When we hear that someone has become disillusioned, the response is usually one of sympathy and condolences. I wonder why that is? 
To be disillusioned is to be free from illusion or to lose naive faith and trust. You believed something to be good, valuable, or true, but have now come to realize that it was only an illusion – something that looks or seems different from what it actually is, or an idea that is based on something that is not true.
In the 1999 movie, The Matrix, real life was dangerous, bleak, and often hopeless. However, the majority of people lived in an illusion of plenty and freedom not even realizing it was an illusion. Some knew, yet chose to continue living in the illusion because it offered an experience of fulfillment and comfort. Morpheus gave the protagonist, Neo, a chance to choose when he said,
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”
I’d like to think I would always choose the red pill, though I can’t say for sure. I certainly don’t want a rosy life that’s comfortable and “perfect” but not genuine. I want the truth. I want the raw. I want the real.
“Putting your hand over your heart makes you both appear and behave more honestly,”
Our identity is comprised of the intersection of our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions. In an earlier post I suggested that those three need to be in equal tension in order to hold us upright. I didn’t make the connection that what they hold upright is our identity.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies is a favorite for our family. We’ve watched all three movies in one marathon day-long adventure several years back, as well as watching one each night for three nights in a row the first summer we moved to the desert.
Our physical experience is a large part of being human. We strive for comfort, not just mentally and emotionally, but physically. We gain emotional well-being through physical touch. We find satisfaction through seeing reflections of ourselves, and are attracted to others’ physical manifestations, all the while knowing that our physical selves only partially represent the complex beings housed inside. We crave scent, taste, sound, color, and texture. Our physical bodies are mysteriously intertwined with our “real selves,” our inner persons.
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