I love that phrase…the ghost in the shell. It comes from a favorite anime movie and series of mine of the same name – Ghost in the Shell (it was a major influence on The Matrix). There is something Shakespearean about the phrase that refers to the soul within us…

Of course the idea that the spirit is what matters and it is bound within this mortal coil, this discardable shell, is ultimately a dualistic platonic construct and anti-Christian at its core. The body is not evil, no more than the soul. The two in Christian thought are bound together by God forever and to imagine our eternity as somehow casting off these bodies and living in some ephemeral misty state is unbiblical.

I have been thinking about how we, in our new social cyber communities, are in many ways ghosts in shells interacting within one another; enlivening the online communities.

I find I am more open and interactive with my fellow ghosts online than in public. I am an introvert at heart and to be publicly personable takes a great deal of energy and effort on my part. There are people I can communicate with and joke with effortlessly online in varying contexts that I can barely look in the eye in public. I have seen this state reciprocated by others as well. It is an enigma.

While many moan about the loss of the personal they fail to recognize that for many, made as they are, there never was a personal, flesh to flesh community for them. The wired world tore down walls, gave them voices and courage to become a communicator and a communal being for the first time in their lives. This is a good thing.

I know a young man who can barely stand sitting through a 30 minute sermon in church who took his avatar from an online community into a new friend’s apartment only to find it had been converted to a church with pews, a piano, a pulpit and other people’s avatars present. For the sake of his new found friendship he sat his avatar down and listened to his friend preach for 45 minutes online via headset. To that I say – wow. I say amazing.

“Wherever two or more are gathered in my name there I will be also” says Christ. Christ is present online – the real ghost in the shell if there ever was one.

I will admit there are times I wish I could have the same conversations with these people in public that we can have online. Walls go up in the world and there is hateful fear that creeps into things. To look another in the eyes is a powerful truth that is admittedly lacking in cyberspace. The presence of flesh can also create wise restraint which is often missing in the digital domain where harsh emails, texts and chats can be sent with no regard for the other’s feelings or reactions.

Still the potential good of the online community outweighs the negative I think. I am thankful for my pixelated pals and wouldn’t trade them.