The Philosophy of Time Travel · Chapter 6
The Living Receiver
Donnie is the Living Receiver: the one person chosen to return the Artifact. The chapter explains his powers (the axe in the mascot, the flooded school, the fire at Cunningham's house) and his torment (Frank, the visions, the sleepwalking) as symptoms of the role rather than of schizophrenia.
The Living Receiver is chosen to guide the Artifact into position for its journey back to the Primary Universe.
No one knows how or why a Receiver will be chosen.
The Living Receiver is often blessed with Fourth Dimensional Powers. These include increased strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water.
The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams, visions and auditory hallucinations during his time within the Tangent Universe.
Those surrounding the Living Receiver, known as the Manipulated, will fear him and try to destroy him.
In the film
Powers
Each of the powers Sparrow lists has a scene. Increased strength: the axe buried in the bronze head of the Mongrel mascot. Water: the flooded school. Fire: Jim Cunningham's house. Mind control: the Manipulated act on Donnie's behalf without understanding why. Telekinesis is the power used in the climax, when Donnie tears the engine from the plane and sends it through the Vortex.
Torment
Frank's visits, the sleepwalking, the liquid spears and the hypnosis sessions with Dr Thurman are the "terrifying dreams, visions and auditory hallucinations". The film keeps two readings open for most of its length: Dr Thurman's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, and Sparrow's description of the Receiver's condition.
Where this chapter happens on screen.