The Dark Side of Psychonauts — Moles/Monsters/Psychics/Spies

Note: This is a word-for-word transcript of the video of the same name, available to watch now on YouTube.

Similar to real-life intelligence agencies, the Psychonauts organisation is built on shady foundations.

Consider the GPC, or Geodesic Psychoisolation Chambers. After freeing Maloof from the topmost chamber, he tells Raz the GPC are “sixth-sensory deprivation tanks” used as “solitary confinement for psychics”. Thankfully, the staff haven’t stuck kids in them since the fifties. However, the forbidden signage and barbed-wire fencing suggest it to be a secretive place. And not an especially proud one.

It could just be the psychic equivalent of the naughty step. A place to send misbehaving kids, in the hopes of rectifying “bad” behaviour. Or it may have been built as a prison for psychic opponents, the cells being interrogation hotboxes designed to break the enemy. According to the game’s timeline, the GPC existed years before the creation of the summer camp. What exactly happened all those years ago is unknown. But the implication is clear. It wasn’t too pretty.

It all goes back to MKUltra, a top-secret CIA project began in the 1950s, a series of experiments focused on subduing and controlling the human mind. These experiments involved procedures like hypnosis and psychic driving. The latter involved the continuous playback of a looped message, its aim to break down the subject’s sense of self. Such procedures helped form the character of the Milkman.

The project also included the creation of secret detention camps. Here, enemy agents, and anyone else deemed “expendable”, were interrogated while being subject to sensory isolation. CIA’s 1963 KUBARK interrogation manual, classified SECRET, devotes a whole section to sensory deprivation. It suggests the use of “a cell which has no light, which is sound-proofed, in which odors are eliminated, etc.” Such a room could rapidly produce reality-bending symptoms in the detainee, some of which include superstition, hallucinations, and delusions. Another curious effect of isolation was the regression of the subject, which led to them viewing the interrogator as a father-figure.

One of the forefront researchers of sensory deprivation was a Canadian professor named John Zubek. In 1959 he built a special dome, housed in a semi-soundproofed chamber. Student volunteers were kept in the dome, some for up to two weeks. Many of them reported extreme feelings of worry and anxiety, as well as hallucinations. These findings later informed the interrogation methods of the CIA.

Ford’s Sanctuary can be found hidden underground. It’s one of two main underground locations in the game, only accessible via a secret entrance. This one serves as a secret base of operations. Holographic screens float around a central platform. On them are images of wanted criminals, locations under surveillance, geometric radar symbols, a news report, a map, and scenes of general unrest. These highlight the organisation’s role on the larger global stage. Their role is likely analogous to that of the main agency from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. They are responsible for “maintaining political and legal order anywhere in the world.” However, going by the brainy-headed appearances of the wanted men, they are more focused on psychic acts of terrorism.

Agents like Sasha and Milla are pictured going on exotic globe-spanning adventures. These are rooted in a colourful world of intrigue, similar to that depicted in the James Bond novels.

In some ways, Sasha resembles Fleming’s original conception of Bond, the characterless secret agent. His full name Sasha Nein somewhat resembles the word “assassin”, this perhaps suggestive of his cool and mysterious disposition. He also appears to have adopted Bond’s penchant for smoking. He almost always smokes on the job.

The colourful Milla bears a slight resemblance to Manuela from 1979 Bond film Moonraker. Both are Brazilian with long brown hair, in the habit of wearing bright orange dresses. However, Milla displays much more agency than your typical Bond girl.

The term “mole” was introduced to the general public by John le Carré in his 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. A mole is so called because he or she burrows deep into the fabric of an organisation. They are very valuable because of the many years it takes to place them. Motivations to become a mole might include disillusionment with your organisation’s ideology, a desire for more power, blackmail, or money. One of the worst scenarios is for a top-level executive to be a mole working for the enemy.

Hollis Forsythe is the second-in-command of the Psychonauts organization. Her second name “Forsythe” could be a pun on the word “foresight”, maybe hinting at a future-sight ability. Her first name “Hollis” could be a reference to Roger Hollis, the former Director General of MI5 and long-suspected “supermole”.

Roger Hollis was a member of the same network of students that comprised the Cambridge Five, perhaps the most famous examples of moles. These were five men recruited as communist spies at Cambridge University, who later rose to high levels in various parts of the British government. It’s these five real-life spies who served as the inspiration for le Carré’s Tinker Tailor.

The book is about the hunt for a mole operating at the very top of British intelligence. Similar to Psychonauts 2, the story is set against a background of decline. The Circus, the book’s fictional intelligence agency, based on MI6, (Britain’s version of the CIA) is a shrunken outfit with the top men and women now reaching old age. Power is restricted to a select few and there is even talk of scrapping the outfit entirely. The Psychonauts agency is in a similar state, “dealing with budget cuts” as its agents “feel less needed by the outside world.”

In Tinker Tailor, the waning influence of the organisation forms the basis for the mole’s betrayal. The mole’s turning point is when it becomes clear to him that his side no longer holds power on the world stage, and have instead become subservient to America. He develops a deep hatred of America and resolves to undermine their power, by becoming a spy for the opposing team.

The mole’s intentions in Psychonauts could be similarly subversive. With the organisation losing the power they once had, they may feel like psychics are being ignored or, worse, mistreated by the outside world. Bringing back a godlike villain of old would certainly raise their profile. Upon unleashing this terror onto the world, psychics would not only be seen as a great power, but also the dominant one.

In Tinker Tailor, the protagonist Smiley must immerse himself in the old records of the Circus in order to determine who the “mole” is. Sifting through the records allows him to discover actions inconsistent with the motivations of the agency. Following these aberrant threads eventually leads him to the culprit. However, it’s some time until he gets there.

As the mole is set on covering his tracks, files are destroyed or altered in order that he not get caught. This means the investigator must locate “periphery files”, those records which the mole could not have tampered with.

In Psychonauts, Raz plays the role of investigator. Instead of just written or oral archives, Raz will explore the mental archives of the institution. The brains of the founding members of the Psychonauts organisation contain its institutional memory. And so a “periphery file” becomes a “periphery brain”. The jarred brain of one of the founding members, left on a shelf for twenty years, may prove a key source of information. Although, it might be the mind of Ford Cruller which ends up playing the most pivotal role. Cruller’s mind, being split into several personalities, poses a bit of a problem for the investigator. The secrets of his past exist within a tangled web of memory.

The discovery of a dark secret within the heart of the institution often leads to a moral dilemma. The investigator must now decide whether the truth should be revealed to the world. As the old adage goes, some secrets are best left buried. Such a plot device is common in spy and mystery fiction. For example, in Robert Ludlum’s The Gemini Contenders the discovery of a secret parchment that “can alter history” leads the characters to question “the price of truth”. Once out, the secret may prove too dangerous, too damaging. In the end, it might be decided that the truth is best kept hidden from the world.

A deep dive into the collective memory of the institution leads the investigator to the mole, and reveals some dark truths along the way. After the evil plot has been crushed, the past is now seen as something to be suppressed. This is the standard sequence of events for such a spy story. And it seems to provide the basic mould for the story of Psychonauts 2.

But with psychic espionage thrown into the mix, the story welcomes more fantastical twists and turns than the average spy story. There is, for example, the possibility that some characters’ brains have been altered by the machinery of villains like Doctor Loboto. There are the Mr. Grey agents like Sasha, well-suited to the role of double or even triple agents. There are new interns with unknown backgrounds, with access to a vast wealth of psychic information. And there’s the possibility of brain swaps, divination, shapeshifting, and more, playing a role in the story.

Divination, or the ability to see the future, offers an obvious advantage in the game of psychic espionage. The Galochios, a family of fortune tellers, allegedly laid a watery curse on Raz’s family prior to the events of the first game. Its final level implies they are dead. However, the second game introduces the practice of necromancy. And the Galochios seem an obvious target.

It’s unknown if there are any Galochios still alive, although a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in the final level may offer a clue. Ride the rail on the Tunnel of Love and look for a door with a purple poster. It shows a moustachioed man with a brimmed hat, red-eyed and open-mouthed. Encircling his head are the figures of six drowning children. The children could be Galochios. And the man in the middle the last remaining member, the one who laid the curse on Raz.

Even more, he could be the one who set the events of the first game in motion. Some speculate that he is the cloaked figure from the memory “Raz’s Getaway”. He’s the one who led Raz to Whispering Rock. Given the fortune-telling capabilities of the Galochios, might he have foreseen the events leading up to the second chapter. Raz himself could end up being an important piece of the necromancy puzzle.

Maligula is the “murderous psychic villain” whom the mole plans to bring back from the dead. She’s depicted as a raging eldritch monster with a Triton-like power over water, capable of turning a calm, quiet sea into a veritable tsunami. Due to her water-based superpowers, she is suspected to be a deceased member of the Galochio family, perhaps the mother to all those dead drowned children.

Her name brings to mind a range of associations, from the historical to the fantastical. Most obvious is the Roman emperor Caligula, notorious for acting with “monstrous cruelty” and “unusual outbursts of anger”. He’s the “insane tyrant” who tortured others for his own mere amusement. He was even said to have thrown people into the arena to be eaten by animals, just because he was bored. Of course many of these stories are apocryphal. In a similar way, Maligula may not be quite as evil as she’s purported to be.

In both name and appearance, Maligula seems to draw inspiration from two classic Disney villains. Her tall, slender physique, pointed face, and yellow eyes are reminiscent of Maleficent, the evil witch from Sleeping Beauty. While her purple skin and seething powers are like those of Ursula, the sea witch from The Little Mermaid.

One may also see in her traces of the sea goddess Sedna, ruler of the Inuit underworld. Her outfit resembles a hooded parka, an article of Inuit clothing traditionally worn by hunters. Her uninhibited rage could also be linked to Sedna’s. Sedna is a vengeful goddess. After being left to drown at sea, she became angry and distrustful of all humans. It could be that Maligula’s rage is related to some past trauma, just waiting to be unearthed.

A further mystery is the identity of Loboto’s boss. His appearance is quite literally kept in the dark. Judging from his silhouette, he appears to have a big head, perhaps shielding his massive psychic brain. He also appears to be wearing a chandelier on his head. It could be that the character is related to Raz’s mysterious past. Or maybe he’s one of those brainiac supervillains, with roots in the distant past of the Psychonauts organization. Only the third act will tell.

It seems like all roads lead to Raz. That first name Razputin recalls the Russian mystic Rasputin, himself said to have drowned to death in water. It could also be suggestive of his dark Galochio past. Raz’s ability to read minds in the first game, left unexplained, may be traced back to that fortune-telling family. But until that final act is reached, the shadows remain, and the spies will just have to keep on spying.