Dream
I hesitated a bit about whether to place this category on par with those phenomena that, in my opinion, help a person break free from the Matrix (or significantly contribute to this). In the end, I still decided to touch upon the topic of sleep, as it is quite interesting and is, in a way, the same as Time for the System from the previous part. In other words, dream is a specific and very unusual means thru which a person temporarily breaks away from the Matrix. This method is widely accessible and does not require any special skills or abilities. It is “embedded” in us from the very beginning, from birth.
In my opinion, the time a person spends in the Matrix should not be counted from the moment of actual birth, but from the moment a visible embryo forms in the mother’s womb. Since even there, a person is not free. During a dream, a person is absent in the Matrix and resides somewhere far away, in other planes of existence.
One could say that sleep acts as a kind of medicine for our reality: by immersing a human in oblivion for a time, it pulls him out of the Matrix, freeing the mind from the accumulated thoughts, experiences, and emotions of the previous day. It is also evident that sleep restores strength and makes each subsequent day unlike the previous one. That is, it is precisely thanks to these systematic moments of forgetfulness that we can fully contemplate and feel our physical life in the System, viewing and experiencing it like a colour film on a reel, rather than just a three-dimensional, gray episode.
– Interestingly, K. Castaneda wrote about the interaction between sleep and reality: “Act and behave in life as if it were a dream: boldly, without seeking excuses” (the words of Don Juan from the series of novels by Carlos Castaneda).
What is sleep, then? Another illusion created by the System and sent down to us from above, so that we can function normally in the Matrix and diligently carry out its tasks? Temporary oblivion, created by the Absolute as a counterbalance to the System and its detrimental impact on the individual? An automatic program implanted by someone into our brain and consciousness, so that this someone, while we sleep, can perform certain manipulations with our mind: for example, erasing old programs every day and replacing them in the morning with new, more advanced software? The questions are bright and clear, like shining steel in the sun, but the outlines of the answers are barely discernible. The mystery of dreams also lies in the fact that they are not a completely autonomous, independent phenomenon from the human being.
Many have learned to control their own dreams, making them lucid and, like an arrow shot from a bow, directing the dreams in the desired direction. Lucid and controlled dreams are remembered more often than the dreams of an ordinary person, which they often cannot recall upon waking. It is said that people who practice “waking dreams” are less susceptible to stress in real life and are able to make decisions more quickly in unusual situations. However, it is not recommended for immoral people, as well as those who are excessively impressionable, to seriously master these techniques, as they may ultimately harm not only themselves but also those around them.
Very interesting thoughts about the illusory nature of our senses can be gleaned from the works of the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes. In particular, in his work “Meditations,” where he describes a strange being, essentially a demon, that misleads a man regarding his feelings and sensations. The philosopher suggests that “not an all-good God, the source of truth, but some malignant genius, very powerful and very cunning, has employed all his ingenuity to deceive me.” Such a being, in Descartes’ opinion, could easily change our minds about certain obvious truths (for example, that a square has only four sides or that the Sun always rises in the east). It would be even easier for this evil demon to make us think that there is an external physical world, while in reality, “I will think of the sky, air, earth, places, shapes, sounds, and all external things in general as mere illusions, traps laid by my credulity by the efforts of this genius”.
Whether Descartes was right or not, it’s up to you to decide. In the book of your humble servant, however, the central idea is somewhat different, though similar to Descartes’ one: we are all involuntary prisoners of the Matrix from birth. And most people live their lives in ignorance of this fact: essentially, in a “sleeping” mode. That is, the System is not a dream, but reality and an objective fact.
– In enthusiastic tones, one of the characters in Heinlein’s novel describes sleep: “Sleep is one of the pleasures that exists in human life. This strange, relaxed state, in which the Creator’s creations have the opportunity to create their own worlds” (Robert Heinlein, “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag”).
– William Irwin, in his book “The Matrix as Philosophy,” also mentions this moment and, in the context of Descartes’ hypothesis, writes that “in a dream, you see yourself sitting in a chair and reading this book, although in reality, you are lying in bed and experiencing a rapid sleep phase”. Morpheus supports this opinion. He asks Neo if he has ever had a dream where he was one hundred percent sure it wasn’t a dream. What if Neo couldn’t wake up from this dream? How would he then know the difference between the world of dreams and reality?
Our physical existence on Earth could also turn out to be a dream, for no one has yet been able to prove otherwise with certainty. A dream lasting a lifetime. And after death, we will simply wake up in our “true” reality, where we have been and will be forever, and continue what was started, interrupted by an unfortunate accident: our incarnation in the Matrix.
Just as in dreams we often misinterpret our feelings, in reality, no one can guaranty that the world we inhabit is the true one and that the things and phenomena around us have the exact appearance and purpose that humans attribute to them. One way or another, let’s note that sleep is one of the natural ways to temporarily leave the Matrix, in order to return to it later, renewed. This certainly does not solve the problem in principle, as the sleepers, even though they wake up, still remain “asleep.” So, as a practical and conscious guide to action for exiting the Matrix, I would characterize this method as highly doubtful.
The Book of Your Life
“Stepping outside the System is not an open, destructive war. It is the creation of an underground, far-reaching network of free people united by a single noble goal.”