They attend Kabbalah courses in Beverly Hills,ca. These guys were in my class-Kabbalah 1 which cost me like 400.00 and was a waste of time and teachings of Rabbi Berg. as far as I know they never were Scientologist and the Matrix script was written after they studied at the Kabbalah Center and the Rabbis and recruits were saying that Kabbalah can make people famous like the Wachowski Brothers during their Thurs night recruitment seminars.

CreoleGuy,

It wasn't Kabbalah that influenced 'The Matrix.' It was clearly Landmark Education. They may be into Kabbalah now, but you can't retcon 'The Matrix' script to Kabbalah.

What is wrong with the Matrix Script? If it had any similiarities to scientology then that is because they have the same influences, such as Buddhism, Gnosticism and philosophy. There is a massage of waking up to reality and getting out of the grind we are all in. The last two movies are a problem for most people as they are problematizing what originally looked to be a simple process.

As I can clearly attest from experience this idea of waking can be misused but the idea itself is not dangerous.

As far as V for Vendetta goes there is no suggesting that anyone should emulate V's activities, the torture is meant to tell a story. You will notice at the end that he includes himself as part of the world that is ending, and Evey is part of the future world. There is a message of everything being connected, individual choice and collective action. V sees all his crimes but also sees them as a reaction to the system he was fighting. The drugs had destroyed whoever he was before the fire and now he was just the person who was created within it. Very much an archetype.

The torture in the story is extremely disturbing, but essential for the story. Evey's reaciton is equally unrealistic but also part of the story.

The heavy amount of violence is problematic, but typical of action movies and comics.

Both V For Vendetta and the Matrix can be inpiration in fighting cults if the message works for you.

Sorry I am not informed about Landmark but what I could say about Kaballah is that he the Wachwski brothers clearly had more influenced of a related nature then that. They appear to have studied original esoteric ideas, including real Kaballa. This influence is of course only seen in the Matrix, as the work they did on V for Vendetta was just create a format for film.

Commentary on The Matrix on Last Psychiatrist's blog

[thelastpsychiatrist.com]

"With every passing day, you realize you will not fight bad guys, not join the CIA, not be in a band, not throw the winning touchdown.

You will not know kung fu.

Your body sickeningly, boringly confirms it. You breathe harder when you run. You don't run anyway. Hair missing, hair appearing, in the wrong places.

Women your age are better looking than men your age. Wait, wait, what?

Hopes and dreams are now only dreams. You start to care about office politics because nothing else is happening. Clothes matter more because very little else does.

Drinking helps. You don't know why, you aren't an alcoholic, but you need it."

"What a modern middle aged narcissist wants is to find a way to put one foot in reality and keep one foot in fantasy.

He wants a solution that lets him keep fighting the traffic twice a day. Providing just enough lack of self-awareness that he doesn't reach for a bazooka and blow his brains out. (If only he had even energy for that.) To have just enough hope that one day the fantasies could come true that he keeps on going.
That a 30 something year old man could suddenly know kung fu—without ever having taken kung fu lessons!

Fortunately, we find ourselves at the tenth anniversary of just such a solution.

The Matrix: the natural, necessary end to the action movie generation, temporarily postponing a tripling of the suicide rate."

and

What Is The Matrix?

"No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself." (Corboy writes-sounds like how they inveigle us to take LGATs)

The Schizotypal State

It wasn't supposed to be like this.
By this age, things were supposed to have happened for you. You were supposed to be somebody. Someone was supposed to have fallen in love with you.

What is called the "world" doesn't seem like what you thought it would be.... there's a lack of emotional connection; a lack of highs and lows, of change, of either growth or regression. No energy. There's no real love. Instead is trudging, boredom.... ennui. There's nothing happening in your life; yet you feel like it's out of control.
Neo: I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad...

You walk through life diligently performing the tasks assigned to you, automatically. But always the thousand yard stare, the tiniest expectation that it is all about to change. More than fantasy but less than delusion, you hold active the remote probability that you are more than your current appearance. You're not unfinished, you're undiscovered.


It is the reverse of (Sartre's)Nausea, it's Constipation. You have a completely defined, detailed identity, but it never got a chance to come out. The world wouldn't cooperate.

The problem is the world.

You know you don't really know kung fu. (Ya never took lessons! C)

You know ninjas aren't going to attack. But you know a secret: that the impossible thing is a ninja attack, not that you would know kung fu if ninjas attacked.

In a (wish fulfillment walter mitty-corboy interpolates)reality which would permit the existence of a ninja attack, it is inevitable that (this same wish fulfilment fantasy reality) it would allow you to know kung fu.


A reality that is still, partially, under your influence.

The Anchors of the Schizotypal State

You say: but no one seriously believes reality is fake, that we're living in a computer. Correct; but the issue isn't the reality of reality, but under what circumstances would reality change for you? What are the necessary requirements for you to suddenly know kung fu?(without ever having taken lessons in it--Corboy)



Read the rest of the article. Dont depend on my little biased snippits.

The take home lesson for us here at RR.com is that though the Last Psychiatrist does not say so, this is the mindset that undergirds LGATs.

Thanks for that article Corboy that gave me a perspective I didn't have before. However I think the author might have missed a number of messages in the movie. You will notice that when Neo leaves the Matrix his life actually gets worse, so waking up is not fun. However there is that suggestion that our world may simply be an illusion so you can do what ever you want. This is trouble, there is a lot of positive, motivating philosophy in the Matrix but it could also lead to a lot of destructive fantasy thinking. If you watch the other two movies you will see that Neo's relationship with Trinity is definately a mixed blessing and life in Zion is not so great.

One point that seems to be good for the Matrix is that it has lead a lot of people to get involved in Philosophy that wouldn't have otherwise. To me thinking about philosophy mostly just opens up your mind and strengthens it. But could philosphy be dangerous for some people? I don't know.

Could you tell me what LGATs means?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2009 09:38AM by notanantiGnostic.

Quote
notanantiGnostic

Could you tell me what LGATs means?

Large Group Awareness Training. Check out the forums on them! Really dangerous and mentally abusive stuff that "brainwashes" and controls large groups with "Group-think".

I wanted to thank Corboy for his post with the article on the Matrix. My perspective on this now is that we really need to have our critical thinking intact when we are taking in pop culture, particularly when it deals with big philosophical matters. I can now see many problems with the worldview that can be taken away from the Matrix and some forms of thinking that I accepted.

It seems to be good to me non dualist as a world perspective. Take what is good and leave the rest, to be that is critical thinking. You can take something that is good and reject what is bad. It is not good to assess people as being either good or bad, that is part of the fanatical mindset we are trying to deal with, but of course deal with the people that are a problem to others.

Sparky Thanks for the explanation of LGATs I hadn't heard the short form before and I am only a little familiar with those kind of groups. My Dad and his wife are actually involved in a group called Lifestream and are always trying to get the family to join in. I have warned my sisters about how problematic the group is but I don't think I could ever convince him. His wife was also once involved in Amway. Interesting how patterns in peoples life's keep repeating. I think a lot of people leave a religious cult and go into another.

Quote
notanantiGnostic
Sparky Thanks for the explanation of LGATs I hadn't heard the short form before and I am only a little familiar with those kind of groups. My Dad and his wife are actually involved in a group called Lifestream and are always trying to get the family to join in. I have warned my sisters about how problematic the group is but I don't think I could ever convince him. His wife was also once involved in Amway. Interesting how patterns in peoples life's keep repeating. I think a lot of people leave a religious cult and go into another.

Lifestream? I don't kow that one. Could it be 'Lifespring'? If so, check out the Rick Ross info on it!

[www.culteducation.com]

Keep your mind clear and (more importantly) your brain FREE! Knowledge is power. I am sorry your dad and your step-mom are involved in an LGAT. Perhaps you should post your info/questions on the "LGAT" forum.

As far as QUOTE:"His wife was also once involved in Amway. Interesting how patterns in peoples life's keep repeating. I think a lot of people leave a religious cult and go into another", I would agree.

It is very VERY hard to have the "key to eternity" snatched away by logic, Carl Sagan, and Occum's Razor. I've been there myself (to a lesser extent). Seeking and joining another "enlightened" group is the easy way out (no thinking needed).

I hope your Pop and ex-Amway-selling Step-mum can eventually break free and free their minds from this vicious enslavement.

Thanks Sparky,

I think Lifestream is one of the groups that broke away from Lifespring. There doesn't seem to be an avenue for me to help my Dad as he doesn't really listen about anything. I'll look into the LGAT forums.