The Matrix and Jung

Rating: 9/10 (31 May 1999)

". . . the unconscious, the matrix of dreams, has an independent function." -- C.G. Jung. We could comfortably answer the question, "What is the Matrix?" by saying, "The Matrix is the unconscious." Several times in his book, Dreams, Carl Jung refers to the unconscious as the matrix or the birthplace of dreams. The movie "The Matrix" is actually about Jung's idea of the collective unconscious, and there are many references to dreams in the movie which correlate directly with Jung's written material.
Sigmund Freud said that the unconscious is a storehouse filled with repressed desires and fears, and that our unconscious dictates our behavior in ways of which we are unaware. However, Jung believed that, not only do we each have a personal unconscious, but we share in a collective unconscious, which is an ocean of cross-cultural archetypes (snakes, mother, Judas). He states that when we dream, our unconscious uses symbols both from everyday life and the archetypes to give us information about ourselves and our situations. According to Jung, we must learn this symbolic language of dreams in order to decipher their meanings.
When Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills, he holds one in each hand. The left side has, for thousands of years, symbolized evil while the right represented good. Jung believed something different, he says that ".leftward movement is equivalent to a movement in the direction of the unconscious, whereas a movement to the right is 'correct' and aims at consciousness." He declares that the collective unconscious "lies at a deeper level and is further removed from the conscious than the personal unconscious."
It is not a coincidence that Morpheus holds the blue pill in his left hand and the red pill in his right hand. He tells Neo, "You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe." What he is stating is, "Take the left path and you will remain ignorant of the unconscious and its contents." Then he explains that if Neo takes the red pill, he will stay in wonderland and be shown how "deep the rabbit hole goes." He actually means that if Neo follows the "right" path, he will become aware of his own personal unconscious as well as the deeper collective (rabbit hole).