The Sixth Sense - a Review

I recently watched M. Night Shyamalan’s movie, The Sixth Sense, again after quite some time. When it came out in 1999, I was in my late twenties. At the time, although I was as impressed as everyone else at the plot twist at the end, I didn’t think much of the plot itself. I thought of it as being just another ‘ghost movie’ that happened to be written better than most others. But after a few years of studying the Subtle World and its characteristics, this movie now speaks to me on a level I never thought possible. 

In light of my studies, the movie’s premise that a person can see dead people all around them, and even communicate with them, doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched.  

The Subtle World is all around us. Although we cannot see it, it interpenetrates the same space we live in, and is inhabited by all kinds of life forms, including human beings. It is the place where we go when we are asleep, the place where we experience our dreams. It is also the place we go when our physical bodies die. We can exist there because humans (and other life forms) have other bodies, not just the physical ones we can see. With this basic understanding, let’s explore The Sixth Sense in a more comprehensive way. Let’s forget the fear and loneliness the main character, Cole Sear, experiences for a moment and simply study the way things are for him. 

Although he appears to be a ‘normal’ boy to everyone around him, he is different from people around him for an unusual reason: he can see into the Subtle World and even interact with the people there. Since nobody else has this ability, to them, Cole seems to be a ‘monster’ because he knows things he shouldn’t know, understands things he shouldn’t understand. An example is how Cole knew about his teacher’s stuttering problem. M. Night Shyamalan seems to be having fun with this by working this into Cole’s last name: Sear is just too close to “seer” to ignore. 

And “seer” is just what Cole is. He has the ability to see things that others cannot - a sixth sense as it were. This ability brings him a lot of misery because he doesn’t understand why it’s happening, and/or what he can do about it. He also understands that, just like in the physical world, not all the people in the Subtle World are friendly. Dr. Crowe helps Cole by acknowledging the reality of the situation, but also tells him that even though they may look scary, some of the dead people he sees may just need help. 

And so Cole (being an incredibly brave young man) decides to give this a try. He sees a girl inside his ‘fort’ built from blankets and clothes pins where he sometimes goes to hide. She is ‘dead’, and yet desperately needed to get a message to her father about the way she died because her little sister was in danger of dying the same way. She sought Cole because he can see and understand her, and could relay her message of warning to her father. Once Cole delivers the message that saves her little sister’s life, she feels free to move on, and she no longer bothers Cole. In the same manner, Cole helps Dr. Crowe by telling him to talk to his wife while she sleeps because she will understand him, and yet he won’t scare her. This is another allusion to the Subtle World being the world of dreamers too, not just the dead. And once Dr. Crowe sees that he has really helped Cole and then tells his (still-living) wife what he needs to, he too feels as though he can move on and Cole rightly guesses that he probably won’t see him again. Like the girl, he can finally let go of the world of the living. 

I loved this film for so many reasons, but the main one has to be that Cole is able to overcome his fear by having compassion and helping people. In the final scenes with Cole, we see that he is smiling, and we get the feeling that he will be okay because he knows he can use his gift to help people. 

I highly recommend this movie to anyone with a curiosity about the subtle world. There is a lot of great information in it, the movie is superbly written and directed, and the casting is about as perfect as you can get.