What is Matrix?
One of my favorite films, The Matrix, depicts a computer-generated illusory world. People whose brains are connected to this program—the Matrix—are unaware that they are not living real lives and that everything they experience is virtual reality set in the backdrop of a long-lost world. Their bodies are imprisoned, cultivated, and exploited by machines that have taken over the planet, using them as an energy source, while their consciousness is completely absorbed by the artificial world of virtual reality. It may sound like a simple sci-fi premise, but it’s far from that.
The Matrix – Interpretation
One interpretation of this film suggests that it is a modern variation of an ancient text on the relativity of knowledge and what we consider real. This text was written by Plato and is called The Allegory of the Cave. It tells the story of people who spend their entire lives in a cave, chained to a rock with their backs to the entrance. The only thing they can see—and all they have ever known—are the shadows of objects, people, animals, and such, moving in front of the entrance. They see these shadows thanks to a fire burning in the cave, which projects these shadows onto the back wall. The point is that, because they have never experienced anything else and have never seen anything different, these shadows are their true reality, the only and proper image of the world.
Then, one of them manages to free himself, release from the chains, and step outside. At first, the sun blinds him because he is not used to it, but over time, he adjusts and, for the first time, sees the world outside, with all its vibrant reality and colors. He realizes that what he had been living up until then was just a foolish illusion, a miserable deception, and a mere reflection of the real world. But how is he to explain this to those who are still chained inside the cave, staring at shadows as they have every other day? How can something like that be put into words without them thinking he is crazy? It’s almost certain they wouldn’t believe him—and how could they? But he tries anyway.
So, he goes back into the darkness of the cave, but his eyes, now accustomed to daylight, see nothing. Naturally, those still chained to the rock conclude that if this person escaped and returned blind, any further attempt to escape must be deadly and foolish. They would rather kill anyone who tries to free them than risk such a terrible fate.
Setting aside Plato’s pessimistic conclusion, we can say that The Matrix trilogy is built on this ancient question that humans have been asking for ages. How much is the image of the world that is available to me actually a reflection of reality? How much do I consider what I am presented with as the whole truth? And isn’t the real world perhaps a little more colorful? These are the same questions that, even today, can help us look at our kaleidoscopic world with different eyes, help us slow down, and start thinking. This is a great foundation for something we call critical thinking.
The Matrix as a Symbolic Spiritual Journey
“I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it yourself.” — Morpheus
The Matrix trilogy can also be understood in another way. Despite appearances, these films mirror the “three steps of spiritual enlightenment as offered in various forms by Eastern spiritual teachings.”
Simply put, the first step is the shedding of illusions, the second is understanding the cause of all suffering, and finally, the third is the overcoming and merging of opposites, the realization that opposites coexist and that one cannot exist without the other.
Clover himself describes it as follows: “In the first step, one uncovers sensory illusion—the veil that has been pulled over one’s eyes to prevent seeing what lies behind the appearance of reality. In a less spiritual sense, this means that one stops perceiving or interpreting the world through the filter of official mass media or societal conventions. One sees that what they previously understood as reality is a fabricated code, just as Neo sees streams of green symbols instead of objects and people in the Matrix.”
In the second step of enlightenment, the individual understands the chain of cause and effect, causality, and the endless cycle of suffering. This is the scene with the Architect of the Matrix, who explains to Neo that suffering must be encoded into the system, otherwise people wouldn’t perceive the reality as real enough (they can’t tolerate perfection), and there must also be the promise of redemption. The One, the revolutionary, is a pre-calculated anomaly of the system that leads it to its own reset and the continuation of the cycle of suffering. We constantly cling to false idols. This is the stage where revolutions fail, devouring their own children, and a new era of conformity begins, where we deceive ourselves into thinking that it is possible to live with dignity in this system. The third, highest level of enlightenment is about overcoming and merging opposites, understanding that they coexist, as symbolized by yin and yang. Neo achieves this at the end when he merges with his ultimate adversary, Agent Smith, who has also been disconnected from the system. Their merging triggers the reset of the Matrix, but it is also a precursor to a more peaceful coexistence between humans and machines.
The Psychology reflection
After philosophy and spiritual enlightenment, I believe that deep psychology also has something to say about The Matrix. Especially because the merging with one’s greatest enemy, opponent, and ever-present antagonist is intriguingly described from a completely different perspective by psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, C.G. Jung, as a full conscious integration of the emotionally charged contents of the unconscious, known as the shadow. Through this lens, the film characters Neo and Agent Smith are one from the beginning. They are inextricably tied to one another, despite their desire to destroy each other. As it turns out, the way forward is not in total victory but in accepting one’s opposite—one’s shadow aspects, the parts of ourselves we would prefer not to have. But we cannot renounce or suppress them because they are part of who we are.
If you feel at this moment that I’ve ventured into some mystical nonsense, you’re mistaken. I’m talking about self-knowledge, which includes not just the bright, sunny places we like to show others, but also the things we’re ashamed of, that cause us pain, and those we are not even willing to admit to ourselves because they would threaten our fragile, carefully constructed balance. Yet, they are part of us. Part of us as individuals, and part of us as a nation. We have our dark places that we don’t speak of, we have our sensitive spots that we avoid. But if we want to move forward a bit on our journey of understanding, we cannot ignore them.
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