Waking up from the illusion is often talked about now and the movie The Matrix has woven itself in to the fabric of our collective consciousness. However despite people quoting it, sharing its memes and using it as a guide to frame their lives, people seem to misunderstand the metaphor that The Matrix movie represents. It is too easy, almost, to imagine that this is a simulation that we live in and everything around us from the chair I am sitting in to the air I breath is a simulation, and I am actually living outside of the hologram in some pod that does not feature in this reality we call human life.
It’s almost like an intentional misinterpretation to make escaping The Matrix impossible, and thus it continues to trap and hold people who simply give up and go along with it as they are not superhumans like Neo and Trinity from the movie. I have watched over the 25 years since the movies release how very little has changed in our world, except to simply call people NPCs and the media “Fake News” and that is about all. Today in 2024 people are as caught in The Matrix as they ever were and it may even be the case, gut feeling, that percentagewise there are more people trapped now than ever.
As with any movement there are sides to understand, and its proponents and salespeople may not be all that they seem. Any movement will have genuine people who push for change, but it will also have pretenders who walk the walk and talk the talk, but don’t believe any of it and simply seek attention or money. There are also people who seem to be on-side but will ultimately sabotage the movement and are only there for their own gain. These types are difficult to work out and it will take time, but you will find out in the long run. With a topic as important as this it is imperative that you find the genuine people who will not lead you astray. However assuming you find one of these people what will they teach you?
Firstly the idea that everything you can touch is part of the Matrix is rubbish. The floor, the walls, rocks, animals, and ultimately the physical nature of the world is not the matrix. You will not wake to find yourself in a battery pod in some dystopian version of earth where the machines run everything. Instead it is the meanings that you attribute to everything that is the real Matrix.
When you look at a phone, what do you actually see? Is it a communication device that also offers information and entertainment, or is it akin to a brick that makes noises and lights up when you touch it? What is the essence of the object, rather than the identification of it’s use that you have learnt? If a dog looked at your phone, how would it understand this object? As a chew toy, maybe? Maybe imagine what it is when the battery is dead, how much use is a phone in that state? It is only The Matrix which which gives this thing meaning, and it is our learning that enables us to label it as a useful tool in this context. Otherwise it does nothing and offers nothing to us.
In the same way then, society itself is a learned construct. It is ethereal in that it cannot be seen, but we know it is there, and we can talk to others about it, and we can take part in it. We can see the effects of this shared belief on ourselves and others and their behaviour, perhaps if someone falls over and others rush to help. Or in a more severe example, maybe someone falls from a height and a witness calls for an ambulance, then when that arrives the person is whisked away to hospital. All of this is The Matrix of our society. All of it is connected by action and consequence and that depends on our training. Again with a dog analogy, if a dog saw a person fall, would they rush to help them, or call for an ambulance? No.
Carlos Castaneda has in his novels about the Yaqui Indian philosophy, an idea called “Stopping the world” and this is the essence of determining whether something is in The Matrix or not.
He writes:
“Don Juan stated that in order to arrive at seeing one first had to stop the world. Stopping the world was indeed an appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow.”
It is this interpretation of the information layer of the world which causes us to derive cause and effect of human behaviour. In stopping this process in one’s mind, things no longer appear in The Matrix or behave the way they used to. So a phone is just a flat shiny black rock outside of the illusion. The Information layer conveys a shared understanding of our Society between us humans, and we typically rely on this to give meaning to our existence. If we could stop it by no longer labelling things we know, by the names we give them, then we escape.
We become dangerously free by living outside of this perception and what is effectively a form of gossip inside our heads is no longer there. Peoples words, and their expectations of us disappear. Our embarrassment felt, our hurt, our love, all are gone. Try to realise the truth, that there is no spoon, and it is not the spoon that bends, only yourself. Their history and future are now a mystery to us. Their beliefs and red buttons are unknown to us. It is as if one were a new born baby again, and in this manner one may live outside of the Matrix. What is a spoon to a baby? It is incomprehensible as to it’s form, function, and purpose, thus everything in society can be the same way.
Fear is ever present inside The Matrix and is used to control us is gone, and one’s own internal knowledge of our limitations is also gone. Who are you anymore? You are no-one. At a more subtle level, your understanding of the world is changed and things people will say to you are no longer the truth of the world, and only exist in the context of society.
For example if one hears on the TV that a war is starting in a neighbouring land that could consume us, this does not make it so. This idea may be told to you by others who also heard the news, and those will share their thoughts and fears with their friends to reinforce the original report from an authority. People will feel a range of emotions and change the way they think and behave, Before long a resistance to the idea and a movement dedicated to stopping the war may grow, the Government may be protested against and people may face off against the police. Some may get hurt and before you know it, there may be a big old mess and a lot of resentment on both sides. This is society and this is also The Matrix in effect. The Authorities who made the proclamation are simply offering an opinion, and are speculating with intent. The power of authority drives humans in The Matrix yet it is all top-down lies which simply echo down the hierarchy of humanity.
Take the recent Covid vaccine debacle, those in The Matrix believed what they were told by authorities. Safe and effective was the rallying call, that and protect your loved ones from transmission. But it was a lie, and the vaccine was neither safe or effective. As I was outside of society and of The Matrix I saw it for the lie it was and refused to take part. I do not regret this decision. Sadly and though I tried to warn them, my family did not heed my call to stay away from the shot.
Looking at this from another angle, if one does as one is told by an authority, then that person is rewarded. The most obedient people will rise in societies ranks to become an authority themselves. It can be seen that this is a positive thing, except that society is The Matrix and to rise and do as you are told, one has to do terrible things. Of course society will protect you while it still has a use for you, but you will become a shell of a person, robot-like and uncaring. Performing heinous tasks for your masters, and in one sense getting rewarded with material gain, but forever becoming more controlled as you rise. I have found that the best, and most intelligent people avoid this and they are to be found outside of the power hierarchy, too wise to get involved for the sake of a few pennies and toys. Of course then as a reflection of the former, the latter are the stupid but obedient and are at the top. Commanding us all with ridiculous and dumb commands that make no sense and are detrimental to humanity as a whole.
However this hierarchy maintains itself, protects itself, lies to itself about its nature and its goals. It has to as otherwise it would fail. Thus we have in humanity a tower of power that shields it’s own from the horrors that it is doing, so they stay docile and stupid. It rewards it’s own evil deeds, and the doers of the deeds, and the climbers keep climbing and pretending that they are doing good, even if they know they are not.
It’s like a giant stooge factory, sucking in the kids who know no better, and spitting out those who it can no longer trust, so the big corrupt machine keeps consuming and growing while trying to minimise the effect of a “basic human” realising what is going on. It seeks robots really and humans tend to get to a point where they stop doing as they are told. For those who turn against The Matrix they face ostracising, and for those outside who try to stop the machinations of this evil rolling stone, they face isolation, a loss of freedom, and even death.
This is society, This is The Matrix. You will believe what you are told, you will perpetuate the lie for the sake of the structure maintaining itself through generations, and you will pretend to be happy.