If Plato was among us today, he wouldn’t write the Allegory of the Cave, he’d write the Allegory of the Smart Phone. The truth is, whether it is people chained in Plato’s cave believing the shadows on the walls are real life or people addicted to their smart phones believing the stories on the screens are real life, we are distracted from reality.

Our “modern” world of 24-hour news cycles, fake social media propaganda, political theater, and empty entertainment are just apparitions distracting us from our imminent graves. These ghosts have us by our throats. (Prison by Wolves at the Gate) This “world” is not all we can know of life, hope, and light.

We have forgotten the lessons Plato taught the world thousands of years ago. I once believed the lies, too.

In my youth, I rejected these stories of a higher reality, of God and sin. With man as the highest reality, I went down a darker path of Eastern mysticism, transcendental meditation, drugs, and other dark places that led me straight into a plane of reality different than our material world. The lie that has been told that science or materialism is the highest form of reality is the most dangerous lie anyone could tell. It rejects the larger reality. Blinds. Deafens.

Imagine driving cross-country at 80mph, through winding roads and crowded cities, while looking through a straw. What happens? You crash. This happened to me. I came face-to-face with the world beyond, unequipped to deal with it. Sadly, this is the entire “modern” world. Walking blind to the lesson of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, crashing into cosmic, spiritual entities that desecrate souls.

War, murder on a bus, and rioters shot down by federal agents all streamed in slow motion, frame-by-frame analysis. Fast food billboards. Sex flooding our TVs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous. Gambling on everything. The stakes have never been higher, yet we’re all living with PTSD.

Think of your ancestors before the TV, how many murders did they see in their lifetime? If they didn’t go to war most likely zero, and if they saw one it would be horrible. Compare this to how many people watched John Wick, in high definition, brutally kill 77 people in the first John Wick film.

We consume these shadow puppets of violence, sex, greed, gluttony, and pride as we consume advertiser sponsored news (real and fake) and entertainment in vast quantities. Yet, we allow our schools and universities to teach the material world is all there is. Plato would be outraged.

The more I studied the ancient philosophers the more I realized the truth: There is a higher reality. I began to seek understanding of this higher reality, but it took a long time for me to find the Truth.

If you want to survive, you must turn from the shadows on the wall, the lies on your screens, and seek out the light, the higher reality. It is the only defense against the desecration of your soul.

Plato saw its outline, but didn’t know the source for in his time the higher reality had not yet condescended into our reality. Put another way, God had not taken upon Himself the human limitations of our reality in order that we may know Him.

Now, the light and life of the world has come into the world, showing us the path of humility, obedience, and repentance. This light is Jesus Christ, who swallows up the night and grants us spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see.

What is more, He doesn’t just show the way, He is the Way. He stepped into the cave of death and shadows and trampled them. He is calling all to follow Him into the eternal day.