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There is something quite alluring about the story behind Sonic the Hedgehog game series, especially in a religious aspect; gods, deities, ancient spirits, all are mentioned but these are mere characters as they hold purpose for only the plotline, not in a sense of the ultimate reality. No, what I found spiritual and mystical in this game series about a speedy blue hedgehog was more of an intangible force—chaos energy, a universal force in the story that brings life to all and exists in the same reality but is invisible to the senses. A sort of monism you may call it, this energy holds infinite power and yet is always out of reach for one must tap into the energy through a tangible bridge between the divine and the mortals known as the Chaos Emeralds. By collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds, the one who wields these gems will experience mysterium tremendum, a feeling of awe that overwhelms a person experiencing the majestic presence of the “wholly other” (Brodd 17).
In this case, the user of the seven Chaos Emeralds will undergo a transformation both physically and spiritually. For Sonic the Hedgehog, when he wields all seven emeralds, his cobalt fur turns into a brilliant gold and his lively green eyes are a powerful red; he is also gifted with pure invincibility, light-speed, and the full power of chaos energy. With this power, miracles of all kinds can be performed, from raising the dead and restoring life to subduing corrupt gods and changing the course of time itself. However, this transformation is temporary for the Chaos Emeralds can only withstand this raw power for a limited time before it cuts off the connection and the user must return to his or her normal state with the emeralds scattering across the world to be discovered once again. This has intrigued me for quite some time—a never ending cycle of experiencing a supernatural force in the same reality that can only be grasped through tangible objects and bestows unimaginable power onto the user and provides a numinous experience for that user—and by looking at this process closer, we find a deeper meaning behind chaos energy. Not to say Sonic the Hedgehog games holds a new form of religion, but the lore behind this series shares many similarities to actual branches of religion outside the fictional world.
To discover these ties, we must further explore all the dimensions of religion and how chaos energy is linked to each one, and the different religious practices that share a likeness to the games. The seven dimensions of religion are the mythic (or sacred narratives), doctrinal (or philosophical), ethical (or legal), ritual (or practical), experiential (or emotional), social, and material (Brodd 19). Some dimensions hold more purpose for the chaos energy, but all will be addressed and compared to certain religions.
Beginning with the mythic and material, the origins to the Chaos Emeralds are unknown as they have always existed and the same was for chaos energy. However, in the lore, there is a myth that an ancient civilization, thousands of years ago on the West Side Island, used the Chaos Emeralds for prosperity but over time their intentions grew evil, and conflicts arose in the civilization over their greed. The gods intervened and sealed the emeralds on the island and created the Master Emerald, a gem ten times the size that would balance out the Chaos Emeralds’ power and had the ability to nullify and control them (“Chaos Emerald”).
After first learning of this myth, I became confused as to what practice Sonic the Hedgehog game series is best shaped from. Surely polytheism, the belief of many gods, is apparent, but I was so certain that monism was the focus for all beings come from chaos energy. Then I thought it over and it clicked; these gods in the fictional world are of physical forms themselves and interact directly with mortals. They have been proven to hold vulnerabilities and characteristics like mortals, so much so that they can even be subdued if a mortal taps into the full might of chaos energy. To say the mortals are of the ultimate reality for they are stronger than the gods is wrong to assume since they also are a being within being as said before, for chaos energy brings life to all. The gods also hold little to no religious ideas, only that they are revered by some, are immortal, and hold immense powers. As said before, they hold more purpose in the plot of the games rather in the areas of religion throughout the entire series. One god will appear in one game, another in a later one, and so on a so forth. The only consistency in the series that brings all beings together is chaos energy through its tangible bridge and material dimension, the Chaos Emeralds. Because of this, it is safe to assume the gods are beings within beings, as well mortals, for if the gods were of the ultimate reality, they would have shared more importance rather used interchangeably.
So what is the ultimate reality, the highest form of reality, the most real thing in this series? Chaos energy is the answer, for it is of the same reality and is not a being within being as it is a force and gives purpose to all. To conclude, the mythic dimension of the lore shares information that chaos energy is the ultimate reality and polytheism, or the belief of many gods, does exist but monism, the belief that all reality is ultimately one, overrules that practice for mortals and gods are all of one reality that ties with chaos energy.
The doctrinal, ritual, and experiential dimensions hold meaning for chaos energy as well. In Sonic Adventure, it was mentioned that 4,000 years ago there was an echidna tribe known as the Knuckles Clan that revered the Chaos Emeralds as sacred objects and they would recite a mantra to speak to the Master Emerald to balance all the emeralds’ power: “The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos” (“Sonic Adventure”). While this mantra is more of a ritual, it holds philosophical truths about the Chaos Emeralds and chaos energy. The first couple of verses are speaking of the Chaos Emeralds and the chaos energy passing through them; the emeralds exist to serve as a bridge between chaos energy and mortals. Chaos energy is power that is enriched by the heart… but what does this mean?
There is another trait about the Chaos Emeralds the lore revisits often, that they transform thoughts into power and sense the true intentions of the user and share either two types of energies with him or her: positive or negative energy. If the user’s heart is pure, focusing on kindness, friendship, and caring for others, the Chaos Emeralds will share positive chaos energy and the user’s powers will be used for creation or restoration. However, if anger and hatred are all that the user has, negative energy will be shared and can be used for the acts of destruction. This has been seen through one deity, Chaos, the guardian god of Chao, when he was angered by his friends being harmed and used the Chaos Emeralds to seek revenge on the ones at fault (“Sonic Adventure”). If the negative energy is harnessed, then the emeralds will lose their luster and become inert, looking almost sickly or dead. For the emeralds to maintain their lively appearance and connections with the chaos energy, negative energy must never be removed and if all fails, mortals can revive the emeralds through positive thoughts and restore them to their original state. This is where the experiential, or emotional, dimension takes place. To help in maintaining the balance of chaos energy, both positive and negative, the mortals must look in themselves and unravel the emotions they hold to discover where their heart lies… a form of introspection to experience the great divine. This balance is confirmed in the final verse, “The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos[…]” (“Sonic Adventure”) for the balance of energies comes from within us. This is the user’s and all mortal’s purpose in life: to maintain unity of chaos energy through the Chaos Emeralds and the person’s heart and emotions.
With the idea of friendship being a fundamental idea behind positive chaos energy and its restoration powers, the social dimension can be linked to this and hold a purpose for the ethical dimension. Again, if the Chaos Emeralds are stripped of negative chaos energy flowing through them and that energy is used for the user’s gain, the Chaos Emeralds will become inert and unable to function as a connection between the mortals and the divine. For this process to be restored, the social dimension must be practiced, the gathering of folks and combining their positive thoughts to form positive chaos energy needed to restore balance and order to reality.
The ethics conveyed are subtle but well known outside the fictional world; positive energy is encouraged to be used while negative energy is best not to be tampered with, or else havoc and destruction will follow. Compassion, kindness, love, and friendship are what spark positive chaos energy while hate, anger, and rage stir up negative chaos energy. Both must coexist through the Chaos Emeralds and negative energy must never be absent. Going deeper into this, would negative chaos energy be deemed evil? The answer is no, negative energy that exists is not evil but rather unstable for it is the counter opposite of positive energy and there is no right or wrong between the two energies as they are of one. For positive energy to restore life, life must be destroyed through negative energy, and for negative energy to destroy life, life must be created to be destroyed; it is a continual cycle of order and chaos, the positive chaos energy providing order through its restoration powers and the negative energy prompting chaos through its trail of destruction.
But why do positive and negative chaos energy both exist and why must there be a balance between the two? To explain this, we must look to the several religions portrayed in Sonic the Hedgehog game series for each branch of religion mentioned is portrayed in its own unique way. Hinduism, for example, shares similar practices; polytheism and monism are both solid beliefs in the fictional and real world, although it is not clear if henotheism, the belief in many gods but elevating one to special status, exists in the game series—the gods interact mainly with mortals and rarely with each other, so there has been no evidence to show if the gods hold the same status or different statuses overall. Still, both Hinduism and the lore behind Sonic the Hedgehog are guided by monism, followed by polytheism. In Hinduism, all of reality is Brahman and everything, both gods and mortals, are of Brahman… a nearly identical comparison to the idea of chaos energy. It is important to note I am specifically speaking of monistic Hinduism for there are two different viewpoints in this branch of religion: monistic and dualistic. As we have covered, monistic is the belief of one reality while this dualistic viewpoint is of two realities—the mortal realm and the divine (Brodd 93-94).
Earlier, it may have sounded like I was speaking of the game series being dualistic, with the Chaos Emeralds acting like a bridge for mortals to interact with chaos energy. However, what I meant to convey is that mortals, gods, and chaos energy all exist in one ultimate reality that is governed by chaos energy itself, but with that energy being more of a supernatural force, mortals can’t interact with that energy, rather exist within it. For mortals or gods to interact with chaos energy in a physical manner, there must be a connection between them through the material dimension and for the lore, the Chaos Emeralds hold that purpose. There is also something yet to be mentioned about another religion and chaos energy, the fulfillment of nothingness being the ultimate resolution to the cycle of life; Daoism focuses on this belief that reality is ultimately nothingness and while this is not what is conveyed in the game series, it does seem to be the resolution to this ongoing cycle and purpose of chaos energy and the Chaos Emeralds. Consider this; if there was no positive nor negative energy, there would be nothing destroyed that requires restoration and nothing restored that requires destruction. The significance of chaos energy is only made if both positive and negative energy exist as one and without both, there is no reason for mortals to achieve their goal in collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds and harnessing the raw power of chaos energy. This idea of nothingness may never arise in the lore, but it provides reason as to why positive and negative energy must exist; without the creation or destruction of something there would be nothing, for chaos and order must follow the order of being counterparts for each other, much like the ying-yang.
In speaking of which, Confucianism is the final religion to be addressed. The phenomenon of a full circle has always caught my eye and with Confucianism, there is just that. The act of creation and destruction are melded into one, known as the ying-yang; the symbol representing how one cannot exist without the other and the same is for chaos energy, for “[the] One brings forth the Two” (Brodd 269) forms of energy, both positive and negative. These two are of the one and will never be separated apart for both complement each other despite their differences. The ying-yang symbol has two alternate-colored spiraled halves that are equally proportional, and it key for both to be balanced out for a circle to be formed. The same is for chaos energy—if the positive and negative energy were to be incongruent to each other, then either there would be too much of creation or destruction for life to properly function; creation takes up space while destruction takes it away and without a balance between the two, the chaos energy would lead to disorder beyond its limits of repair. It is quite ironic… Chaos energy must possess order and while chaos exists through the negative energy of destruction, it is an orderly form of chaos. If pure chaos were to occur, it would be far beyond what we could imagine. This balance of chaos energy is a form of order that helps the chaos energy remain as the ultimate reality.
All in all, chaos energy is an intriguing idea in Sonic the Hedgehog but is fictional as none of it is real. However, the concepts in the making of this form of belief trace back to actual branches of religion and the components of religion as a whole. Through the seven dimensions and three of the many branches of religion, the idea to chaos energy is given a deeper meaning that can be further explored through beliefs that exist in the real world. Only a fragment of the mystery was uncovered about the game series and there is so much more to discover, but I encourage for us all to look at the most basic forms of media or entertainment, whether is be a movie or game series or even a book, and look for a new understanding of it philosophically so we may become aware of beliefs and religions at large in our world and shaping our sources of pop-culture, much like Sonic the Hedgehog. After all, it is the chaos within that stirs up purpose for order in our lives and in our reality.