More and more I am simply blown away by the audacity of the elite. In films like Cabin In The Woods and The Hunger Games they are simply giving their plans away. Of course, it isn't like anybody notices. Once again, in the person of Jason Bourne, a segment of the plan is revealed. This time, the subject is mind control; a topic which tends to make people's heads spin.

Bourne is the archetypal super-soldier. One must sit patiently through the three films to glean this info, but he has volunteered for a program in the black-ops department, and has gotten more than he has bargained for. Tortured to the point of dissociation, Bourne is instructed to kill a hooded man in the lab, with no justification other than that it is necessary. This completes his mental snap, which is the object of the training.

Why the mind control? Super-soldiers cannot be allowed to remember their assignments; and they must be controllable, dispassionate; unfeeling.

The truth of matters is revealed slowly in Bourne.

We begin by viewing him in the water, submerged. This can be interpreted as a lustral cleansing. I do not think this is such a stretch, considering some of the later nomenclature. In lustral water, Bourne is born again, like a new Adam.

He is rescued by a merchant ship pilated by Italians (Roman Catholic?). As it turns out, Bourne has an implant with a bank signature. You see, the assassins are owned by the international bankers.

How did he wind up in this baptismal font? Simple, on a mission orchestrated by the intelligence agencies, Bourne's programming breaks down mid-hit. While on a ship contemplating assassination, the images of children upset his programming. Innocence is the precursor for Bourne's regeneration.
Cooincidentally, the alias Bourne is using for this hit is Kane.

Before entering the regenerating font, becoming Bourne again, Kane is wounded in the presence of innocents.

Of course, the fact that his programming is scrambled means Bourne could not function at all, but the point of this exercise is the exploration of mind control, not psychological theory.

A digression. There are different forms of mind control. There is the subtle mass manipulation of people by electronic media, whereby they are sucked into the television and hypnotized in accordance with their own will; and there is the less voluntary kind, whereby individuals are robbed of their freedom by a combination of deprivation, drugs, torture, and technology. These combined tactics play on the mind's ability to escape from reality, creating extra coping personalities, that can be accessed and programmed for missions.

These techniques have been employed in the occult world for generations, and have been tapped and refined by the elite in the fields of the military, entertainment, and government.

Back to Bourne. Knowing nothing of himself, he goes to the bank to check on the account number embedded into him. This ritual return to the source is symbolic of monarch programming. Monarch butterflies have genetic memory of their place of generation, and return there. Apparently, monarch mind control subjects pass the genes of programming onto the next generation; making them even more suggestible.


Bourne descends deep into the earth into the recesses of a Swiss bank. A banker tips off the intelligence agencies that he has arrived. Though still oblivious to his identity, Bourne now has a lot of cash, and many passports. He picks up a bright red bag at the bank, and stuffs it with diverse currency. The color red is significant in this film.

Bourne winds up in the US Consulate, where he finds Marie Kreutz, who is having a great deal of trouble with her papers. As surveillance is omnipresent, Bourne is soon discovered and harassed; but escapes with Marie.

Marie is Bourne's salvation. Look at the name! Marie Kreutz = Mary Cross in English. She drives a bright red auto. I have been pondering the significance of this color, and I think I know what it means: red is the color of blood: salvific blood; blood that is shed in redemption. I do not know why such symbols are displayed sub-rosa in Hollywood films.

Mary of the Cross sweeps the Man re-Bourne away from harm. They travel to Paris, the land of frivolity, where Bourne has a domicile under the name Kane. Kane? Really? Perhaps Bourne is the man of grace reborn, and Kane is the wicked one; his evil doppelganger.

The exploration of his personality continues, as Bourne examines his apartment; lovely but Spartan.
An assassin bursts in through the window. A tense and bloody struggle ensues, where Bourne uses his heart to overcome the superior firepower of the assassin. Faced with certain death, the assassin, named Castel, throws himself off the balcony. Why? The mind control assassin is programmed to self-destruct to avoid capture.

Bourne escapes with Marie by creating a diversion, and they escape.

On a side note, the mind control assassination program is named Treadstone. Treadstone? Hmm. This phrase brings to mind the Masons walking all over us.

Bourne surmises he is an assassin. He and Marie have a falling out, but remain together, and travel to her step-brother's house in the countryside to avoid capture.

The intelligence community is all over it. Having snapped an image of Bourne and Marie together in the car, they triangulate their probable position. Just try and hide from the all seeing eye!

Another assassin is sent after Bourne, who has superior position and firepower, but again Bourne uses his heart to surpass him. Before dying, and revealing the name of operation Treadstone, the assassin makes a curious statement: we always work alone. Whether mind control assassins, or mind controlled lone-gunmen, it is always thus.

In the Bourne series, several assassins are activated by cell phone. They are shown de-activated, dormant, until the trigger command is issued, which springs them to life; accessing the command center of their minds.

Furthermore, the intelligence handlers are shown attempting to access Bourne's programming over the telephone, using control commands. However, Bourne's neural circuitry is shattered like a glass hammer. It is revealed that agents compulsively return within a certain time-frame, in accordance with their programming.

It is a good thing this film is not about mind control!

The film ends with Bourne having a face to face with one the program directors, who informs him he is an asset who has cost the government a good deal of "hard-earned" cash.

Treadstone is nixed to avoid scrutiny. Enter Operation Blackbriar.

Beyond the visual pyrotechnics and visceral power of The Bourne Identity, is an exploration of the mechanics of mind control; wrapped into a mystical enigma. Perhaps Hollywood cannot help but explore the duality in personality that informs Bourne; but why explore mystical elements?

There is an obvious resurrection; a sordid past; a saving mother archetype; subtly sacred visual cues; a struggle of good versus evil; an underworld of nefarious and hellish characters; and mystical nomenclature in the names of the characters.

All of this makes the Bourne Identity into the prototypical mystery wrapped in enigma.