Editor's note: I don't agree with every point here....  But it's food for thought.... Eat the meat, and spit out the bones! - Brandan

1. You are afraid of nature.   You believe that the natural world is dirty, dangerous and uncertain. This includes your body, which you fear will fail you. You spend most of your time indoors away from the sun, the rain, the grass, the air, the wind and the trees.
2. You think you exist apart from nature.  You believe that you as a human are somehow above, or outside of, the natural cycles of life. Men may be more prone to this than women are, but this illusion does not discriminate.
3. You believe that someone else has authority over you. In school most children learn through disconnected factoids that have nothing to do with each other, or the child’s personal interests. Children are separated from those of different ages, which severely retards the learning process and creates an inability to relate to others of much different size, intelligence, values or worldview. This in turn creates confusion that the child’s mind seeks relief from. External authority solves this by offering direction and structure. Most people never grow out of this childhood phase.
4. Most of what you know comes through a glass screen, probably the same one you are looking at right now. Disconnection from the real world is a sure sign you are in the Matrix. Memes and news stories replace meaningful face to face dialogue. Motivational quotes replace the salty tears of catharsis. Fear porn, food porn, charity porn, success porn and porn porn, each hijack the brain in powerful ways. The graphics get better, and so does the writing, the production value and the intensity. Putting down your device brings discomfort, not relief.
5. You are overwhelmed by world problems that seem too big for you or maybe anyone, to deal with. This causes you to ignore what’s right in front of you, in favor of being prepared for the terrible things you’ve been conditioned to believe are imminent. The irony here is that by being attentive to what’s in front of you, you are more prepared for anything, not less.
6. You have little to no ability to visualize what you want for more than a few minutes before distraction by negative thoughts, or the desire to something more urgent. The greatest fear of the Matrix is that you will stop needing it. Once you free your mind and begin to use your imagination to create richly, you stop having as much interest in mass produced entertainment, which includes politics and the news. Enter + Tain (to hold) + Ment (mind).  To enter and hold the mind = Entertainment.
7. You think your body is a machine subject to entropy the same way a machine without soul would be. You believe that your finger will heal from a cut, yet you don’t believe your heart will heal from holding back love, or that your back will stop hurting, or that your neck pain will go away, or the headaches you’ve been having will fade and disappear; you don’t understand that these signals are all just your body trying to tell you something that once you listen and act on it, the pain will go away.
8. You don’t trust yourself to think clearly so you give away that responsibility to people who you don’t know, who don’t know you. Being uncertain, overwhelmed and disconnected, it’s easy to grant authority to those whom you’ve been taught to respect, even though you know nothing of their character outside what they want you to see.
9. You are easily manipulated emotionally by things which have nothing to do with your day to day life. You know more about athletes, entertainers and billionaires than you know about your neighbors, your friends or maybe even your family
10. You are driven by the shine of MORE hoping to escape the pain of suppressing your purpose, holding back your heart’s true capacity to love, and the nagging suspicion that somewhere along the way... you started winning the wrong game.

    There is no shame in being trapped in the Matrix.

    It’s part of your noble quest.

    Only question is...

    How long are you going to stay there?