Thesis
There are indeed times when it is very difficult to be certain that the world we live in is not scripted. Especially as we encounter coincidence, deja vu and premonition, which often make it seem that events are to easily forthcoming and to easily interlocked. However, one can be sure that we’re not living in a fabricated reality if we know what the bible says, and we educate ourselves of the works of Our Creator. Jeremiah 29:11 lets us know that our Creator and Father has a plan for us. However, free will on our part can override His plan if we choose to go down a darker, more perilous path of our own design, abandoning the plan He has for us. We need but ask and listen.
Comparisons
Allegory of the Cave/The Matrix:
Similarities:
After Neo becomes aware of reality outside the “construct”, the ship Nebuchadnezzar must hide in a network of caves in order to escape detection form the aggressive AI security forces.
The caves are not unlike the “nursery” that humans are kept in a fabricated reality, in order to harness the bio-electrics required to power the AI organisms (Plato, 514 AD). Humans are fettered and hooked into the system to feed it.
Upon being freed from the human farm by Morpheus, Neo becomes aware of the pain his unused body generates as he activates it (“and in doing all this felt pain”), the light that burns into his brain as he opens his eyes to the world around him (“compelled to look at the light itself”) and the sense of bewilderment and confusion his mind experiences as he begins to come to reality (Plato, 514 AD).
Difference:
The conversation between Plato and Glaucoma are based on hypothetical, imagined circumstance. The conversation between Neo and Morpheus are based on a depiction of firm reality and an alternate reality construct, both experienced physically as well as mentally.
Descartes Meditations/The Matrix:
Similarity:
Neo must come to terms with his former sense of reality and shed it in order to properly function in his new reality. Descartes wrote a descriptive equivalent in, “I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation, if I desired to establish a firm and abiding superstructure in the sciences” (Descartes, 1641).
There comes a point in the climax of The Matrix in which Neo must decide to accept his role as the “One” and decide to act beyond his known capacity and become wholly self-aware, rising in order to rescue Morpheus and Trinity simultaneously. In Meditations, Descartes penned, “I waited until I had attained an age so mature as to leave me no hope that at any stage of life more advanced I should be better able to execute my design” (Descartes, 1641). Neo executes his design and grows into his role as a saving grace.
Difference:
Unlike the Neo character, Descartes writes of becoming voluntarily self aware; Neo was “rescued” into reality from it’s “constructed” alternative.
Manufactured thought was not an occasional thought, but constant in the construct of Neo’s former life.
The Construct of the human nursery that Neo was fettered to gave the inhabitants no reason to doubt their security or comfort.
The Construct, as described by Descartes “supplied all that their minds needed to feel as though they were without additional requirements of their lives” (Descartes, 1641). Neo and his other human subjects’ dream world contained within the bio-fluid sac of a “home”, seemingly fulfilled their every need. Their manufactured world was cozier that the reality of the physical world around them. Their manufactured world offered no means to resist.
It was not God that, “had steady possession” of the mind, rather a force of AI machinery created by, and at, the cost of Mankind. In the world of The Construct, God would not be known, but by the references to biblical things, the emancipated Man still honored biblical history, while cursing God in profane utterances.
In Descartes’ Meditations, the “peril” or “error” is all mental, while in The Matrix, the peril is ongoing and physical (Descartes, 1641).
While reading these three stories, Plato’s Allegory of the Caves, Descartes Meditation and reviewing/re-watching the film, The Matrix, I was enlightened to the many timeless and considerable pondering that reality might not be as we presently perceive it. However, I am further rooted in my resolve that reality is not placed upon us, however, shaped by us as we gain in both consciousness and awareness of our human condition. Upon discovering oneself in a consistent fashion, one can change course readily, change circumstance readily, and change reality in progress by combining action with thought. Essentially while effecting a divine plan, we also can effect a personal plan. Our Creator guides us to opportunities so we can combine effort into a singular plan with divine purpose. By choosing His guidance, we can go forth harmlessly in reality and prosper. Therefore it is better to come out of the construct and embrace the actualities.
With so many opportunities to be incorrect during the decision making process, it is that much more important to involve and trust both senses and instinct. I state this under the thought that there are six senses rather than five with the sixth, being discernment. I believe this sixth sense is guided by the holy spirit once a person has professed the name above all, Jesus Christ. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, upon submitting to The Trinity has dominion where Satan and his minion no longer will.
Conclusion
The world can be a very deceptive place. What a person believes they saw simply might be a matrix of imagination. We construct many things in our minds, and call it an active imagination. The simple fact of imagination and alternative reality is that all things come from imagination and a shift toward something that once only existed in the imagination. Science and technology are rooted in the question that begs “what-if”. The mind of humankind remains untapped. Our thoughts are only limited by our internal perspectives and our relationship with our minds; God gave us the same power as Jesus had. The bible states in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”. The spirit and the 6th sense are closely interwoven. The soul answers the call to the divine. The body gives the call and the relationship the ability to act upon the soul and the spirit. When these three parts come into one accord, a reality in Christ, the only true reality, is manifest.