Showing posts with label The Matrix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Matrix. Show all posts

Friday, June 3, 2011

You've Taken the Red Pill--What Now?

In the movie The Matrix, there is a famous scene where Neo, the character played by Keanu Reeves, is given a choice. Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne, offers Neo two pills and says, "You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more." In the end, Neo takes the red pill, and his life is altered forever.Some of us feel as though we have taken the red pill and are now in Wonderland. The veil has been lifted, the blinders have been taken off, and we are left to deal with a new reality we never expected. What now?

The world Neo found himself in originally was a world created within his own mind. Our world is the same! We perceive a world of the physical, but quantum physicists tell us this is illusion. Now that technology has advanced to the point of being able to observe the behavior of subatomic particles, we know that what we think of as solid actually has space within it! What we perceive about our world and the reality of it are two very different things!

Armed with this new insight, Neo is actually able to overcome the conventional rules of nature within the Matrix, which is the world of illusion. The exciting thing about this notion is, it has already happened in this world! One of the best examples came to the world in the form of Jesus. Jesus was able to bend the rules of nature--walk on water, heal the sick, curse a fig tree to death, etc.--all because he understood that the world he found himself in was merely an illusion. We still hear about "miracles" from time to time. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he made the statement, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12 NIV) According to Jesus, we all have the ability to do the things he did! 


The key to overcoming this illusion we live in begins with our thoughts--in our own imaginations! To give you a concrete example of what I am referring to, I remember a story I read when I was studying psychology years ago in college. It was about a man with cancer who imagined his white blood cells (the disease destroying parts of your blood) to be armed knights roaming through his body and attacking the cancer cells. His doctors were apparently amazed as his cancer began to fade away, eventually into nonexistence. This is the power of the mind! This is the law of attraction at its best! Your power is only limited by the limits of your own imagination.


When the world tries to tell you, "This is the way things are and you are going to have to live with them," you can come back with the simple answer, "I don't have to play this game." Granted, if you flout the laws of the place where you live you run a strong risk of punishment. Still, most of the time the game of life we choose to play has no such stakes. You can either accept something as truth or not. You can play the game or change the rules and play your own game. You always have a choice! It's that easy.


The rules we choose to live by are not often truth. They are more often illusions of the mind. You have chosen to be informed. Now it's time to see what you can create with this new understanding. When you take the red pill, your eyes have been opened. Choose to use the knowledge to create the life you want.

Friday, May 27, 2011

The Lie

I absolutely adore The Matrix movies, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. To me, they are so profound in their symbolism--prophetic even. They are a series about one man's journey to discover the truth, to overcome the lies he has lived with all his life, and to transcend the conflict in order to attain a true state of peace. My life the past few years has been all about this same journey--to discover the truth, overcome the lie and find a state of peace.

In the movie, Keanu Reeves character Neo, makes the choice to question the way things are. Intuitively, he knows something does not feel right. His questions lead him to answers he does not anticipate--that people are imprisoned by machines to be an energy source for the machines to use. The world they live in is one based purely in the mind (in the lie). Absorbing the truth and learning to use it becomes a process--an evolutionary journey. This is the stage I believe I am personally in. I feel like the blinders have been pulled off and I am finally seeing the truth my world has tried to hide from me all these years to keep me in bondage to those who would control my life. It has not been an easy transition. I was used to the lies, and because they were familiar they were comforting to me.

I now anticipate the conclusion Neo comes to in his journey--that the solution is truly about peace. In the end, his character goes to the machines they are fighting with--the same ones that have imprisoned them for all those years--and tells them the people are willing to stop the fighting if the machines are.

"Ah! But the movie ends with Neo fighting his nemesis, you say!" Yes, but the answer to that is also symbolic. During the course of the movie, Neo discovers that his nemesis, Agent Smith, is really the dark half of himself or his ego. In the end, what Neo really overcomes is his individuality so that he can become whole.

The lie we have been told in this lifetime is that we are separate--that there is a right and a wrong, a good and a bad. While it is true there is a dual nature in this earth, each element is part of the Oneness. We continue to fight and struggle with one another because we believe one way is better than another and are focused on winning the fight. Our lives are not about winning the fight. They are about understanding ourselves and the Oneness more clearly. It is only when we stop fighting we can truly live as we were intended to live--as One.

Wake up! Question with boldness! The truth is out there! Learn to overcome the lie!