Right Where It Belongs

The correct lyrics are "You can Live in this Illusion, You can Choose to Believe. You keep Looking but you can't find the Words, Now you're Hiding in Retreat."

I believe that this song is about self-discovery, and possible recovery. You're coming to the realization that you're a horrible person, and asking yourself "what if" all of that shit that you love and live for was taken away, what then?

Would you find yourself afraid to know what that'd be like?

The song (to me) is about looking deep inside of your heart, and realizing that beyond the brick wall you make yourself out to be, you're extremely weak inside, and can't tell anyone about it.

"You keep looking but you can't find the words, now you're hiding in retreat."

He's saying that you're afraid to talk about what's really wrong, so now you live inside of your head to escape the realities of life. You make up a world inside of your head, where nothing bad happens.

It's about living a lie inside of your head, and asking yourself what would happen if you pulled yourself out of your happy-world inside of your head for a moment, and took a look at your true self. Would you be afraid to see what you really are?

What would happen if the falseness of the life you have built to make your life better, was taken away. Would you be afraid to to even think about that for even a moment?

I'll break this down for you all to prove my theory:

"See the animal in his cage that you built, are you sure what side your on?"

You're begining to see reality, and you for what you really are.

"Better not look him too closely in the eye, are you sure what side of the glass you are on?"

Trent's saying that you shouldn't study too much into yourself, or you'll really start to question who and what you really are, and what you do. It's kind of a warning to stay away from reality.

"See the safety of the life you have built, everything where it belongs."

You've based your entire life on apathy, living inside of your head, to escape the realities of your life. But you're happy that way.

"Feel the hollowness inside of your heart, and it's all, right where it belongs."

It's showing you that the apathy you've chosen to let consume you, has closed you off to love, and made your heart hollow and empty. But you're still happy like this, because it's what you chose to do. Hence "right where it belongs."

"What if everything around you, isn't quite as it seems? What if all the world you think you know, is an elaborate dream?"

This is Trent basically SHOVING IT IN YOUR FACE that you've lived a lie to better your life. And kind of trying to pull you out of it.

"And if you look at your reflection, is that all you want to be? What if you could look right through the cracks, would you find yourself afraid to see?"

He's saying that if you really pulled yourself out of the falseness of your fake life for a moment, and took a look at your life, would you ask yourself is this what you really wanna do...do you want to be living a lie? Then asking what if you could choose to see the realities of life...would you find yourself frightened by it all?

"What if all the world's inside of your head, just creations of your own? Your devils and your Gods all the living and the dead, and you're really all alone."

He's once again, shoving it in your face that you're living a fake life inside of your head. Not taking reality for what it is, and showing you that in the end, by living this way, you're alone with nobody but yourself. And also saying that you yourself create all your faults, and uprisings, not the world around you. So why are you hiding from everyone and living life alone?

"You can live in this illusion, you can choose to believe. You keep looking but you can't find the words, now you're hiding in retreat."

Once again, this is basically stateing that you're afraid to talk about what's really wrong due to a lack of trust in just about everyone, so now you live inside of your head to escape the realities of life, and don't even bother to fix your life at all because without help, and encouragement that you believe doesn't exist, you just can't. You make up a world inside of your head, where nothing bad happens.

The chorus then repeats itself, with the same basic meaning.

This is (in major detail) what I think this song is about. Living inside of your head to escape the realities of life, but in the end, realizing the realities of life, and trying to hide from them in a continuous cycle that always leaves you faced with the truth in the end.

Bottom line...you can't hide from reality forever. In the end, it's always going to become aparent in your head, that you can't hide forever from life, even if it's shitty...you know you're living a lie, and sooner or later, that's going to become aparent, and trying to mask your life with lies won't work anymore, then you'll be left questioning yourself with this song.

This has been my absolute favorite song for years... I've seen the meaning slightly differently through different times in my life but some key meanings have stayed the same

I believe the "animal in the cage" refers to the parts of yourself that you keep locked up and under tight control... the animal inside of you. (anything you perceive as a negative aspect of yourself - for Reznor this was likely addiction, could also be mental illness, strong emotions, dreams/urges that have been dismissed because they aren't socially acceptable or you've convinced yourself they're impossible... anything like that) When he asks if you know which side you're on he could be saying that when you lock this part of yourself away - supposedly to keep you safe from it - you might have really have put yourself in a cage, confining yourself. if you look this part of yourself in the eye too closely you might realize the truth You're life is safe and you're doing everything you're expected to do, everything is how it's "supposed to be" but you feel empty inside. And how could you not when you've limited yourself like this - when you've put yourself in a cage by caging the animal inside of you?

The next part could be an existential question, asking exactly what it says - if its possible you have created this world within your consciousness and none of it truly exists in a physical sense, in which case he's saying that you should take a close look at yourself and wonder if this is really all you can imagine yourself being. if this is a dream and this life is your creation are you happy with the life you created and how you portrayed yourself? if you could see what was really underneath this image of yourself and see who you really are deep down would you want to? (or possibly if you could see past the cracks in this "reality" you created would you really want to know the truth?) If you really want to live in this illusion (whether meant literally or metaphorically) you can, but you can't see the big picture (the woods) when you're hiding in the details of the present (trees). you won't see the meaning of everything when you're focused on the trivial aspects... (or possibly you won't truly understand reality until you've stepped outside of it)

I think it's a feeling that very introverted people get. (I would assume Trent is rather introverted) When you live so much of your life in your head, and spend so much time alone, and there's so much about yourself that no one else knows but yourself, sometimes you can't help but wonder...how much about you is "real" and how much is just in your head? It's a feeling that's very difficult to put into words, but, of course, Trent can.

Very depressing song, but very existentially deep, definitely worthy of listening to, its actually become one of my favorite songs.

The animal in the cage you have built is the person you chose to craft for yourself. A cage is safety. That is most likely not the first way you think of the word cage, you probably think imprisonment. Take the next words of the song, addressing the life you have built for yourself and the hollowness you feel inside. This is him explaining the animal in his cage to you.

You trade in the possibilities of literally EVERYTHING you can do in life, in existence, for a boring, fucking monotone life, because of... Safety. Security.

The hollowness a caged animal feels, is, fucked up as it is, right where it belongs. How could it feel anything but hollowness, it's been distanced from all but itself. The tragedy with us is we put ourselves in the cage, not only willingly, but happily, desperately. Too willing to trade everything for the safety of a useless, empty existence.

You can't see the forest for the trees while all you're aware of is the tree you've locked yourself in.

When you look at yourself in the mirror, is it all you want to be? Are you content to stop growing and learning and developing? Are you okay with being a two dimensional image? Not a competent sentient being, just a useless image of one.

The spiritual parts of the song dealing with existence strikingly remind me of 'The Mysterious Stranger' by Mark Twain. His assertion in this short story is that really, the ultimate end to all that exists is your consciousness. Its not really just yours, as in, everybody you know is in your head, but rather, everyone that you know is also a piece of what you are a piece of. They are all you and you are all of them. Together you make up the universe, one total consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively through many different lenses. All of reality is just an elaborate dream, nothing exists save you, and empty space. The universe, and all else that might exist beside it, is your beautiful dream, and you can change it at anytime. All you have to do is wake up.

nad now the album has leeked. its beautiful...

and this song, its so fucking amazing. trent is a god.

I think tis song is about living in your own Reality and not seeing things the way they really are And being afraid to he how you really are.

The lyrics are straight forward but Trent's voice is soft and mellow through the song so the song plays more on your emotions (that's if your really listening)... This is one of the few songs that brings tears to my eyes. for many reasons...

The true meaning of this song is not possible to understand unless you are on the same thought wavelength as trents. YOU MUST BE HIGH ON ACID OR MUSHROOMS OR POSSIBLY POT to understand it. This song is very literal. The world you know is an illusion. It's all empty. Think about it, an atom is 99.9% empty space, and since everything is composed of atoms, what does that say about you and your surroundings? We are not really here. This is the REAL MATRIX. This is all a simulation, and when you die you will simply opt out of the simulation and return to the spirit world. He mentions not knowing whether you really are the animal in the cage because we have trapped ourselves in a male ego dominant society, and the majority of people don't know how great our potential is yet. YOU AND ONLY YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE YOURSELF. And trust me, you do have that power...you just maybe don't know it yet. So when you look in the mirror, is it everything you want to see? So many of us spend our whole lives without knowing the meaning of life, but how can you find the woods if youre hiding in the trees? It's all right in front of you. You can look through the cracks. But you might find youre too afraid to see what the truth is.

This song goes a little deeper than most people think. Throw away your ideas that this song is about his drug habit, or him being an introverted person. This has to deal with reality itself.

I understand this song because what he is saying has happened to me.

You live your life, never questioning, never stopping and asking why. One day something happens (mine being tragedy) and you no longer are satisfied with your life. I was so stuck in life that it took something to crush my world to realize that I have become aware enough to realize I had no idea what is going on.

Look around you; take a breath in, what is reality? What is real? Things just work, everyone goes about their day, and God is the brick wall everyone hits when they try to formulate an answer to most any philosophical questions.

You are an animal, stuck in your cage of relationships, money, thoughts, and actions with a blanket so tightly pulled over your head it suffocates you. No matter what your situation, you always want more, and feel hollow inside.

This world is truly just a dream, everyone floating through it. Now come back down and look at yourself in the mirror. Stop for a moment and look at where you have been, what your situation is right now, and where you are headed. Is this who you want to be?? Because you will not get a second chance.

You keep looking but you cannot find the woods, while you’re hiding in the trees. Reality is a forest that you are lost in. You accept reality for what it is; therefore you are blind to it.

Trent comes right out and says this so poetically in the song with such a gentle melody. Once you wake up from your life to find this nightmare happening before you, it feels as though a blindfold has been removed from your eyes. He even portrays this in the song acoustically. Right around 3:02 in the song you can hear his voice become clear, as-if the first part of the song has been muffled… but you did not realize this until he turned up the treble. The last two minutes of the song seem so crystal clear to the listener’s ear.

If you like this song and understand this meaning, check out tool… more specifically “Third Eye”; “We are all one consciousness [experiencing itself subjectively], there is no such thing death, life is only a dream, and we are just the imagination of ourselves”

My personal view of this song is that it is about creating a world for yourself and just going through the motions of living. It's about how you should look in a mirror and confront yourself. Maybe how you've wrecked everything, how you are all alone. Instead of looking at your flaws you just go into denial. It's about waking up and realising you aren't the person you want to be. I like the way the song speaks directly to the listener. It addresses everyone personally so you can bring your own experiences to it. It doesn't have a meaning, they're all right, drugs/philosophy/whatever. It's beautiful. Listen to the song looking in the mirror. It gives it a whole new dimension.

I'm posting here again to draw attention to the 2 posts by att2785 and mmthompson33 on page 3, and the comments that follow. This is specifically directed at any younger fans of NIN (teens, early 20s). I just want to say, as someone who has been through the things Trent is talking about in this song, that you should really listen to the message he is getting at. It may seem that it has nothing to do with you now, but you'll find that later on in life, it explains the way you will sometimes feel more than you can imagine.

Consider that this song was written when Trent was almost 40. He's likely relying on his own experience, and is trying to give us a wake-up call to make sure we don't wonder down the wrong path in life.

In my previous post I mentioned how most people start to get caught up with the more common things in life when they get past their early 20s (family, kids, career, pets, addictions, whatever passes your time, etc.). I just want to make a very strong point that the message in this song is about how we can get bogged down in everyday life (the one life we currently have) when we get older, versus holding on to that invincible, entrepreneurial spirit that we have when we are younger.

This song is written by a 40 year old who has had the time to think about life more than most of us will ever have the chance to do, and we should respect that.

It's great to analyze this song from a philosophical viewpoint, putting yourself outside of the picture. But I really think this song only hits it's true meaning when you are thinking about the lyrics and sound in terms of your own life. It will mean something slightly different to each person, but the main idea is that you need to listen the song as if it is directed at you. Then it takes on a new meaning...