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Reality is a shared hallucination, so opens Disinformation's "You Are Still Being Lied To" [1]. The essay makes a compelling case - not without messing with one's head for a little while. Perhaps the philosophical question on par with Who am I? and Why am I here? is What is Real? This question underlies the premise of "The Truman Show", in which Jim Carrey's character becomes ever more plagued with a sense that something isn't quite right with his world.

In this, one can't help but be reminded of the scene in another film, "The Matrix". Neo is introduced to the illusive Morpheus. Morpheus is cryptic. "You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." This aptly describes what we see Truman experiencing in "The Truman Show". He implicitly gives consent to lose sight of the shore for a very long time as he sets out to discover new lands: the real world [2].

Another parallel to the story is an alternative version of Adam and Eve [3]. The Garden of Eden is like a domed studio set. Eve realizes that something is very unsatisfactory, unfulfilling about being closed in and segregated. She's "rejecting the programming" so to speak. There's something not genuine about the Voice claiming to be the Almighty. Knowledge is preferable. Knowledge is power. In Truman's case, his disingenuous Almighty is the voice of a corporate parent. Literally. Unbeknownst to Truman, a corporate person under 14th Amendment equal protection, had adopted him as an infant. The corporation created a world for him, complete with actors to be parents, friends, schoolteachers, coworkers and employers, and a fiancee. Even the sun could rise on cue. A corporation's purpose, by law, is to make a profit for shareholders. So the corporation made Truman's life a TV series.

Just as with "The Matrix", this isn't altogether far-fetched. There are certain underlying realities breathing life into the metaphors, described succinctly in another helium writer's treatment on this subject.

Truman's inherent humanity demands Truth and Self-determination. It cannot be stifled. He sets out on a quest to explore the outer reaches of life. Even his teacher telling him he can't be an explorer because the entire world has been discovered already does not daunt him. Thankfully, he didn't believe her.

Just as the patently discredited Judeo-Christian god [4] subjects Job

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