Wake Up, The Matrix has you!

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote: So it sounds like many of us have found a great deal of meaning in many of the great sci fi operas. I wonder if Jediism will eventually evolve beyond its roots of Star Wars to begin to fully incorporate much of this new mythology into its teachings. It seems that with the birth of modern movie media and the internet a rebirth of ancient philosophical teachings has also taken place by re-exploring them in a Science fiction context.

Joseph Campbell actually touches on this idea in Hero With a Thousand Faces. He believes that the success of Sci-Fi franchises in the modern era is due to the fact that they are updating old mythology to make it better fit into our modern experience of life. The Bible continues to serve a purpose for millions of people, but the further we get from the time and place of its origin, the more out of context it becomes. We have already outgrown much of the Bible's more specific stories because we have a hard time understanding how life really was when they were written. The lessons, however, remain relevant. Sci-Fi has been able to update the stories to a context we can better relate to, but the same lessons are still there.

The Matrix Trilogy is a great example of this updating at work. Along with the parallels between Neo and Jesus and Cypher with Judas, some have also compared Neo to Moses as the one chosen to free the slaves from their oppressors. Like Moses, he stands up to authority and then uses special powers to lead his people out of slavery and to a new promised land. The Matrix is partially an update of the story of Passover.

The reason for that, Goken, is that it is just showing different facettes of the same story, the same meander through the human condition as Dasein - the being in/with (the experience of) the world. Star Wars got a lot of things a bit wrong : the world and the human experience of it is not so very Manichean - it doesn't simplify to a struggle between good vs evil. The Matrix also got off on a bit of a strange tack too by insinuating that there is a Zion to "wake up" in, no matter how horrific "reality" might be. As it were, the reality underlying the layers of simulacre - the simulations (sign-values) - that have become our "doxa", our "common sense" recognition of the 'way the world is'. Even our idealistic values are determined by this system.

It is for this reason that some of the 'failures' (yet weren't) of both Neo and Luke, notably when they made subjective choices rather than clear-cut objective ones, were among the most real, most human aspects of the "One" that brings balance. Objectively, Neo would have chosen the door to save Zion rather than Trinity ; Luke would have ultimately defeated Vader... Without the subjective element in this, the "system" would have prevailed. These elements were just fictional adaptations of the trolley-car dilemma classic to moral philosophy. The all too evident answer is the one that supports the system, rather than the one that casts the Hero out of the bondage of a pre-determined rôle and thus surmounting that Ordeal, sustains the heroism which ultimately saves (the principle of) humanity.

I sort of tend to look past the characters struggle mostly and see the metaphorical nature of the characters interaction more broadly with a plot such that in this case Neo represent the field of neuroscience, Morpheus is the field of psychoactive 'sacraments', and Trinity is the evolving human culture of religion as they drive into a new awakening and balance.

This is why we are the best conversationalists

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote: Do you think this new "Religion" called Jediism will maybe eventually evolve to not only include but embrace all philosophical Sci Fi into its "sacred texts" as modern day mythologies of ancient philosophical ponderings? Maybe even under a different name. The term Jediism might be replaced with something more encompassing that describes this phenomena of incorporating great works of philosophical science fiction into a spiritual path or following.

For me, one of the things I appreciate most about Jediism as it is taught at TotJO is the lack of "sacred texts". Joseph Campbell touches on it in one of the videos, that it is the meaning behind the metaphor that is important, not the form of the metaphor. I've found "sacred texts" are oft revered as much or more than the messages they convey. Not so with Jediism where we blatantly strip away the vehicle of the myth in our search for the meaning behind it: where we focus not on the words we are presented with, but the mind and heart of their author. In this way we are indeed inspired by all myths, be they ancient myths about life on the plains, or modern sci-fi. After all, storytelling is storytelling and, at the heart of it, all stories describe some part of the human condition whether intentional or not.

Even the terms we use, Jedi, Jediism, are replaceable as they are not central to the belief structure itself, merely descriptors of it. For now they serve the purpose of allowing like-minded individuals to find a spiritual community where we can all evolve.

Senan wrote: Joseph Campbell actually touches on this idea in Hero With a Thousand Faces. He believes that the success of Sci-Fi franchises in the modern era is due to the fact that they are updating old mythology to make it better fit into our modern experience of life. The Bible continues to serve a purpose for millions of people, but the further we get from the time and place of its origin, the more out of context it becomes. We have already outgrown much of the Bible's more specific stories because we have a hard time understanding how life really was when they were written. The lessons, however, remain relevant. Sci-Fi has been able to update the stories to a context we can better relate to, but the same lessons are still there.

The Matrix Trilogy is a great example of this updating at work. Along with the parallels between Neo and Jesus and Cypher with Judas, some have also compared Neo to Moses as the one chosen to free the slaves from their oppressors. Like Moses, he stands up to authority and then uses special powers to lead his people out of slavery and to a new promised land. The Matrix is partially an update of the story of Passover.

This is another really interesting aspect of modern day religions like Jediism in general. I think that the prophets of old are being replaced by modern versions of Heros. If you think about it there are a lot of similarities between the prophet and the hero but as we continue to move forward in time and learn more and more about our universe we also lose the need for all that superstition we once carried as a species. We are moving from a mentality that we are "in Gods hands" and the prophets are our leaders to the idea that we control our own destinies and we are each capable of leadership in effecting change in our world. Think about it.

• A prophet only offers insight that cannot be his own but the hero’s insight comes from direct experience.
• A prophets source of strength comes from an external deity but the hero’s comes from within
• Prophets only point out faults that need mending while the hero enacts change for the better
• Prophets are often doomsayers while the hero is a symbol of hope
• While both can be idolized the prophet is touted as a perfect being outside the corporeal world while the hero is an integral and flawed part of it, just like the rest of us.

This sort of thinking makes me wonder what we really consider as a hero because we are all flawed in some way or another, right? A major part of Jedi philosophy is centered around myth and the Hero’s Journey, but is it all just modern day myth in Sci Fi or is it any myth. And are there certain Myths we would or should discount in this? Case in point is the mythology of Ragnar Lothbrok a Great Viking king. He followed that hero’s journey by rising from mediocrity to becoming one of the greatest kings of the Vikings and set his people on a course that would make them some of the greatest explorers in our history. However his was not a selfless journey nor was the Vikings in general. They set out on missions of conquest of riches and lands and slaves and the glorious prospect of battle and in that their greatest wish was to die in combat and be taken to Valhalla. While among the Vikings that lived life as he did he was a great hero, to others he was a brutal tyrant.

This hero’s journey has some dark undertones. It makes you wonder if any hero to some is a tyrant to others. I would say this is probably true To bring this to a more modern context, I think a modern day epic tale of a heros journey that has these dark undertones as well can be seen in the Assassins creed movie. Part of their creed is as follows:

“Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember..." Nothing is true."
“Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember..." Everything is permitted."
“We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins."

This is a different take on the hero’s journey… or can it be considered the hero’s journey at all? Its aspects of mythology such as this that I argued in other threads that are asking for more structure at this temple against any sort of additional conformity. In fact I would consider the assassin mythology to be one of the Heros journey. It is not one of obvious public service but it is one of noble pursuit nonetheless. Their philosophy is one closer to an ancient Viking pagan mentality. That mentality being that, yes, all life is sacred… but not everything gets to live. However to die nobly is reward in itself. We all must accept the consequences of our actions good or bad, and in that, some things also don’t deserve to live.

Neat idea.