Worship In Truth

It’s not so hard to fool your sense of touch.

Most of us are pretty confident in our body ownership. We see appendages emerging from our shoulders and think: These are my arms. That multiple-digit tool at the end of my arm is my hand. And so on.

The awareness we have of our body position in space is called proprioception.

**But science is good at probing the fragile superstructure of things we take for granted.

It turns out that proprioceptive cues can be fooled easily.

Recently an experiment was performed in which a subject was positioned in an MRI machine with his right hand resting on his leg beneath a solid surface; a realistic rubber right hand rested atop the surface.

A researcher used a small brush to stroke the finger of the real hand, which the subject could not see, while simultaneously stroking the corresponding finger on the rubber hand that the subject could see.

Within 15 seconds, the test subjects typically developed a profound sense that the rubber hand was the real hand.

The test subjects would flinch when those conducting the experiment threatened to smash his fist on the rubber hand.

They were surprised when they realized they were unable to lift a rubber finger.

They knew what was going on, but no amount of rational thought could dispel the sensory illusion.

One concluding point was given as to the reason why, in this case the feelings were so strong, and that being that… those in the experiment don’t just think it, but "They felt it”.

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Very few of us live in a world of simple reality, so that we could say that everything around us is just as is seems.

Things are not often as they seem.

For commonly there is more at work than just a simple assessment of things, there is often the heavy weighing in of our emotions, our feelings.

Life is lived through a system of rational thought patterns, littered with a sense of strong sentiments.

And it is that sense of emotion, that ability to “feel it”, that causes us to hate, to love and brings to us every realm of emotion in-between.

If we could remove the feelings, so that we would be left with a pure rational thought pattern, if the “feelings” were removed, so that we would live a passionless life, where would that leave us?

We would still be cased amongst the same facts, but without the ability to feel the weight of our problems….

…some here today might find that appealing.

…If I did not have to feel the pressure anymore…if I did not have to feel the anger anymore…this would be for some, a sense of relief.

As a matter of fact, that would give many here today a new lease on life…the absents of guilt…just like that it is gone, cast away…

My, would not your feet quicken their pace if they were not cast upon by the heavy weight of “thoughts’.

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For you see there are some here today; whose life has become the mangled field of a few realities cast upon by a personal perception that is haunting…

…so strong is the perception, so overwhelming are the emotions…that it is true, the “feelings” have become your reality.

It is like the rubber hand; even though many things are not as they seem, and you know that they are not what they seem, you are still overwhelmed, caught up and overturned by the “feelings”… you are living in a world of a synthetic nature.

The real you is caged in a realm of superficial truths, which is bedded deep in a sea of strong emotions.

And for you a great answer to your problems would be the removal of such that has brought you to believe that the rubber, the plastic, the fake is the real.

But it is more than just a few…life has taken on an “artificial” reality.

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Let me pause right here and ask a question. What has brought us to this surreal reality?

Who moved the real, replaced it with the fake…when did “the feelings” become main stream.

We live in a world that values convenience over permanence.

Societal attitudes are vastly different today than in the days of the 1950s.

We have temporary licenses, temporary visas, and temporary addresses.

We expect instant cash, fast food, and quick fixes.

We purchase disposable goods and refundable merchandise.

We walk up, drive though, and exit through the door on the left.

We abhor suffering, not only for the pain it brings, but for the inconvenience.

We live in a world that devalues promise.

“No new taxes,” politicians pledge.

“Satisfaction Guaranteed!” advertisements announce.

Marketing promises products will be “long-lasting and durable.”

We’ve been disappointed so many times in so many ways by broken promises that we no longer expect promises to be honored.