What does "There is no spoon" mean? No, I've never seen any of the Matrix movies....if that's where it's from

Answer 1

Yes - this is from the original Matrix movie. The story is fairly complex, so putting it in context is somewhat difficult if you have not seen it. The Matrix is a movie that is based on some of the philosophical points of a Frenchman named Descartes. Descartes was largely focused on what truth was and the process whereby we arrive at it.

The Matrix is a literal interpretation of some of his points. In the Matrix, humans all live out their lives in a computer generated dreamworld that the machines we created created for us to trick us - "I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I too do not exist? No: if I convinced myself of something then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me. In that case I too undoubtedly exist, if he is deceiving me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something. So after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind." (Med. 2, AT 7:25)

Descartes builds on this idea through questioning the nature of reality, "[E]very sensory experience I have ever thought I was having while awake I can also think of myself as sometimes having while asleep; and since I do not believe that what I seem to perceive in sleep comes from things located outside me, I did not see why I should be any more inclined to believe this of what I think I perceive while awake." (Med. 6, AT 7:77)

In the scene in question, Neo (the main character), who is understood to be a possible religious prophet sought after by all (who can 'change or remake the matrix as he sees fit'), enters a room with the 'other potentials' to wait to speak with 'The Oracle'. Neo has this conversation with a boy who sits and seemingly is easily doing the impossible - bending a spoon without touching it (seemingly with his mind). The boy, seeing Neo's perplexed look, explains to him, "Do not try and bend the spoon - that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth". Neo asks, "what truth?". The child answers, "there is no spoon. THen you will see that it is not the spoon that changes, but yourself".

This statement, "There is no spoon", is an eliteration of Descarte's ultimate point, which is essentially that we cannot arrive at truth without stripping away old notions tought to us by convention and systems, "Suppose [a person] had a basket full of apples and, being worried that some of the apples were rotten, wanted to take out the rotten ones to prevent the rot spreading. How would he proceed? Would he not begin by tipping the whole lot out of the basket? And would not the next step be to cast his eye over each apple in turn, and pick up and put back in the basket only those he saw to be sound, leaving the others? In just the same way, those who have never philosophized correctly have various opinions in their minds which they have begun to store up since childhood, and which they therefore have reason to believe may in many cases be false. They then attempt to separate the false beliefs from the others, so as to prevent their contaminating the rest and making the whole lot uncertain. Now the best way they can accomplish this is to reject all their beliefs together in one go, as if they were all uncertain and false. They can then go over each belief in turn and re-adopt only those which they recognize to be true and indubitable." (Replies 7, AT 7:481)

The statement, ultimately, is one of the most salient points in the movie, and revolves around one's perception. We often let external influences determine our reality, but find that reality can change when we re-evaluate things outside of those assumptions. For example, upon finding out that one has cancer, one could resign to what a doctor or "expert" has told you (you have six months to live) and decide that you will die in six months. But this Doctor is an expert on cancer, and not YOU. If you instead decided that you were going to live well beyond those six months as you have too much positive energy, who is that Doctor to tell you you're wrong? The difference is PERCEPTION, which can, in fact, alter reality on occassion. Take, for example, my Uncle, diagnosed with brain cancer more than 17 years ago, and told he had six months to live. There was 'no spoon' for him...he lives to this day.

Answer 2

quote the plot:

"Neo is left in a room with a group of children, who appear to be adepts doing impossible things. One is also reading a book in Chinese. One young boy, who is dressed and groomed rather like Mahâtmâ Gandhi, is calmly sitting, in a Lotus position, making spoons bend through telekenesis. The extraordinary thing about the world of The Matrix is that we have no difficulty understanding how this is possible. Paranormal abilities are no longer miraculous when we know that they are just computer simulations. But Neo, living in this world, of course, has a little more difficulty grasping exactly how to do it. So the boy explains with perhaps the most important line of the movie, "There is no spoon." Now, that is not exactly something that Plato would say. It might be Bishop Berkeley, but there is nothing in The Matrix to suggest a mere empiricist scepticism. What perhaps more weighty tradition would enable us to make such a statement about the "real" world? "

Infamous The Matrix movie tries to tell you that the world is not real, it's only what you think it is, your brain is telling you what you touch something, smell something, it's tell you that you're in pain, you're sad, you're happy. You're controlled by your brain and only know what it tells you. Thus if your brain is programmed/controlled by someone, you don't really know what's happening right here right now is true or not, or is it only illusion created by your brain.

When the boy says "there is no spoon", it means whatever you're seeing (regardless if it's extraordinary or not) is not real, so don't be suprised about the spoons which sticked on the boy's chest.

Answer 3

A child trapped in the Matrix, and who had a talent for being able to bend the rules of the Matrix to his will, was sitting in the middle of a living room, causing spoons to bend and warp.

Keanu Reeves's character, Neo, sat down and watched. The child handed him a spoon and he concentrated on it to no avail. The child looked at him and said:

"Do not try to bend the spoon-- that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth."

"What truth?"

"There is no spoon. Then, you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, only yourself."


Later, in Matrix: Reloaded, the Kid (yeah, that's really the name of his character) ran up to Neo and handed him a battered spoon, which was meant to remind him that he needed to bend to the task instead of trying to bend other things to him, and to let us know the child made it safely out of the Matrix.

The interpretation I leave to you since it's usually a bit of an individual thing (might as well find your own meaning instead of mine).

Answer 4

Everything is made up in the matrix. You are supposed to 'see' and 'feel' things that exist only in your mind. A little girl is bending a spoon and is able to do it because she keeps at the fore front of her mind that the spoon is not a real solid entity, but an idea placed in her mind.

Answer 5

All of the world that is around you changes based on how you perceive it, and how the mind processes the information.When you grow in this world your mind becomes conditioned and programmed to accept or decline certain things,like bending a spoon.Bending a spoon is impossible, because the mind has not been experienced in bending spoons. It is something the mind can't fathom.The truth that "their is no spoon" is hard to fathom.

Answer 6

It means that the spoon doesn't exist.It exists only in The Matrix but not in the real world.

Answer 7

yeah it is that the matrix had made it up completley so ther is no spoon therefore you the kid that said"there is n spoon" could bend it in anyway he wanted

Answer 8

in the movie it is intended to force the hero of the story, neo, to realize that if he changes his perspective, he will see that there is a bigger world outside of that which he thinks he is bound to...in a practical sense i think i would say that whatever you are presented with in daily life; whatever you sudden situation you have to perform in, if you just jump into it with all the fear or anxiety you may feel, and in fact, use that as a motivator...you'll find you can pretty much do anything you want...you will probably be amazed at the things you can accomplish....that's just what i have seen in my life...let me know what you think.

Answer 9

it's like this... if u meat a guy.... love him so much... and then decide to have an intimate relationship with him. so u get to it, and u discover that his pepe is not impressive at all... BUT, since u really loved him, and thought about him so much, u will go on with it... and u will imagine that its ok... so u see.... although its not there.... u made ur mind believe that its there...