Have you ever wondered which way was up? If you can see, then there is no problem since you are oriented by your surroundings. But, what if you can't see? Once, while driving in the mountains during a snow storm, I experienced what is called a whiteout. This is a condition in which the snow-covered ground blends into a uniformly white sky with no shadows nor horizon; it was impossible to even see the sides of the road; it destroyed all sense of depth, direction, or distance. But I knew which way was up because I was sitting in a car whose wheels were on the ground.
What if there were no way of sensing up or down? I understand that a pilot of a plane flying in a cloud or fog has such a problem. Since one is suspended in air there is no way to tell up or down, and pilots with no instruments have emerged from a cloud and found themselves flying upside down. This is where the expression originated, "flying by the seat of your pants." I remember being in a large jet plane and coming in for a landing at Oakland, California surrounded completely by fog. Looking out the window, I couldn't tell how close we were to the ground, whether there was a mountain or another plane ahead, or what direction we were going. It was a frightening experience because I knew that the pilot couldn't see any better than I could, but I was reassured that he had instruments and a radio to guide him, and we landed safely.
One medical problem that humans have, especially in old age, is vertigo, a dizziness and loss of equilibrium due to a malfunction of the organ of balance in the inner ear known as the semicircular canals. These are composed of three circular tubes lined with sensory cilia and oriented along the three axes of space. The fluid in these tubes interacts with the cilia to produce an awareness of spacial orientation. All animals have similar organs. I understand that the crayfish has a pit or pocket in the top of its head into which it places a grain of sand; as the grain rolls around in the pocket under the influence of gravity, the crayfish knows it is right side up However, if one places an iron filing in the pocket and then holds a magnet over its head, the crayfish will flop over on its back, thinking it is upside down.
Aren't we in a somewhat similar situation spiritually? Satan manipulates and distorts our sensory perceptions so that we think up is down and down is up This is similar to a condition called presbyophrenia, a disease of the sensory nervous system in which a person loses all sense of location and direction. We must have our feet solidly grounded in the truth; we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the upward way; we must keep our minds clear and our understanding guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God or we shall end up in a state of spiritual presbyophrenia.
