“It’s alive!”
Mary Shelley had a nightmare about a body coming to life in a lab. While at a gathering, the host, Lord Byron, encouraged everyone to tell a ghost story. Mary told the nightmare, which became a book, and the book became a legend.
The science is laughable (sewing body parts together and then shocking them to life.) But the haunting core of the story remains.
What does it mean to be alive?
Is this a story about AI? Will history look back at this moment as the beginning of a modern Frankenstein monster, gaining consciousness and wrecking havoc? Maybe. TBD.
But I see it as a story of humanity. Yes, the tragedy of death (Mary Shelley’s vision came from tragic family losses), but also the wonder of life.
As we talked about last week, humans are organic beings—body parts made of flesh and blood and calcium-bones. But is that all we are? Just a collection of body parts?
Or is there something deeper, animating us? If so, maybe this is the core of “what it means to be human?” and maybe AI will help us embrace it even more.
Body Parts and Breath
“…then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and BREATHED into his nostrils the BREATH of life.”
Genesis 2:7b (NRSV)
Sounds a little Frankenstein-y, doesn’t it? Organic material, breathed into, and all of a sudden, “it’s alive!”
We are not just organic material—the Creator breathes into humans. It’s this breath that gives us life. Humans are dirt, but are also breathed into with a divine spirit.
You have divinity in you.
This is the essence of humanity. This is a part of what makes “us” us?
Forget theological terms and philosophical concepts. We can sense it and feel it. There is something in us. And no offense to the future robots who will probably murder me for saying this, BUT computers don’t have it. Robots don’t have it.
You feel it, don’t you? When you are quiet, sitting on a mountainside or moved by a piece of art.
The problem, though, is sure we might feel this spirit or have a belief about this divine part of us. But then, we live life and go about our normal routines.
Union of Mundane and Magical
We are usually immersed in the mundane, fleshly parts of life:
- We have to eat food to stay energized. Some of us, our bellies get too big after eating said food. (So I’ve heard, not that I’ve experienced this.)
- We sleep every day. Forgetting how odd it is that a large portion of our lives, we fade into unconsciousness.
- Money is needed to buy aforementioned food. So we take “jobs.” We do tasks, to get money and sometimes we like the jobs. Sometimes not.
- We have to wash our clothes, and if you have kids, you are never not washing clothes.
- We use our hard-earned money to pay bills.
- Take out the trash. (If you’re Californian, you pretend to know which side of the recycling to put things.)
- We send emails. (Ugh)
- We get colds, headaches, and back pain.
This is one side of being human. Our fleshly bodies march through routines and details and daily activities. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like Frankenstein. A zombie of sorts. Yes, we’re technically alive. But are we really alive? Aware? Awake?
But then sometimes we become aware of more than just the everyday, mundane parts.
Sometimes food isn’t just food. We eat a fresh key lime pie in Maui in the company of someone special and it’s like we’re communing with magic. The food goes beyond daily sustenance and touches something deeper.
Sometimes our jobs become more than money-making tasks and we sense a calling. Like we are somehow serving others by bringing truth, beauty, or justice into the world from somewhere else.
Sometimes we stop and notice a flower or a tree. We forget our routine and wonder at the design.
Sometimes before our nightly unconsciousness, we catch is a magical sunset and something aches and yearns deep in our heart.
To be human, there is a union. Flesh and spirit. Mundane and magical. Temporary and eternal. Earthly and heavenly.
This is what makes us, us…right?
But is a connection and awareness of this Spirit only for certain kinds of people? The religious? The mystical and weirdos?
The Science of Spirituality
“Each of us is endowed with a natural capacity to perceive a greater reality and consciously connect to the life force that moves in, through, and around us. Whether or not we participate in a spiritual practice or adhere to a faith tradition, whether or not we identify as religious or spiritual, our brain has a natural inclination toward and docking station for spiritual awareness.”
Lisa J, Miller: The Awakened Brain
The most awkward thing in life is when someone asks me what I do for a living. Often, it’s after they have known me for a while. Maybe we’ve chatted about football or a TV show or cracked jokes together. I’m pretty normal in their eyes. But then, when they ask me what I do, I say, “pastor,” and there is often an instant shift.
Most of the reaction is warranted because of the negative associations with pastors and churches. But often, the person gets uncomfortable and will simply say, “I’m not very religious or spiritual.”
Is this true? Is this possible for any human?
In the book Awakened Brain, clinical physiologist Lisa Miller writes about her decades of research showing the opposite. Her findings show all of us are hard-wired with the capacity for spirituality. Every human brain has a pre-built capacity for spiritual longing and connection.
Her research also shows the power of spiritual awareness for many of our deepest problems:
- Mental health
- Fighting depression
- Lowering the risk of suicide
- A sense of connection
Like AI and every piece of technology, we have also been programmed. We are built to be human. Apparently, our software isn’t just programmed for tasks and TV and bills and just getting by.
We are programmed to see a bigger picture. To be connected to more. To hope and search for meaning and beauty and justice and love. We are spiritual beings.
And if we can become more awake and aware, we can learn to sense and hear the whispers of this Spirit.
Guidance and Whispers
When talking about hearing the Spirit, it can get weird:
- Some see the face of Mary on a pancake.
- The Spirit told me I should marry you.
- God is speaking to us from these anonymous forum posts.
I get it. And I’m jaded too. How do we know a divine voice is guiding us or it’s not just the late night Taco Bell? How do we discern divine direction from our own selfish agendas? (Or the selfish agendas of others, aka the spiritual and emotional abuse of leaders throughout the years?)
These are valid questions and we have to navigate them with a lot of human wisdom and help from friends and community.
BUT, I do believe God whispers and guides and directs. I really do. And I think you do too if you are honest with your deepest self.
Now, I use the word “whisper” intentionally. In my experience, the Spirit rarely speaks through a bullhorn or billboard or loud concert.
There’s actually a great story in the Bible about a guy on a hill, by himself, hoping to get direction from God. All these big, loud events happen, but the author says God was not in them. When God finally speaks, it comes through a whisper.
Why? I think it’s because a whisper requires silent attention, awareness, and stillness. Which is tough for many of us.
The times I have felt most connected to Spirit have not been when rushing from task to task with frenzied activity. They have been moments of calm. Intentionally taking a walk. Turning off the podcast in my car. Sitting in silence at my desk.
In these moments, to feel the Spirit is like a salve for my wounds. I realize how much I need this connection. We all need it.
We are desperate for these whispers. Longing to know our lives are going somewhere and that each seemingly mundane moment has meaning. But maybe more than anything, we need a whisper telling us who we are.
Whispers of Who We Are
In high school, I took a trip to the Rocky Mountains and hiked up to a spot by myself, with only a journal. A moment of meditation and solitude for a high school boy is harder than sticking a camel through an eye of a needle.
But somehow, after several minutes, I managed to quiet my mind and not think about girls and noticed a deep silence that can only come in a snowy forest. I looked around at the massive heights of rocks and trees.
My body hummed with a reverence, awe, and wonder. The curtain was pealed back from my adolescent eyes and I caught a glimpse of the glory of it all. My spirit didn’t whisper words of warning about an angry God overly concerned with my moral behavior. I received a whisper of comfort. A bigger vision of existence. One where I could relax and trust that there was something more going on.
What makes us, us? We need the Spirit to whisper anew to us.
I’m hopeful AI will cause a revolution. A revolution of automation and technological wonder? Sure. But I’m hoping for a human revolution. If AI can do our tasks better than us, who are we?
Are we just a collection of body parts, making money and doing dishes?
What is this internal essence that gives us life?
And the question is not just for religious types…it’s for every human.
——
May we become aware of the Spirit in and around us.
May we see each mundane moment is overlapping with magic.
May we stop acting like Frankenstein or machines or robots, cranking out routines and products endlessly.
May we allow the Spirit to take our random, mundane parts and breathe into them.
May we embrace the powerful, weird, sacred truth…
We are spiritual beings.
This is Part 3 of an 8-part series on what it means to be human in the age of AI. Read PART 1, PART 2:
