‘We are like the dreamer who dreams, and then lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?’
― Monica Bellucci in ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’

● Eastern spiritual traditions and shamanism teach that awakening or enlightenment is realizing the oneness of everything, seeing the universe as energy rather than distinct objects.

● In ‘The Matrix’, hacker Neo discovers that humans are enslaved in a computer simulation. This parallels subjective idealism, which posits that objects only exist as perceptions in the mind. Like Neo awakens to the true nature of his reality, we too can discover that our universe is ultimately a mental construct.

● Neo’s journey in ‘The Matrix’ symbolizes personal awakening, showing that by understanding our role as observers and realizing we dream the world into existence, we can lead more fulfilling lives.

On this website, I have so far argued for the true nature of the universe to be a mental construct. We – living beings – are dreaming the universe into existence moment by moment. This realization can be reached intellectually through the study of science and philosophy or intuitively by altering our state of consciousness.

In popular culture, this discovery process is best captured in ‘The Matrix’, the superb science fiction thriller from 1999 written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (now sisters). Its story is the perfect metaphor for what is known as spiritual awakening.

In Eastern spiritual traditions, like Buddhism, Taoism and Non-Dualism, awakening, also known as enlightenment, union with God, satori, samadhi and nirvana, is realizing that ‘there are no two’. Everything in the universe is one and the same thing. Awakening is the realization of this fact. The same conclusion is reached in shamanism. Carlos Castaneda learns from Don Juan that the universe is energy. We see only the objects behind these energy currents. Awakening is seeing the universe for what it truly is.

The protagonist of ‘The Matrix’ is Neo (Keanu Reeves), a computer hacker who works for a colorless software company during the day and programs special (and illegal) code for his customers at night. Neo questions the reality he lives in. More specifically, he has the feeling that he is dreaming during waking hours and frantically searches the internet at night for answers to what is going on.

Then he is approached by fellow hacker Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a female hacker it turns out and just his type. Indeed a dreamlike scenario. They meet in a nightclub and she tells him that he has in fact been living in a dream, but he can be awakened from it if he wants to. After a dangerous encounter with so-called agents, Trinity brings Neo to her leader Morpheous (an unforgettable role by Laurence Fishburne).

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Morpheus resembles a philosopher of ancient Greece, one who unsettles the established order with dangerous ideas. Much like Socrates, he is feared by the authorities, who brand him “the most dangerous man alive.” He carries forbidden truths and is resolute in his mission to reveal them, thereby threatening the power of those in control. To Neo, he offers a choice embodied in two pills: the blue pill, which would allow him to remain in the comfort of illusion, or the red pill, through which he will finally learn the truth about his life and his world. Faced with such a choice, Neo reaches for the red pill. How could he possibly do otherwise?

The truth Neo discovers is terrifying. Super intelligent machines have enslaved humanity by inserting them in cocoons while keeping their minds locked into a computer simulation called the Matrix. It is an ancient idea. If we are really just brains in vats, how would we ever know? For many people this might seem like an amusing thought experiment, but nothing more than that. Yet, modern science has given us more than enough reason to seriously question the reality we experience around us. Quantum Mechanics tells us that solid matter is ‘made’ up of probabilities, which makes absolutely no sense to the non-awakened mind. We don’t know yet what ‘real’ is, but what physicists have discovered in the last century is that the space and objects surrounding us are not. They emerge out of something else.

“Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is”, Morpheus tells Neo. “You have to see it for yourself.” The same goes for us. Nature has hidden the truth from us behind a very convincing virtual reality. I am not proposing that we, like Neo, are locked into some kind of biomechanical computer, but it is kind of similar. What the mental universe has in common with the Matrix is that it – in Morpheus’ words – is like “a prison for your mind”. This sounds pretty negative, but in our case it is not. It only means that we are integrally part of our environment like Neo when he is locked inside the Matrix; a prison he cannot feel, taste or touch. The difference is that Neo can be unplugged and we cannot since we are not physically, but mentally connected to our environment. We are not just inside the system, we are the system.

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What Is Real?
According to subjective idealism, a philosophical position formalized by Bishop Berkeley in the seventeenth century, the world is mental in nature, so familiar objects like computers, sunglasses and spoons are ideas perceived by the mind and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived. So Neo’s “very good noodles” are not waiting at the Asian eatery for him to arrive. They appear in his consciousness and only there do they have qualities like taste, smell and substance. His consciousness creates them.

Its proponent, materialism, says that the external world is entirely made out of material stuff and minds are emergent from this stuff. So Tastee Wheat also exists unperceived. Which theory is true? In the Matrix simulation, idealism is the case. Neo’s mind, and the minds of the other avatars around him, are literally plugged into their subjective realities and everything they experience takes place solely in their minds. In the reality of the Matrix, a spoon is made of computer code. In Berkeley’s philosophy, the spoon is made of mental algorithms. Our mind is a tool that translates whirls of information into the experience of objects, space and time. Thus no mind, no spoon. “What a mind job!”

Picture: Youtube (The Vegan Bunny)

When Neo has escaped from the Matrix, he seems to have landed in a ‘real’ concrete material reality, which seems to be not much better than the simulation. “Why didn’t I take the blue pill?”, his crewmate Cypher quips. Indeed. Trinity is looking just as good as a ‘real’ person though. There is some comfort in this real world after all.

But is the real world Neo awakes in really real? (‘real’ as in also existing when no one is looking?) This is doubtful. When Neo is in training, he bleeds after hitting a concrete floor in the simulation. “Your mind makes it real”, says his trainer Morpheous. Here, ‘The Matrix’ proposes that at the very least, a very strong mind-body connection exists in the real reality. When your mind thinks something is real, it gets physically manifested within reality.

In ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ this idea is pushed much much further. Neo uses a form of telekinesis to stop a sentinel, a skill he thought was only possible inside the Matrix. This is a clear marker that the reality outside the Matrix is of a mental character. In a material reality, telekinesis would not be possible because minds would not be connected in any way to the material world.

The Proces Of True Awakening
After his actual awakening from the Matrix, Neo has to undergo an intense training regimen to experience a personal awakening as well. Morpheus thinks NEO is the ONE and he wants to unlock his potential by making him realize that he is in fact there to fulfill the prophecy and set humanity free.

What Neo must ultimately grasp is that the rules of the simulation are not fixed; they can be bent or broken by those who have awakened, and above all by Neo himself, who exists as a unique anomaly within the system. The real challenge, however, lies in persuading his own mind that such feats are possible.

This struggle mirrors the experience of lucid dreamers. A lucid dream is one in which the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming. And this is great because when you know you are dreaming, you can do all sorts of enjoyable things: fly like Neo, shapeshift or simply have sex like the Merovingian. However, as inexperienced lucid dreamers soon discover, this is not as easy as it sounds. Our brains are all programmed to believe in limitations. And so: “everybody falls the first time”.

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The process of awakening takes Neo a long time. He seems to be waiting for something: his next life maybe, who knows? And indeed, to truly free his mind, he has to die first. And then, after Trinity kisses him, he is reborn. Now he is invincible and eats the previously considered unbeatable AI-programmes called ‘agents’ for breakfast. His mind is set free. He can now do incredible things because he knows that he can. Now Neo is awakened, he can see the Matrix for what it really is: computer code. This code he can manipulate as he pleases. He has become the ultimate reality hacker, a cyber Jesus Christ.

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What about us? Do we have to die first to see reality as it really is? Not necessarily. There is the mystical experience that makes us see the unity of the cosmos and peer through the illusions of time and death, but unfortunately this experience is quite rare. If you’re lucky, you’ll have one in your life. If you are really lucky, you’ll have more than one.

Can you also awaken in real life without dying? Yes. By understanding the role of the observer and realize that we are dreaming the world into existence. We cannot change matter like Neo can (except in our lucid dreams), but we can lead more fulfilling lives and contribute to the evolution of life on this planet, if we can truly understand our true identity as immortal mental avatars.

‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on’, wrote Shakespeare. That is our awakening, the one thing we must grasp to set our minds free. ‘The Matrix’ has shown us the door, we’re the ones that have to walk through it.