Digital Identity and Virtual Existence – Father Theologos

Digital identity and virtual existence are foreshadowed realities of the very near future. 

Watch a video in which the spiritual problems of these are analyzed, problems that we immerse ourselves in day by day. 

Enjoy!

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen. Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us. Amen God said, I Am Who I Am. Self-existence. Well brothers, you should know that self-existence, meaning God, is self-reality, so that which exists, that which is real, draws its existence from God. Nobody exists on their own, they do not have a self-identity. The quantity of life, of existence, of reality if you wish, consists of the quality and the intensity of the connection of man with God. The devil is the most distorted existence because he is furthest from God. He is the least that is possible to an eternal being. This is very important. Because we think that we exist on our own, as a result of chance. Like if we found a watch on a planet, we would say that the watch is the result of chance. It is not like that. Because if we find a watch, on a planet, it is not the result of chance, but rather somebody must have made it, all the more so a being as complex as a human. We need to understand this. And because of this we all have a Creator.

But I will not insist on this because all of us who believe in God, and not just that, but any man with logic knows that there is a God, and He is the Generator, the Giver of life, the Giver of existence. As I was saying, the devil has the least amount of existence, quantity wise. He has the least amount of existential intensity. That is what sin is, being further away from God, from existence, from identity. Understand? This intensity of connection to God, can be reduced a lot by different pseudo-realities. By fake realities, by false existences. First of all by the reality that the devil tries to create in our mind, to distract us, to extract us from the reality of God. We are talking about the war of thoughts, we are talking about what we think in our minds, what we do in our mind, of course with the help of the devil. Meaning we create pseudo-realities, virtual realities.

And here we come to today, where, through advancements, virtual reality gives a big helping hand to the devil. This is a form of suicide, it takes us out of existence. I don’t know if you have thought about that. If we use this virtual reality to get closer to God, meaning those thoughts, those things to train ourselves to be merciful, or for example in the area of sciences, of teaching. So by having pious thoughts, spiritual thoughts, then yes, we get closer to God. On the other hand, if we do not use this universe of thoughts, then we get further from God. In general the holy fathers say that we should not have thoughts, meaning we should not have chaotic movements of the mind. This is a higer level. If we do not use it how we should, then we get further from God. And by extension the virtual reality, which generates so many thoughts, we should use this virtual reality as I said, in the domain of medicine, to cover certain communication needs, administration needs, for messages and so on. Then that is good.

But, unfortunately, experience shows that all these things are used mainly for games and in activities that potentiate passions. Hatred, murder, fornication and so on. Understand? So, the main problem with virtual reality is not itself, but the way in which it is used. Since God did not make this from the beginning, it means that this is not as good for the fulfillment of virtues as is the reality created by God. The reality of God is far above virtual reality. And because of this, virtual reality leads man to illnesses of cognition, meaning illnesses of the nervous system. Because we are speaking of distortion, we are speaking of sin. So virtual reality, even in a juridical sense, meaning an electronic identity, and even in a gaming sense, the metaverse. Of course those who created the metaverse want to promote it as a medium for business. All these are wished to be a crowning of these simulations of reality. Of true reality. Meaning a completely immersive framework that will tie the man in chimeras.

Meaning all my activity will be recorded, in the metaverse so to speak, or in any other place, from the perspective of business, and from a juridical perspective, in the electronic ID, something which the European Union is promoting today. The forum from Davos actually promotes it more than the European Union, but we are concerned with what is happening here. In the moment I become a collection of data, an identity card number, a collection of health data, the beauty of the person disappears. The mystery of the person disappears. The truly new thing disappears that is the love towards the other, their love for us disappears. God disappears, which paradoxically, could be present anywhere. Understand? But when a person closes themselves in the imaginary, the rest fades.

As we can see, virtual reality and electronic identity, they become a unitary whole. Because for the first time in history, there is not an attempt to regiment, to put under the same umbrella, not only the static data, meaning name last name, age, address, birth place, but also the dynamic data. Meaning who the person is in themselves. The person cannot be contained within their activity on Facebook for example. Or God knows what else. The biggest problem is that when the person is in virtual reality, the person is actually alone, in their chimeras, and the other only sees a shadow of who they are following, and those who are followed, also see the others as a collection of data. Like I form my opinions of someone based on their activity in the metaverse, or on Facebook, meaning I no longer see the other in all of their complexity, as a person. I do not have any feelings for the other, and, especially for my neighbor in the real world. Meaning he does not exist for me anymore, because I am completely immersed there.

And of course, this virtuality, this great fading of true reality, of the reality created by God, transfers through my activity, from the perspective of my following in the metaverse, and, of course, as an effect in my electronic identity. Now think about it, if my electronic identity has my bank account, my health card, meaning my health data and so on, when someone wishes to hire me, or if I want to have access to some health data, or to go somewhere, to travel somewhere, in that moment, because of my activity in the metaverse and so on, and of course the other does not know what I wanted to do there, only guesses, they can interfere with my access to healthcare, to money and so on. This does happen already. Someone from Switzerland was telling me, some time ago, that in the building in which he lived, he went to the bathroom, and flushed the toilet at night.

And he disturbed a lady next door. And the lady, who was a little ill-tempered, reported him to the electronic identity system, actually in the system of social credit, which you know exists, at least partially, in Europe, especially to a greater extent in China, and that person lost, the next day, his place of living. Because the owner of the home told him, “You social credit is low. I don’t care what happened, you are not reliable, you have to leave.” Understand? Whereas the lady is, through excellence, in a virtual world, because she is covered by anonymity. In the virtual, under anonymity, the person unleashes themselves. They can abuse others, murder the other person in their mind, or cause harms in whatever way they want, to consider themselves any character.

Besides the fact that there are games where the everyday life is very credible. So it potentiates this, and the person who is the attacker considers it their right to throw the other one out by reporting him to the owner of the home, in this case. Understand? So we are talking about an amazing exacerbation of these things, and there are already virtual people. They are so well made in the 3D rendition engines, in the generating of 3D images on the screen, that we no longer realize if the image we see before our eyes is an image generated on the computer or if it is a natural image. We do not know if it’s made on the computer or real, or if it really is me. There no longer is ascesis, fasting or anything, and only our own will which is exacerbated so much that, those in reality will appear like faded images to those who are entrenched in the virtual.

And you can see this in those who are dependent on games, dependent on screens, that they are apathetic in the day to day. The virtual world becomes more intense, more “real” than reality. They no longer care about their neighbor, they no longer care about the needs of the other, they no longer care about nature. Right here where we are, we find ourselves in a very beautiful place, the forest is around me, and we see people who come to Lacu, right under Aton, and they have their phones in their hands. They are looking at their phones, they are looking at their screens. They could have done this at home as well. Understand? This thinning, this sipping into the virtual, leads man to a total insensibility. The insensibility is so great that for man truth is in the virtual world. Understand? And right now, I am remembering a case where two people went to a movie which discusses this subject. The movie is called The Matrix, maybe you know it, and these two people were very good friends, they never fought in their life. And one of them took out his knife and stabbed the other one, to see if he is real. Because the movie discusses real people and people made on the computer. Understand?

And you should know that those types of technologies exist today. There is a company called Unity that makes a famous platform, a famous motor, of rendering or generating 3D images, mainly used for games. And there are so called virtual people who are made so well that they cannot be distinguished. The daughter company of Unity is called Ziva Dynamics. And they have a demo, where you can see that effectively you cannot distinguish the difference. In this case, it is very dangerous because we believe we are someone, who find ourselves in a virtual world, and of course, we lose contact with reality completely. You will see. It is necessary especially for kids to not touch these things, because these things are very close to reality and the attraction to them is great. But these virtual things will never fulfill the person. There will always be something missing. Especially to the child. Love will be missing, the grace of God will be missing. And because of this the more real, the more replacing God they wish to become, the more strange they will be, ultimately.

The closer a simulation is to reality the more strange it becomes. This valley of strangeness, will create more subtle problems, and more profound problems. A lot more profound. For example, I remember, a child was in a car in a large city in Romania. He was with his father, and they came to a stop sign at a crosswalk. Of course the father stopped and an elderly lady was crossing slowly, slowly. Suddenly the child hysterically yells out, “Run her over! Run her over! We will get points!” So the child was asking his father to kill the elderly lady in front of them, in order to get points. That child could not distinguish between what is real and what is imaginary. He thought it was a game where you could do anything. Of course without having any qualms of conscience. And this is terrible. It is terrible.

And I know people who would come to confession, and they were actually crying because they could not escape an imaginary person that they had created in their mind, from a game, a movie and so on. Understand? Because of this, a counterbalance is needed. We need God. When I say God I mean, concretely, fasting, ascesis, as sources of saving pains to get out of all this pleasure of the virtual world, which actually doesn’t exist. It only exists in our mind. And of course on a screen, and from there enters our mind. We need the direct contact with reality. Like how I am now, I am in the forest, I am sitting on a rock, it’s cold, but I have to feel something. It’s relatively cold, but it’s very nice out, it’s actually warm but cool here. We need to have contact with reality and especially with others. I don’t know if you know this, but at this time there is an illness, a great illness called agoraphobia. Meaning it is the fear of going to the ‘agora’, going to the market. Agoraphobia, you can look it up and see. It is not wanting to go outside, you don’t want to go with others, and you are there, in your world, like a vegetable.

Forgive me for speaking in this way, but this is the truth. There needs to be great discernment, and a gradual implementation of these things, of course, we wish for it not to be implemented, but it already exists. We need to enter very slowly, and with fasting, and I am speaking of fasting, yes from food too, but especially fasting by having a reduced period of time on it, and with a strict program of exposure. Not to be scrolling all day on the phone, to see God knows what. Because we aren’t even seeing anything ultimately. There are so many things that nudge in that direction and keep us captive there. You know very well what I am referring to, I hope you don’t know, but I know you do.

On paper everything is very good because staff costs are reduced, meaning everything is electronic, everything is on computers, you stay home, you don’t have to move, everything is centralized, so you don’t have to keep completing forms and so on. There are advantages. But in practice the price is steep. It makes administration vastly more efficient. And of course, the great wish of the large social media companies, gaming companies, movies, to maximize their profits. Understand? Everyone wants to go in that direction. Yes, but the price is the human soul. The price is the human soul. Understand? We must avoid as much as possible anything that is of the passions. And on the other hand, to have the discernment to not take extreme positions.

To be aware that the main problem is the subjection of people to the passions. Of course, they should stop this. But what are we going to say? That’s it, stop? Yes, that is how it should be but who will listen to us? Understand? It is not possible. You cannot say to the large companies, to Meta, the old Facebook, to stop. Who will listen to you? Understand? We have to be a bit realistic. Because of this we should know what to do for ourselves. As I was saying, the contact with others, love, prayer, especially we need to pray, and to have contact with reality. Meaning to go into nature. Like how I am here. We need to pray and to have contact with reality. This is very important. The great problems here, besides the ones mentioned above, I would also add on top of all those things, the passions. The human mistake which has larger repercussions in the electronic environment.

That is why we should never forget about humility. So for example, in a real environment, meaning in real life, if I make a mistake, like for example I cut down a tree, since I am here surrounded by trees. I cut it wrong, it’s not good, but that’s that. In the electronic world, I am actually remembering now, a famous case of a rocket. An old case. I won’t give an example from everyday life so that it is not a controversy, I am speaking of Ariane 5. This rocket, due to an error in programming, exploded about 7 seconds after takeoff, and it was blown to smithereens, together with the hundreds of millions of euros, that was the cost of the satellite and the whole structure. You should know that it was a mistake in programming. It’s called an ‘overflow’ in programing language. But for a very minor thing, the whole rocket blew up. Hundreds of millions, or maybe billions I don’t remember, of euros gone. So what I want to say is that electronically, it is easy to have much greater damage.

On the other hand, the response of others, I spoke about the social credit system, if you are not a good boy, for a click, for a button, your bank account is shut down. Like how they closed them in Russia because of the war, the sanctions, all of a sudden. In the past, in the real world, if the person had some money under their mattress, you would have to enter in their home with the police to take their sack of money. What else could you do? And of course, how much could you take? Because they had it at home. Whereas now they have it in the bank, well whoever has, billions, and boom, one button and it’s closed. You don’t have access anymore. Electronic consequences are greater. Brothers, do not put money under the mattress, because, take a careful look at you cash, as you won’t be seeing it for much longer. I told you that electronics are much more advantageous, on paper.

And because of this, electronic money, meaning the electronic bank account, because we have one too, with online management on the computer, as many have, it is much easier, we immediately pay in Patagonia, in China or God knows where. You can make immediate payments at great distances. You realize that cash, paper money, will disappear. And besides this, in the case of cash there is the problem of fraud, black market money and so on. Whereas if there is a global system of electronic money, then of course, everything is very good. On paper. But if you are not a good boy, your bank account is closed. Understand? And as I was telling you, who is reporting you? Who decides you are not a good boy? On the other hand, our response is a lot smaller. In the moment that someone comes to take your money from your house, God forbid, I am not saying to do this, but you take up arms, or you do something. You shout, you call for help, You ask your brothers and friends to come.

Of course, it is ugly and so on. Or you explain it is a mistake and so on. In the case that they shut down your bank account, who are you going to explain to? You will explain to a monitor that will state “Access Denied.” That’s who you will explain it to. Or you will go to a lady at a counter to tell her there has been a mistake, and she says, “What can I do? This is the system, I don’t know what’s going on, let me see if I can send it to technical support,” a whole story. Understand? Because of this, socialization is very important. Meaning to be close to each other, to help each other when we have such a temptation. It is true that now companies and banks have technical support divisions, but if this great electronic architecture gets in the hands of those it shouldn’t, or gets in the hands of a dictatorship, then God forbid. God forbid.

Why? Because the person disappears. So love disappears, understanding disappears. And as I was saying, you won’t have access to health services, you won’t have access to communication. You cannot speak with others, why? Because your index will be low. You are an undesirable. So then you cannot use the mobile phone, and the others are avoiding you because they see that you are an undesirable. Their social index will drop too if, like in China, you speak to them. Because if someone who is… There is a wild boar of a fox or something. I think it’s a fox because it’s pretty light footed. Returning to what I was saying, if you have a phone with a low social index, and you speak to someone, the other can see your social index. And if the other person does not want their social index to drop too, to not appear that they are in cahoots with you, colluding with you, they avoid you. They hang up on you. And I know these types of cases. I know these types of cases. And this person could not be helped, he could not resolve his problems, because, of course, a person can do almost nothing on their own, especially today.

And besides this, there is the suspicion. Because there could be a human error that pops up, or anything. Right now there is a case of a person who thought that another person deleted her comments on Facebook. Understand? The person under suspicion did not even have access, I don’t know if you know, but to be able to delete someone’s comments on Facebook, you have to be administrator. The person under suspicion was not even an administrator. The person who was suspecting did not know this, and from there she did not ask, and, everything being electronic, she blocked, deleted, banned her. The other person, because she could not explain, would consume herself, was very distressed, and you could see that it was just a misunderstanding between the two. But because they were not face to face to be able to explain, there was a great drama generated from nothing. Drama that could have been resolved in five minutes. Understand?

Glory to God, I mediated the conflict, and through the gift of the Mother of God, everything was well afterwards. We must beware of the dangers of an electronic identity and environment. So that we do not generate dramas. We can always ask the other person, and especially if it is possible, sometimes it is not, to know the other in the real world. Then we can say, this person could not delete my comments of Facebook, because I know them, I know that they are reliable, that they are a good person, that they have decency. Then I know the person in his complexity, and this cannot happen in the virtual world, this can only happen in reality, in real life. Understand? Because, besides the beauty of the other person, the highest percent of communication, is nonverbal communication. Meaning you can see how they smile, how beautiful it is, otherwise we are in an empire of suspicion. We think that the other did who knows what. Understand?

Because of this, as I was telling you brothers, once again, there is a need for a lot of humility, there is a need for an enthusiasm for God, and a great closeness to Him. Because in the digital world no one can hear you scream. Know that brothers, nobody can hear you scream. We need the Person of God, and by extension we need the persons that are close to God, understand? Because of this we need to be very careful to be close to God, and we need to be very careful to not be attracted, completely dependent on this digital identity, because if we are, we become a number. And this number, I am not just referring to a personal identity number, but I am referring to the social index, we become a rating, the other won’t care about who you really are, what you have to say, just that you have 78%. That you are 3 out of 5 stars. That is what will be of interest. Not the beauty of your person, or the interest to speak to you. They will see that you are 78% and say that it’s low. Like for a product. It interests them how many stars it has.

A person becomes like a product, others being mainly concerned with how many stars they have, what is their value. Three stars? Five stars? They do not care that this value comes from competition. Or that the other does not know how to use the product. Or maybe they have a personal reckoning with the seller. Or maybe the product truly is problematic. There could be a lot of causes for that rating. But we simply see that the product is 5 stars. That is what will happen to us if someone reports you for who knows what. Because they do not agree with you. Because they do not like something, because they envy you, or God knows what. Understand? In that moment there are great dramas arising from nothing. Because the other may not like what you are writing on Facebook, or anywhere else. And then they effectively ban you, they shut you down.

And there are people today that I know who depend on Facebook for their jobs, they are actually journalists, who were banned on Facebook because of a lady who saw I don’t know what on a post and so on. They were banned, and that person could no longer do their job. Because that is where their news channel was and so on, where he would post. Then you are there without money, without health, without a job, and, as in the case of the example of the person from Switzerland, without a house. Understand? Once again, the solution is with God. Because of this, to get there, we need to pray. Because otherwise we will not resist. The nervous system will not resist. And beside this, there is also confession. To open up before another person, to confess.

And of course on a community level, we need to create a Christian society. To be friends. Meaning those of us who are closer to God, with all our sins. To form friendships. To behave in such a way that friends give us five stars, or to do it in the moment that we ask, “Don’t leave me, give me 5 stars because someone gave me 3 stars. Since the other gave me 3 or 2 stars, give me 5 so I can get a good rating.” I know that what I am saying is terrible. But that is where it is going. It is already implemented. Understand? And this super society, this community is created primarily by going to church. We need to go to church, because going to church helps a lot. First of all because it generates our memory of heaven, and after that the experience of heaven. Meaning the state of eternal joy, in the safety of the loving omnipotence of God. And besides this union, even a relative union with God, we have the socialization with God, and we have socialization with our fellow peers.

Our fellow peers who will help us, because a friend in need is a friend indeed. We need to prove our credibility. And finally we need to edify ourselves through others, ultimately. Meaning that others will say, “Yes that person does not deserve that rating, let’s help him.” Understand? And for this, paradoxically we need to leave the virtual world. And we need to be present. To gift our love, our time, our attention to others. This is the greatest gift we can give to others. Our love. Then we will have a real identity, not a virtual one. Not a digital one. Then we will be people. May God help us. Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.

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