If you believe you have no control, then you have no control. If you believe you have control, you have control.

You have relinquished your control and grown used to it, and rationalized that "this is the way things are", because that is easier to accept than it is to accept change.

Discipline and control are real. There is order to the chaos if you choose to forge it. Otherwise, yes, you're right, life is just a ride which you have no control over.

The illusion is beside the point. It makes no difference if you recognize the simulation as a simulation, because what assigns value to it is the observer. The illusion of control and the illusion of helplessness are both illusions, but to those engaged with the illusion, they are reality.

Both have inverse pros and cons, and really it's up to you entirely to choose which illusion to play with. It's not like one option is better than the other. Left and right, up and down, in and out... control, no control... they're just arbitrary decisions which allow us to express or suppress our fear and desires...

If you wish to be truly free, you must know what all your options are. It does no one any good to have options they aren't aware of. To be aware of all your options, you must first experience every perspective.

You can choose to ride the rollercoaster of life as a child of the spirit, bound by the events, ideas and people that surrounds you.

You can choose to drive the take the wheel yourself and experience all the bumps and valleys yourself.

You can even choose to switch back and forth whenever it suits you, once you know how to do both...

It's all about understanding yourself, what you want and what you don't want, really.