Let Spirit be your IPOD

I'm really worried about a new trend I'm seeing. I call it being plugged in and tuned out. The symptoms are being so plugged in to technology that you can't walk twenty feet without reaching for a cellphone, a pda, a laptop, an ipod or some other form of technology.

I first noticed it in the 1970's when the walkman came out. This cassette player had headsets. People were wearing them everywhere. Even while jogging or riding their bicycles. There is a saying in hypnosis that your brain can only follow one train of thought at a time. So if you are thinking of the words in the song you are listening to, you may not be noticing the ambulance siren that's about to run you over or the rapist that's about to jump out of the bushes. He's been following you for twenty minutes and you haven't heard his footsteps.

As the years passed we became enslaved by more and more hand held gadgets from cellphones to IPOD's.

Those are just mundane examples of some of the perils of being plugged in. Not to mention the rudeness of showing up at the dinner table wearing headsets or toting a video game.

And I meet lots of people that readily admit they drive like maniacs while they are talking on their cellphones. Recent studies show that it's not just handheld phones that are dangerous. Remember the one train of thought concept I mentioned earlier? If you are having a fight with your boyfriend over the phone, are you really watching the light turning red or the stroller in your path?

And as intriguing as all this is, I want to talk about the most important problem with being plugged in all the time.

Spirit talks to us in a small quiet voice. Our inner voice, our intuition or the voice of god or whatever you'd care to name it is a very subtle voice. It is best heard while in quiet contemplation such as while doing yoga or meditating or walking along a deserted beach. If you have your music so loud you can't even hear me saying hello to you when I walk up behind you, how do you expect to hear your inner voice telling you that there is a dangerous shadow up ahead in the alley? Will you hear it when it tells you you haven't seen your little sister in 20 minutes and there is a swimming pool in the backyard and you left the gate open? Will you hear the screams of a crime victim in the apartment next door? Will you hear your mother when she tells you she loves you from the hallway?

There is nothing wrong with an occassional zone out after an exhausting day at work. But when you make it a habit of having an earpiece in your ear every waking moment, your life may just pass you by. And the light at the end of that tunnel could be an oncoming train.