Picture this… Imagine this…You are sitting on a couch and the person walks toward you. The person is of the opposite sex from you. But there are two different scenes to picture… let’s imagine “his” perspective first.
As she moves slowly to you she begins to speak in a soft voice, kind of giggles, then stops in front of you. She comments to you… “the day has been hard for you… I can tell… do you want me to relieve some that tension? I am good with my hands… you will love it… now close your eyes… let me touch you…. can you feel that… ummmmm… your muscles are so hard…”
Now “her”…
He closes his eyes savoring her touch… then he says, “now it is my turn… turn around… here let me touch you… I will begin by rubbing your back… nothing like a good back rub and neck rub to relieve the tension from your old world… was it bad for you today?... did you get that contract completed?...”
She has closed her eyes and then says softly… “no one in my world can touch me like you do… that feels so good… your hands are so soft… you make me shiver inside when…. Oh man… what a rush… you are something else! Ummmm…. Oh… Yes…”
Whoah… HOW CAN A PASTOR WRITE THAT STUFF….?!
Pretty easy actually… you just have to imagine… And like the Web Site for Second Life states… “Your world – Your Imagination”
What kind of a crazy world is out there?
Well in the scene that I described above… the man is real and the woman is real…but they are not in the same real world or even the same country. They are real people sitting at their computers working a keyboard and mouse… and talking into a computer microphone… that then transfers their voice to the other person sitting at their computer monitor thousands of miles away.
The key word here to introduce you to is “avatar”. And avatar is a computer person that is made by a real person sitting in front of the Computer Monitor. The avatar appears and is controlled by on the screen by the real person sitting in front of the monitor.
The avatar does not need to look like the real person but in all likelihood will look like the real person would like to look.
Now add the fact that the newly made avatar will do what I want it to do in an animated way… in its own room…and it can invite other avatars – or one in particular into his or her room… they can interact and do things with each other on the monitor screen…Now add one more thing… the avatar is an extension of a real brain… the brain of the computer operator… and at one point there is a transference of reality into non-reality and the two mesh. (“Houston we have contact…!”) There is a locking in one mind for sure… just the way that any pornographic/emotional locking in the mind takes place…
There is an intimacy that is possible without the real touch. There is a mind touching… not a physical touching…. Words suffice in place of real touch… and real intimacy that might be in a real relationship in a real world.
This Second Life was created in the following way… a quote from the real folk that developed this unreal world…
Second Life, also recognized as SL, is an Internet-based virtual world developed by Linden Lab (Linden Research, Inc) and released in 2003. Second Life was inspired by Snow Crash, a novel by writer Neal Stephenson who is known for his science fiction work which focuses on technological developments in near future society. There have been over 8.5 million SL accounts registered but it remains unclear how many of these accounts remain in use.
Imagine there are 8.5 Million accounts at this point. It is way more than a few weirdo computer geeks that can’t find a date. It is real people that are doing a unreal thing – yet inside of their minds it is very real.
Now Second Life is not like the fighting world of World of War Craft. And it isn’t like playing Sim City. Both WoW and SC are other groups that have millions of followers that work and play in a virtual world.
How can this be real?
Well a suburban house wife in Calgary with two sons, her parents and a good life – gave it all up to walk away from her real life and into another real life after working with the her avatar and meeting her new man. The report stated that she gave up all her past life, which was good, for a Dog Collar that her new real Biker Dude gave her… and all of her suburban mom kind of clothing for the duds of a Biker Chick… she now has a gun that he gave her and they ride his Hog all over the USA – and the warm country.
As I watched her face on the TV program last evening I was stirred as she stated, “I hope that my sons and my parents will see how happy I am in my new life.”
The fact that her avatar and his avatar are not anything like they way that they REALLY are… is kind of changed when they meet.
But that is only one small part of the equation or human relationships. In another posting a Professor Michael Keren makes the following statement…
But Michael Keren, who has written “Blogosphere: The New Political Arena”, suggests individuals who bare their souls in blogs are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world.
"Bloggers think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that rebellion is mostly confined to cyberspace, which makes blogging as melancholic and illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills," the author said.
Hokey Mokey… I am more crazy than I thought… “isolated and lonely”…? Maybe I am just like the rest… in fact I know that I am.
I know a few relationships that my REAL WIFE and I connect to. One or even Two of the couple are engaged in virtual worlds. Some of them are through WoW, SC and/or SL. Some of them have problems relating to real people. Some of them are broken because perfectly good, real world relationships are entirely destroyed by the unrealistic avatar world.
WoW, SC and SL legitimize what people addicted to porn have known all the way along… only porn is not accepted. It is all an affair of the mind.
I know one thing for sure. When I exhaust myself emotionally… it affects my physical feelings as well as my spiritual feelings. And as really good computer game does just that… so does Blogging… and avatars…
Second thing I know for sure… When your real body quits acting like it used to – your imagination doesn’t… and boy do you have to be careful.
In my Facebook world I have over a half dozen people who want to “Kiss me”. I am committed to kissing one woman and have little interest in a computer kissing me…
Is this world wacky or what?
~ Murray Lincoln ~
Source:
British Couple Split Over Virtual Affair
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/14/virtual-affair.html
Bloggers living in a virtual reality, professor says
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2007/01/31/tech-blog.html
Second Life Affairs
http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/maheu/?p=40
Examples of Second Life look-a-likes
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