A quick question about souls

[Raw Shark]

I keep seeing that someone or so-and-so has started a rewatch, and I have a question: Are there any mentions of 'souls' in any episodes? I can only remember such references in 'Soul Hunter' and 'Points of Departure.' Not asking about 'River of Souls,' just the series.

Thanks!

Raw Shark

"Shhh... do not discomfort your soul!"
The Soul Hunter

 

[Jan]

Perhaps the largest mention would be the Minbari discovering that Sinclair and a Minbari soul as revealed by the Triluminary. Also, Delenn & Lennier tell Brother Edward in 'Passing through Gethsemane' how they believe the soul is a 'nonlocalized phenomenon' or piece of the universe seeking meaning.

 

[Raw Shark]

Thanks, Jan!

Passing Through Gethsemane is such a great episode, and Brad Dourif was terrific as usual. The story was unexpectedly good, kind of off-the-beaten-path for B5. And the look on the mindwiped killer's face at the end was just chilling. I mean, with a telepath war on the way and so forth. I imagine that would be an event in which Psi Corps used everything to take and hold power on Earth, and I think that would have to include Mindwipes. So many tasks they could help with, and I bet they're totally loyal to the Corps.

Souls, hmmm...

Raw Shark

"We are not thieves! We are preservers."
The Soul Hunter

 

[Springer]

On the subject of souls in B5, I remember reading something by JMS decades ago, where he was giving a preview of Sleeping in Light, and he mentioned something was in the episode about souls becoming stars. I think he was trying to say every soul becomes a star, or every star represents a soul, or something like that. I remember it because there was nothing of the sort mentioned in Sleeping in Light so I was puzzled by it. I thought it had been in one of his columns in the official Babylon 5 magazine but I've just dug them out of storage and searched through every one and can't find it. Have I dreamt this up, am I losing my mind, or did I really read it? Does it sound familiar to anyone?

 

[Jan]

On the subject of souls in B5, I remember reading something by JMS decades ago, where he was giving a preview of Sleeping in Light, and he mentioned something was in the episode about souls becoming stars. I think he was trying to say every soul becomes a star, or every star represents a soul, or something like that. I remember it because there was nothing of the sort mentioned in Sleeping in Light so I was puzzled by it. I thought it had been in one of his columns in the official Babylon 5 magazine but I've just dug them out of storage and searched through every one and can't find it. Have I dreamt this up, am I losing my mind, or did I really read it? Does it sound familiar to anyone?

Are you sure he wasn't talking about the "we are star stuff" conversation that Delenn had with Sheridan? That's the nearest thing I can think of.

 

[Raw Shark]

Sorry, Springer. I do recall the 'star stuff' conversation, but as for the rest, I think perhaps you dreamed it, not unlike Skittlebrau in the Simpsons.

Raw Shark

"Okay, okay... my second favorite thing in the universe."
Garibaldi

 

[Springer]

I knew I wasn't going mad – I mentioned that I remembered JMS saying something about souls and stars in relation to Sleeping in Light, and I've just looked at the Lurker's Guide page for the episode and found it. To quote JMS:

" I also think you'll find some interesting tie-offs in this show...something about Minbari beliefs about souls born in the hearts of suns, and a pay-off to why the narrations of this series have always been in the past tense, and a gift to the crew of this show..."

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/110.html

So, what was JMS referring to?

 

[LateArrival]

I knew I wasn't going mad – I mentioned that I remembered JMS saying something about souls and stars in relation to Sleeping in Light, and I've just looked at the Lurker's Guide page for the episode and found it. To quote JMS:

" I also think you'll find some interesting tie-offs in this show...something about Minbari beliefs about souls born in the hearts of suns, and a pay-off to why the narrations of this series have always been in the past tense, and a gift to the crew of this show..."

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/110.html

So, what was JMS referring to?

Not sure if this helps or hinders, but in the final scene where Delenn is sitting on a bench watching the sun rise and reaching out her hand, JMS mentions in the commentary (if I can recall/paraphrase correctly) that Sheridan is now "part of the light". She is reaching out towards the sunrise in the same way she reached out to him as he was leaving. For the rest, the script mentions B5 was a dramatization produced in 2295, and while it is nearly impossible to do with the Amazon streaming version, can frame-by-frame to see the cast/crew photos at the end.

 

[Springer]

Not sure if this helps or hinders, but in the final scene where Delenn is sitting on a bench watching the sun rise and reaching out her hand, JMS mentions in the commentary (if I can recall/paraphrase correctly) that Sheridan is now "part of the light". She is reaching out towards the sunrise in the same way she reached out to him as he was leaving. For the rest, the script mentions B5 was a dramatization produced in 2295, and while it is nearly impossible to do with the Amazon streaming version, can frame-by-frame to see the cast/crew photos at the end.

I knew about the dramatisation aspect – a documentary made by the Anla'Shok (I didn't know it was 2295 though; it means that the segments of Deconstruction of Falling Stars couldn't be part of that dramatization) – it was just the souls aspect I was querying really. I suppose I can see Delenn reaching out to the Sun as being what JMS meant, though it's very subtle. I guess as well that we're meant to take "being part of the light" as metaphorical in the same way that "going beyond the rim" is at least partly metaphor. Especially since Sheridan didn't really die, at least not in the conventional sense - Lorien took him to wherever the Shadows and the Vorlons and the rest of the First Ones went.

I was just really curious about what he meant about souls being born in stars, since I don't recall that ever being mentioned in the show, and it seemed odd that JMS would make a point of it and then not discuss it overtly in the episode.

 

[vacantlook]

I don't know if any of this would be applicable, but I'm thinking about the nature of light. One, light projected out into the universe will continue onward (unless it impacts something); so, with the right observational capacity, long after we are gone, one could theoretically go to a specific distance from us and look back to us and still see us alive in our lived past; i.e. the light we see here on earth left the sun 8 minutes before we actually see it. Maybe that could be applied to whatever jms is thinking in that quote. Two, anything moving at the speed of light does not experience time; Einstein's Relativity shows us that time slows down the closer to the speed of light an object gets, so something like light itself moving at the speed of light exists in a state of singular, constant instance, unaffected by time. So, applying this to jms's quote, maybe he's making some statement about an indestructible constant state of the soul. More likely, he's probably thinking of something completely unrelated to anything I said here.

 

[Looney]

I don't know if any of this would be applicable, but I'm thinking about the nature of light. One, light projected out into the universe will continue onward (unless it impacts something); so, with the right observational capacity, long after we are gone, one could theoretically go to a specific distance from us and look back to us and still see us alive in our lived past; i.e. the light we see here on earth left the sun 8 minutes before we actually see it. Maybe that could be applied to whatever jms is thinking in that quote. Two, anything moving at the speed of light does not experience time; Einstein's Relativity shows us that time slows down the closer to the speed of light an object gets, so something like light itself moving at the speed of light exists in a state of singular, constant instance, unaffected by time. So, applying this to jms's quote, maybe he's making some statement about an indestructible constant state of the soul. More likely, he's probably thinking of something completely unrelated to anything I said here.

But don't worry. Your goal was achieved and my brain did twist into a full not.... at the speed of light so I was unaffected...... I think that I think.