By: Dan McLintock
There has been a lot of talk circulating lately about the possibility (or even likelihood) that we are all living in a simulation, or controlled reality, similar to that of the 1998 film “The Matrix”. Some prominent figures and physicists have even postulated that the odds we are actually existing in ‘base reality’ are one in a billion, along with proposed experiments to test this.
Science Fiction turned Science Reality aside, the ‘controlled’ piece feels to be pretty accurate given that the vast majority of folks alive today were born in the 20th century – a century that was, for the most part, dominated by the collective, dysfunctional, egoic human mind. It’s almost as if, by defining the very concept of ‘ego’, we began to give it sort of a ‘free reign’, like the last gasping breath of a dying power structure or paradigm. That structure is beginning to collapse.
I was born in 1980. The systems and structures that were in place are the very ones that are now falling apart. They are fighting hard to stay alive and relevant, but they are dying. This system was one in which people’s deep, core stories of deficiency and lack drove them to overcompensate and pretend. They pushed them to be go-getters, to strive for success no matter what the cost, to make and follow arbitrary rules. They also included a punitive energy that operated by means of discipline and control- an energy that rendered love conditional- and equated it with pressure, manipulation, and the imposition of the will of the ‘stronger’ over that of the ‘weaker’. These systems basically amounted to: “treat yourself and others as slaves or machines”.
There is a famous quote misattributed to Einstein:
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
It’s also been recounted as:
“The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.”
What Einstein actually said was a little less widely applicable, but in a much more revelatory context:
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.”
The context? A personal appeal issued by way of telegram to hundreds of prominent Americans, warning of the dangers of atomic weapons after his participation in the Manhattan Project.
So why do I relay these mis-quoted tidbits that spread like wildfire? Because the underlying message, the message that runs deeper than the words chosen to convey it, is so universal and so true it’s almost as if people can’t help reinventing it to reflect other, more familiar contexts. We WANT those to be the words of a prominent world-class genius because they just sound and feel so TRUE on a basic level.
Digging around in our intellect- our analytical cognition- may lead to grand (and terrifying) ideas and inventions and discoveries: the wheel, the steam engine, the telephone…. The atomic bomb….
It may help us soar to new heights and traverse a new frontier of innovation and a certain type of progress. But staying there won’t take us back into our bodies. Intellect might lead us to nuclear power- and nuclear arms. But it won’t lead us inward, to the core, basic awareness that can give us the power, the insight, and the awareness to truly heal what is hurting much deeper inside of us…
This whole mind-made false reality is something we (unconsciously and innocently) cooked up to keep us from feeling all of that pain.
Which brings us back to the Matrix…
It’s sort of empowering and exciting to discover that we may very well be in a sort of false mind-made reality Unfortunately it does zero good to merely “know” we are in this ‘matrix’ if we don’t dismantle the effects of it internally – if we don’t each tear out our own dysfunctional program (aka our “trauma”).
There are various ways to do this- read this concise breakdown of our mindfulness and inquiry approach here.
Remember… Neo had to go through all that shit once he woke up to reality right?
This whole shift out of “the matrix” is really the movement from the conceptual (mind/belief/past & future based) to the experiential (heart/reality/presence based). This is and will continue to be progressively disorienting and terrifying for those of us who’ve been conditioned by the old paradigm and as a result are living “in our heads”- some of us have been stuck up there for virtually our whole lives!
The truth is that more and more people are voluntarily (or some involuntarily) beginning to break that connection with our egoic minds. As this continues, and increases, the ones who cling to the old paradigm will feel more and more uncomfortable… like they are going insane.
Imagine having all of one’s trauma, false beliefs, past pain, and programming pushed up and out whether we want it or not – and all the while not knowing what’s happening to us.
Hell, one might just feel compelled to shoot some folks up…
Or burn down a rainforest…
Or make death threats in the name of God…
It’s time for radical, active compassion and love for those who are struggling with, or are seemingly trapped in their egoic programming. As ol’ JC said “Forgive them for they” (literally) “know not what they do.” I might add “…and give them some context if they’re open to it”.
Eventually we will all have to take full responsibility for our own trauma/pain/beliefs and get deprogrammed if we ever want to survive and know any kind of freedom. OR we can continue to try to cling to thought/belief as an anchor, be “right” about things and suffer our asses off – no one is gonna (or even can) take that away from us.
If any of this really jazzes or pulls you, and ONLY if it does – hit me, the Kiloby Center or any of the other folks who are talking about inquiry/deprogramming up and we can hash some stuff out.
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