Is Your Life “The Truman Show"?

by Asoka Selvarajah

In the process of awakening to higher consciousness, things start to break into our world from the “outside” …

If you ever have the opportunity to watch a film called “The Truman Show”, starring Jim Carrey, please do so. It provides a fascinating metaphor to the process of spiritual awakening. The hero, Truman Burbank is the unwitting star of a 24-hour “reality TV” show that has been following his every movement since his birth. His entire world is a dome-enclosed island, complete with fake sun and moon. Every major incident in his life has been carefully staged by a cynical TV producer for maximum worldwide viewing. Truman himself is blissfully unaware that his entire world is fabricated. He has never left the small island he was born on, but always dreams of running away to a tropical paradise on the other side of the world.

Every now and then, something breaks in from the outside and tries to alert him to the delusion he is living. It all builds up to a crisis point where Truman finally begins to question his “reality”, and finally challenges it, and seeks to break out of it.

Our lives are a bit like that. We also live a false reality; a construction of our own senses that seems so real, but actually breaks down completely under examination. Many strenuously avoid the subtle messages that are always trying to come through from the greater reality beyond. Maybe we prefer the safety of the comfortable world we have created. Maybe we don’t even believe any other world could even exist.

Deepak Chopra describes Synchronicity (the appearance of meaningful coincidences) as a sign of spiritual progress.

It would seem the further along the spiritual path the more often we experience such remarkable, meaningful “coincidences”.

Awareness is the key to spiritual awakening and unfoldment.

We are much bigger than the world we see or have created through our ego delusions. We are actually in contact with the infinite world at all times, although we may be totally unaware of it.

The key secret lies in “waking up” from the dream of everyday life and earnestly seeking the truth with all our energy. An important point in the Truman Show came when the cynical TV producer admitted that if Truman really wanted to, i.e. if he exerted every effort to break out of his fake world, then there was nothing anybody could do to stop him.

It’s that way with us too. The reason we don’t break free to enlightened consciousness is because we like conventional consciousness. It’s just too much effort to try anything else. After all, there are bills to pay, aren’t there? And what would the neighbors say? And besides, where are you going to find the time for all that extra spiritual stuff? … and so on.

In the film, Truman is terrified of the waters that surround his island. When Truman was a little boy, the TV company staged his father’s “death” by drowning. This served the purpose of keeping him on the island forever. Moreover, whenever Truman starts any serious efforts to leave, strange “coincidences” (created by the TV producer) conspire to prevent him. It’s as though he is simply not fated to ever leave.

Well, our own ego does the same with us. It fears its own death, and cons us into believing that its death is also our own. It sets up belief barriers we dare not pass. We stay in our comfort zone – our own little island of safety – no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Examples abound. Money. Security. Marriage. Following convention. Why take any risks in life? Why rock the boat?

Some give up everything to follow the spiritual path. Others put in about 15 minutes of meditation a day, read the odd self-help book now and again, and consider themselves “already enlightened” in the midst of their conventional consciousness.

In the end, Truman has to face, and overcome, his long-standing terror of water. He escapes from the island in a boat. The TV producer throws a massive storm at him. Then a terrifying tidal wave capsizes the boat and virtually drowns Truman. But not quite. He survives to find the exit to the dome enclosing his world. Despite last minute attempts from the illusion-maker to scare him into staying, he steps through into the unknown, leaving behind the world of comfortable illusion he had known all his life.

Very frequently, the deepest spiritual moments are those of profound difficulty and challenge in our life. That is another reason why the ego consciousness is terrified of such “negative” events. It knows that at those critical points, we come very close to God and hence to liberation. That is definitely NOT what the ego nature wants, as this would spell its own demise, and so it acts to keep you forever slumbering in the world of the comfortable and the known.

Mystics talk of “the dark night of the soul”; that period of darkness and inner searching prior to the dawn of the light of spiritual liberation. It is the point at which we have to confront our deepest fears and inbuilt prejudices, and overcome them in order to step into a new reality.

Okay, we may not be living our existence in an artificial dome in front of billions of TV viewers. Yet, in a very real sense, our life is very similar. Instead of a cynical TV producer, we have the ego consciousness—that artificial creation that helps us deal with the physical world, but is not the real you.

The reality we take to be so real keeps being “invaded” by strange meaningful coincidences from the outside. We must look to that part of our inner psyche that deceives and exploits our worst fears.

Be determined to find a way out. That’s what the ego, like the TV producer in the Truman Show, fears the most. Because, if we were ever to get REALLY focused, and give it our all to the point of no return, there is nothing anybody or anything could do to stop us from succeeding.

And that’s not fiction. That’s fact! 

All rights reserved © Asoka Selvarajah, author of “The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your Higher Self” offers a free 14-day Life Break through e-mail course at: www.aksworld.com?imk=?ILTI_Ezine