“Freedom stretches only as far as the limits of our consciousness” – C.G. Jung
Which pill do you take? The red pill or the blue pill
In the first installment of the Matrix franchise, The Matrix, Thomas Anderson meets Morpheus for the first time in a nondescript dark room. A thunderstorm rages in the background, alluding to the potential disruption to Anderson’s psychological state. A storm is brewing.
“Do you want to know what it is?” Morpheus asks while fondling a box between his fingers. “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth . . . a prison for your mind. No one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”
Anderson is given a choice of which pill he will ingest – one red, one blue. It is an irrevocable decision. There is no turning back from this decision, a no do over, no changing his mind.
The blue pill returns Anderson to the life he has known, and he remains unconscious. It is a life of ignorance and avoidance of the truth.
The red pill opens Anderson to the awareness of his world; Morpheus will show him the truth and how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Symbolic interpretation and truth
The character’s name, Morpheus, takes to us his namesake, the God in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Morpheus was an early version of Hermes, the god that comes to us in our dreams and the energy that comes to us from the unconscious to show us the truth of the psyche.
Through the truth of the psyche, Morpheus makes us aware of the prison of the mind, i.e. conditioning of attitudes and perceptions from family, society or social movements. From this perspective, we become prisoners of our thought forms that limit experiences and potential horizons.
The red pill is a vehicle of knowledge, consciousness, and the real truth of the psyche. Like the apple in the Garden of Eden, the red pill symbolizes the knowledge of good and evil and the polarities. Knowing the truth is harder to digest.
Truth is a touchy subject. Whose truth? Is it personal truth or archetypal truth? We struggle with telling the truth to ourselves and facing the truth of our experience and reality.
Jung believed that our dream reflects the truth of the psyche, whether we like it or not. The psychological truth will set us free.
What is your definition of freedom? What is your definition of being unconscious?
Psychological freedom could be defined by the ability to make a clear choice in the here, and now that is free from assumptions and lingering pain and trauma from the past. It arises out of the complexity of what it means to live in the 21st century.
Buddhism suggests that the source of freedom is letting go of anything we are clinging to – anger, anxiety, possessions, opinions, or attitudes. We can’t be totally free if we are identified with these experiences. Part of this means accepting everything just the way it is, and letting go of the expectation of how things should be.
The plague of misinformation
Having the wool pulled over our eyes comes from many different sources and has never been so relevant due to the pandemic. Many factions in our world have created their version of the matrix through the spinning of narratives that help to explain the nature of the world that we live in. It’s painting the picture of a world from alternative facts if you will. Conflicting evidence and opinions by so-called experts have made it difficult to know the truth. So much misinformation is being spread that we lose our sense of center. We don’t know who to believe. We have lost trust in our institutions that are supposed to care for the higher interests of our community and society.
What is the difference between opinion, judgement, wishful thinking and truth?
Critical thinking and discernment are part of the thorny path through the minefield of collective misinformation. Truth has a ring, like the ring of a bell that stretches across the land. Truth is not associated with a ton of emotion. This process takes time and devotion to the truth. Discern as a virtue involves wisdom and good judgement. It requires that we consider all the facts and evaluate all perspectives in a detached way.
Our choices
The spiritual path and the path of individuation demand that we learn how to discern the truth. An essential part of this is taking responsibility for how we think and feel. We must be accountable for our life and own our choices.
Responsibility is the key to true freedom. Choice is a function of awareness. These things enable us to make choices and be accountable for our life, thus, not being a victim mindset subject to the whims of outside forces and circumstances.
Christina Becker
July 2022
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Thank you. At age 83 I reflect on my reactions to changes I am experiencing and I found it provided me with the option of interacting or reacting and then dealing with the consequences.
Barbara