Let’s say for a moment (I’m not expecting you to fully embrace this concept at the outset, only proposing that you follow along and consider the point of view momentarily, to think about it) that you have 100 percent control of your life. I’d expect you to immediately respond with a Scroogesque, “Bah! Humbug.”
But just for fun, let’s say there is a person in a massive control room who can orchestrate and influence every detail of your life, not unlike The Truman Show.
If you’ve seen the film, it’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination to consider the possibility that in some ways – in this life – that you are playing the part of Jim Carrey unaware that you are participating in a sophisticated, “reality show.”
Only, it’s not quite as simplistic as all that. This is merely an introduction. What if we kicked it up a notch and made it much more sophisticated, along the lines of The Matrix.
Ugh, “thanks a lot,” you think, but the main component in this scenario is to consider that you could be in two places at once. There could be two parts of your self running concurrently, one on-camera and one off-camera so to speak.
Either way, you are living out a dramatic life somewhat scripted (if not completely scripted) by a director who is manipulating all of the players and scenarios with whom you interact. All the people, nature, coincidences, personal achievements, surprises, pain, suffering, accidents, random events, natural disasters, all carefully played out before you for someone’s viewing pleasure.
Now (just for fun, keep playing along), let’s say it occurs to you that this might be true, you, like Keanu Reeves’ Neo, are becoming more aware. So much so, that you start challenging the capabilities of the sets, equipment and energies that create the construct of the world that you’ve come to believe is “real.”
What if there was a way to breakthrough to the other side to see who is running the show behind the curtain.
Via some magical adventure, you find a way to approach the control room, like Judy Garland’s Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz; only in this pivotal moment you discover it is not Frank Morgan behind the curtain at all.
Oh, you might have expected some gray-haired deity pulling the strings, manning the levers and programming the computers, though there is something oddly familiar about the person who instructs you to, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
It is not a cast member from your set, back home… No, it is you.
From this perspective, it is you orchestrating every minute detail of your life, the way it plays out and how you integrate with others as you travel along your life’s journey. All in an effort to fully experience everything this life has to offer.
Not for a viewing audience, exposed to advertising and commercial interruptions, but for you. For without you, there would be nothing. None of this would exist.
Yes, you are surrounded by the largest cast ever. Some are extras, but most are individuals, just like you, living out their own “reality.”
This is the scenario I play out whenever I am overwhelmed or unable to make sense out of events playing out in my life. You might even catch me breaking character, looking into an unseen camera off-screen and ask, “Who writes this stuff?”
Sometimes, I fall to my knees, look up at the sky and dramatically query, “Another plot twist?”
Other times, full of gratitude, “Oh, thank you. That was a good one.”
Most of the time, I am thoroughly enjoying every experience I can think of to throw at myself.
My hope for you is that you find a way to enjoy the journey as much as I do.
Have a nice day