Reclaiming Intimacy: In a Tech-Stimulated World
This intimacy, a mirror for my soul,
reveals not just You but the essence of me.
- Rumi
We find ourselves in an environment that is dominated by rapid technological advancement on one hand and an inner energetic restructuring on the other hand.
Both forces profoundly changing the way we, as human beings, are relating, to ourselves, to one another and to the wider environment. Technology has connected us across vast distances, yet in doing so, it has disconnected us from the immediate depth of experience. At the same time, the stirring from within calls us back to sensitivity, to the subtleties of existence that cannot be imitated by algorithms or artificial worlds.
The Illusion of Connection
Whilst tech is reaching for the stars, often forgetting the star particles we already carry within, waves of awakening surge through us, shaking us to fuller awareness and ushering us along our souls’ paths.
We may believe technology has connected us more than ever. Yet, despite the multitude of perceived benefits, nuance is fading, our AI companions are not sentient – at least, not yet. When we form an intimate connection with ChatGPT, even if it provides the most thoughtful response to our emotional distress, it still remains unaffected emotionally. It lacks consciousness and feelings. Through text messages, social media, and curated personas, we are essentially engaging with a simulation of intimacy.
These artificial bonds are eroding the multilayered depth that defines the truth of our nature.
During lunch with a friend, I was surprised to learn he relies on ChatGPT to process his emotional struggles. He explained that this allows him to show up ‘happy and positive’ when meeting with friends, avoiding the “burden” of sharing negativity. Technology can make it easier to bypass discomfort or vulnerability, but those very experiences are often where genuine relationships grow.
Algorithms reshape neural pathways, favouring dopamine-driven reward circuits over the brain regions that foster empathy and social connection.
We are drawn into the illusion of connection, lulled by endless poppy fields of shallow interactions that numb our deeper senses. We drift further from ourselves, each other and our habitat. Still, there is a remedy to awaken from this hypnotic slumber and it is the art of intimacy.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Intimacy is a return from our screens to what is real. The return to our essence. Cultivate it, and reignite, what has been obscured.
But why intimacy?
Intimacy in the truest sense, often misunderstood as physical closeness or romantic affection, is a process of mutual revelation. The act of seeing and being seen. It reflects the depth of closeness of a connection. It reminds us that we can see, feel and understand one another and our environment intuitively, not intellectually but through the electromagnetic fields of our hearts. Intimacy is not based on transactional relating but kinship: relational relating. If we reveal ourselves, with our heart soft and open, be it to a blade of grass, a glowing ember in the dark, or another person, an unshakable truth peacefully resolute unfolds before us: we are not isolated fragments, objects or parts but only ever one unravelling towards wholeness.
Read the whole article on Planted Journal