Downloading the Adversary

Anyone who grew-up during the 1980s crack epidemic knows that Satan exists. I was raised in a NYC neighborhood that lies on the border of Brooklyn and Queens . As a teenager I remember the horror and sadness I felt watching guys from the neighborhood become shells of themselves under the influence of drugs like crack cocaine, cocaine, angel dust, etc . . . People remember crack cocaine most because of the violent crimes people committed while under its influence, but the other drugs were just as bad in their own ways. It’s a heartbreaking sight watching a 20-year-old man obliviously staring off into space because his brains had been fried from too many hits of angel dust and acid. Heroin is another wonderful drug. A friend of mine who graduated third in his high school was living in an abandoned building within a few years of graduation. Daily he could be seen hurriedly pacing the streets wearing his NY Rangers hockey jersey begging for money. It might be 90-degrees and humid, but he was still wearing that jersey.

Whatever the drug, the proof of its evil was in the eyes of the user. The haunting look branded an impression into your mind. Instantly, you recognized that there was nothing this person wouldn’t do to get his next fix.

I raise this issue today because of an ABCnews.com article that appeared over the weekend entitled, “Web Delivers New Worry for Parents: Digital Drugs”. (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5547519&page=1) According to the article, “websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects. All your child needs is a music player and headphones.” I confess that I had never heard of digital drugs until I read this article. Apparently, they are based on something called binaural beats, which are “ambient sounds designed to affect your brain waves.”
The writer of the ABCnews.com article says she found sites on the web that “sell audio files (‘doses’) that supposedly mimic the effects of alcohol and marijuana. But it doesn't end there. You'll find doses that purportedly mimic the effects of LSD, crack, heroin and other hard drugs. There are also doses of a sexual nature. I even found ones that supposedly simulate heaven and hell.”

How appropriate that something which mimics drug use can simulate hell.

St. Paul warns us that “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Ephesians 6:12). Do not doubt for a moment that it is through mechanisms such as drugs, real and digital, that the Evil One attempts to destroy our young people. Protect your children by staying involved. Know the music they listen to, the friends they spend time with, and the websites they log onto. Don’t wait until that haunting look appears before you start asking questions.

Donald Tremblay