Galactic Milieu Series - Religious and Philosophical Themes

Religious and Philosophical Themes

The series includes multiple references to the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, including the concepts of the Omega Point and the Noosphere, which are applied to May's description of galactic mental Unity. The series title echoes Teilhard's 1957 book Le Milieu Divin.

The Remillard family are Catholic, and on several occasions family members discuss their faith. The most notable example occurs in the first part of Chapter 24 of Jack the Bodiless, where Teresa Kendall explains Christianity to her unborn son.

Jack the Bodiless begins with a set of quotations, including the Spanish proverb "God writes straight with crooked lines." This proverb summarises the plot of the whole series, in which tragedies and disasters (particularly the Metapsychic Rebellion) result in ultimate good (particularly the repentance and transformation of Marc Remillard, through which the Galactic Milieu is formed). The Rebellion is thus a Felix culpa.

Julian May's description of "metapsychic" abilities explicitly refers to the concepts of auras (particularly in Part III of Intervention) and chakras (particularly in discussing the feeding of the "Hydra").

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