Something occurred yesterday which stopped me in my tracks. Consulting rooms were being designed for a newly qualified neurosurgeon. The said colleague indicated that he would not require an examination room since the modern practice of this branch of medicine is based on digitized radiology and blood tests! Is this what it’s come to?
I recalled a study performed several years ago in the UK where a random sample of 100 people who had had no history of back or lower limb pain underwent MRI scans of their spines. Forty of them (40%) were found to have lesions which were significant enough to warrant surgical intervention. With this in mind, on what basis are our new graduates formulating their surgical decisions? Without performing a clinical neurological examination it’s not possible to establish which of the radiological lesions are clinically significant. But the plot sickens. Trends set in motion during the recent plandemic have resulted in virtual electronic examinations, diagnosis and medical intervention.
Similar trends are occurring in many other fields. Commercial pilots flying exclusively ‘by wire’ have long lost the physical experience of real flying. In many branches of design engineering the design interface starts and ends at the computer screen without the engineer ever physically handling the end product.
As virtual reality interposes itself between service providers and recipients, controller and machine or between designer and end-product, we become further removed from the physical reality that feeds all our sense organs. And since it is this feed which determines our subjective world view, the compromised facsimile derived from a virtual reality feed will be void of the grounding which can only be derived from a comprehensive engagement via our five senses. Without a comprehensive grounding there will be a compromised integration resulting in an inadequate awareness of the environment and of self (self-awareness). Additionally as the two realities diverge in favour of the virtual portal, so will the value contribution to self, to others and to the extended environment become compromised.
I would suggest that it is long overdue that we re-connect and re-engage in the flesh and with the natural environment so that we ensure a continual flow of healthy authenticity into our existence. This I believe is our birthright and the solution to many of the current emerging maladies of mind and body.
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Could not agree more Ian. It is our current predicament to be swallowed up in virtual stuff instead of connected reality. That is why I spend more times outdoors away from technology than I do indoors. Thanks for your enlightened letter.
Brilliantly insightful, thanks Ian. I noticed the same trend in agriculture where the most important consideration and input was "footprints on the soil" has been replaced by laptop-farming, producing "pretty" food, which are toxic time-bombs.
Trying to explain this illogic falls on dead ground or deaf ears: the question I asked myself is what has caused this fear of interaction with soil or nature, the foundation of farming and human physiological health?