The Movie Theatre Metaphor – Stephen Davis
―Imagine that for your entire life you have been sitting in a chair in a movie theatre. The place is dark, like all movie theatres; but you can feel there are restraints – shackles – over your wrists and ankles, making it difficult to move your arms or legs. The back of your chair is high, rising above your head so it is impossible to look behind you.
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All you can see is the movie screen in front of you and the people sitting next to you in the same condition. In front of you, sweeping around on all sides of the theatre as far as you can see, is a gigantic IMAX 3D screen. You sit there watching movie after movie, and it seems as if you‘re part of the movie itself, fully immersed in it. These movies are all you have ever known. They are, in fact, your only reality, your life.
The actors are good and the scripts well-written, and you get emotionally involved in these movies, feeling anger, pain, sadness, regret, joy, enthusiasm, antagonism, fear, and a wide range of other emotions depending on the storyline. You have your favourite characters – family members and friends, for example – who show up often, and others you despise and wish would not appear at all.
Some movies are pleasurable to watch, even beautiful at times – happy, poignant, satisfying, and enjoyable. Others are dark and ominous, disturbing, painful, producing reactions inside you which aren‘t very comfortable. You resist watching those and wish you didn‘t feel what you were feeling. You close your eyes at times, wanting the script to change. But you‘re content to stay there and watch, because you‘ve been told – and have come to believe from experience – this is the only reality there is, and you have to accept it.
The vast majority of people – 95% of the Earth‘s population, if I had to guess, maybe more – will die sitting in that movie chair. For the others, something interesting will happen one day.
In a particularly uncomfortable movie, you might scream ‗No!‘ and forcefully twist your body in the chair. Suddenly you‘re aware that you no longer feel the shackles on your wrists and ankles, and you realize you can now move your arms and legs. You use your hands to feel around and discover the shackles had no locks on them – ever – and your panicked movements simply pried them open.
All along you had just assumed – believed – you were a prisoner, like a dog who stays clear of an invisible fence. You wonder what to do next. You realise you no longer have to sit there and watch the movies if you don‘t want to. You could get up; but you don‘t, not right away. You might lean over to the person next to you and start telling them there are no locks on the shackles, but all you get is a ‗Sshhhh‘ in response.
The fear of standing up is enormous; the thought of walking away goes against everything you have been taught. Finally – maybe it‘s curiosity, maybe it‘s anger, maybe it‘s just that you can no longer stand to feel what you‘re feeling –
you decide ‗to hell with the fear.‘ You get up. Nothing happens.
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No sirens go off, no one comes to make you sit down again, and you begin to think maybe there was nothing to be afraid of. So you decide to walk. As you move down the row toward the aisle, saying ‗excuse me, excuse me,‘ people look at you in astonishment and wonder and dismay. Some even tell you to sit back down, get out of the way and behave. It‘s clear they all think you‘re crazy.
But there‘s something inside of you that feels excited despite the fear and urges you on………Finally you make it to the aisle, turn and see that it leads up between the seats; but you can‘t yet see the rear of the theatre. What is clearer now is that the movie screen continues all the way around the building, 360
degrees; and hanging down from the ceiling in the middle of the theatre is a large black ball. Out of the ball very bright light is streaming toward the screen on all sides. You have no idea what it is, or what it means.
As you walk up the aisle, you bump into a couple other people going in your direction, and some others returning to their seats. The ones heading back to their seats give you a dirty look, almost hateful, mainly terrified, and someone warns you not to go any further. But you‘ve gone this far, you think, and decide you want to find out what‘s at the end of the aisle.
When you finally make it to the back, you can see the entire design of the circular theatre. In one half are the seats from where you came, all facing in one direction, filled with people staring straight ahead at the movie screens; and behind the seats is a large space where people like you are walking around.
You also see a door in the middle of the far wall with a sign saying, ‗Do Not
Enter – Extremely Dangerous.‟
Since the IMAX 3D screen continues all the way around the structure, there‘s no way to escape the movies that are playing. In other words, your reality, your life follows you everywhere. But something‘s different, even if you can‘t say what at the moment. The movies haven‘t changed, but you have, in some way you can feel but don‘t yet understand.
There seem to be little groups of people gathering here and there – others like you who had gotten out of their chairs and made it to the back – discussing something that sounds important. It‘s all so new, so strange, so difficult to understand, so frightening, so……… Unreal. You think for a minute about going back to your seat, back to the reality you know so well. Then you decide not to, to stay a little longer, at least for now.
You stop for a moment at the back of one group and ask, ‗What‘s going on?‘
‗We‘re trying to change things,‘ is the answer. ‗What do you mean?‘ you ask.
‗We don‘t like the movies that are playing. We want different ones,‘ the voice clarifies.
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As a ‗Human Child,‘ you had never considered the idea of changing the movies.
You didn‘t know it was possible. But now it‘s an interesting thought, and you admit there were movies you wish you hadn‘t had to be part of, aspects of your life you would have preferred not to watch and experience.
You eavesdrop on another group in time to hear a man say, ‗Yes, this is reality.
But there‘s a better place we will all go to when we die, if you just have faith and follow a few simple rules………‘ There‘s a ‗Guru‘ in the next group admonishing his followers, ‗Yes, we can leave this reality, but we must all go together. Have compassion for those left watching the movies……...‘
As you continue your trek around the back of the movie theatre, you catch bits and pieces of other comments, like ‗This doesn‘t have to be your reality. You have the power to change it, and I can show you how;‘ and ‗Love is all there is;‘ and ‗Quiet your mind.‘
In all the confusion, it finally occurs to you for the first time that you have the choice of what to do next, and it feels exciting as well as scary, because you‘ve just taken the first step toward self-responsibility and self-realisation.‖
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My Impression On Above Chapter: „The Two Realities‟
I think it is important to distinguish (from the start) between the two ways in which we use the word ‗Reality.‘(1) There is the reality we experience (our image of reality) and there is the underlying reality that we never know directly, but which is the ‗source of our experience.‘
In Indian philosophy these two realities are sometimes referred to as the
‗Absolute‘ and the ‗Relative.‘ The absolute is the underlying reality. It does not change according to who is experiencing it. It is, as it is, an ‗independent reality.‘ The relative is the reality we observe, the reality generated in our minds.
There is just one absolute ; but there are numerous relative realities , each relative to a particular experiencer at a particular point in space and time.
Other times they are spoken of as the ‗Unmanifest‘ and ‗Manifest‘ levels of reality. All that is ever known are the particular manifestations of reality within an individual's experience. The unmanifest, the underlying reality, remains unknowable.
To illustrate the relationship between these two aspects of reality , Indian teachings often use the ‗Analogy‘ (2) of waves on an ocean. The ocean is the unmanifest, absolute, level of reality.
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Its essential nature never changes; it is always simply water. What changes are the waves produced on the ocean's surface as it is stirred by the wind. Shining on the ocean's surface is the sun (the light of pure consciousness). When the ocean is still, it is a perfect mirror; and perfect mirrors are, in a sense, invisible.
You never see the mirror itself; just the image that is reflected back. For most of us, however, the mind is never still. It is always being stirred in one way or another by activity in the brain. Sometimes it may be activity stemming from our sensory perception, at other times, as in sleep, the activity may be coming from past memories or other sources.
The various manifestations of the ocean (the waves on its surface) are only visible by virtue of the light reflected back. Each little wavelet reflects the light in many different directions, producing its own little transformation of the sky above. We don't see the sun anymore; instead these many little reflections create a pattern that we see as the waves on the surface.
So too, all the little disturbances of our own consciousness together create an image of reality within our ‗Mind.‘(3) We do not experience consciousness itself; only the multitude of manifestations that it takes on.
FOOTNOTES
1. Wikipedia – Reality;
2. Wikipedia – Analogy; and
3. Wikipedia – Mind .
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