*Caution: do NOT read while under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs, or coke.
I just finished watching a movie recommended to me by
Andy during a discussion we were having on the dreaming
state and the consciousness involved within. The
movie is called "Waking Life," written and directed
by Richard Linklater. The premise is simple, a young
man is picked up and taken for a brief ride and dropped
off at a location disclosed by a stranger whom is also
a passenger with this eccentric boat-driving man that
appeared at the airport and offered this young man a
ride, seemingly at random. After walking a short distance,
the young man is hit by a car and is shown waking in the very
next scene. Now, this movie is animated in such a
way that the animation is integral to the telling of
this story and gives a much deeper perspective to the
insight of the central character's environment and his
own insight as to what he perceives as his reality.
When this young man goes through his now awakened state,
he interacts with many characters that speak to him
various ideas, in the sense that the ideas themselves
travel along a similar line of understanding and as
the young man explores this place the understanding of
this line of thought-exploration continually expands and
becomes less symbolic and vague of the situation he finds
himself to encompass until he transcends the environment
he created to assist him in shedding the transitional
period between what "was" and what "is."
The funny thing is, I've been encountering a lot of material on
this very subject (especially within the past few months).
Speaking of life as something that is out of our creative element,
that we can only create inside the parameters given to us outside
of ourselves and that reality, as we know it, is a force that
we float along in as if we were caught in rapid currents and
going where the river goes, dictated by the rocks and the stones
that the river has gathered in its ruthless and manotinous, almost
machine-like, exsistance to affect us is a very powerless and
trite way to experience our waking lives.
Envision this, or say this outloud to yourselves:
I am All That Is. My consciousness encompasses every aspect of
this universe. Linear timelines are an illusion and there is only now.
The point of power is the present and from this point I create the
reality I know. My life is symbolic of the beliefs I structure.
What is the first thing you feel when you state these ideas aloud,
or visualize them as reality? The very FIRST thing. Not the nonsense
that tends to get in the way of the trust we'd like to have in ourselves.
Is it surprising? Is it predictable? Is it frightening, or exciting?
Are you angry, sad, or happy? Does anything happen at all?
I dream every night. This, I have come to understand, is an
assinigne statement, as everyone dreams. I recall my dreams in my waking
state every day. From what I understand, dreaming is only a small part
of what I do everynight when I enter the sleeping state. I know
I am very much alive and busy while I am sleeping. Sleeping is as much an
activity as running, hiking, or writing and singing. More so, because of
the dynamics involved with sleep.
For someone to tell me that my dreaming, or even who I am, is just a sequence of
electrical impulses and chemical reactions is incredibly naive and
degrading to the self and life as a whole.
The energy is real. Thinking back to "The Matrix" (if you snicker at this,
then you must not know me very well), Morpheus tells Neo that the
construct of which his reality is designed is the illusion and is the
system is in place to protect that illusion. That reality isn't what he
believed it to be..
I've posted most of the scene here because there are many relavant points
made that I can relate to what I'm thinking and feeling.
MORPHEUS: Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you have
the gift.
NEO: What gift?
** the gift is that of choice and the capability to create your
environment.
MORPHEUS: I've watched you, Neo. You do not use a computer like a tool.
You use it like it was part of yourself. What you can do inside a computer
is not normal. I know. I've seen it. What you do is magic.
Neo shrugs.
NEO: It's not magic.
MORPHEUS: But it is, Neo. It is. How else would you describe what has been
happening to you?
He leans forward.
MORPHEUS: We are trained in this world to accept only what is rational and
logical. Have you ever wondered why?
Neo shakes his head.
MORPHEUS: As children, we do not separate the possible from the impossible
which is why the younger a mind is the easier it is to free while a mind
like yours can be very difficult.
NEO: Free from what?
MORPHEUS: From the Matrix.
**Our physical limitations
Neo looks at his eyes but only sees a reflection of himself.
MORPHEUS: Do you want to know what it is, Neo?
Neo swallows and nods his head.
MORPHEUS: It's that feeling you have had all your life. That feeling that
something was wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's
there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad, driving you to me.
But what is it?
The LEATHER CREAKS as he leans back.
MORPHEUS: The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this
room. You can see it out your window, or on your television. You feel it
when you go to work, or go to church or pay your taxes. It is the world
that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
**This being the initial quote that came to mind as I was writing.
NEO: What truth?
MORPHEUS: That you are a slave, Neo. That you, like everyone else, was
born into bondage... ... kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste,
or touch. A prison for your mind.
**To me, a prison is a very weak standpoint for this point of view, because,
it's like saying someone outside of myself put me here. In The Matrix, this
is the case, not so much in our physical reality.
Outside, the WIND BATTERS a loose PANE of glass.
MORPHEUS: Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to
see it for yourself.
**Believing is seeing.
NEO: How?
MORPHEUS: Hold out your hands.
In Neo's right hand, Morpheus drops a red pill.
MORPHEUS: This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back.
(end)
This presents the idea that once you've expanded your awareness, you
can never go back to what you were before that expantion.
So, what now? Why not explore the depths of consciousness and become
aware of those states of being that elude us as we sleep? Or rather,
that we choose to forget when we wake? Isn't that the great religous
adventure? Of course I create my reality and seek to grow through doing
so. Isn't that the point?