Episode #14 – The Proliferation of Deception

Transcript:

Hi everybody, welcome back on my podcast. This is your hostess Glennavelle Manarang. Welcome to Soulish Femme, Real Talk. If this is your first time tuning in, I would like to personally welcome you and if you are returning viewers, listeners and subscribers. Thank you for coming back once again. Today’s topic is titled, “The proliferation of deception.” That’s mouthful, the proliferation of deception.

The rise or the proliferation of A.I. and the congruency of the look alike faces are making its way to dominate the world whether we admit it or not.  We are truly entering a new era. A new age where the rise of Artificial intelligence is on the rise as well as looking like everyone else is now being glamorized. God forbid, if we are going further away from embracing and cultivating on how we are originally been designed, flaws and all. Instead we are heading towards rejecting diversity for we deem it as odd for being different from each other. Is it coincidence that we are not seeing the prophecy in the word of God coming alive as it has been predicted that this will occur someday and that someday it is here where people, especially women are becoming deceived? If you are not aware of the spiritual realm of Satan, the devil, the serpent, usurper or whatever name you would like to call him-Lucifer. His tragedy and his strategy not tragedy. It’s a tragic actually that we have been following. His strategy and tactics have not changed. As Jesus simply calls him, the father of all lies and the murderer from the beginning. He comes in to steal, kill and destroy. It is sad that so many of us fell prey to his lies, deception and manipulation.

Recently, I have been binge watching various shows about how some women in a specific country are now obsessed with facial treatment, augmentation or whatever plastic surgery you would like to achieve.  Then there’s the trend of an A.I on tiktok or instagram that can dramatically transform what you look like. And so we thought that this is not going to happen and simply because we are now seeing it and making it drastically in a higher pace. And we have nothing short of apps to change our facial features. This is all because we glory superficiality and being fake instead of embracing our differences and loving the way God has created us to be. So, then we are constantly bombarded and there’s a nonstop inundation of this propaganda that as a woman you must look a certain way. If you are not careful, you and I can fall into the same trap. Now, I am not shaming anyone who has done anything on their faces, because let’s face it, it is your body after all. But wouldn’t you think it is time to bring awareness and wake people up especially women that this is nothing short of body shaming? Yes, the world or the devil is never going to tell you the whole truth and it is always fixated on your flaws. It will always magnify how your nose is flat, your breasts are too small, and your lips are not plumped enough or how about your stature? You are too short, too fat or too skinny. Your whole demeanor is just bad.

There are endless, if not countless noises out there that are constantly telling women to look a certain way. This is becoming disturbing if not becoming scary.

We are not only moving into a self-destructive society where variety and differences are now abnormal rather and completely eliminating the standard of these things.  I mean, who set the rules anyway? So, what can we do about this? And how can you make a difference in this world and not fall into the same traps? I know there is no one size fits all answer that I can give you. But when think about it, if God truly wants all of us to look the same, wouldn’t you think he would have created a bunch of robots and not humans that came in with different colors and textures? This is why the devil always distorts the original plan of God because he loves to destroy the very essence of God’s creation. That is his job in the very beginning.

I really think and humor me for a second here and this is my personal theory that I believe Eve was bored out of her mind this is why she fell into the trap of eating the fruit of good and evil. This is also the very reason why women when we get bored, we become too self-obsessed with our looks that we start picking on ourselves. Thanks to social media, it is now making it convenient for all of us to magnify these problem in us. Instead of focusing on maturing spiritually and working into our trauma. We want to just plaster it with superficiality and changing your face and really because it is more convenient that way, right. So then, instead of focusing on our trauma, perhaps improving with our communication skills and being financially savvy, we are now more focused on the external things that are not helping us mature and focuse in our spiritual growth. I am not also saying that being beautiful and working on your outside appearance are not equally important. However, if you are not too careful, you might get sucked into this ideology of buying inot this and participating in a trend that is not realistic but plain fake. This is why I have titled this as the proliferation of deception. Nothing you see is real anymore. Everything you see is a facade. It’s a masquarade.

This is why as you see, everyone is getting bored, because that is what happens when we don’t celebrate diversity and varieties. But rather deemed only important to those who look alike and who have the perfect body and facial features. What kind of message are we sending to the next generation especially for the little girls out there? If we are not careful, we are not helping the next generation to focus on a beauty that is not fading, which is more precious in the eyes of God. This is why many girls are depressed and lonely because they are trying to compete and keep up with beauty standards that are superficial but not attainable. The amount of pressure that these young girls have to face is excruciatingly surreal. 

Because of the proliferation of A.I and the fake beauties that are prevalent online, this is where you must work on your insecurities whether that is your body image, traumas and triggers that you have been avoiding all your life. I understand how daunting it is to put yourself online for we know some humans are cruel and mean so we retort to making our faces different and beautiful than we actually are. We don’t like how we look in front of the camera because not all of us are photogenic including myself. I hate taking photos of myself because I don’t usually appear the same person and I look completely different from what I see in the mirror. However, at what cost are you willing to distort your own delusional and face reality that instead of transforming your face the way that God created you to be, perhaps, it is far braver to accept yourself and your looks even if you might not like it.

Don’t you think you have slapped the very face of God by rejecting your looks and also sending a wrong message to your ancestors that the nose that you belong to a certain ethnic background or descent are no longer acceptable for they are considered ugly. But if no one is going to bring awareness to what matters the most then perhaps the rest of us are going to keep following the same ideology that is basically absurd. Not only we must work on our insecurities but also, opt out on a trend or unfollow anyone that can affect you when it comes to your identity. You must be wise enough to use your critical thinking whether or not you feel good watching certain women or people when it comes to what they promote. Because if it doesn’t resonate with you, then you must carefully curate the types of individuals you must entertain. The more you consume with these types of channels, the more you are going to be persuaded eventually that something is wrong with your face and your physical appearance for whatever you constantly feed your mind, is programming your subconscious mind whether you admit it or not. 

“Maturity is a radical commitment to self honesty even
when delusion and denial feel better.”

Yasmene Badereldin

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Perhaps it is one of the core reasons why we are mesmerized watching these types of content and being persuaded by these people because we want to cling to our maturity instead of committing to self-growth, maturity and practice integrity. That’s the word, integrity. I mean it is rather easy to get monetized and celebrated when you look a certain way, right? It is what the world wants and in this way, you attain the accolades and the praises you have always been asking for that you don’t usually receive from the people around you. It is rather easy to create a persona online even if it doesn’t look like you in person but because you are congratulated and applauded with this kind of behavior. So, why not going to be delusional and lie to the world? You could make a lot of money and your goal is only money. So you actually having to keep up with the charade without going to haunt you back in the end. The only person you are lying to is yourself anyways and the 1.1. million followers. Who cares right? Money has no emotion and surely, you have to let go of your feelings altogether for the sake of becoming rich and the next big star who desires being placed on a pedestal, who doesn’t want that? 

If I somehow burst your ego, which is another point I am making, it is what John wrote: the lust of the eyes, the lust of flesh and the pride of life are some of the reasons why we fell prey to this kind of standard beauty.  The ego says, if you don’t adapt and follow the dictates of the world’s standard, then you will be left behind or you are not cool enough or maybe you are afraid of not being seen or accepted. It is part of the ego that loves praise and admiration. However, let me ask you something, why do you care so much about getting likes and hearts and approval from those you don’t see in person anyways? Why do we crave so much attention from a bunch of strangers that are not going to visit you in the hospital when you become ill or hold your hands when you are depressed? The more we feed the ego, the bigger it will become. The ego always craves validation and approval for we don’t get it from someone closest to us. Who are we really? Do I really matter? Am I really that important if I don’t look a certain way? 

As C.S. Lewis wrote in his book “The Mere Christianity that says, “Why? What is the good of pretending to be what you are not? Well, even on the human level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There is a bad kind, where the pretense is there instead of the real thing, as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really helping you. But there is also a good kind where the pretense leads up to the real thing.” Really analyze what this quote means. C.S. Lewis have raised the same question in his day that there are two kinds of pretense, one that leads to deception that is considered bad that doesn’t help you at all and the other one is leading you to the real you which the healthier version that is embodying of the woman you would like to become by truly working on yourself not deceiving and distorting the very essence of God’s original creation. So that is why I have wanting to just bring some awareness of the proliferation of deception in this world that we’re living in you must be aware and alway suse your critical thinking. Instead of being persuaded of the lies that is predominantly going to entertain you and therefore we cannot be deceived as Jesus said the devil is always prowling around like a lion waiting for someone to be devoured and if you don’t have the analytical mind in questioning things like a curious investigator.

You also can fall into the same trap and right now as we all know everybody is just trying to feed this AI and trying to understand what AI really is. I really think that we are now heading to this phenomenon that people are being perhaps hopefully not erased but we are going there slowly but surely if we’re not careful and if we don’t feed the right kindof machine. Then we are going to pay for the price eventually and that is why it’s very important that you must know who you are in Christ. You must stand firm on his word and you have to really have a very strong foundation of the truth because without the truth anything goes and this is why we are told do not go to the right nor to the left. Ponder upon your feet of where you go. You must always fix your eyes on the true one thing. People always come to the knowledge. They accumulate knowledge yet they never come to the truth and we have seen it. People have accumulated a lot of knowledge. They know a lot of things but when it comes to the truth. They reject it and this is why we must be wise and understanding of where the time is really going. According to the book of Daniel in the last days, the wicked will become even more wicked. They don’tunderstand what is happening but the wise become wiser and they’re actually know that this is what God wants to be purified. He wants us to be not to conform to this world but be transformedby the renewing of our minds. We cannot talk or act or think like the world and also what Jesus would say you’re in this world but you’re not of this world and you cannot participate whateverpropaganda or ideology that this world is been going. Because Satan has always been deceiving people for many years and we are not short of this. Now it’s coming so rapidly and if you and I are asleep you must be awake oh sleeper. This is not a time to fall asleep now. This is a timeto even more equipped and be more awareof what is happening around us. So, I will see you on my next podcast. I love to always leave you with be bold, be brave and be courageous until next time. Have a wonderful day!