Beach Haven

Bibliography
​Bhattacharjee, Y. (2020, January). A World of Pain. National Geographic.

Reading a deep-dive article about pain studies in the January 2020 issue of National Geographic, I noticed two instances describing how virtual reality (VR) was used to counteract pain successfully.

In the first, a patient is awake during surgery. A picture shows the person on a gurney with a surgeon hovered over him. Metal probes are sticking out of the man’s midsection. His face is covered with a VR headset. The note next to the picture describes how the patient plays a VR game called SnowWorld. The note further explains that during the procedure “he had one stabilizing pin removed from his pelvis” (Bhattacharjee, 2020, p. 49) with and another without the VR. The study “suggests VR could decrease the need for general anesthesia, reducing risk and cost”. 

In the other example, a chronic pain sufferer “watches a mesmerizing motion of jellyfish on a virtual reality headset” (Bhattacharjee, 2020, p. 61). This approach was said to help regulate “body responses to pain, improving mood, and reducing anxiety”.

VR displays at different media conferences I’ve attended for decades now, have been all about transporting a user into other worlds, be they natural like viewing ocean creatures or man-made like a video game. That’s been the base intent all along. I might argue it is likely that VR creators did not consider the pain-reduction potential of this particular technology. Mood modification is a part of the approach of most media. For example, music can pump up or relax the listener. Movies can evoke fear, excitement, sadness, or romance. Media as a form of escapism has a long history, but escaping pain might be a new take on the specific tech of VR.

Last May, my wife Michelle and I were supposed to speak in the King George Virginia Ward of our church. Sadly, they had some sort of sewage issue in the building and church was cancelled that week. The topic was to be about how when we receive a calling or assignment in the church we also receive all the priesthood authority and power that goes along with that calling or assignment. I think perhaps the concern for this topic is that some may feel that if they are not an ordained holder of a priesthood office they are somehow ‘less’. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. A calling or assignment by definition is a delegation of priesthood authority and power.

What is priesthood authority but the freedom to exercise all the rights and responsibilities we have in a given capacity? We find those rights and responsibilities given in the church handbook of instructions and in the scriptures. I can look in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) as well as in the handbook and find all sorts of definition around my role as a member of the stake high council and as the then stake young men president. Some of these are very specific, others are written with a lot of leeway allowing me to seek revelation and take action without constantly seeking specific guidance from the stake presidency for example. A person who does not hold priesthood office is limited from some delegated authority such as conducting some ordinances, but that does not mean they have no priesthood authority. Even those who do hold priesthood office do so also through delegation and are limited in some things.

What about priesthood power? That’s not the same thing as authority. The authority describes our rights and responsibilities. The power is the capacity to carry them out. The power of the priesthood is God’s power delegated to people in order to serve. Hebrews 11 is an example of a description of what God’s power is. It starts right out explaining that God’s power is faith. Verse 3 reads, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” We can read that as through our faith we come to understand, or that through his faith He did what he did. I would argue both interpretations are true. How did He frame the worlds? By faith! Then the chapter goes on to share a long list of men and women who did great things through faith, which is God’s power shared with them. We can all exercise priesthood power in our callings by exercising faith through acting in our callings to the best of our ability, then having the confidence that the Lord will step in and make up for when (not if) we fall short. This post is a perfect example. I’m sure my words leave much to be desired, yet I have hope that the Spirit will spark within the reader unique thoughts that are much better communicated than anything I might write.