PRISM is an indpendent feature film delving into mysteries of existence

Cage and the Autism Spectrum

Though it is mentioned only cursorily, Cage's Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis figures heavily in a full understanding of what is going on in PRISM. There are many excellent sources on autism spectrum behaviors, I could never do them all justice. But let me distill the essence which is germane to our story.

There is a growing understanding in the medical and academic communities that our traditional measures of intelligence are not complete. We have begun to learn that some of our fellow humans posses brains which function very differently from our own. Some, admittedly are truly broken. However some are just...different. They do not see the world the way we do. Maybe they do not even see the same world we do.

For that matter, intelligence itself, as vital, exquisite, and remarkable a tool as it is, is not necessarily the only tool or even the best tool for interaction with the universe. There are other human faculties as well. One would not build a house with only a hammer.

What color is red? How do I know that you and I are experiencing the same thing when that wavelength of the electromagnetic spetrum hits the rods and cones in your eyes? In fact some synesthetes experience color as a smell or a sound.

We all know that old saying about only using 10% of our brains. I don't know who said that or how they measured it, or if it's even true. Maybe it was never actually measured. Maybe it's simply one of those things that has become a truism because it FEELS true. Maybe we all inherently realize that we are ALL essentially low functioning humans, relative to our full potential.

Actually there is some data regarding our actual neurological capacity relative to what we use regularly. So let's assume that this whole 10% argument is basically valid. The question that is pertinent for us is WHICH 10% are you using.

We are all familiar with stories of savants and their fantastic demonstrations of mental capacities far beyond our own, despite the social awkwardness which frequently accompanies these skills. These rare humans often demonstrate faculties of perception and concrete understanding of abstract concepts which make us "normal" humans feel like children amazed at our parents ability to snap their fingers.

While these individuals can be seen as sort of good will ambassadors for the Autism Spectrum, they can also overshadow the huge population of individuals who do not demonstrate such skills, or at least none so easy to explain.

The point, (which I promise that I will get to) is that some of our fellow humans seem to be using a few DIFFERENT percents of the brain than we.

Jump now to PRISM, in the middle of the conversation between Leanna and the Entity (through Morton). Leanna is beginning to intuit something about the connection between the Entity and Cage. In fact the script says:

LEANNA
You're talking about Cage, his illness.
MORTON
It is only an illness to you.
LEANNA
What is it to you?
MORTON
Just a sour note from his other self. Think of it as a great cacophony which his mind is unable to process or filter out.

The Entity himself is correcting the doctor. He says Cage's Asperger's Syndrome (so called because one human named Asperger collected a list of behaviors and named it), is only an illness to Leanna. He's saying that Cage's essence, his higher self, if you believe in that sort of thing, is perfectly intact.

I don't want to go too deeply into issues of whether autism spectrum individuals need a "cure". To be sure, our world is made of and for a lot of non-autism or neurotypical people. To survive and thrive in any jungle one needs to know how to communicate and traffic with the natives.

But what if these particular individuals are guideposts to a higher state of human consciousness latent or perhaps nascent within our species? What if the infinite complexity of the universe in all its wonder, diversity, and mystery is not fully measured or understood via the slide rule or the philosophical construct.

What if the ancient inherent human need for a connection with this mystery stems from a part of us which actually does understand and appreciate it in a way for which our practiced cartesian faculties are simply ill fitting. Almost everyone has had some kind of experience on this level. Some of us more than others.

So what might happen if a human were born with a slightly different cognitive capacity which didn't suit them well for social interaction, or counting toothpicks, or memorizing phone books, but allowed the world beyond our comprehension to open up to them just a little bit.

Would we say he was sick, disabled, reserved, trapped in a "Cage"?

When Cage awakes in the end he is calm and communicative. He says he feels that things are not nearly so "cloudy" anymore. The blockage which prevented cognition in a "normal" sense is now gone. However, he has not lost his other faculties. He's not "cured", he's merely been slightly rewired.

When Leanna is cautiously preparing to talk to him about his experience, he stops her in her tracks by saying "whenever you are ready, I'll tell you whatever you want to know." The movie finishes with a shot of Cage offering a beatific but slightly sly smile which comes from the knowledge that he can now bridge the gap between two modes of comprehension of the universe.

He has become a distinctly rare form of human, connected and aware on more than one plane of existence. Still young, but destined for a life which our primitive brains simply would not be able to comprehend.

A mystical savant.

Or perhaps he's merely a sign of things to come.

Interviews

Selected Scene Explorations

Thoughts and Spooky Production Stories:

HInts and Inspirations.