Two-Dimensionally Altered Reality
The most intriguing knowledge Elder Bednar prophetically identified was that the numbing effects of technological advances can be likened to digressing back to experience living much like premortal existence. I believe that because of technology, we are living 2D lives.
Our culture is one built upon movies, music, social media, texting, and other technological graces. It is through media that most of us make connections with other people--from having a common favorite movie or band, to following somebody on Instagram who we would have never encountered otherwise, to discussing happenings on the news, among countless other possibilities. We spend a large majority of our time staying connected to everyone and everything that is going on around us, but we do so through a medium that inhibits our ability to feel: technology. I am entirely guilty of this way of life. Far too often I find myself thinking that the events transpiring in front of my eyes are a movie, that I'm only watching the story unfold and not necessarily participating actively in the opportunities that are presented before me. I get caught in the monotonous, repetitive lifestyle that is so easy to lead. I forget that I am living in a multi-dimensional world.
Realizations come from small things: waking up and seeing the mounds of sheets skewed about at different elevations, noticing the depth and layers each object occupies, how my eyes can focus on the folds closest to me or look past and see the crumples faraway; sitting in a canyon with a dark yet glowing canvas of speckled sky above me, each section of atmosphere withholding its splendor, hiding the beauty of swirling galaxies and infinite worlds with depth and growth far beyond my comprehension; prowling through the billion blades of uniquely cultivated grass, feeling the brush of nature caressing my skin as I take upon myself a wolf-like, horse-like persona whilst children shriek with delight at the bizarrely blissful situation and my mind reels with how simplistic life really is.
We use technology, cell phones especially, as a means of escape. Whether it is intentionally or subconsciously, we replace fully immersing ourselves into the world around us with living vicariously through the screen. So we do not feel as deeply as we are capable of feeling. We live two-dimensionally, becoming desensitized to every sensation except a buzz or notification and the rift it creates inside of us. We all want to feel alive, but without our natural curiosity paired with ACTION, we can never be satisfied. Satan knows this and cons us into believing that such pitiful practices involving social media and electronic communication are more important than creating real, tangible relationships with those we can connect with face-to-face in mortality.
We are placed on earth to be experience life firsthand so we can discover the intensity of feeling things so ardently. Our distracted state of mind is a tool the adversary uses that so easily besets us all--we revert back to a familiar state of being. If we take Bednar’s advice and protect our minds from the numbing work of Lucifer, we will learn as intensely as we were destined to.
See Elder Bednar's messages below:
Things as They Really Are
Sweep the Earth as with a Flood
0 comments