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Out of nowhere, Netflix has announced the end of The OA, which had come to acquire quite the following despite not being marketed for mainstream audiences.

Whenever you have a movie, TV show, or book that includes deeper subject matter, you always run the risk of going over budget or not getting a big enough audience.

Given the extremely deep subject matter of The OA, this seemed almost guaranteed, even though the end of Season 2 left on a cliffhanger and everyone, up until today, thought that the series would be continued in the near future.

Updated 8/9/2020 with additional information on #SaveTheOA and the impact of the show’s esoteric teachings

Trauma, Dimension, and the Mind

The OA handled a litany of deep subject matter, including the true meaning of dreams, connection with nature, harnessing the powers of the mind, the movements and flow of bodily energy, alternate and parallel dimensions, processing karma, and even reality itself.

Clearly, it was not marketed with the average viewer in mind. Brit Marling, star and writer of the series, has gravitated toward deep subjects and sci-fi for most of her career, and says on Instagram that she will continue to tell these stories in different ways and forms.

For some fans of the series, this comes a tragic and abrupt reminder that good storytelling is always at the mercy of budgets and red tape.

It’s highly likely that The OA was canceled because it was not meeting some kind of arbitrary demand. They are a business after all, and if The OA wasn’t bringing them the business they wanted, cancellation was sure to follow.

It’s a massive shame, however, because according to many of its fans, The OA was one of, if not the best shows on the streaming platform.

Today my favorite show was cancelled. I am devastated. #TheOA was truly unique, fascinating, surprising, touching and creative. It was a damn work of art. We didn’t deserve something so good — Sammie Crowley (@SammieCrowley) August 5, 2019

I can’t believe @netflix cancelled #theoa! It’s literally my favorite thing that’s come out of Netflix. If you haven’t seen it, give it some views so they’ll renew it! #renewTheOApart3 #renewtheoa @The_OA @picturestheoa — Jordanio (@Ritztopher) August 5, 2019

It’s a testament to growing public awareness that the show was even appreciated or understood at all. With a massively complex storyline and subject matter that was extreme and far-reaching, The OA stood out as a series that not only wanted to entertain, but to inform.

With its emphasis on ordinary people learning ancient ways of “hacking” reality through control of bodily energy, a solid look into the nature of dreams, as well as even deeper esoteric subjects, The OA was definitely a breath of fresh air.

Not to take away from Netflix’s other successful, well-written, and entertaining shows like the hit Stranger Things, and Orange is the New Black, The OA was clearly on another level in terms of content.

You could tell that at times, it was more concerned with teaching its viewers rather than purely entertaining them, which is also another possible reason for its cancellation.

There’s nothing certain segments of the population hate more than a lecture on what’s “really” going on out there.

And while The OA‘s subject matter was often fantastical, the average person would be shocked to know just how much of it was rooted in truth.

In fact, unbeknownst to the average fan of the show, it is clear that Brit and the others involved in the production of the show did their homework. There is a veritable truckload of accurate and viable esoteric and metaphysical information peppered throughout the show, not to mention solid life advice from an holistic perspective.

A good portion of the show actually focuses on overcoming and processing trauma.

For some, this was one of the show’s highlights.

Trauma is a popular subject these days because as a society, we are waking up and becoming aware of our collective trauma.

Our species in general has undergone a ton of trauma, which we have carried through generations. This generational trauma then infects our personal behavior, and creates personalized trauma, such as child abuse and neglect.

Processing this psychological damage correctly is a daunting and mystifying task for many people.

The OA handled this subject with a grace and power very few, if any, other shows ever have. You could easily argue that the show is one of the best visual / educational instruction manuals for dealing with and overcoming personal trauma to date.

Strong and Deep Characters Don’t Always Resonate

Deep storytelling usually includes deep, complex characters, and The OA has them by the bucketful. (Spoilers ahead!)

The characters are quite literally multidimensional.

A good portion of the latter half of the series delves into the multidimensional nature of the characters you grow to love in the start of the first season.

Seeing the multidimensional nature of a loved character can be unsettling. In metaphysics this is often called “shadow work.”

Even learning that you have other facets of your Self, whether mental or metaphysical, is something many people cannot comprehend or abide. They grow extremely fearful at the idea, because their egos exist on the predicated notion that they, and they alone, are all that matter and “exist” as it concerns their identity.

This is why people with over-developed and unhealthy egos never seem to care much about their dreams. They hate the very notion that there is more to their Self than what is contained in that physical body.

The OA visualizes what being multifaceted means, delving into such things as possible past and parallel lives, alternate dimensions we may be connected to, as well as working through astral planes to affect other selves in the physical.

If you don’t have much experience with the show, just reading about the subject matter may turn you off. Deep storytelling has consequences it seems.

Just because a show has strong, relatable characters doesn’t mean it will succeed.

I personally believe that one of the reasons the show may have floundered is because some people saw too much of themselves and their flaws in the flawed characters of the show. It was “too” relatable in a sense.

The trauma illustrated on the show may have been completely unrelatable from the purely physical sense (very few of us are locked up in the middle of nowhere in some crazy dude’s basement, in a glass prison and are routinely experimented on in order to induce near death experiences), but the essence of the trauma was perhaps all too familiar.

It was visceral, indiscriminate, and at the behest of “progress.”

There was a very cold, capitalist kind of warning behind this trauma the main characters were enduring throughout Season 1. It was the pain and suffering many of us collectively experience here in this world, the feeling of being a rat in a glass cage, the feeling of being disconnected by technology despite sleeping within inches of each other, the need for deeper meaning but it always being elusive and out of grasp.

The more down to Earth issues that the group of kids Brit Marling’s character later runs into are also all too relatable: drug addiction, fractured and empty homes, loneliness, despair.

The OA shows us not only how to conquer the collective metaphysical trauma of an empty disconnected hyper-capitalist society, but also shows us how to overcome the personal problems and traumas we all have to face on a daily basis, including one of the biggest hurdles of them all: just dealing with every day life when you come from a broken past.

Nothing Else Quite Like The OA

Do yourself a favor and give it a watch if you haven’t already.

Re-watch it multiple times if you want to really dive into the deeper aspects. There is a lot to unpack in this series. The second season is practically a metaphysical dissertation.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to support “deep” media. We need more shows like The OA, that are brave enough to discuss trauma, dreams, human connection, and the parts of ourselves that rarely ever get any limelight in mainstream productions.

Yes, The OA may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s perfectly fine. But every TV show can’t be a mass hit.

For those of us with an appreciation for art, the workings of the mind, the nature of reality, and great storytelling, there is a place for shows just like The OA.

Let’s hope with enough outcry Netflix discovers a few extra million for the Season 3 budget.

Until then, support the actors and actresses, and seek out and watch other enriching and stimulating TV shows on Netflix and other streaming platforms.

The OA touched many lives and helped many people through difficult times in their lives. This is the power of meaningful media. It may not be for everyone, but for those who needed it, it mattered.

Update: #SaveTheOA Year Anniversary of The OA Cancellation

I don’t think even the most stalwart fans of the Netflix series, The OA, could have predicted the monumental outpouring of support that would come to accompany the show’s cancellation. What started as a small awareness movement to call out Netflix for abandoning its well-loved shows has since burgeoned into a worldwide movement of positivity and healing.

In the year that has passed since the fateful announcement that The OA would never see a third season, the #SaveTheOA movement has become a force to be reckoned with online, garnering tens of thousands of supporters, raising thousands of dollars for different causes, creating an untold number of friendships and support groups, and raising awareness about trauma, abuse, the need for connection, and even the meaning of our dreams.

There has even been fan-made spinoffs, including the well-received Invisible River.

Thousands of people have even taken it upon themselves to learn the movements.

Brit Marling herself has followed the #SaveTheOA movement closely and acknowledges the support. She has also plainly stated that the show will not be coming back, but she has implied that in a way, “we” are playing out the 3rd season in real life, as she has said “The OA story lives on.”

While the core movement is more concerned with renewing the show (and for good reason, as it was amazing), a splinter movement also arose over the past year that has even deeper implications: #TheOAisReal.

After watching through the show numerous times, it’s very clear that creator Brit Marling had a purpose for The OA that went beyond mere entertainment.

From the standpoint of esoteric teachings and the revelations of quantum mechanics, we know that the vast majority of subject matter in The OA is actually based on reality. What the show wanted us to focus on specifically would appear to be the importance of connecting with people to form deep bonds that cross space and time, as well as reconnecting with deeper parts of ourselves, whether in this world or another.

Quantum physics teaches us that we live in a multi-layered, multi-dimensional reality where everything is connected and can influence at a great distance, even across space and time. As the ancients proclaimed, there are other worlds, and in those worlds are reflections and refractions of ourselves. Understanding these other facets of our being and how they are tied to our destiny, or karma, is one of the key areas that The OA explores.

The show also goes to great lengths to discuss even more arcane subjects, such as the utilization of “gateway” mechanics through advanced synchronized yoga or mudras to create doorways into other dimensions through which to “slide” into.

Other topics include the dormant seed of knowledge and our connection with nature, psychic gifts, communing with animals / mediumship, the significance of dreams as astral worlds, angel killers (also known as Horsemen), and spirit guides.

The second season even delves into the relationship between physical doorways and interstitial places (zones of power) with energy grids and how they may play a role in connecting to other dimensions.

While those of you who are unfamiliar with these subjects may consider them to be fantastical and pure sci-fi, you may be surprised to learn that not only are they all rooted in science, these subjects have been a matter of study by sages and occultists for thousands of years. Entire religions and spiritual paths are founded on some of these very concepts.

There is certainly a lot that is worth investigating when it comes to the significance of The OA. Is Brit Marling consciously aware of these subjects and wants to educate the populace about them? Or is it just a calling for her from the subconscious that drives her to produce such esoteric art?

And what of the deeper concepts touched on in the show? The idea that the entire world of the second season may be contained in the “house” on the production set featured in the final episode, the significance of syzygy and the conjunction of energy bodies to “follow your destiny,” and the flowering seed within our minds made manifest.

As a fan of both The OA and Pathwalking, honor the show by investing time into your personal journey. Dare to peak behind the veil and never stop questioning things. Where the show left off, we have to pick it up and continue on.