Experientialism - "What is the Matrix?"

(originally published Jan. 15, 2012)
I'm posting this note in honour of my SJPS class this Friday in which we will discuss the "Matrix."
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I've dedicated a significant portion of my life towards answering the question: why do people do what they do?
Towards the end of last summer, I finally answered this question, at least, to the best of my current abilities.
First off, let me be clear, I'm not a psychologist. Or a neurologist, for that matter.
Everything that follows is based on my observation, reading, and reflection.
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What is Experientialism?
Well, my definition actually differs from Wikipedia's.  Wikipedia currently states that: "Experimentalism is the philosophical theory that experience is the source of knowledge."
My definition is more exhaustive; I'd argue that experience is the source of nearly everything.  (Excluding a priori innate knowledge such as animal instinct)
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This is not my theory, but the theory of many philosophers before myself.  To my knowledge, Protagoras, the pre-Socratic philosopher, was the first to coin something like this theory when he argued that "Man is the measure of all things."
Essentially, the theory is that everything exists because of our senses.
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(Many philosophers would argue that there is an a priori knowledge: that is, knowledge independent of experience, as phrased by Kant.  However, my argument is that experience always precedes a prioi knowledge.  You can't understand a priori knowledge without having first experienced.)
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Now, I could stop here: stop at experience as the source of human action, however, there's still a massive philosophical void.  How does experience become action?
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Well, first you need a lot of experiences.  I pragmatically labeled an individual's complete instantaneous tapestry of experiences an "indoctrination."  Although indoctrination generally has negative connotations, it's the only word I could find that remotely captures the meaning of a "collection of experiences," besides education, which I find isn't quite the same thing.  An education refers to a certain set of experiences: not your collective exposure.
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So.  You experience.  These experiences consolidate into an indoctrination.
However, the void still remains.  How does your indoctrination become action?
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Well, I discovered this last piece of the puzzle this past summer while reading the Socratic dialogue: Euthyphro.  It's one of the shorter Socratic-dialogues between Socrates and Euthyphro.  Euthyphro has come to express his condolences and offer help to Socrates who had recently been indicted for corrupting the youth and impiety.  My 'eureka' moment occurred when I read how he had corrupted the youth, or at least, how the authorities had claimed that he corrupted the youth.  According to Socrates, he was corrupting them by "inventing Gods."  My jaw dropped when I read this line.  The missing link between indoctrination and action.  It is the inventing of Gods.
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A more modern colloquial equivalent was that he was inventing values.
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Values dictate action because values are inherently right.  If they are not right, they are not values.  [The same goes for God(s)]
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Think about it for a second.  Why have you done anything in your life?  And why are you doing what you're doing right now?  Values.  Always.
You go to school, maybe to get a job, maybe just to get an education, maybe simply because your family wants you to, because your experiences have caused you to value certain things.
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This is experientialism: it is a calculus of human behaviour.
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You begin by sensing; by seeing, hearing, and feeling.  (Introspective thought and reflection also occur at this stage --- more on this later --- Reason is also a sense)  Then these sensations consolidate into an indoctrination.  Think of your indoctrination as the instantaneous structure of your brain at a specific point in time.  Within this indoctrination there manifests sets of experiences: values.  And you are left to simply enact your values.
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experience->indoctrination->values->action
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This is it folks.  This is the Matrix.  This is the law that governs everything we do; the formula that has shaped human action throughout history.
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You don't believe me?  Think about it.