Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
I saw The Matrix: Reloaded last night in a packed theater at the Plymouth Meeting AMC.
Halfway through the movie, during one of the impressive fight sequences, where Neo (Keanu Reeves) is stopping bullets, flying around the room, leaping in slow motion and calling objects with his will, it suddenly hit me, he's a dream shaman!
Suddenly, everything made sense. When you think about it, everybody is stuck in the Matrix (the dreamworld) until they realize that it is an alternate reality. Then, once they do, it gives them the power to alter that reality by entering the Matrix on their own terms and controlling and affecting the objects and people around them.
Taken
in that context, Neo has an impressive natural ability to manipulate the
dreamworld (the Matrix). He goes into the Matrix to fight off evil and
to try to fix things for people in the waking world. This is exactly what
a dream shaman does. It often even involves confrontations or fights with
dreamworld creatures who mean harm.
Having worked with my dreams for several years now, I know how difficult it is to do the sorts of things that Neo does. Simply learning how to fly, and especially to fly to a specific place, can take ages. Manipulating objects is not difficult, but focusing is, and it takes a tremendous amount of focus to engage in combat, for example. I spent an entire evening once just learning how to levitate. And while my more recent lucid dreams have involved impressive shows of power, such as moving rocks and altering trees, I am a long way from the types of abilities shown by Neo.
When you look at the framework of the film, a lucid dreaming analogy is easily supported. The dream warriors, or dream shamans, when connected to the Mother, the computer which allows them to connect from the Nebuchadnezzar, resemble sleeping bodies, even twitching in apparent REM sleep. And one of the characters, the prophet Morpheus, bears the name of an ancient god of dreams. Not to mention the fact that Nebuchadnezzar, an Old Testament king, is known primarily for a dream he had that foretold tumult in the kingdom. It was, however, Daniel who interpreted it for him.
The dream shamans meet in the dreamworld and work together to protect and rescue other humans, using the powers they have refined. No wonder everyone has such respect for Neo. As I've mentioned, his powers are truly phenomenal. And it's no surprise that the other humans begin to regard him as almost a god due to his abilities.
I will be fascinated to find out what happens in The Matrix 3, to see if they begin to explore how a dream shaman's extraordinary abilities may shape how he interacts with the waking world, as well. I've long been fascinated with the idea that once you learn how to alter your dreams it might affect your waking life, if only to give you the confidence to play a more active role in your fate.
The Matrix trilogy is proving to be a revolutionary film series, where a highly popular action film provides us with valuable lessons for interacting with and learning from this world of illusions.
Moral:
Even pop culture can be good for you.
Copyright
2003 by Alyce Wilson
Read
another essay about The Matrix:
Critical essay on The Matrix by Sam Vaknin in Wild Violet,
Vol. I Issue 3 (Rising Sun)
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