Catherine Woodiwiss says she went to the desert “to remember that I still have a body.” On her retreat, she pitched her camp “in one of the last places on Earth where wireless data won’t reach.” (Sojourners, “Bodily Prayer,” June 2018)

Woodiwiss uses sleeping outside, listening to rivers, and hiking to turn off tech.

She compares today’s capture by technology with the ancient Gnostics’ rejection of the body. Gnostics worshiped the mind, believing the body to be evil. “Today, this elevation of the mind has returned, in the philosophy of our most popular technologies.”

The wired world was supposed to form communities of sharing. To some degree, it has done that. However, our obsession with it has also threatened our more basic communities of family, neighborhood, and face-to-face sharing.

Going to the desert isn’t the only way to put technology in its place, of course. You can limit the amount of time you spend with it—controlling it instead of it controlling you.

From time to time, you can turn it off, sit down, and lose yourself in the silence. That works, too.