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The Matrix Is Real: How ‘Reality’ Consumes Us
- Written by NelsonQuest
- July 9, 2022
Table of Contents
MORPHEUS: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work … when you go to church … when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
NEO: What truth?
MORPHEUS: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.
The film “The Matrix”, humanity believes itself to exist within a ‘real’ world – but it actually exists within a simulated reality, otherwise referred to as ‘the matrix’, which was designed by intelligent, self-aware machines to keep mankind asleep while it uses their bodies for energy.
The Matrix is a fictional movie – but after spending the last decade deeply exploring its numerous themes and philosophical inspirations, I would argue that it’s actually a more accurate representation of reality than the reality that we perceive.
Because we live during a time where virtually everything that we perceive as ‘real’ is merely an imitation of the real, and in this article I’ll show you step by step how we’re living in a simulation, and perhaps most importantly, what we can do about it.
Let’s begin.
1. Reality as we know it, is an anti-nature simulation
Neo: This isn’t real.
Morpheus : What is real? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
When explaining this concept to others, I’ve found that the easiest way is to start by understanding the following.
Nature is the true reality. Everything that is is not nature, i.e. everything created by man, is essentially two things:
- Everything created by man increasingly exists as a more believable simulation of the ‘real’ thing that it’s replacing.
Processed food is an increasingly believable simulation of real food. Pornography is an increasingly believable simulation of real sexual intimacy. Video games are an increasingly believable simulation of real games…
Digital social networks are an increasingly believable simulation of real social networks, where the ‘real’ people we think we’re observing and interacting with, are merely the projected “residual self-image” of those people – we see only what they show us, which tends to be stuff that confirms who they believe or desire themselves to be.
Even the universe itself is now being simulated in the form of a metaverse.
- Everything created by man is moves us further away from nature.. further away from reality
Technology moves us away from nature… this much is pretty obvious… but what’s less obvious is how removed we are from nature even when we believe ourselves to be in nature!
When we’re outside, our physical bodies are usually at least 3 layers removed from the actual ground – those 3 layers being the pavement, our shoes, and then our socks.
And when are we even really outside? Usually for brief moments as we move from one ‘inside’ to another:
To schools where we learn about everything except how to know ourselves.
To work, where we generally have to do something we don’t want to do, to be able to buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t care about.
To gyms, where we simulate running on human hamster wheels, to burn off calories from foods we shouldn’t have eaten, to pursue the appearance of health (which is much more important to us than health itself)
Or to where we live – which in my case is a moderately sized box 30 floors above the ground… which is still not quite high enough to escape the pollution and noise generated below, and where what little light that enters does so through polarized glass.
NATURE is real. EVERYTHING ELSE, is a simulation. And as time goes on, reality as we know it is increasingly removed from nature, and increasingly constituted by ‘everything else.’
2. The simulation helps us to escape death
Agent Smith: You hear that, Mr. Anderson? That's the sound of inevitability, that's the sound of your death! Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.
Neo: My name … Is Neo!
All creatures are destined to die – however human beings, the only creature capable of seeing into the future, are subsequently the only creature capable of contemplating the inevitable death that awaits them.
Ernest Becker, an American cultural anthropologist and author “The Denial of Death” (which is in my top 5 books), believed that if we were to truly grasp the significance of the inevitability of death, that we’d be paralyzed by anxiety.
And so to lessen our fear of death, he posits that we try to “…overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man” (Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death).
In the modern age, the primary way through which we’re able to ‘deny’ death, is by moving further away from nature by moving further into the simulation.
Let me try to explain all of this in a way that most of you will be able to relate to:
You know that uncomfortable feeling we sometimes feel when it’s night-time, or when we’re all alone?
In a broad sense, we probably experience this feeling as generalized anxiety, and as soon as we feel it, we probably reach for your phone or look for some other way to distract ourselves from it.
However, if we allow this feeling to go beyond the anxiety layer, we may begin to experience this feeling as the uncomfortable sensation that we’re behind in life, or perhaps that wasting our life altogether.
At this point, we’ll almost certainly reach for our phone or find some way to distract ourselves… but what would happen if we did the opposite?
If, instead of running from this feeling, we actually welcomed it into our consciousness… with a warm smile and a glass of milk.
What we’d come to realize is that this feeling, at its absolute root, is that which we most wish to deny – the knowledge that we are destined to die.
The simulation understands this, and so while many see these various manifestations of the simulation – social media, netflix, video games, as means by which we can ‘improve’ life, and make it more enjoyable – they’re moreso a means by which we can escape the reality of death.
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3. Who controls the simulation?
Merovingian: “It is, of course, the way of all things. You see, there is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality. Action – reaction; cause – and effect.”
Morpheus: “Everything begins with choice.”
Merovingian: “No. Wrong. Choice is an illusion, created between those with power, and those without. (…) This is the nature of the universe. ”
So who ‘controls’ the simulation?
At a low level, it’s the media, which generally exists to both reinforce and perpetuate both existing and evolving paradigms of the simulation
At a mid-level, it’s the government, which establishes and reinforces the explicit ‘rules’ of the simulation.
At a high level, it’s companies and corporations, who create ‘everything that is not nature’, i.e. the material substance of the simulation
At the highest level, it’s an increasingly smaller group of individuals, who exercise increasingly greater control over corporations, government, and media.
Within the simulation, control is power – and to acquire more power, at the highest levels, is to perpetuate the simulation to the extent that for normal humans who don’t have power, choice becomes an illusion, because their future is already being decided for them.
4. The Simulation is a complex system of control
Morpheus: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. To put it simply, the simulation IS 'the world that has been pulled over our eyes to blind us from the truth that we are it’s slaves.'
We agree to participate in, and obey the simulation, and in return we are granted the means by which we can either mitigate, or fully retreat from the horrifying reality of nature itself, where the inevitability of death lays in wait.
This is how people come to fervently support a particular political candidate without being able to name a single one of their policies, or how they can come to label someone as ‘ignorant’ or ‘dangerous’ without ever having authentically engaged with that person’s ideas
Nietzsche referred to this as ‘herd mentality’ – which he defined as “the tendency for people’s behavior or beliefs to conform to those of the group to which they belong.”
The simulation is what creates these groups, and broadly speaking, this is how so many of us can come to feel tremendous confidence and authority in relation to something that we know absolutely nothing about.
Summary
Alright guys, so a quick recap before we get to the conclusion, where I’ll discuss how, despite how gloomy this all might seem, there are actually lots of reasons to be hopeful.
1. Reality Is an Anti-Nature Simulation
Simulations like processed food, porn, video games, and social media increasingly exist as simulations of real things, and increasingly move us further away from the true reality of nature.
2. The simulation helps us to escape death
By providing us with numerous means through which we can ‘distract’ ourselves from the inevitability of it.
3. The simulation is controlled
By media, governments, corporations, and more specifically – an increasingly smaller number of individuals who are gaining an increasing amount of control, and thus power, over those 3 things.
4. The Simulation is a complex system of control
That most people are so hopelessly dependent on that they will fight to protect it despite having no real knowledge of what they’re fighting to protect.
The Good news
Ok so here’s the good news… and perhaps a glimmer of hope.
If you pay attention, you’ll notice that there’s actually a massive battle taking place.
That small group of people with an increasing amount of power are actually fighting within themselves, trying to wrest power away at the highest of levels, and in the process they’re making themselves more vulnerable than ever before.
As a result, our distrust of media and governments and corporations is at an all time high.
Alternatives are not only emerging, but they’re being rapidly elevated by a growing number of people who are ‘waking up’ from the dream of the simulation.
These include more authentic information sources -we can see many of them here YouTube or in places like Substack and Reddit.
Individuals who speak to fundamental human truths are being elevated faster than the simulation can find ways to brand them as dangerous heretics.
And blockchain technology is here – initially what we’re seeing is the potential of a universal currency that could eventually replace the entire financial system of the simulation – but long term, blockchain tech could eventually lead to viable, deregulated content platforms where we don’t have to worry about being manipulated, censored, or exiled, for ideas that run counter to those the system wishes to promote.
The delicate ‘illusion of control’ employed by the simulation is starting to crack, and we’re seeing through the cracks and into the potential of a future where power is wrested away from that small group, and redistributed back to the masses.
But who knows where this will all truly end up… what I do know is that it’s more important than ever for people to free themselves from the invisible shackles of the simulation to be able to gaze into the abyss of reality with ever-increasing clarity.
To do this, I have one major recommendation: learn to look death squarely in the face. That’s where our true freedom is hidden. I believe that’s where all power truly begins.
Conclusion
I hope you guys can appreciate how hard I’m working on these and ONLY if you feel that way, I ask you to please just take a few seconds to give the video a like.
And when you’re done, please comment below with your thoughts on the video – agreements, disagreements, whatever you’d like. I’m going to use your comments as an opportunity to go much deeper.
Make sure to follow me on instagram @nelsonquest if you’d like observe my projected residual self-image
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Unless of course… you believe that you’ll be happier if you don’t understand this stuff. Then again, That’s what cypher believed, and we well know how he ended up.
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