🔄
// add this before event code to all pages where PII data postback is expected and appropriate ttq.identify({ "email": "", // string. The email of the customer if available. It must be hashed with SHA-256 on the client side. "phone_number": "", // string. The phone number of the customer if available. It must be hashed with SHA-256 on the client side. "external_id": "" // string. Any unique identifier, such as loyalty membership IDs, user IDs, and external cookie IDs.It must be hashed with SHA-256 on the client side. }); ttq.track('ViewContent', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('AddToWishlist', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('Search', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "", // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". "search_string": "" // string. The word or phrase used to search. Example: "SAVE10COUPON". }); ttq.track('AddPaymentInfo', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('AddToCart', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('InitiateCheckout', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('PlaceAnOrder', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('CompleteRegistration', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". }); ttq.track('Purchase', { "contents": [ { "content_id": "", // string. ID of the product. Example: "1077218". "content_type": "", // string. Either product or product_group. "content_name": "" // string. The name of the page or product. Example: "shirt". } ], "value": "", // number. Value of the order or items sold. Example: 100. "currency": "" // string. The 4217 currency code. Example: "USD". });
top of page
Search

Here, Take a Cookie... You'll Feel Right as Rain.

  • Jan 10
  • 5 min read

I know I'm not alone in seeing The Matrix movies a good handful of times.


I know I'm not alone in having theories and headcanons, My own opinions about the ending and the sequels.


When My partner/muse and I sat down to rewatch the movies this week, I went into it expecting to simply enjoy the movie as I always did.


What I didn't expect was to feel like I finally understood the movie through My spiritual lens, with just one comment from My partner as we watched.



After some time out in the world of Zion, Neo returns to The Matrix to meet with a mysterious old woman named The Oracle, in a move to uncover if he is "The One", a person of whom she'd prophesied would "destroy the Matrix" and free humanity from the "oppression" of The Matrix.


Moments after she appeared on screen, My partner turned to Me and said "You are very 'her' energy." Obviously, I was first surprised and honored, because she is an endlessly wise character, and as the scene went on, I realized why My partner saw Me in her:


I saw Me in her, too.


As I watched her speak, every sentence she spoke hit Me like an ongoing realization:


She wasn't prophesying; she was extrapolating from what was there, and creating the outcomes she wanted through gentle guidance.



"Do you already know if I’m going to take it?""


"Wouldn’t be much of an Oracle if I didn’t."


"But if you already know, how can I make a choice?"


"Because you didn’t come here to make the choice, you’ve already made it. You’re here to try to understand why you made it."



As The Oracle spoke to Neo in the park-bench scene in The Matrix: Reloaded, I felt even more resonance with her.


She knew what Neo was going to do.


She knows the future, right?


It's obvious, isn't it?


But no.


No, she doesn't know the future.


She knows people.



"Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another. An intuitive program initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche."



It's funny, I never really followed the throughline of what that line of dialogue from The Architect in The Matrix: Reloaded meant.


I never really realized that this meant that The Oracle was, at the heart of it, a program created to extrapolate from human experiences to understand people.


But now, in 2026, with our modern interpretation of "Artificial Intelligence" and extrapolative LLMs, I can see it.


I can see that The Oracle...


Well, she extrapolates from what she understands.


She understands humans.


She understands humans and how they respond to certain stimuli.



"You have the sight now, Neo. You are looking at the world without time."


"Then why can’t I see what happens to her?"


"We can never see past the choices we don’t understand."



It's not that The Oracle can see "the future".


The Oracle can't see "the future", she can see decision trees.


She is a program that can see the decisions that are laid out in front of a person, and can extrapolate, from their histories and psyches, what they will do next.


The Oracle was built, as a program, to understand the patterns of the human psyche.


That is why "You've already made the choice, now you have to understand it." Because in an extrapolative system... if you don't understand something, you can't go any farther.


If you can build out a predictive model... if there is one element you don't understand...


One simple variable that is an anomaly to the pattern... That introduces chaos, that introduces random deviations on the tree that you can't predict.


You can't see past the choices you don't understand.



Now, I have a question.


One about The Oracle, but also... one about you, as the reader.


You can take a pause and think about this, too.


"Is it manipulative to guide someone to a place from which you know they'd take a certain path?"


Is it considered manipulative if you know what'll happen in response to your actions?


Is it considered manipulative if you know what will happen down the line of cause-and-effect?


To answer this question, I want to offer up a metaphor.



Imagine for me...


Imagine that it's a hot summer day, and you have, for some reason or another, found yourself responsible for a child's well-being for the afternoon.


It's hot out, and you know that while you're sitting in the shade, the child you're watching is tumbling in the grass and running up and down the park slide and monkey bars, building up even more of a sweat than you are, reading your book or scrolling on your phone.


So, when the child starts walking towards you, all flushed and sweaty, you know what they want.


You've brought a cooler of ice pops, and on top of that, you know that a handful of those are varieties that are the child's favorite color and flavor.


You know that this child - when presented with green-apple flavor - never chooses the alternative that is offered.


You know that green-apple flavor is the child's favorite.


After all, that's why you brought specifically a handful of that flavor.


So, as though you predicted the future, you already have the cooler out by the time they approach you.


Like I said, you know what flavor the child will pick...


But when you offer them the choice between a green-apple ice pop and one that is blue-razzberry flavor, are you not still offering them a choice?



Does free choice require the outcome to be unpredictable?


Does free will need to be random and chaotic to be accurately described as "free"?



When I hypnotize a subject, I don't make choices for them.


What I do is present them with a choice. An opportunity.


I don't choose for them, but I do know where they're most likely to go, with the choices I'm presenting them, and I know where to go from there to continue building towards the goal.



"Oh, don't worry about it. As soon as you step outside that door, you'll start feeling better. (...) You're in control of your own life, remember? ... Here, take a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done eating it, you'll feel right as rain."



At the end of the conversation between Neo and The Oracle, she offers him a cookie, in an attempt to help him feel better.


Or rather, in a direct step to make him feel better.


Because The Oracle knows.

The Oracle knows that a cookie is that simple. It is that simple, giving a human being some care to help them feel better.


The Oracle knows human behavior, but only up until a certain point. Just like an LLM in 2026, The Oracle is limited to her programming.


Almost like LLMs are extremely advanced "autocomplete"... The Oracle is an "autocomplete" of human behaviors.



Knowing that Neo would take the cookie, that human beings feel good after having a creature comfort of apparently love-imbued food...


Is that manipulation?


Is it manipulation to lead someone to something that will lead to a path that you know the likely outcome of?


As humans, we obviously don't have the same extrapolative power of a computer program designed to calculate outcomes based on the human psyche...


But there are times...


There are times that knowing someone, that suggesting something you know they'd like...


As long as they have the choice to decline the cookie...


As long as they have the ability to consent or pull away,


If the child has the ability to take the blue ice pop,


If the subject has the ability to use a safeword...

Knowing what they want isn't manipulation.


Even if the outcome serves your needs too.

Comments

Subscribe for upload updates and more!

Thank you for subscribing!

PLEASE READ ALL SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

NO RETURNS ON DOWNLOADS - CANCELLATION OF LIVE SESSIONS AND COMMISSIONS ARE DETERMINED ON A CASE-BY-CASE BASIS

Intended for use by 18+ only.

HarleenZaftig@gmail.com

© 2025 by Lady Harleen Zaftig

bottom of page