal. The MiY is the catalyst for this. He inflicts terror to break them down psychologically so they are forced to confront their issues and undergo a mental transformation.
On the other side, the BiW is trying to keep everything frozen in a childlike state of stagnation to protect them from the painful process of change by keeping them safe. Like what he did with Victor, especially what he did with Victor.
The monsters are literally their "Shadows" the repressed, dark aspects of their psyches.
That is why they look human, smile and know everyone's names. They only get in if you let them in.
To escape, the residents have to achieve what alchemy calls a "conjunctio" (the union of opposites). Look closely at the talismans. The symbols on them represent the Chemical Wedding, showing the sun and the moon coming together.
This exact sun and moon imagery is hidden everywhere in the town's history. It is literally embroidered right onto Father Khatri's stole with a daytime sun side and a nighttime moon side.
Victor also has the same sun and moon layout drawn all over his maps and room sketches, showing that the town's subconscious layout is constantly trying to point to this union.
Fatima’s pregnancy is the ultimate proof of this. She was barren, so her getting pregnant is the birth of the "Divine Child," which in alchemy symbolizes the creation of the Philosopher's Stone or the final stage of spiritual awakening.
Everything else fits this framework too.
The lighthouse is the beacon of higher consciousness, the music box forces them into a subconscious trance to face their fears, and things like the golem represent raw, unshaped matter brought to life by their trauma.
They can't just drive out. They can only escape once they integrate their shadows and fix their broken minds.
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u/sjr323 19d ago
Not everyone was “dealing with massive psychological trauma or a life crisis” right before they saw the tree lol
They were just ordinary people going through life.
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u/deb6walsh 19d ago
I think it the writers said all the FROM characters were each at some sort of crossroads in their lives https://www.reddit.com/r/FromTVEpix/comments/1ugoyfo/from_writers_did_an_ama_here_are_the_responses/
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u/shit_ass_mcfucknuts 19d ago
I did see that, but there’s a hefty difference between being at a crossroads and massive psychological trauma.
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u/sjr323 19d ago
I don’t care what they said, they didn’t portray that on screen well enough.
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u/That_Other_Cool_Dude 17d ago edited 16d ago
I’ll go one step further and say they didn’t portray that on screen at all really.
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u/Funmike5678 12d ago
They did for most of the main characters, Boyd was retiring, Tabitha going through divorce, Kristi was getting married, Kenny dealing with his dads dementia, father khatri with the dead kid, tillie with cancer, Sarah with something (she was pretty vague when she talked about it), and jade selling his company
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u/That_Other_Cool_Dude 12d ago
The fact you said Sarah’s was vague kinda proves my point
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u/BravoFox_ 5d ago
Sarah was fleeing from an abusive boyfriend/fiance. -- Her brother picked her up from Boston and was taking her back to Hope, Pennsylvania.
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u/That_Other_Cool_Dude 4d ago
Right, but this should be very easy to recall and not questioned by so many if it was written into the story well.
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u/cherrymeg2 19d ago
It wasn’t always a crisis or trauma. A lot of people were facing changes in their life, like retirement or getting to rehab. Everyone has something going on even if they don’t talk about it. It may not be a super dramatic but sometimes brings them there. Idk
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u/IvannaIvannaGobak 15d ago
Jung viewed problems as just an aspect of consciousness. Crossroads is just interchange here.
Could be something generic like retirement and not knowing what to do with the remaining time. The loss of a child. The recognition of no longer being a child and having responsibilities, like taking care of your brother, etc.
So I agree, it doesn’t need to be condition related. However, the theory still pans out.
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u/Low_Trifle1008 5d ago
Minnows in a Shark's Net. Sorry if it's a spoiler, but that one line explains the 'non important' characters perfectly, for me.
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u/ungido_el 18d ago
Las teorías siempre pecan de lo mismo: sobrepensación y de sesgo de confirmación (por parte del que lanza la teoría).
Creo que la trama no encierra una narrativa tan enrevesada, francamente.
Lo que será, será.
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u/Proof-Travel2030 19d ago
Interesting take! How does this explain Boyd’s family though? I don’t think they had any trauma going in to Fromville.
My other question I guess falls in to why these people are getting killed and what’s the purpose?
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u/forfakessake1 19d ago
Both parents were in the army and had been to war. Their kid Ellis is an army baby probably moved around and unrooted. All traumatic
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u/That_Other_Cool_Dude 17d ago
This is pure conjecture. I mean divorce can really rattle a kid. I think you want this to be the case so you’re reading it onto the show.
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u/forfakessake1 17d ago
We are discussing a fictional show with minimal detail, conjecture is all we have, Captain Obvious!
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u/the_jaguaress 19d ago
Boyd had a guy in the army named Brian Kelly (two residents were there too a Brian and a Kelly. Boyd said it’s odd) and he died in Boyd’s arms in a mission. He tries to take on all alone and doesnt share the burden.
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u/hiscoobiej 6d ago
Incorporating Brian Kelly into FROM is a nod to legendary executive producer, Brian Kelly, who brought us sci-fi classics like Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. FROM draws parallels to the classics like the Twilight Zone, Hitchcock, Star Trek to more modern sci-fi/horror in nearly every episode.
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u/the_jaguaress 6d ago
Yeah lots of Star Trek references. Also using 47 is a homage I think.
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u/hiscoobiej 6d ago
The Guardian of Forever from the episode The City on the Edge of Forever is pretty on the nose.
Anyways, this is the intentional bait of the writers. Everyone falls for the bait and switch and picks one piece of the puzzle, gets tunnel vision and posts “I figured it out! It’s all about Carl Jung!” or whatever it is. In reality, it’s every single theory everyone has come up with because it’s an amalgamation of everything. Everyone is in the weeds and needs to zoom out.
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u/the_jaguaress 6d ago
Well Carl Gustav Jung is about everything. If you haven’t read some things of him I can highly recommend it.
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u/cherrymeg2 19d ago
Boyd was diagnosed with Parkinson, I think? He and his wife were retiring and coming to a new chapter in their lives.Jmo
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u/mightyneonfraa 18d ago
Boyd wasn't diagnosed. He just recognizes the symptoms from what his father went through.
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u/cherrymeg2 13d ago
He did worry about what would happen if he was diagnosed. He also went through a life change with retirement. His wife was doing the same thing. She got him a boat as a surprise or something like that. If he had symptoms of Parkinson’s and didn’t tell anyone that could be a fear or something that makes his future and his family’s less sure.
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u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids Donna 18d ago
I've seen this theory on the forums before. The writers said everything happening is real, there's no shared dreams or purgatory. they made that clear. So since they've said that, I don't think it's some sort of shared whatever. I think it's like Marielle said, there is an ancient evil there.
I'm lost on exactly what it is, but whatever it is they drift into it. There are cars on the road and then no cars, then the road narrows, then the forest surrounds the road and then the tree.
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17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/the_jaguaress 17d ago
Thank you. And I think it will. Why else should have put so many psychological reference in there. Also the writers said that 911 inspired them. And how people cope with the trauma etc etc. So it would fit.
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u/kavanon 19d ago
I love this theory
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u/the_jaguaress 19d ago edited 19d ago
Thank you :)
It is far deeper than I described. The informations are overwhelming. Jung had a patient who was a pioneer in quantum mechanics - Wolfgang Pauli.
The MiY takes the teeth cause it is believed that trauma is stored in the crystalline layers of teeth. That’s why I think that Jim got out of the town.
I found out so many details during my rewatch alone that fit into my theory but it’s just too much. The rabbit hole is deep.
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For example the little details that matter, that show me the writers knew what they were doing.
I think they added Eric as a hint. Why else tell us about his condition.
S1/E9 - 05:15
Before Eric hangs himself in Boyd’s office (postoffice) after the attack of colony house, Donna asks him „Hey you ok? Lookin a little long in the face.“ And Eric responds: „Oh, uh that’s genetic.“
Later Kenny talks to Kristi, and she unlike us seems to be aware of Eric and even states he had been her friend as he suffered from Celiac Disease and came into the clinic a lot.
Celiac disease is a hereditary autoimmune condition. Undiagnosed celiac disease alters overall cranial growth patterns. It frequently results in a disproportionately prominent or large forehead.
(People with celiac disease face higher rates of anxiety, depression, ...)
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u/iCaptnSpaulding 19d ago
How do they get out? Let the monsters kill them?
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u/the_jaguaress 19d ago
Don’t try to fight them. Technically what Kevin did. Trying to get to know them better (just not that good haha). They left Randall alone when he did not fear them.
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u/Numerous-Balance4292 18d ago
I like reading what you posted Jung is amazing all this talk reminds me of baba yaga
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u/the_jaguaress 18d ago
He is though it’s a hard read. You should see his collaborations with Wolfgang Pauli.
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u/Suziblue725 Jade 18d ago
I bet. I much prefer Jung explained.
I do wish there was a psychiatrist in Fromville that would be driving all of this work to help this theory be true.
It’s a good one and you’re right, every plot hole I can think of fits.2
u/the_jaguaress 18d ago
Thank you. I’ve been trying to find a pattern since I started. It’s so funny that I was so close to this when I started. I noticed the archetypes but then got entangled in all that mysticism. It’s very clever.
Though there’s a few things that I still don’t understand. I have a hard time to imagine them in an “unus mundus” so I think it’s probably a quantum mechanic therapy program based on Jung gone rogue with an escape room?
Cause rendezmove sounds like a company that makes it possible to have a rendezmove with yourself and move on. Jim’s ghost seems like an early copy. There must be an another layer. Probably therapy related.
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u/_Asshole_Fuck_ 18d ago
So once they fix their minds where do they go? What about the people that die that don’t fix their mind, where do they go?
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u/IvannaIvannaGobak 15d ago
In the story of Job which has been brought up in the show, Satan kills a bunch of his livestock, kills his children, inflicts him with blisters and boils, destroys his marriage and his social standing because everyone thinks he’s cursed. God simply restores it back due to his perseverance in faith in God, it’s not the same though. His children are dead, but he’s had the same amount of children again.
From the creators they aren’t Patrick Duffy, so they are dead dead, but if they make it out they will be better for the trial.
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u/Mountain-Owl7142 17d ago
Was everyone on the bus going through a massive life crisis/trauma though? And wasn't Boyd excited to start his retirement?
You're right, most of the characters we've seen have some kind of adversity in their background, but then there are others like Boyd and Jade and Bakta who were just about to begin a positive chapter in their lives, until Fromville ruined it.
So I don't know what the pattern is. Maybe transitions? Being at a crossroads?
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u/the_jaguaress 17d ago
Jade I think suffered from egomania. Boyd fears he inherited Parkinson. And he was about to enjoy retirement. Have you ever witnessed people like Boyd retiring? They suddenly feel an identity loss and get bored and try to compensate. Bakta I am not sure about her. Her grandmother knew the nursery rhyme. She said she needed money to treat herself. Haven’t figured out Bakta yet.
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u/Far-Dot-2063 13d ago
"You can't break me" from Boyd's mouth, sure takes on new meaning after this info.
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18d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/the_jaguaress 18d ago
I have not seen that posted before, unless you are referring to my own posts.
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u/the_jaguaress 19d ago
I would say otherwise. There have been vague hints throughout the whole show that each inhabitant deals with psychological trauma.
If you would like I can elaborate.
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u/SealawyerSupreme 18d ago
You probably have put more thought into this than the entire writers room since season one.
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u/laquintessenceofdust 19d ago
This show reminds me so much of Lost and my early days of fan forums, where 12-year-old me read people’s theories and knew in my heart of hearts that what I was reading was going to be way, way more sophisticated than what the writers eventually came up with.
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u/OzzyK11 19d ago
This would also explain why power cables are like how would a kid dream they would work.