The reason why solitary confinement is so painful is because it renders all the senses useless. So if you aren’t used to dwelling in some imaginary real estate, the clock turns sluggish and the thoughts crowd the room. In some ways, it is a proxy for “death”, too, since your “story” gets suspended. One can only wonder how long until they go insane, or find nirvana since the whole story is in the trash bin now.
What if, instead, you deprived half of the senses? What would it mean then? Would the prisoner even notice?
There’s still a sensory deprivation, but one can still wiggle around pinned against this non-sensing wall.
Nevertheless, I think inevitably, even with our modified confinement, it will transform – or disfigure – the prisoner in time. In different ways. In subtle ways.
And you don’t have to speculate. You see, the modified confinement isn’t behind bars. It’s you, right now, reading this webpage.
You are already in modified confinement.
The internet, and most devices, only produce sight and sound. As long as you don’t think too deeply about it, maybe you’ll find that to be plenty, and it seems to function well enough. But after being around these things for so long, the hollowness grows and grows: it all seems like a sham now.
Depending on how long you’ve been in modified confinement, you’ve became the non-human. Overtly relying on sight and sound, you atrophy all the rest, until even the very prospect of something humane sends one overwhelmed.
Communication is much more than words, or sounds, even facial expressions – frankly, it very well may be the energy field around each of us. When Ramana Marashi was around, followers felt a profound sense of calm just by sitting next to him.
There is no presence here, in the humane sense. We’re encroaching instead into an alien existence.
There are no amount of words, sounds, videos – nothing will ever replace actual presence. Some like to romanticize this as touch, but even things like temperature around you, beyond the A/C, within a humidity – a feeling of proximity instead of floating in this world. The waff of air as someone waves their arms around – tapping a glass for cheers. Just body language in general accounts for so much. Lost in translation. Lost to a half-life.
If it all feels empty and flat to you, it’s because you haven’t notice that it is. There’s a whole dimension of sense missing. Thus we’re in a non-sensory realm, sending these letters, but these letters can never match whatever spurred them.
Perhaps you’re okay restricting yourself this way. What else could you possibly need other than sight and sound?
But after realizing that the Internet and media is a sensory deprivation chamber, all I can feel is unsettled, and wondering how much this has atrophied others’ growth – how much damage it has done.
Because, I mean, I guess one day – at least in my experience – one day you will come to, and then you’ll see it all as a clever trick that siphoned some life out of you. It’s up to you whether you want it to siphon the rest.