We see it over and over again, told in many different ways. It's often called the story
of the portal. In it we meet a hero who's trapped in a boring and ordinary life. But one day they
find a doorway into another world. It might be a rabbit hole, or a tornado, or even a magical
entrance in a train station. But whatever it is, the portal takes them on a difficult journey
where they face a series of tests that completely transform who they are. And after
gaining new insights they come back, bringing these lessons into our world. In the Matrix,
Thomas Anderson is a computer programmer by day but by night he's a computer hacker known as Neo.
He feels intuitively that something is very wrong in the world. He can't describe what it is, but he
knows that things aren't really what they seem to be. He meets a mysterious man named Morpheus
who offers him a choice between two pills: a red one which reveals the truth about the Matrix and
the nature of reality, and a blue one which makes him forget everything he's seen. Allowing him to
go back to his normal life and to believe whatever he wants to believe. This choice is crucial. Neo
takes the red pill and this will be his portal. But in a strange reversal of the usual story, Neo
doesn't find a gateway into a realm of fantasy. Instead, his is a portal that reveals the truth:
that our world is an illusion, that everything we experience is false, and we are all its prisoners.
The Matrix was one of the most revolutionary science fiction films of its time,
but it's not really a new idea. It's a modern retelling of a very old philosophy.
A collection of diverse beliefs often called gnosticism.
But what exactly is it? There's no universally agreed definition, but there are some common
themes. In this video let's take a deeper look at the Matrix and its gnostic philosophy.
One of the central ideas in gnostic philosophy is that we're all divine sparks. Each of us in our
innermost core has a piece of the divine within ourselves. That is our true nature. But as soon as
we're born into the material world, we completely forget this. We all fall into a collective dream,
reliving it over and over again, like puppets in a cosmic play. Why does this happen?
Because the world of matter is itself an illusion. We look around and experience a world that seems
real and solid, but this world is false; much like a dream that we're tricked into believing
is real. And it's this deception that keeps us trapped inside of it. The idea of being asleep
is a recurring theme in many gnostic texts. In it, we find the world described as a corrupt
and fallen place; a bad dream that we can't wake up from. And it's also what we find
in the Matrix. There's a scene where Morpheus tells Neo that he has the look of someone who
accepts what he sees because he's expecting to wake up, which isn't far from the truth.
Because humanity is living in a dream world, enslaved within a computer-generated simulation,
it serves as a prison that we can't smell, or taste, or touch. A prison for our minds. And a
system of ultimate control. In Greek mythology, Morpheus was the god of sleep and dreams.
He had the ability to appear in the world of dreams and take human form. So it's only fitting
that he would be Neo's guide through the dream world that is the Matrix. This is an idea that can
be traced at least as far back as Plato's allegory of the cave; an analogy for human imprisonment
in the illusion of the material world. So if our world is an illusion how do we escape it.
According to the gnostics what keeps us trapped in the world of illusion is ignorance. The only
way to free ourselves from this enslavement is to gain direct knowledge of the divine: gnosis,
which is Greek for knowledge. This isn't the same thing as having information about the divine.
Gnosis isn't something that can be explained to you. You have to experience it directly.
And the truth can't be forced on anyone. You have to willingly choose and be receptive to it.
This is exactly what Morpheus says to Neo. Even though it's all around us,
no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to experience it for yourself. This
idea isn't unique to the gnostic tradition, it's essential to every kind of mysticism.
Unlike religions that tell us that salvation depends on believing in a set of doctrines,
for gnostics, belief isn't enough. To experience gnosis you need direct experience with the divine.
To acquire gnosis is a lot like attaining enlightenment in Eastern systems like Buddhism.
It's also something we find in the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Jung believed that most of
the problems we face in life also come from a kind of ignorance: unconsciousness. According to Jung,
most of the things that motivate our actions come from the unconscious mind. We're totally unaware
of them and the key to healing, growth, and personal development is to become conscious. In
other words to gain gnosis. And connect with our higher selves. Jung actually studied gnosticism in
depth throughout his life but publicly he denied being a gnostic or any other kind of mystic.
Instead he insisted that he was a clinician whose psychology was grounded in science and
observation. And yet the influence of gnosticism is very clear in his work. It's perhaps most
evident in his Red Book where he documents his own inner psychological confrontations with the
unconscious. In one of his most famous statements, Jung wrote that he who looks outside dreams,
but he who looks within awakens. This not only formed the basis of his approach to psychology,
it's also the essence of gnostic thought. Because each of us is a divine spark,
the only way to experience true awakening is by looking deeply within ourselves.
To reconnect with our divine nature. This is no easy task, because every message in society
conditions us into believing that all our problems can only be found outside of us. That
we'll finally be happy when we get the perfect job, the perfect car, or the perfect house.
And yet all material things by their very nature are impermanent; they're temporary. And if we
attach our happiness to these things, if we attach our identity to them, what do we become once
they're lost? All of these things keep us trapped in the illusory world of matter. The fundamental
insight of these spiritual traditions is that you are not your job, you are not the things you own,
and you are not the roles you play in society. You are a divine essence and it's this realization
that sets you free. The Matrix is a metaphor for exactly this kind of spiritual awakening.
There's a basic creation story at the heart of many gnostic traditions, and it's the idea that
we all come from a supreme divinity. It's believed that at the very beginning of the universe, there
was the Monad, which is the highest divinity. From this came lower divine beings called Aeons one of
these Aeons was named Sophia. And by mistake she gave birth to a creature known as the Demiurge.
The Demiurge is the creator of the physical universe as we know it today. It's the being
that tried to recreate the world of the divine but failed. What it did was create an imperfect copy,
and it was through this process that humanity was born, by trapping elements of the divine
within bodies made of matter. After this was done, the Demiurge also created a group of co-actors
called Archons to rule over the material realm. But unlike humans, the Archons have no divinity
within them; they are purely physical and so they keep humans enslaved so they can feed off of us.
Like parasites, they try to drain us of our spiritual essence, to use us as an energy source.
We can see these parallels in the story of the Matrix. The Architect of the Matrix is basically
the demiurge of the machines. Demiurge is Greek for skilled builder or craftsman. And in much the
same way, the Architect tries to recreate the real world by building a false computer simulation,
using logic and mathematical precision as his tools. But he fails again and again. We learn
that the first version of the Matrix was meant to be a perfect human paradise, where none suffered,
where everyone would be happy. And yet it was a disaster. No one accepted the program.
The Architect later realized that most humans plugged into the Matrix would accept it as long
as they were given the illusion of choice. But even with all these changes, the Matrix remained
an imperfect copy. There will always be a number of people who resist it. Who intuitively feel
that something is off. That the simulation isn't quite right. We also find that the gnostic Sophia
which is Greek for "wisdom," is represented in the Matrix as the Oracle. The Architect
tells us that if he's the father of the Matrix then the Oracle would no doubt be its mother.
Unlike the Architect, the Oracle goes beyond logic and rationality. She's intuitive. She understands
the importance of emotions, choice, and self-knowledge. In her first meeting with Neo,
the Oracle points to a sign above her door; it means know thyself. She explains that
self-knowledge is a lot like being in love. No one can tell you who you are, just like no one
can tell you that you're in love. You just know it through and through. And much like Sophia
in the gnostic tradition who seeks to correct the original mistake of the material world, the Oracle
acts to help Neo and the other humans find freedom from the system of control that is the Matrix. To
correct the original mistake of enslaving humanity within it. We see this at the end of Matrix
Revolutions where the Oracle negotiates with the Architect to release humans that want to be freed
from the Matrix; he responds by saying obviously they will be freed. The Oracle and the many women
of the Matrix play a very important role in the story, because a big part of many gnostic
traditions is the idea that restoring the divine feminine is critical to the salvation of humanity.
And thirdly the Archons are the agents of the Matrix. They keep humanity enslaved to be used
as batteries to power the machine world. The gnostics emphasize that although Archons might
seem very powerful, they're actually very limited in what they can do. It's a mistake to believe
that they have power over us. Their only tool is deception. The only way they can turn us
into slaves is to convince us that we're powerless, that we have no divine nature,
or that there's no such thing as the divine. The only way they win is if we willingly surrender
our power to them but they can't control those of us who've already realized our spiritual essence.
Because the seed of the divine within each of us is more powerful than anything in the physical
world. In gnostic systems, the fundamental flaw of the Archons isn't so much that they're evil,
it's that they're ignorant. They're unfeeling, unthinking, and robotic in their actions. And in
the world of the Matrix, the agents are literally robotic. They're computer programs and because
they rule over the computer-generated world of the Matrix they can take over the virtual bodies
of anyone still plugged in. But they can't take the bodies of those who've realized the truth.
All of this relates to another element in many gnostic traditions: a savior figure who comes to
earth to restore the universe. Why? According to the gnostic view, our divine sparks have
fallen asleep in the physical world. But we don't find salvation by following a strict set of moral
rules or by believing a set of doctrines. We find it by becoming conscious. Through a direct
mystical experience with the divine. In order to effect this, it was believed that a savior
figure would come into the world to help awaken us to the spiritual essence that's in all of us.
The role of the savior figure was to correct the original mistake of the world; only then
could we escape from the tyranny of the Archons. In the Matrix, Neo fulfills the savior role. The
prophesized one who had the ability to bend and break the rules of the simulation; to remake it as
he saw fit, and free humanity from the machines. To do this he makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Carl Jung approached gnosticism from a psychological point of view.
He spoke of the ego which was conscious and the self which was largely unconscious. A
big part of what makes us who we are is in the subconscious mind. For Jung,
one of the biggest challenges is coming to the realization that we're much more than our ego;
that we're in fact the self. This process of self-realization is what Jung called
individuation; a lifelong process where we bring together all the elements within the psyche.
In the Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo that his self-concept isn't real. In the real world,
his head is shaved and he has a mechanical port in the back of his neck. But in the virtual world of
the Matrix, these ports are gone. He has hair. Morpheus calls this the "residual self-image"
a mental projection of a digital self. The image of ourselves that we see in the Matrix isn't real.
This digital self is a metaphor for the false ego. We see this in the way Mr Anderson transforms into
Neo over the course of the story. We watch him change from the unhappy computer programmer, who
goes to work pays his taxes, and lives an aimless life, to Neo. The one, who becomes his true self.
It's interesting that agent Smith opposes Neo's transformation at every turn.
Smith insists on calling Neo, "Mr Anderson." Of course Mr. Anderson isn't real. His entire life
is an identity constructed within the Matrix. Smith wants Neo to hang on to this false identity,
and the decades of social conditioning that tell him that he's nothing more than his job,
his social role, and the material things he owns. In an act of rebellion he responds by saying
"my name is Neo." In doing this he breaks free; he becomes who he was always meant to be.
But not everyone breaks free. The character Cypher takes the opposite path.
Cypher doesn't want to escape the Matrix; he chooses to remain its prisoner. He wants
to forget the truth, to become someone rich and important in the false world of the simulation,
and this is the counter-argument to the gnostic view. The idea that ignorance is bliss.
But is it true? As the story unfolds we learn that Cypher is profoundly unhappy. He believes
that his misery stems from the knowledge that the world is an illusion. From Cypher's point of view,
knowing the truth of the world has only brought him pain and suffering. And so he wants to plug
back in to the Matrix; to the illusions that give him a false sense of certainty and comfort.
He would rather be ignorant and to slave than be enlightened and free. Who really benefits from
this mindset? All the forces of control want you to think like Cypher. They have everything to gain
from your enslavement. And just like the agents of the Matrix, the Archons of the gnostic tradition
want you to feel disempowered so that they can more easily control you.
There's a scene where Neo meets a young boy who bends spoons with the power of his mind.
The boy tells Neo that he shouldn't try to bend the spoon, because that's impossible. Instead he
should try to realize the truth: that there is no spoon, and it's not the spoon that bends, but only
yourself. It's only then that Neo finds that he too can bend the spoon. This is the central lesson
in the gnostic view. The real portal is the door that opens within yourself. The one that moves
you from the unconscious to the conscious. And as much as we might want to change the material world
it remains a cage. We can't change the cage, but we can change ourselves. Like a butterfly,
our world can be the cocoon in which we're transformed, to fly to freedom. Jung's view
was that all change must begin with the individual. The focus of Jung's work
was clearly psychological, but there was a profound spiritual and metaphysical undercurrent
to it. Jung saw a similar shift in his patients as they moved from the first half of their lives,
which was preoccupied with the concerns of the ego, into the second half, which was to find
spirituality, something larger than themselves. Without this, they would never truly be healed.
In the next video we'll take a closer look at one of the most overlooked ways you can find spiritual
growth and healing in your life. If this video is available to watch, you'll see it appearing here
on the left if it's not yet available i think you'll enjoy the video on the right,
which explores themes of personal transformation and synchronicity in the Alchemist.
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