A Matrix in Mind

The Matrix. A construct and all about ‘getting out’, knowing the illusion, so you can break away from it. But that ‘out’ seemed to end up being a bland and miserable existence, fighting for survival and a heavy struggle with reality, it seemed. I have delved into the concepts and angles of that movie already in my articles If You Die in the Matrix and What If I Told You.

But I wondered on the whole idea of The Matrix, initially thinking like most people it was a clever story to make people question ‘the system’, of making you ‘aware’ of the tricks and traps of that system to keep you ‘asleep’. And well, because everything appears inverted these days, I thought of it being part of how to trap you mentally, rather than to ‘free your mind’, as the saying went.

I’ll start with the main characters that are of note and how they seem to me now, based purely on their names and roles. Because I don’t imagine them all being separate characters anymore, looking for ‘The One’ who can save humanity. They are all part of the same ‘person’ and are the different aspects of the brain and what we have called consciousness and awareness who is, in fact, trying to save (or find) themselves.

Neo = Neocortex

Trinity = The Holy Trinity, Mind, Body & Soul

Morpheus = The God of Dreams

Now, the neocortex it is said, is “responsible for high-level functions like cognition, language, sensory perception, and motor commands. Comprising about 80% of the human brain.”

Without that, without Neo, working it all out or even knowing you need to, seems tricky, so I can see why it and he is so important in the story. But it turns out, it isn’t anything without Trinity, to accept ‘oneness’ by being two and then consciousness comes fully to life. And Morpheus is necessary for the overview of ideas and knowledge. Like the human brain seems to require, your subconscious, your mind, body and soul, as well as your ‘dream state experiences’ waking self’, are an essential combination.

The Architect = Man made God / Consciousness

The Oracle = Awareness / Intuition

Two other rather important characters, although they had minimal screen time, but what they were and represented lingered as a running background theme. Insight, predictions, questioning and choices. Neo utilising them to try and understand his purpose, his place and the bigger picture of humanity or what he thinks it is. Part of the philosophical reasoning we have as people, to wonder how and why, where and who, but played out in a visually stunning 3D adventure as a movie. Just as some people might do in their mind, as speculated in Hyperphantasia, A Down Side. And as we try to define reality, what it is and what it means, I keep coming back to a clever quote from Dumbledore in the HP series – “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”.

Our perceivable reality is created and projected from within our minds we are told, so it really does seem like a good question, why wouldn’t it be real? If it is only something we can see outside of us, or touch that is defined as real, then feelings have no place in reality you would think. Or thoughts and ideas, or anything without what we would call physical substance or matter, yet they are there and are experienced, and appear to be the driving force in our progression as a species. But what is in mind does seem to be rather of interest currently, as discussed in Chipping Away, In Your Head and perhaps crosses over into A Telekinetic Idea, where they are looking for something, wanting something they can’t get at yet. Maybe Morpheus was right and we are indeed in a war for our minds…

(c) MKW Publishing