The Matrix: Fact or Fiction?
The most important topic you will continue to explore in this book is the idea that you are dreaming all the time, and how to awaken from that dream. There are many stories in ancient mythologies and modern books and movies related to this theme.
Remember stories like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White”? These old folk tales often involve an angry or selfish woman casting a spell on a young woman of whom she is jealous. The spell can only be broken, and the girl awakened, by the kiss of true love.
When these old stories were told and retold throughout the centuries, they retained the core elements of their message — that innocent awareness can and will be put to sleep by jealousy, anger, fear, and power. The only power greater than the one that puts the innocence to sleep is pure love. The charming prince kisses the beautiful sleeping girl, she awakens, and is embraced in that love forever.
Being kissed by a charming prince is nice, but real love and acceptance of yourself and creation is the key to awakening on the Toltec path.
The Matrix: Fiction
The story in the movie The Matrix is a wonderful allegory for the deep sleep experienced by most humans. In the film, the computers have taken over and are using the humans as a source of power for the machines. They keep the humans asleep by feeding a virtual dream into their minds while they lie in tanks of nutrient solution. Their life force is drained off to power the machines, but the humans are happy living in their dream reality and do not notice or complain.
The name Morpheus comes from the Latin language, and literally means “he who forms, or molds.” He is the director and shaper of dreams. The name is perfect for the character in The Matrix. Morphine, the powerful narcotic painkiller and sedative, takes its name from the god of dreams, Morpheus.
In the movie, Morpheus (the “Toltec master” in the film) describes the virtual dream to Neo (the “apprentice”) this way: “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth.”
The Matrix: Fact
The movie is fiction, of course. But do you see the similarities between that story and the one lived by so many people in our Western cultures now? Everyone is dreaming a reality plugged into their minds by others. People are also plugged into machines of all kinds: computers, video games, televisions, radios, media players, and cell phones. These machines invite you to focus your attention into them, and then they download a virtual reality of so-called “news,” entertainment, and opinions into your mind.
The machines actually hypnotize you, and then feed the dream into your mind. The hypnosis is also supported by everyone else dreaming the same dream. You are sleepwalking, but so is everyone else, and nobody notices.
The Food of the Matrix
Modern machines even tell people what to eat and drink while they are hooked into the matrix. Advertisements for non-foods such as soft drinks and instant microwave snacks encourage mindless feeding, without attention to the actual nutritional needs of your body. Being plugged into the matrix of news and entertainment also keeps many people from being outdoors and exercising in ways appropriate to maintaining vital human health.
If you use a lot of stimulating foods like coffee and sugary foods, consider cutting back or stopping, and eat real food for a while. See if it improves your energy level, and your ability to be present and aware of the dream around you. The Toltec warrior respects and uses his body well.
Have you ever felt tired and lazy after a big meal? If there were a conspiracy to keep people from being vibrant and alive, seeking and questioning the meaning of their lives, feeding them large quantities of nutritionless food would be a good way to keep them asleep. They would then need to find stimulants to wake them from their stupor in order to function — perhaps drugs like coffee, super-energy caffeine drinks, sugary foods — as well as medical and illegal drugs.
Escape from the Matrix
In the movie version of this dream dilemma, the heroes have awakened from the dream and know the truth about how it works. They are able to go in and out of the virtual-reality dream, and they even know how to awaken others from the dream and bring them back to the “real” world. Of course, the matrix tries to stop them, because its success depends on everyone believing in the same reality — even if it is created from the past, as in the movie, or in the present, as in your daily life.
