Do you feel like the Neo of your life? Does it seem the world revolves around you and you’re the main protagonist of your story? Well, you’re probably right.

I saw a comment recently to this effect and it got me thinking, what gives us all this feeling of self-importance?

Through the lens of our own consciousness, we are the main character in the story of life. If you buy into simulation theory, you understand that through consciousness, we are all builders. Not just builders of our ‘physical’ reality. A combination of cognition, strong will and emotion can help manifest the life of your dreams.

If that’s the case, who or what are we to have so much power? Ultimately, we are all just characters in a simulated reality, so there must be something more fundamental driving us. That’s where consciousness and its roots become important. Who is the observer watching the life of the character you have been given?

Consciousness at its heart is silent, non-judgmental and content. It’s our character’s ego that is anchored in the simulation and is responsible for these delusions of grandeur. To our ego, we are Neo, the main event, the lead-character. But that self-centered view only holds true when you’re grounded in character and trapped in the simulation (your mind, body and senses).

As you let go and fall back into a deeper level of consciousness, God, the source, whatever term you want to use, you realize we are all Neo. We are connected.

As I was contemplating this, the sermon in church a matter of days later was about John the Baptist, an eccentric who gained admiration and a following, yet chose not make the story all about himself. JTB forfeited his ego, even though he could have taken the credit, to proclaim Christ as the one.

Sometimes it’s not all about us. We have to understand our roles as individual cogs in the machine playing into a much greater narrative.

To summarize, maybe you are Neo, the one, in your life -but don’t make this all about you. We’re in this together and collectively we can transcend our limitations.