Coda

 

"Coda" is a classical episode of the science fiction series "Star Trek Voyager". The dramatic finale can be seen in the clip above. What I find fascinating about "Coda" is that many people seem to take it seriously. And yes, the episode *is* scary as hell. 

Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are usually seen as positive, good and loving. When we die, our souls meet departed love ones, perhaps even Jesus, and "fly" towards an alluring spiritual light. The premise in "Coda" is that the angelic beings (or departed relatives) are really demonic aliens who want to trick us into a "matrix" where our energy will feed them for a long, long time. In other words, what we think is Heaven is really Hell, a kind of paranormal cobweb with the aliens in the role of spiders preying on human souls. 

One of the plot twists is that our souls must go with the demon voluntarily. If we see through its deception and don´t consent, the demon can´t force us into its "matrix". This is of course the age old idea of the "Faustian bargain". It´s what saves Captain Janeway in "Coda", who is eventually resuscitated from her coma and hence survives the "near death experience". 

"Star Trek Voyager" seems to have been the first "atheistic" Star Trek series, and I assume that is the real point of this episode: to troll the New Age believers. How do they *know* that a NDE is angelic rather than demonic? It´s therefore fascinating that so many people (including myself) have chosen to interpret "Coda" in a spiritual way anyhow. But is it true? Yes, there are people on the web who quite sincerely believe in a similar scenario, except that in their version, the soul tricked by demons has to reincarnate in a miserable existence on Earth (this is a version of ancient Gnosticism). Presumably, we can go to the real Heaven if we simply refuse to go into the light...

I wonder how old this negative idea of NDEs is. Didn´t "Poltergeist" contain a similar idea?