The Matrix: Life Imitates Art

Did you know that there is a real surveillance project administered by the US Department of Homeland Security called “Matrix”? It’s an acronym for “Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange“. I first read about it in an article in Wired News entitled “Matrix Plan Fuels Privacy Fears“.

O how cute! Or should I say, what chutzpah! I bet the producers of the movie by that name never thought that they were actually providing a masterplan and blueprint for such a system.

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The Horror and the Wonder

“In times of peace”, wrote Nietzsche, “a warrior goes to war against himself.” What Nietzsche means by that is somewhat fleshed out by another of Nietzsche’s aphorisms. “It’s not the courage of one’s convictions that counts, but the courage to attack one’s convictions that counts.” This is the true spirit of what is called both “crusade” and “jihad” and what Carlos Castaneda’s teacher, don Juan, referred to as the art and mood of the warrior. One should not confuse the stupid, imbecilities of history and human nature that are usually associated with those words with their actual spiritual meaning and content. It means, self-overcoming.

Long before the more secular and mundane popes perverted its meaning, St. Anastasius had already interpreted “crusade” properly as “taking the cross into one’s heart”, bearing in mind that the cross is a mandala, the image of a holon. Similarly, what we might call the “spiritual” significance of Sharia (or equivalently “the way of the cross”) has nothing to do with the legalistic formulas and frameworks (in fact, chains) that it became. The word “sharia” is a marvelous metaphor. It refers to “a path that leads through the desert to water”, and that corresponds to what Castaneda’s teacher, don Juan, called “a path with heart”. It is also equivalent to what Nietzsche called his “formula for happiness” — “a straight line… and a goal.”

Many Worlds, Many Selves

It is the carefully considered opinion of many physicists that there exist any number of “probable worlds” and also “probable selves” living in those probable worlds, each following its own time thread. This “Many Worlds Theory” might even be said to be traceable back to the martyred Dominican monk and philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548 – 1600), a quite remarkable figure for his time (who paid the price for being a “mutant”). But, it is not just idle speculation that leads so many physicists to adhere to the Many Worlds Theory. The very mathematics of the quantum order require it.

Moreover, it is the experience of many so-called “mystics”, (including my own experience), that the Many Worlds, Many Selves Theory is true. This is the topic I want to explore in The Chrysalis today as it pertains to the conflict between The Mechanical Philosophy and the Holistic Philosophy.