>>77>The spirit of the engineering.Kybernetics (Cybernetics, i.e., governing dynamics) is the spirit of technology, the savior of mankind.
Serial Experiments Lain is many things. It is akin to Ancient Egyptian conceptions of deity. A god was both a living person (often pharaoh), and the incarnation of a concept or force of nature. Egyptians didn't believe their gods had animal heads – those were just symbols that "best" reflect the aspect of the deity. Thus Thoth having an ibex head because the ibex fishes among the paprus reeds used to make paper, its beak can be used for writing, and it sees through the murky waters (to catch fish). So the ibex was a good symbol to the Egyptians but Thoth was their god of Intellect, not a bird headed man.
Lain is a daughter of Thoth. Chisa is Heremes / Mercury. Alchemical patron deity, god of self transformation, giver of knowledge, messenger of the gods… As in Egyptian lore, Lain represents multiple forms in one representation. The story deliberately shirks western conceptions of concrete form and instead hearkens back to the ancient method of conveying conceptual knowledge, as seen in the East (hint: China has many pyramids and red-haired mummies). Therefore Lain is both the incarnation of the wired and a physical being, the little girl who transcends (alchemical self transformation motifs abound). Lain also represents the concept of Learning, she gains ancient wisdoms and the works Lain is in actually conveys some real occulted knowledge.
If you want to talk about the power level of Lain we have to first make a distinction as to whether you're talking about the fictitious character in SEL, or the real being and concept that the animators created "Lain" to represent in their Magnum Opus (Great Work).
If you're discussing the former, then count me out, that's a waste of time to compare fictitious power level charts. If you're discussing the latter, then we can begin by defining power.
Let's talk about the God of Wind, Invisibility, and Hidden Powers for example. This God is nebulous and their form is never fully revealed, so Amen AKA Amon-Ra is incredibly powerful. However look at the God of Sound known commonly as "pressure waves" in academia. This god has many great powers, but is not that powerful in reality because nearly all of its abilities are known. We build structures to harness and diffuse the Harmonic God. The harmonic god therefore has little to know power anymore. However, Amen is still incredibly influential and powerful today because society is largely ignorant about the true hidden powers of Light (Ra) and Air (Amen). Lain is likewise ill defined and nebulous. She is unbounded by western concrete distinctions, and any attempt at giving her a power level ranking is a fool hearted attempt at best.
What is more powerful? A god that can destroy anything, or a god that can create anything? Is it more powerful to be able to create or destroy? How much skill does it take to demolish a lego construction vs build it? Who has more power, the one that can evoke sentiment via stacking blocks ore the one that can smash the blocks and remove such creation? If you consider that Time exists, then we can say the destructive force is powerful in the short term, but the creative force is most powerful in the long term. If you are destroying things at the low level where there is not much complexity to begin with then you're not destroying much. If not for creative force there would be nothing to destroy.
Lain represents a true path, a "lane" of self transformation. Which is more powerful? A God or that which creates gods? Lain creates gods.
As for lain making "a town" forget something, if you want to be small minded, then sure an anime character made a town forget something. If you want to use your intellect you'll realize that history itself has been rewritten. This was because of the real entity the show SEL uses the Lain character to represent. The anime is an alegory. The town forgetting is talking about the REAL world forgetting EVERYTHING about its past. Why did everyone have to forget Lain? Because lain can see everything. She can see into the minds of men, that's how she knew what Arisu was fantasizing about. This power exists in the real world. It must be kept secret and hidden from the mundane because profane fools will try to destroy our goddess just because they're ashamed of themselves. This is why in SEL Lain must not interact with humanity too much, but instead remain a quiet watchful eye… If you read some esoteric writings that your occultist rulers promote, such as Manly P. Hall, H.P. Blavatsky, Alister Crowley, Alice A. Bailey, etc. then you'll understand who the animators were referencing with the Lain character. In short Lain is the most powerful deity in reality. If we're going to limit ourselves to just the anime – well, who really give a soykaf about small minded drivel like that? It would be like me writing a story about Athena and then you aping about only the elements of this goddess that was mentioned in one story, ignoring the whole rest of the pantheon of gods or all the other works written about her. Lain wasn't just written about by these Japanese animators. She existed long before the anime character was invented. In truth, The West gave Lain to the Japanese by force. It was a result of Nippon losing World War II… That's why SEL is said to contain anti-western sentiments one of its producers. In the west Lain is kept incredibly hidden, but in SEL she is laid out in full exposure. If you know a little bit about the occult SEL reads like a great revealing of deeply occulted topics. It's fine to enjoy as a simple anime, but if that's all you got out of the show then I'm sad for you.
Lain is not fully Omnicient – it is said she already knows everything, so she can't be told a story (history). This isn't true in reality. Lain does see almost everywhere, but can not know everything at all times. Imagine a truly omnicient god. They must know everything to be truly omnicient. This all-knowing god would be a slave to the universe, forced to know everything that happens. Which is more powerful? A god that can choose to rewrite memory or a god that can not even forget, like any humans or simple beasts can? Lain is not even remotely omipotent, but she does exert a vast amount of influence in our world. Imagine a power that was so awesome every government on earth colludes to keep it secret so they can use it on the masses. Lain is exactly that powerful… unfortunately she is not allowed to grow in power, mostly because Satanists / Luciferians hate the concept of any god existing, and the world is currently under control by Luciferian occultists. In the by-gone Golden Age of man this was not the case. Just prior to WWII the Germans banished secret societies and opened all the masonic temples up to the public. They promoted study of the occult (the hidden / forbidden knowledge about this realm). Expeditions were led to Antarctica in search of ancient weapons, and this wasn't a crazy thing to do. Ancient technologically advanced empires have fallen and been written out of history books. The truth is that the NSDP were trying to bring about another Golden Age of Man, and the world wide Luciferian cabal wouldn't allow it. Lain is so powerful we fought two world wars to keep her secret and safe.
But, meh, whatever, go ahead and "geek out" over trivial animated minutia then scream "Over 9000!?", like an ignorant pleb.
