INTRODUCTION
The shadow is the other side, the expression of our own earthly imperfection, of our negativity, the terror of the transience of life and the certainty of death that is set against absolute values. ERICH NEUMANN, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic.
The entity that claims to be a God is a malevolent will that condemns man to perpetual slavery. LAVENZA, Persona 5 Royal.
Writing about such an extensive video game without giving too many details imposes a complicated task for anyone who dares to think about it, however, I will try to be as brief as possible and give an overview of the video game Persona 5 Royal, exploring concepts such as Gnosis, Persona, Shadow, and how these terms are present throughout the game.
The premise of the characters being immersed in a story where a superior and incomprehensible power controls the world and wants to take it over is a theme that we can find in most RPG titles, however, something that stands out in Persona 5 is the way it addresses not only the Gnostic aspects, but, its way of exploring the human psyche, relying on it to create an immersive, exciting, deep and addictive narrative without the need to fall back on the medieval fantasy that many video games of the genre offer.
PERSONA 5, GNOSIS AND SHADOW
Persona 5 takes place in Shibuya, Tokyo, and follows the story of Ren Amamiya, a sixteen-year-old student who has been transferred to a new school after being falsely accused of assault and put on probation. Over the course of a school year, he and other students will awaken a special power that will help them save humanity, thus becoming a group of secret vigilantes known as the Phantom Thieves, who will fight against the abuses of academic, political and social power, and their mission will be to ‘take your heart’ in an alternate universe known as Mementos, that is, the cognitive representation of society which is hidden in the depths of the collective subconscious, after defeating them in battle they will repent for their actions.
The video game, being contextualised in real life, makes the player feel familiar with the environment, as the gameplay offers different routine activities of a student’s ordinary life: from travelling by underground; reading a book; studying in the library to pass exams and finally meeting classmates and people in the city that will help develop the character in his growth as a human being, from becoming empathetic, brave, charismatic, cultured, athletic, etc.
These characteristics are qualities that the character will have to develop in order to increase his powers and thus, with the help of his friends, reveal himself against a higher divine authority that enslaves human beings through faith. It is at this point that Persona 5 becomes gnostic.
What do we understand by Gnosis? The author José Manuel Herrou Aragón in his book La Gnosis Prohibida: La Religión Prohibida, Gnosis y Alquimia y otros escritos antidemiúrgicos explains the following:
Gnosis means: knowledge. But we are not referring to just any knowledge. Gnosis is a very special knowledge. It is a knowledge that produces an immense transformation in the one who receives it. It is a knowledge capable […] of awakening and liberating spiritually the one who obtains it. Its purpose is that: to shed light on the human situation, trying to awaken men and help them to escape from the prison in which they find themselves. That is why this knowledge has been so persecuted throughout history, because it is a knowledge considered dangerous by the religious and political powers that rule humanity from the shadows. That is why Gnosis has always remained hidden. Gnosis is a secret knowledge, accessible only to the seeker who is worthy of it.[1]
This explanation summarises in a general way the story of Persona 5 and its protagonist Ren Amamiya (Joker).
Now, the video game is replete with psychoanalytical terminology, for already from the title it suggests ‘Persona’ a key concept in Jung’s theory which is to be understood as follows:
The persona represents the ‘mask’ which the individual must wear in his adaptation to everyday social life. It is all those aspects of the personality with which individuals adapt to the outside world, the roles they play that are presentable and pleasing to others.[2]
Jung chose this name referring to the Latin word for mask, which is the mask used by actors in ancient theatre to perform their plays. In this sense, society demands that every subject plays a role in the form of a mask, as if the subject can never show himself to others with the totality of his personality.
At the same time, there is a counterpart of the Persona which is the Shadow.
The Shadow complex is the polar opposite of the Persona. To the extent that the ego tends to develop the strongest aspects of the personality, the aspects that are most unfit for society, they are discarded into the unconscious where they form the Shadow. These are not only socially negative aspects such as envy or cowardice, but can also be elements that are socially classified as positive, but which the individual and his environment reject.
In Jung’s terms, the Shadow is the dark aspect of the personality, the set of its repressed contents. ‘The individual shadow is indissolubly linked to the collective shadow’[3], but is it we who possess a shadow or does the shadow possess us? The shadow is, by definition, unconscious, and therefore it is not always possible to know whether or not we are subject to the dominion of one of the contents of our shadow.
It is in this way that the main characters have the ability to Summon Personas (mythological creatures) which will empower our protagonists to overcome the evil of humanity, who have placed their faith in a cognitive entity that controls them from the shadows, it will be our duty as Phantom Thieves to awaken the collective and remove the blindfolds that keep us blind to the truth. Thus, the path of the Phantom Thieves is Gnostic, for: ‘This material world is hell. Matter is evil, and if matter is evil the creator of matter must therefore be someone evil. For Gnosis the material world, this world, has been created not by a good or just God but by a creator Satan. Matter is something satanic, therefore, the one who created it must also be a satanic being’.[4] Which would give reason to the words uttered by Morgana at some point in the story: ‘If a God misbehaves, it is the duty of a demonic lord to punish him!
CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL OPINION; A REMINISCENCE TO THE PAST
Playing videogames is an activity that I abandoned about ten years ago because there was a time when video games lost their sense of entertainment for me, because I couldn’t find the time; school and social life were more important than sitting for hours watching a TV, although I got to play some titles over time, such as Nier Automata, GTA, Metal Gear Solid, etc., one day Persona 5 arrived on Xbox Game Pass, which made me quite excited because since 2012 I had wanted to play some installment of this franchise (mainly Persona 3 for its suicide theme), so I didn’t hesitate to download Persona 5 immediately.
I can say in a few words, that everything I didn’t play during these twelve years, I summed them up in Persona 5, since my final game was a total of 200 hours (something I consider exaggerated since my previous games and experiences with some RPG titles were 65-70 hours maximum). Still, I don’t regret all those ‘wasted’ hours I spent in front of the TV.
Now, Reminiscence is a fact of memory for remembering what is distant in time. My experience was like a trip to the past where I could enjoy a good story, good music, without the need to buy DLCs. It was like a memory playing PlayStation 1 titles like Castlevania SOTN, Silent Hill, etc. For some reason Persona 5 Royal feels like a video game from the past, but with purely modern and addictive mechanics, without leaving aside its charismatic characters, with a tormented life.
One thing I have to add, is that I have never experienced a feeling of emptiness after finishing a video game. The impact of Persona is so intimate, that I felt depressed for days, it was somehow like being dead, as if something in me was lost, it was the first time I experienced a stage of mourning because of a videogame. But I highly recommend this experience to anyone who wants to go on an unparalleled adventure.
[1] José María Herrou Aragón, La Gnosis prohibida. La Religión Prohibida, Gnosis y Alquimia y otros escritos antidemiúrgicos. Obras Completas Volumen II, Biblioteca Esotérica Herrou Aragón, Argentina, 2011, p. 9.
[2] Alonso G., Juan Carlos. La Psicología Analítica de Jung y sus aportes a la psicoterapia, Universitas Psychologica, vol. 3, núm. 1, enero-junio, 2004, pp. 55-70 Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, p. 62.
[3] Connie Zweig y Jeremiah Abrams, Encuentro con la sombra. El poder del lado oculto de la naturaleza humana, p. 97.
[4] José María Herrou Aragón, La Gnosis prohibida… op.cit.
