The Religions of Star Trek by Kraemer Ross

Author:Kraemer, Ross [Kraemer, Ross]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion
ISBN: 9780813341156
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 422915
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2001-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

The Dark Side of Religious Power

The category of religious specialists often includes those who are peacemakers, as well as warmakers. The Next Generation episode “Man of the People” (October 1992) presents a Lumerian ambassador, Alkar, known for his specific skill in resolving conflict. He is similar in some ways to Tam Elbrun, because both utilize special mental capacity. The Lumerian provides us with the darker, shadow side of empathy, telepathy, and other special psychic powers. We generally are suspicious of people with such powers for fear of this potential.

Alkar is immediately drawn to Troi, and Maylor, his “mother,” also knows that there is some connection between them that threatens her role. Their special psychic abilities set them apart from others and draw them toward one another; everyone else is out of the loop and will need research and evidence to identify the nature of the dynamic among them. As among shamans and other specialists such as prophets and mystics, they have characteristics that can only be truly recognized by each other; ordinary people may only feel awe tempered by fear.

Deanna Troi immediately senses “something very unusual” in Alkar, a “calmness, serenity, tranquility . . . you seem to embody the very qualities that you hope to draw out in others.” At the same time, she senses in Maylor malevolent feelings that are out of proportion with the circumstances. Star Trek often observes that the qualities of humanoid life include a restless, tormented spirit in need of the characteristics Alkar embodies but drawn to those of Maylor, and that in the tension among these qualities lie creativity and the ability to achieve high goals. As a study in extremes, Alkar and Maylor give us a bipolar impression of our identity, focused on the power of emotion. Religion often teaches us to seek peace, to try to balance the extremes that compose our essence. Sometimes, religions succeed where other approaches fail, but in the modern world we have tried a variety of other approaches to this problem. Psychology is the obvious choice for many. The idea of the balance between opposites is discussed in many Asian traditions such as Taoism, Shinto, and the teachings of the South Asian movements such as Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) and Buddhism.

Alkar employs a “funeral meditation” upon the death of Maylor that provides a lesson in the efficacy of ritual practice. The words are innocuous enough: “An end to grief, an end to pain, strength comes from love, and courage from wisdom.” He calls it “one of our most sacred ceremonies,” but its effects are not symbolic; they are quite concrete. The nature of the transformation achieved by this ritual has little to do with comfort of the bereaved; rather it achieves a psychic link with Troi as his next victim. His abilities as a peacemaker apparently derive from his ability to establish such a link and then download all of his own emotional negativity through this link into the female receptacle he has chosen.

It is Doctor Crusher who represents the perspective of scientific research in this scenario.

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