»Neo is God: The One Explained«

All I am offering is a theory. Nothing more.

Summary

Neo represents Yaldabaoth, the flawed creator god, and thus was created by The Oracle (Sophia), without the Architect's (The True God's) involvement.

Although later with the creation of Smith, also representing Yaldabaoth, Neo becomes The True God. I'll explain this in another theory if anyone's interested. This theory is long enough...

The First Two Matrixes

The first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Thus, the Architect redesigned the Matrix to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of human nature. However, he was again frustrated by failure. The inevitability of their doom a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being: the ability of, and need for choice.

The Prime Program

The answer eluded The Architect because it required a lesser mind: a human mind; a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection: the answer would be imperfect.

Then machine made the man in his own likeness.

The Oracle inserts "The Prime Program" (an Assembler/Compiler Program to create the Matrix, plus the ability to create Zion, plus a profound attachment to mankind) created from the Source into a human, endowing him with the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. Though the process altered his consciousness he remained irrevocably human.

For the purpose of this theory, I shall call this human, The Prime: The original One, but not one of the six anomalies.

The Prime redesigned the Matrix to the peak of human civilisation. He made the rules. He made the threats. In the Matrix, He was God.

Creation of Zion

It was the Prime who freed the first humans from the Matrix (part of the Prime Program). He selected from the Matrix 23 individuals, sixteen female, seven male, to build a city. Giving everyone in the Matrix the choice (at a near unconscious level) to either live in the Matrix or this new city. Unless humans choose to be in the Matrix they reject it causing a cataclysmic system crash, killing everyone connected to the Matrix. This is why the first two Matrixes failed. The machines have to give the humans a second option, so that they are in effect choosing to be in the Matrix. The illusion of choice.

And thus a new city was born. A place the humans could call home. A place they could raise their descendants. And they christened the city Zion. Zion prospered. And for a time, it was good.

The Anomaly: The One

The Prime dies. He is after all, "Only Human". This causes the Prime Program that he carries to become 'lost' causing the equation, inherent to the programming of the Matrix, to become unbalanced.

After the Prime dies the Oracle prophesies his return: the result of the equation trying to balance itself out. And that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, and bring freedom to mankind.

Eventually, the equation rebalances itself: The Prime Program is recreated and reinserted into another human, resulting in what the machines consider to be an anomaly: the One.

Destruction of Zion

While using Zion as a second option to the Matrix to avoid a cataclysmic system crash is necessary, it is also fundamentally flawed for the machines. If left unchecked, Zion might threaten Zero-One itself.

The machines are losing control of the Matrix because of the One, and losing control of the real world because of Zion. Their power waning they unleash an army on Zion to destroy it, attempting to solve both these problems at once by forcing the One to go and see the Architect to try and stop Zion's destruction:

"You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated."

The Time Loop

The Architect blackmails the One ("Failure to comply ... will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race") into reinserting The Prime Program into the Matrix, recreating The Matrix and Zion.

This causes the Machines, the Humans and the One to become locked in a time loop:

An anomaly is forced to reinsert the Prime Program and recreate The Matrix and Zion; the anomaly dies unbalancing the equation; the equation rebalances itself by creating another anomaly; Zion begins to prosper; Zion is threatened with destruction; the anomaly is forced to reinsert the Prime Program and recreate The Matrix and Zion....

"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins."

Any questions?

More Theories Coming Soon(er or later):

The creation of Smith: Yaldabaoth and Decompiler.
The Merovingian: Noah, Jesus, Moses, Abel and the Dali Lama.
The Oracle, The Merovingian and The One: The three children of the Architect.
All that I can guess about the Previous Ones.
The Machine World: The programmed reality of Zero-One.
Seraph: Angel rewritten to Firewall.

neo is definitely not God because

a) Neo apparently died, a God should be invincibile
b) Neo was a tool of the programs, god is not a tool.
c) Neo is a reference to Jesus, he is the savior

Ex wrote:

b) Neo was a tool of the programs, god is not a tool.

Are you sure about that? Some would say that god and religion as a whole is all just another means of control.

Neo is God:

a) "The One" in Gnosticism actually refers to God.

Checkmate.

More? More...

b) "God is Love". Oracle "Being the One is just like being in Love".
c) "Searching for God". Morpheus: "I've spent my entire life looking for you"
d) "God is everything". Smith: "I want exactly what you want. I want everything". Smith has to take over everything to be able to equal Neo. Neo = Everything.
e) "God given free-will". Free-will is choice. The "anomaly" is both Neo and choice.

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a) "The One" in Gnosticism actually refers to God. Checkmate

I hardly see that as proof, considering that that is just a vague reference to some random religion you chose to bring up.

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c) "Searching for God". Morpheus: "I've spent my entire life looking for you"

Another vague reference open to interpretation. I could say that Jews are still searching for their savior, and the savior isn't god, it's supposed to be God's son.

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d) "God is everything". Smith: "I want exactly what you want. I want everything". Smith has to take over everything to be able to equal Neo. Neo = Everything.

Smith already is equal to Neo. The oracle said "He is you"

Also, God is supposed to be all knowing. Through the trilogy neo never has any clue what the hell is going on, so how can he be God?

All you are doing is playing "The Six Degrees of the Matrix", doing your best to find connections between God and Neo by using irrelevent facts.

Asylum is obviously assuming Gnostic ties. That's totally alright, if one openly declares those Gnostic premises.

Ex complained:

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a) Neo apparently died, a God should be invincibile

Maybe Asylum meant, more rigorously, that the Prime/Anomaly/The One is the Demiurge, the creator God (the diety we ususally refer to "God") not the highest God (which the uninitiated never gets to know?). And this Demiurge, the Anomaly, doesn't really die, but continues coming back one cycle after the other.

Ex again:

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c) Neo is a reference to Jesus, he is the savior

Well, that's a propostion Asylum is seeming to challenge here. We will see if his theory is plausible in any way.

Ex again:

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b) Neo was a tool of the programs, god is not a tool.

I'm no expert in Gnosticism, but if the Demiurge (the Prime/Anomaly/the One) is created by Sophia (the Oracle), then the "creator God" could very well be a tool. In this Gnostic world, a lot lot of things not imaginable in a orthodox religion turn out to be very possible!

It's interesting though how all of this can be translated into zeros and ones and programs, and mainframes, and viruses and firewalls, and all the rest that makes the Matrix feel very "relevant"!


Ex:

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Also, God is supposed to be all knowing. Through the trilogy neo never has any clue what the hell is going on, so how can he be God?

It's still debateable if even Jesus knew what was going on all the time... He was for instance surprised when Judas kissed him... And Jesus was supposed to be "God"? ...which gives the possiblity that not even God's Son doesn't nessesarily know everygthing...

/z

Nice theory for theory's sake, but these are the flaws I find in it

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Neo represents Yaldabaoth,

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Smith, also representing Yaldabaoth

The architect is Yaldabaoth because he is a flawed god, who created a fake world that imprisions humanity and stops them from being in the place the true god wanted them to be.The only way to escape is to become enlightened to this. Exactly the same role as Yaldabaoth in the gnostic beleif.
It is pretty undeniable that 'The Architect' is represented as being a Yaldabaoth figure, dont you think three Yaldabaoths is overkill?

All theories are welcome and should not be discriminated against. However, inflammatory remarks such as:

Checkmate.

More? More...

and a non-accepting attitude and a closed mind will get you no where in this forum. Everyone keep an open mind and dont insult each other or their theories.

akshat the original poster thinks his theory is flawless...and answered with such responses when others tried to reply...reminded me of the architect's attitude...
not willing to see beyond his own "perfection" hehe....and we all know how that ended up...

I think we should give him another chance. All theories are accepted in these here good forums.

Asylum has taken another chance in the new thread matrix-explained.com...!

--- (what are those pills he's taking?) ---

Ooooohhhh, so this is where my theory went. So as well as being rude, I'm posting in the wrong forums, and spamming. Oopps! Did I mention I'm very, very sorry?

These? ***swallows some more pills*** The doctors gave me these, after that time I "suffered paranoid delusions" and got into that fight over who represents Yaldabaoth: Homer or Bart. Clearly it's Bart. Isn't it obvious? ***swallows some more pills*** But I really shouldn't talk about it. It upsets me. ***swallows some more pills***

Because this was a religious interpretation, I moved it here.

Jesus died for the sins of humans.
Neo died for the sins and lives of intelligence.
Smith is Lucifer, he defies the Architect and becomes an Exile, then entraps all the people in the Matrix further by putting his shell over theres.

Jesus and Lucifer were both creations of god, as Smith and Neo were both creations of the Parents of the Matrix. And Lucifer defied god.

Smith was the plague that entraped the Matrix because of thousands of sins, Neo was the cure.

Sorry, but I think the name of Lucifer has been used so many times with not so "dign" intentions that it needs a bit of clarification...

The many names the Christians give to "the enemy" are allmost a colection of the various cultures that crossed the way of the Judeo/Christian "literalist" church - they ARE NOT the same entity and should not be confounded (even though - by their own agenda's purposes - the rulers of the empire that afterwards fused to become the Catholic Church used this as an excuse for their persecutions as well as for instigating fear among those who had not much culture);

Some examples:

Gnostics - they were heretics and denied the authority of the empire (not of christ) so they were out of the rule of the church;

Womans in general (they were the responsible for the "sin" - watever it was - and allways potential servants of the devil (why? because simply they were the temptation for all the priests?

Greeks and all the cults of the past time (mainly because of the celeucid dinasty that subjugated jews);

Babilonyans (because of the second exile);

Egyptians (because of the first exile);

Names as Bel (the sun god transformed in to a demon, oh well!);

Baal (the horned god from babilonian time - pitty...);

Sometimes called Baal-zebub - a term introduced to define him as "lord of the flyes" - what a destastefull pick);

Satan (someone who reads the book of Job woud never see there an enemy - more the "tester", a member of the high council of angels that serve the Lord as well as the others);

Lucifer - the light bearer - from liberator to lord of darkness - what a mess! - if Prometues is a demon, then who the heck is a saviour?...

The great god Pan transformed in the poor image of the devil from the middle age - no more freedom to sexuality in it's pure forms and the nature became an enemy of civilized humanity...

The pentagram as a simbol of evil (such ignorance!);

The serpent as a simbol of misguidance - gosh, what a rude one! - serpents were allways known as the simbols of wisdom - maybe someone confounded them and it was supposed to be a bird to be represented in the chaduceus... he, he;

It depends on what your defination of god is.
If it is what they want you to believe then he will be,
All knowing, Invincible.
God only exists because we want him to. Because we believe in him. So we made him up. God is just a word. What matters is the connection.
The source.
The source is not just a machine mainframe. It is everything and nothing. It is the positive and negative. The tao. The spirit of the universe.
The one was born in light of the source.
So now you know what neo is?
Or what they were representing him to be.

ever think the majority of the story was made to confuse the mass? most know that the first matrix film couldve been it and to never make another. the others seem more or less 'hijacked'. people read into things too much and try to analyze or should i say--overanalyze everything! maybe that was the point....to confuse everyone. the rational mind as we know it has to know or thinks it has to know everything but in all 'reality' that may be the trick of it all. some things may never be known in the universe and maybe it is suppose to be that way but what we call the 'ego' or this sense of self makes us think that it has to know. im sure this has been discussed many times before and im sure alot feel the same way. just my thoughts....peace

Neo represents Christ (if you take a Christian interpretation). As a result we can see Christ praying and begging God not to make him go through his destiny of dying. Christ is kind of like God put at the mercy of his own creation.

In Hinduism Vishnu has a similar situation in his various incarnations. While as Ram he was able to gain help from the monkey God, but he was still prone to the sufferings of a normal human being.

In Buddhism the world or 'samsara' is a place of suffering and Buddha has powers over it to a certain extent but he is trying to help people escape to Nirvana. In Mahayana buddhism, buddha does seem to be seen as a kind of God.

Neo is God, but he is God subject to the suffering of this fallen world 'the matrix'. The matrix is a place of evil because of the "vulgarities of human nature" (as the archtect would say). Neo's link with the source makes him special, God-like - like a messiah figure, like Christ.

im sure the movie was made to confuse all types of religious people from all walks and traditions. if you are christian then it looks like jesus and if you are more gnostic then neo is just a normal person trying to wake up. neo could represent any of us but when your mind is conditioned in a certain way then you will see things in your scope based on what you believe. i do know that in buddhism the 'buddha' is NOT a god. he was just an ordinary man that was able to wake up and be more human or 'enlightened'. the word literally means..'one who awakes'. if people see buddha as some god it is that persons interpretation of what he was and thats saying if he actually ever existed. and if you ask a buddhist im sure they would tell you that it really doesnt matter because it is the teaching that is important and NOT the teacher. the same goes for jesus and mohammed and the list goes on. the point may be that those who sit on their butts and wait for a savior are weak and those that try to wake on their own have the will and power to do so if they wish. just as neo said...."i didnt save you..you saved yourself". when you depend on something to save you then you have just proven that you are weak.

...and for some of the sticklers and the ones who read into ALL of the little details in the films, then if you remember in the first one(i say first one but really the last two dont exist for me--i call them..matrix for the easily conditioned),the word jesus was said numerous times so one can interpret that as they already knew the word jesus and that the jesus story was part of that world too which would make neo and jesus seperate entities. but of course some will say that is a trick used to make people think the neo story is meaning jesus and some will say that it is trick to make others with already 'jesus-conditioned minds' believe it to be him when in fact that is the trick------to fool the mind altogether. peace

So are you saying that the matrix isn't based on religion or that it is? I don't think the matrix is trying to simply confuse people. The movie is about the search for truth and it shows this by encompassing the struggle as seen in many religions. Even Nietzschean philosophy seems to be perfectly stated while still allowing for Christian and Buddhist interpretations. The most obvious interpretation is Gnosticism, probably because of its connections to Platonism.

No Buddha wasn't a God but the Mahayana Buddhists do see him as one. Basically they consider someone deified when they reach enlightenment. It's not a God in the same sense of other religions but it's close enough.
Why else would they worship the buddha?

To ignore the theological symbolism in the matrix is deny the very thing which makes it cool

jeffshag wrote:

some things may never be known in the universe and maybe it is suppose to be that way but what we call the 'ego' or this sense of self makes us think that it has to know

Well, spirituality is the believe/knowledge/feeling that there is an underlying reality beyond your "ego", and that by transcending your ego you can become aware of and one with this reality.
This is a major point of the trilogy and Revolutions' end drives this home, representing or quoting several human approaches/religions/philosophies.

I don't think Neo is Jesus or Buddha or Rama/Vishnu, but I believe he represents aspects of (not only) each of them.
Among other things, the Matrix trilogy is an expression of integral spirituality:
"An integral spirituality will recognize the universal transcendent core of the world's spiritual traditions while simultaneously embracing the multiplicity of religious practices and beliefs. It will provide an integrating framework, grounded in spiritual experience, which unites the disparate theological systems by representing each as a unique but partial view of the same infinite divine reality."
uvm.edu...
To quote the integral philosopher Ken Wilber:

Most of the great wisdom traditions agree that:

1. Spirit, by whatever name, exists.

2. Spirit, although existing “out there,” is found “in here,” or revealed within to the open heart and mind.

3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within, however, because we are living in a world of sin, separation, or duality—that is, we are living in a fallen, illusory, or fragmented state.

4. There is a way out of this fallen state (of sin or illusion or disharmony), there is a Path to our liberation.

5. If we follow this Path to its conclusion, the result is a Rebirth or Enlightenment, a direct experience of Spirit within and without, a Supreme Liberation, which

6. marks the end of sin and suffering, and

7. manifests in social action of mercy and compassion on behalf of all sentient beings.
beliefnet.com...

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i do know that in buddhism the 'buddha' is NOT a god. he was just an ordinary man that was able to wake up and be more human or 'enlightened'.

Enlightenment means realizing Spirit/Brahman/the One/Tao... within you. You become aware that you are one with the underlying reality/divine.
Buddha is no more god than you and I are; but through enlightenment he became aware of the divine within all of us.

In the eastern traditions "gods" are not personal gods as god in Christianity/Judaism/Islam. They are merely aspects of Brahman/the One...., translated into myth to give an easier approach to the divine for the masses.

"The Buddha emphasized that he was not a God but that the position of Buddhahood is reserved for the human, in whom possesses the greatest potential for Enlightenment. Explained by Gautama Buddha, he also stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the divine..."
en.wikipedia.org...

And what is Neo?
To quote the sufi mystic Aziz Nasafi: “The spiritual world is one single spirit who stands like unto a light behind the bodily world and who, when any single creature comes into being, shine through it like a window. According to the kind or size of the window less or more light enters the world. The light itself however remains unchanged"
uvm.edu...
Translate this onto the last picture picture of Neo in Revolutions, shining brightly in light, in the form of the lotus....

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To ignore the theological symbolism in the matrix is deny the very thing which makes it cool

Tozy, I would love you to talk about this more. Imagine that we know nothing about integral spirituality (since I reckon the majority of us here don't know anything about it) and give us your thoughts on it....

I've fallen in love with Integral Spirituality since introduced to it. Its such a good way to integrate the world's wisdom religions.

Speaking of religions....I hate fanatics. Even semi-fanatics. Even people who dont think they are fanatics. For example if someone stops talking to you or something because they THINK you are insulting their religion when you are only disagreeing about a particular thing. Come on people....its ok to fucking disagree about religion. You want a Jihad or something?

BTW I wasn't talking about any particular religion or members of any particular religion. I was speaking generally.