What is the Matrix?

"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real.  What if you were unable to wake from that dream.  How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n0hKTizFwY

I awoke from a dream this morning.  The dream was rife with complex texture, vivid visuals, rich personal experience, and deep meaning.  It was more real than my waking world.

It was more real than my waking world ?!!

"Ironically, this is not far from the truth."

I was part of another matrix for nearly 50 years.  I believed what I saw on television, what I read in newspapers, and what others told me.  Not all of it, mind you.  I thought I could tell the difference between truth and untruth.  I was wrong, but I didn’t know it.  I was taught history in school, unaware that most history was lost, and the rest had been rewritten.  I was taught religion in church, unaware of the control grid that was designed to funnel my spirit.  I was taught politics and patriotism, unaware of the con-game being imposed on me.  Everything was in place to shape me, mold me, fold me, any way you want me.

Something happened over time, an entire series of unlikely events, like a staircase in shape that led me out of that matrix.  There was "The Matrix", George Bush, 9/11, Chip Tatum, "Zeitgeist", Phil Schneider, Ron Paul, and other prods and pokes that eventually opened my eyes.  I learned to question everything I knew, and I realized that I had to live totally within the realm of uncertainty.

How deep does the rabbit hole go?  Is there another matrix, where reality itself is an illusion?  Where solid matter is mostly empty space?  Where the laws of physics are the dimensions of our self-made prison?  Where life itself is a funny joke, and that amusement is the purpose of existence?

I miss my dream.