EMP / EDT masterpost

monikakrasnorada:

isitandwonder:

gosherlocked:

ebaeschnbliah:

longsnowsmoon5:

monikakrasnorada:

This is a master post collection of original thoughts and related ideas concerning the theory of Extended Mind Palace (EMP) and Extended Dream Theory (EDT) in BBC Sherlock.*

The term “EMP” was coined early in January 2016 in a discussion just after the airing of The Abominable Bride between @the-7-percent-solution, @gosherlocked and myself. This discussion entailed trying to understand / decipher which “present day” scenes in TAB were real which then snowballed into the possibility that perhaps more of His Last Vow might have taken place in mind palace as well. So, a theory was born!

The Birth of Extended Mind Palace Theory

Contributors and their post links under the cut.

*to be edited and added to as new insights develop

Keep reading

My two cents, for what it’s worth: I was scared of EMP. I avoided it and skimmed around it for months. I couldn’t imagine how to keep the “real” things separated from the “unreal” things.

I thought that if I tried it, everything would just… Fall apart and mean nothing at all.

But… I didn’t shut it off. I let it trickle across my dash. Sometimes I could make sense of it, sometimes I couldn’t. I kept writing my own stuff, and let it be.

Not too long ago, I was up against a brick wall for the hundredth time. Same questions; and all the same answers making no sense. After so much amazing work, why would Moftiss write such an unsatisfying, dead end puzzle?

The answer (because I still trust them) is that they didn’t.

The answer is that I’m asking the wrong questions.

The answer is that I am making assumptions (like we all do, all the time) about what is true. I’m leaping to conclusions before all the facts are assembled. I’m looking at the world through a filter that ignores what is right in front of me. A filter that invents things I haven’t been shown. Why? So I can have an answer, so I can feel safe, so I can be certain.

Because uncertainty is scary, even if it’s just a TV show.

Anyway. Staring at that brick wall for the umpteenth time, it occurred to me to try EMP. Just a little tiny bit, just to look at this one problem from a different angle. And BOOM. I was stunned, really stunned. It didn’t create chaos, it created *sense*. A rushing cascade, a line of dominoes, click click click.

I’m still unraveling new theories, revisiting and rethinking old assumptions (not all EMP related, btw). I know many of them may be “wrong”- for me, that’s not the point. It’s the legwork that’s the joy. Rummaging around in the toolbox, finding the right strategy to crack the next clue and write something useful.

EMP is another tool. I happen to think it’s a “good” one; but even if it turns out not to be, the waterfall of new ideas it’s generated since I started using it has made it all worth while.

EMP.

I was scared of it.

I avoided it.

I co-existed with it.

I gradually, unconsciously, accepted it.

I became curious about it.

I learned about it.

I experimented with it.

I embraced it.

I love it.

It was a good lesson. One that I (evidently) need to learn over and over.

Here’s to @monikakrasnorada , @the-7-percent-solution , @ebaeschnbliah , @gosherlocked , @isitandwonder , @tjlcisthenewsexy , and everyone else who rattled this idea around, and who has had the patience to watch me do my own rattling in my own time and manner.

Now…. as soon as it’s “all figured out”, I expect we’ll find another impossible idea and this will all happen again. And omg S4 will turn everything inside out. Cheers to us all for keeping our toolboxes open and ready for the next round!

Thank you @longsnowsmoon5 for this wonderful comment. You are so very right and yes, I did make similar experiences with certain thoughts or ideas at times. Wondering if I’ve gone insane or really round the bend now. That this or that could surely not be possible. Why would they (TPTB) do such a thing. But then I’ve always been someone who questions things, asking ‘why' or ‘really, is it so’ or ‘what if not’. Someone who likes riddles, who enjoyes a thrilling ‘Schnitzeljagd’. And Sherlock BBC provides all this generously in overflowing measures. It’s such a joy ‘rummaging around in the toolbox’ as you put it. Playing with clues and hints. Turning them round and looking at them in different angles. Sometimes I thimk this story is a bit like these old, holographic postcards I loved as a kid.  You look at it and you see mountains and woods and a lake with beautiful swans …. then you tilt it just a littel bit and trom one second to the next the picture turns into an underwater world with dolphins, turtles and fisheses in all colors of the rainbow (sorry, Golum is never far away :)  And the greatest pleasure of all is to share such experiences with people who have equal fun playing with the same things. And it doesn’t matter if their 'magic postcards’ display exactly the same picture as my own … which can change with every little tilt anyway into another new exiting image.

That said I want to thank you all for your great and inspiring company - and your patience and tolerance with 'wild' speculation - in this 'great game’ that is Sherlock BBC … @longsnowsmoon5 @gosherlocked @isitandwonder @tjlcisthenewsexy @tendergingergirl and all the others. A special thank you to @monikakrasnorada for your brilliant work putting all this together.

Ending my comment with Huddes wise words: 'Live and let live'  That’s my motto too.  :)))

This is getting long now so I will try to keep it short. I loved and hated HLV for two years. Why the hate? Because the second half did not make sense to me. It was against everything they had built up between Sherlock and John, it felt wrong on so many accounts. I tried to explain away the inconsistencies but it still did not feel right. Along came TAB which opened up a whole new world to me. So they were capable of giving us a whole episode in Sherlock’s head instead of short moments or scenes like to multiple laptops. But it still came with a big warning attached because it was Victorian. We were told something was off the second we learned it was to be set in 1895. And we were given hints throughout that this story was not real. 

With this in mind some of us looked again at HLV. And found things that can be read as hints, too, as warning signs that something is off with the story we are told. You will find them in the metas linked above. 

It has been a wonderful and fruitful discussion which I enjoy very much. We do not claim to have found THE explanation but are trying to make sense of things that otherwise are baffling or feel wrong. There should be room for many theories in such an amazing and clever fandom. 

Thank you so much for putting this together, @monikakrasnorada. And a heartfelt thank you for the inspiring discussions and creative thinking: @ebaeschnbliah, @isitandwonder, @the-7-percent-solution, @longsnowsmoon5, @tjlcisthenewsexy, @tendergingergirl. You rock. 

Hei, folks, I’m late to the party as usual, so I’ll keep it short. When I encountered tie hell back in January I thought you were all totally off your rocker. But I read it anyway because, hei, what harm could it do? See where I ended up.

This is mostely @ebaeschnbliah‘s ‘fault’, for she took me by the hand and carefully guided me in this direction. And, as has been said above, suddenly things made sense and fell into place.

So, it’s been quite a ride since then. I love and admire you all @gosherlocked, @tjlcisthenewsexy, @the-7-percent-solution, @longsnowsmoon5, @tendergingergirl, @yan-yae and all the others. And special thanks of course to @monikakrasnorada!

It’s merely two months till S4 now - we’ll see what happens then. But to me, the journey is its own reward - so regardless if we are right or not, it’s been a pleasure. What more can fandom be?

The discussion around EMP over these past months has truly been what being a Sherlock Holmes fan should be all about. “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” We may be wrong- completely- but for me, that hasn’t been the point. So, no matter what S4 brings, for me, this will not have been time wasted, but a learning experience. I’ve come to understand so many facets of storytelling I otherwise would have remained ignorant to if I hadn’t had such amazing people to learn from. It’s brought me to know and befriend some phenomenal people and there will never be regret in that. EMP makes sense of some pretty senseless things. We don’t expect everyone to agree, merely respect our desire to explore the possibility.

Thanks so much for going on this journey with me: @gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @tjlcisthenewsexy @isitandwonder @longsnowsmoon5 @yan-yae and an especially heartfelt thank you to @tendergingergirl for being the most amazing cheerleader and supporter of us all. <3

Reblogging for lots of interesting discussion!