Or
Some People Call Aleister Crowley the Greatest Occultist of the Twentieth Century
The film suggests that given enough time, legitimate science and the Occult speculations will either become conflated or various aspects of the two disciplines will begin to overlap. Isaac Newton, Jack Parsons and Yours Truly agree with the latter suggestion. In the film, we are exposed to the idea that Crowley believed he was the reincarnation of famous occultists. I, for one, would like to meet someone who claims to be an incarnation of normal person, a regular soldier. Alas, it seems that average people do not make for a good reincarnation resume. As the movie clearly demonstrates, the challenge of “reincarnating” with one's specific knowledge and experiences, not vague feeling and certain tendencies, is the overcoming of chance- it is possible- the will to power. To force a an existing personality into the “”abyss” could only be accomplished through the will, not by spouting “mumbo jumbo”.
The individual who accomplishes this rare feat would be unanimously declared the Greatest Occultist of the Appropriate Century. To push aside another consciousness, while retaining one’s knowledge and experiences, would be met with incredulity by those who previously knew the individual, however, I doubt it would take much to convince people; experiences that only two people could know, for example, would be sufficient.
The movie suggest that Crowley’s reincarnations happen the same year as the death of his former body. We cannot offer any personal insight on this suggestion, only that it is a possibility.
Aleister Crowley was a tremendous self promoter, his titles of the “Beast” and “Mr. Sunshine” testify that any publicity is good publicity, where we understand to continually be in the public consciousness as good, so that publicity becomes, by its nature, beneficial. Although charlatans promote themselves, legitimate individual also promote themselves; fleecing, for the former, benefiting, for the later.
In conclusion, like most science fiction movies, we are intrigued by the possibilities that are presented. We caution the Gentle Reader that although Crowley does not seem to explicitly manifest at the end of the film, it is entirely within the realm of probability that Mr. Crowley has materialized in another dimension, although the newspaper headline suggests otherwise.