When I was going to school in Charlotte, I rented out the whole series and watched the whole thing.
Basically, it references all these pseudoscientific theories, mostly from the 60’s when there was a blossoming sub-culture of people who tried psychedellic drugs.
Some of those theories, like one theorized by one of scientists sent to investigate the Roswell crash. Those nostalgic trends of the early half of the 20th century are explored in a near future from our own. Exploring many psychological, social, technological, informatical, and metaphysical themes. Such themes that involve diving into the darker realms of the abstract human mind, testing preconcieved notions of “self”, attempts to discover the mystery of God, and explores the collective conciousness of our world and what the secrets the future holds for our species’ evolution.
Originally, the creator wanted “Serial Experiments: Lain” to be a war of ideas on American culture and hoped that the Americans wouldn’t be able to understand Lain in the same way as the Japanese would.
If you want, you can look into what Lain references on Wikipedia, and also try reading some material pertaining to a theory of a Global Conciousness. Or, look into Karl Jung’s theory of synchronicity and the collective unconcious.
