War. The Art of War. The act of killing and maiming people. Invading another country to control that country and its people. Power over a whole nation. Planes dropping bombs on innocent civilians. Women and children fleeing the carnage. Tanks running soldiers down. Terrorists blowing themselves and innocent bystanders up. We have all seen or heard about this happening in the real world. We have seen images of war broadcast into our lounge rooms via the T.V set. For most of us we can detach from this. It is on the T.V so it is not really real. Yet it is all too real for those that go through it. Either as combatants or and the victims of war. Many are left scared for life. Both physically and mentally. Many a soldier has come back from war only to harm members of their family or themselves as they try to come to terms with what they have been through. This is the great tragedy of war.
In shamanism it is said that if someone goes through war they lose part of their soul. It is how they try to cope with what they have done or seen. Part of their soul leaves to try to protect itself. This might explain why so many who go through wars can not lead a normal healthy life. Maybe this is why they wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat from a nightmare. Reliving the terror of what they have been through in a distorted dream. Some never get over the effects of war as their soul have fragmented. They can never feel whole again.
Years ago I used to work in the war industry. I used to make training simulators to help troops to fight smarter. I spent many many hours studying and watching videos of live combat from the latest war zone. Thankfully I have left that industry. The path that my life has now taken is one of inner peace. Yet I can still feel the effects of watching all those videos. The effects of making what were especially games, war-games, had on my soul. It makes me feel empty. Distant from myself. I feel very little love for myself. Very little love for those around me. I felt like I would enjoy destroying. I was addicted to killing. Even if it was just pixels on a screen. Pixels that represented people.
The years have gone by. I have found a path of inner peace. Sitting browsing the net I came across some videos of the latest up and coming wargames for PC and the other consoles. I watched a few. I walked away feeling numb. I had no feelings at all. My inner peace had run off. It felt like my soul had gone into hiding. Not that I blame it at all. It took me some hours to bring the peace back. This after only watching 10 minutes of game trailer videos. Which by the way are very graphic in their content.
As my feelings slowly came back to me I started to realise the affect that these games are having on our younger generation. This younger generation spend almost all their waking hours playing these games. They play online against each other. Hundreds of kids all playing on the internet killing each other. Blowing things up. Being entertained by computerised death. What they don't know is that they are damaging their souls. So much so that some may never be able to lead normal lives. Some will become killers in real life. Some will become abusers in real life. All because they have allowed their souls to become fragmented by this digital killing.
Yes there are calls to have games banned. Having worked in that industry I agree with this. This though is not enough. If games are banned those who have been playing will need help. They will need to help to become balanced humans. Help that can only come from having their broken souls healed. The war against souls is very real and very dangerous. It takes no prisoners. Next time your child wants the latest war or fighting game think about the affect it is having on his/her soul.
