If you have watched the Matrix and still believe that we are not living in the Matrix, then I hope this article will provide a view which will make you rethink your opinion. For those who have not watched the movie, please put this as high on your priority list as possible! For the purpose of this article, below is a short gist of the movie.
The Matrix is centered around a character called Neo, and his alter ego, Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson lives in the “real” world, where all humans believe they live on Earth as it was in 1999, life is functioning “normally” and there is no reason to think otherwise. Mr. Anderson works as a programmer and his alter ego is one of the best computer hackers around. All this until he learns about the reality, that all humans are living in a virtual system called the Matrix, and the true purpose of humans is only to provide an energy source for the machines that rule the world. Now he must free his mind from the programming of the Matrix and fight to free all mankind!
That's a great storyline for a movie, but is it possible that this, in a way, is our current reality?
The System
The movie begins with a portrayal of humans on Earth, living life as though their reality is the only one that exists, and there is nothing beyond their world. They are oblivious to the fact that the Matrix exists and they are being grown in capsules in fields where machines harvest human energy. Humans are nothing but ‘batteries’ that are providing power to the machines that run the world, as well as the Matrix in which they live. This seems fantastical, and it probably is, but it doesn't mean that there aren't any similarities between the world depicted above and our world.
Think about our world. What is running it? How is it functioning? Do we have any idea? We are living in a system where we believe everything we are shown. And no, I am not talking only about the system of governments; this is the larger system that connects all smaller systems together. Governments, anti-governments, sports, sex, drugs and anything else that can keep us distracted and believing that we live in the world in which we live, and to continue living the way we live. Whether we are running it, running away from it, fighting it, or just living in peace within it, we are all part of this system - Systematically following the endless loops in our daily lives. In a way, we are just batteries providing power for this system to run. Just a source of energy that is running something we do not understand and cannot even comprehend.
The people who believe they are fighting the “system” are only fighting other people who are also a part of the same system. The people who believe they are running the system are the biggest sources of power for the system because they have no idea that the system is out of their control and it is actually running them, but still they dedicate all their energy to “run” this system without questioning the purpose. And finally there are the “normal people” that are just living a life where they are working towards things that require them to work more, living in an endless cycle. Do we ever stop to think why we are doing what we are doing?
As time has progressed, the system has only enabled us to come up with more distractions that prevent us from living our own life. To live a life where we believe we need to do certain things in certain ways to achieve certain goals. But what are these goals about? Let’s say I lived a life where I earned a million dollars by the age of 40. Did I stop? No, I went on to earn another million by the age of 50. Then what? I spent it doing things which I believed would give me joy, and because I believed that, I also believed that I did enjoy.
Now what if I did not believe in any of this? If I had been brought up to believe that sitting in one spot and doing nothing will give me joy, would I not have enjoyed as well? So why put ourselves through these tiresome cycles to enjoy something that we only enjoy because we have been made to believe it? There is only one answer – we do this to continue living in the system which made us believe that this is what we want.
Everyone who is in any way connected to the system is merely fueling the system, whether they believe it or not, whether they like it or not, whether they accept it or not. Without each person believing in the system in which we live, there is no way for the system to exist. If we do not function the way the system demands, it cannot run any longer.
Realization
If whatever I said above has made any sense to you, you have come to the realization that a system exists. Now let’s go back to the Matrix and talk about our protagonist, Neo. He is contacted by a group of people that have been disconnected from the Matrix, “unplugged” in movie terms. These people, primarily Morpheus and Trinity, are contacting him in order to unplug Neo from the system. Before they unplug him, they give him a small hint that the world he is living in is a virtual reality. After they unplug him, Morpheus shows him “how deep the rabbit hole goes”. Neo watches the truth unfold - about humanity being enslaved by machines only to serve as a source of power; trapped in a prison built for the mind, which is the Matrix. He refuses to believe that such a bizarre thing is possible. He has an 'episode' due to the shock and disbelief of what he has seen and falls down fainting. On waking up, Morpheus apologizes for showing him the truth, he says “freeing” a mind at Neo's age is dangerous because it is difficult for the mind to let go of what it has believed in for so many years.
Back to our world – the thought that a system governs all our actions, desires, needs, emotions and everything we do, is ludicrous. I choose what I want to do, and I do exactly that, nothing more, nothing less. But is that the truth? If we were raised believing something completely different from what we currently believe, would we believe anything else? Take for example indigenous tribes living in forests, they are completely disconnected from the rest of the world. Over the last few decades, using technology, we have discovered many of these tribes. But till the day they met the rest of the world, was there any reason for them to believe that the rest of the world existed, or even existed as it did? They had never seen our technology, governments, and all the other things that most people live with in their daily lives – jobs, malls, TVs, movies – even world events like the Olympics or the World Cups. To them, witnessing all this is like a dream, only till the time they realize they are not going to wake up and this is the reality.
The same goes for every single person. Our minds have been conditioned for years to live the lives we are living. The thought that there is a much bigger system that we cannot perceive but is yet running our world is impossible to imagine. Yet, all we have to do is look, think and feel, to realize that this system is governing everything in our lives. I’m not asking you to just believe everything I write, that would just be another entity in the system telling you to think in a certain way. What I’m asking, is for you to think for yourself, question everything in your life, reason and find out if it is something you truly believe or were you just made to believe in it. As you do this you will realize that the system is not just existent but it is present in everything around you. And the unfortunate truth is that breaking away or “unplugging” from the system is extremely tough, because we have been programmed all our lives to live this way. Furthermore, the powers that be have gone out of their way to make us believe that there is no such system, and even the thought of the existence of such a system is delusional.
Unplugging
After accepting the truth, and realizing there is no going back, Neo finally begins his training. This training is a set of exercises that are designed to free the mind from all the beliefs that the Matrix has programmed into his mind, as well as training for combat required to fight the elements of the Matrix for when he finally engages in the battle against the machines. Every experience Neo has when he is plugged back in the Matrix is now teaching him how his mind is the only real constraint. If he stops believing in Gravity, which in the Matrix is only a program construct, then he can jump across buildings, or even fly! Slowly he begins to break all the barriers in his mind and he is able to achieve impractically anything.
This is the final parallel I want to draw with our world, and no I’m not saying you can jump across buildings and fly, please don’t try that. Because of the years of conditioning and living mechanically in this system, even if we realize that we are in the system, it is extremely difficult to break away from it. Unfortunately, we don’t have all the equipment and training they have in the Matrix to help us free our mind. Even if we want to unplug, the system is so pervasive that it will do everything in its power to keep us connected, in order to continue feeding on our energy. Even worse is that we are so addicted to the system that our mind will come up with every possible excuse and fight in every possible way to keep us from disconnecting from the system.
Initially, the mind will come up with all sorts of reasons to keep you from realizing that the system exists. Start with the smallest thing; it could be the most regular pattern in your life. Is there only one way to look at it, which I have been told and believed in all my life? Or is there another way to think about this? Something from within me, something I truly believe. Take something as trivial as your decision to eat breakfast today. Why did I choose to eat breakfast? Why that specific breakfast? What made me feel like eating it? What would have happened if I had chosen not to eat? Or to eat something else? There is nothing wrong with your breakfast, it is just something to think about. As I said, it can be anything, but you need to start thinking about the choices you make and understanding the reasons behind those choices.
The central idea I am trying to convey is awareness and realization. Only when you are fully conscious and aware about every decision you make, you will realize that there are several decisions that are so automatic that we don’t have any idea why we are doing them. This will bring about awareness in your thought process, and when you are that aware, you will question each thought and decision. This is what helps to stop living based on what the system tells you to do, and start living based on what you really want to do. This is the training and the tools you need to break free from the elements of the system, and to keep yourself “unplugged”. Finally, what I would like to say is – When you set your mind on something, you can do practically anything, and if you are The One, maybe even more ;)
The Matrix is centered around a character called Neo, and his alter ego, Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson lives in the “real” world, where all humans believe they live on Earth as it was in 1999, life is functioning “normally” and there is no reason to think otherwise. Mr. Anderson works as a programmer and his alter ego is one of the best computer hackers around. All this until he learns about the reality, that all humans are living in a virtual system called the Matrix, and the true purpose of humans is only to provide an energy source for the machines that rule the world. Now he must free his mind from the programming of the Matrix and fight to free all mankind!
That's a great storyline for a movie, but is it possible that this, in a way, is our current reality?
The System
The movie begins with a portrayal of humans on Earth, living life as though their reality is the only one that exists, and there is nothing beyond their world. They are oblivious to the fact that the Matrix exists and they are being grown in capsules in fields where machines harvest human energy. Humans are nothing but ‘batteries’ that are providing power to the machines that run the world, as well as the Matrix in which they live. This seems fantastical, and it probably is, but it doesn't mean that there aren't any similarities between the world depicted above and our world.
Think about our world. What is running it? How is it functioning? Do we have any idea? We are living in a system where we believe everything we are shown. And no, I am not talking only about the system of governments; this is the larger system that connects all smaller systems together. Governments, anti-governments, sports, sex, drugs and anything else that can keep us distracted and believing that we live in the world in which we live, and to continue living the way we live. Whether we are running it, running away from it, fighting it, or just living in peace within it, we are all part of this system - Systematically following the endless loops in our daily lives. In a way, we are just batteries providing power for this system to run. Just a source of energy that is running something we do not understand and cannot even comprehend.
The people who believe they are fighting the “system” are only fighting other people who are also a part of the same system. The people who believe they are running the system are the biggest sources of power for the system because they have no idea that the system is out of their control and it is actually running them, but still they dedicate all their energy to “run” this system without questioning the purpose. And finally there are the “normal people” that are just living a life where they are working towards things that require them to work more, living in an endless cycle. Do we ever stop to think why we are doing what we are doing?
As time has progressed, the system has only enabled us to come up with more distractions that prevent us from living our own life. To live a life where we believe we need to do certain things in certain ways to achieve certain goals. But what are these goals about? Let’s say I lived a life where I earned a million dollars by the age of 40. Did I stop? No, I went on to earn another million by the age of 50. Then what? I spent it doing things which I believed would give me joy, and because I believed that, I also believed that I did enjoy.
Now what if I did not believe in any of this? If I had been brought up to believe that sitting in one spot and doing nothing will give me joy, would I not have enjoyed as well? So why put ourselves through these tiresome cycles to enjoy something that we only enjoy because we have been made to believe it? There is only one answer – we do this to continue living in the system which made us believe that this is what we want.
Everyone who is in any way connected to the system is merely fueling the system, whether they believe it or not, whether they like it or not, whether they accept it or not. Without each person believing in the system in which we live, there is no way for the system to exist. If we do not function the way the system demands, it cannot run any longer.
Realization
If whatever I said above has made any sense to you, you have come to the realization that a system exists. Now let’s go back to the Matrix and talk about our protagonist, Neo. He is contacted by a group of people that have been disconnected from the Matrix, “unplugged” in movie terms. These people, primarily Morpheus and Trinity, are contacting him in order to unplug Neo from the system. Before they unplug him, they give him a small hint that the world he is living in is a virtual reality. After they unplug him, Morpheus shows him “how deep the rabbit hole goes”. Neo watches the truth unfold - about humanity being enslaved by machines only to serve as a source of power; trapped in a prison built for the mind, which is the Matrix. He refuses to believe that such a bizarre thing is possible. He has an 'episode' due to the shock and disbelief of what he has seen and falls down fainting. On waking up, Morpheus apologizes for showing him the truth, he says “freeing” a mind at Neo's age is dangerous because it is difficult for the mind to let go of what it has believed in for so many years.
Back to our world – the thought that a system governs all our actions, desires, needs, emotions and everything we do, is ludicrous. I choose what I want to do, and I do exactly that, nothing more, nothing less. But is that the truth? If we were raised believing something completely different from what we currently believe, would we believe anything else? Take for example indigenous tribes living in forests, they are completely disconnected from the rest of the world. Over the last few decades, using technology, we have discovered many of these tribes. But till the day they met the rest of the world, was there any reason for them to believe that the rest of the world existed, or even existed as it did? They had never seen our technology, governments, and all the other things that most people live with in their daily lives – jobs, malls, TVs, movies – even world events like the Olympics or the World Cups. To them, witnessing all this is like a dream, only till the time they realize they are not going to wake up and this is the reality.
The same goes for every single person. Our minds have been conditioned for years to live the lives we are living. The thought that there is a much bigger system that we cannot perceive but is yet running our world is impossible to imagine. Yet, all we have to do is look, think and feel, to realize that this system is governing everything in our lives. I’m not asking you to just believe everything I write, that would just be another entity in the system telling you to think in a certain way. What I’m asking, is for you to think for yourself, question everything in your life, reason and find out if it is something you truly believe or were you just made to believe in it. As you do this you will realize that the system is not just existent but it is present in everything around you. And the unfortunate truth is that breaking away or “unplugging” from the system is extremely tough, because we have been programmed all our lives to live this way. Furthermore, the powers that be have gone out of their way to make us believe that there is no such system, and even the thought of the existence of such a system is delusional.
Unplugging
After accepting the truth, and realizing there is no going back, Neo finally begins his training. This training is a set of exercises that are designed to free the mind from all the beliefs that the Matrix has programmed into his mind, as well as training for combat required to fight the elements of the Matrix for when he finally engages in the battle against the machines. Every experience Neo has when he is plugged back in the Matrix is now teaching him how his mind is the only real constraint. If he stops believing in Gravity, which in the Matrix is only a program construct, then he can jump across buildings, or even fly! Slowly he begins to break all the barriers in his mind and he is able to achieve impractically anything.
This is the final parallel I want to draw with our world, and no I’m not saying you can jump across buildings and fly, please don’t try that. Because of the years of conditioning and living mechanically in this system, even if we realize that we are in the system, it is extremely difficult to break away from it. Unfortunately, we don’t have all the equipment and training they have in the Matrix to help us free our mind. Even if we want to unplug, the system is so pervasive that it will do everything in its power to keep us connected, in order to continue feeding on our energy. Even worse is that we are so addicted to the system that our mind will come up with every possible excuse and fight in every possible way to keep us from disconnecting from the system.
Initially, the mind will come up with all sorts of reasons to keep you from realizing that the system exists. Start with the smallest thing; it could be the most regular pattern in your life. Is there only one way to look at it, which I have been told and believed in all my life? Or is there another way to think about this? Something from within me, something I truly believe. Take something as trivial as your decision to eat breakfast today. Why did I choose to eat breakfast? Why that specific breakfast? What made me feel like eating it? What would have happened if I had chosen not to eat? Or to eat something else? There is nothing wrong with your breakfast, it is just something to think about. As I said, it can be anything, but you need to start thinking about the choices you make and understanding the reasons behind those choices.
The central idea I am trying to convey is awareness and realization. Only when you are fully conscious and aware about every decision you make, you will realize that there are several decisions that are so automatic that we don’t have any idea why we are doing them. This will bring about awareness in your thought process, and when you are that aware, you will question each thought and decision. This is what helps to stop living based on what the system tells you to do, and start living based on what you really want to do. This is the training and the tools you need to break free from the elements of the system, and to keep yourself “unplugged”. Finally, what I would like to say is – When you set your mind on something, you can do practically anything, and if you are The One, maybe even more ;)
Reality Is What The Mind Believes