Translated Transcript
{ts:0} Today we're going to analyze one of the strangest cases in recent entertainment history: the abrupt and unjustified cancellation of The OA, one of the most enigmatic and profound series ever produced by a platform.
A series that openly spoke about near-death experiences, dimensional jumps, expanded consciousness, communication with non-human intelligences, survival of the soul. Well, a series that for many said too much. Today we'll see what happened, why they canceled it, what it really revealed, and if it touched on sensitive information related to real studies on human consciousness.
Hello, friends, welcome to Rimbel 35. How are you? Well, it seems The OA was a series too, too ahead of its time, premiered in 2016. It was created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, two independent filmmakers highly respected for their philosophical approach to mystery and spirituality.
{ts:68} The series told the story of Prairie Johnson, a young blind girl who disappears for 7 years and... returns, returns with her sight restored, full vision [music] and an incredible, inexplicable transformation. A story that borders on the impossible. She claims to have died several times, visited other dimensions... and learned a method to travel between realities.
{ts:98} The series' message is clear from the first episode. It tells us that consciousness is not trapped in the body, that death is not the end, but a crossing... {ts:108} What we call reality is just one layer among many, and it also tells us that science is about to discover it or... already has [music]. The series mixed spirituality, physics, philosophy, neuroscience too with... a level of detail that surprised those who investigate NDEs precisely.
Many wonder if The OA is fiction or a faithful portrait of real testimonies. The protagonist Prairie suffers induced near-death experiences... and behind it is a scientist obsessed with studying what happens beyond clinical death. This point is key because it's not a invention of the writers... There are declassified documents, government-funded studies, and university work that investigated precisely what happens to consciousness [music] when reaching the limit between life and death. They measured brain activity during these cardiac arrests. They analyzed testimonies of people who return and studied [music] supposed psychic or emotional changes after deep NDEs.
The series' visual and conceptual representation surprisingly matches descriptions of tunnels of light, luminous beings or observers, accompanied by a sensation of... multidimensionality. It's transmitted as an experience of mission or purpose after [music] returning from the other side. It describes the appearance of abilities or a certain increased sensitivity... Many NDE survivors claimed that The OA was the series that came closest to what they had lived. This is very, very noticeable.
And here arises the first big suspicion. The concepts used in the series—projection of consciousness, reality jumps, interdimensionality, access to higher states, movements capable of activating changes in matter—also appear in real-life classified documents, like the... {ts:239} Gateway Project [music]. Gateway Project, a report from the 80s prepared by the U.S. Army on human consciousness expansion, induced altered states, and the possibility of leaving the physical body toward other realities. The OA reproduces ideas very similar to the document: the human body as a receiver of multidimensional information, the use of sound, breathing, and... certain movements to induce altered states. Also the possibility of moving beyond physical limits, the idea that consciousness is fundamental, not derived from the brain...
For the first time, a mainstream series was treating these concepts with almost uncomfortable fidelity. When does it reach the critical moment? When does the series start revealing too much? Well, season two takes a even bigger conceptual leap, a very risky somersault. It introduced the idea of... private corporations studying dimensional jumps. The series talked about invisible observers, meaning [music] it was exploring realities that coexist simultaneously... and showed a secret lab investigating [music] transit between lives.
A detail that went almost unnoticed: the design of the series' lab resembles real facilities from the Monroe Project and other advanced consciousness experiments. The series director Zal Batmanglij stated in interviews that they had consulted NDE experts, theoretical physicists, and neuroscientists, and suddenly... canceled. In 2019, after the second season, Netflix announced that The OA was canceled without an ending, without explanation, without narrative closure. [music] A series that had been critically acclaimed... with a devoted community at its peak of interest, disappeared overnight.
What did Netflix say? Well, Netflix alleged audience reasons. Audience reasons... but of course, they didn't present data, didn't answer certain questions [music]. Didn't justify, didn't give arguments for that sudden decision. The OA cost much less than most of its series. They didn't have to invest... in big, spectacular [music] special effects every episode, like, say, Stranger Things. Its creators were prepared to continue. The audience was solid and growing [music]... and the end of season 2 demanded a conclusion yes or yes. Nothing justified the cancellation, nothing except perhaps an unofficial motive.
Brit Marling, the creator and protagonist, published a public letter after the cancellation. In that letter she stated the following: that the story was written up to season five, that they knew exactly how it all ended, that the series dealt with themes not usually addressed on television. Here she gives us a clue. And that its cancellation was sudden, unexpected, and painful. Several team members said on social media that internally the decision made no sense. Fans launched massive campaigns, even with performance art at Netflix offices, but nothing, useless, nothing changed.
After investigating forums, posts, and [music] academic analyses, the most widespread theories are these. First, the series got too close to real NDE testimonies. [music] Researchers and doctors who studied the series said its portrayal of consciousness was surprisingly accurate. Two. This series showed ideas present in classified documents, concepts identical to the Gateway Project [music], Monroe, and remote viewing experiments. Three, it touched on dimensional jumps as if they were possible. And this is a concept some quantum physicists have proposed as real hypotheses [music]. Four. It described a method for activating altered states. The movements could be interpreted as a metaphor for real breathing, induction, and sound techniques used in consciousness studies. Five. The industry avoids content that leads the public to ask too many questions about who we are, what death is, and if we are really multidimensional beings trapped in a temporary body.
Beyond the scientific, The OA had a profound message. Consciousness is immortal. Death is a transit, not an end. The soul can travel, learn, and return. Suffering in this life has meaning in another reality... [music] There are beings or intelligences that accompany us and we are all part of a multidimensional web. For many viewers, it wasn't just a series [music], it was a transformative experience, something that touched deep spiritual fibers. And this, again, can be problematic [music] for big corporations that don't want the public to explore certain thorny territories.
Was The OA canceled for bad numbers or was it building a narrative too similar to real theories about death and consciousness? We don't know, but we do know something. Rarely has a series generated so much discomfort in those who prefer we see death as a blackout and not as a door. Maybe The OA wasn't fiction, but a mirror, a mirror... too faithful to knowledge we're not yet prepared for or not allowed to acquire or fully understand [music], because that would give us a certain freedom, a certain autonomy, and independence from this system imposed on us at all levels. Let's leave the topic here, friends, for reflection, of course [music]. A hug to everyone, friends, hoping this video today made you think a bit more.
