A.I., Mental Health & Country Living

There has never been a time more surreal and anticipatory than now in 2025. The signs of the times indicate to us that the days in which men and women are living today have tremendous gravity at every decision and step. The unprecedented selection of an American Pope, the controversial re-election of President Trump, the nuclear threats and attacks between the West and Arabian Iran – all point to the fact that as God’s people there is not much time left in this earth. How are we to situate ourselves in light of the sudden advances that are daily surrounding us? Is there a concerted effort upon this last generation to confine us into an urbanized mindset and lifestyle? Has God provided a natural solution? Let’s find out!

“Life in the cities is false and artificial. The intense passion for money getting, the whirl of excitement and pleasure seeking, the thirst for display, the luxury and extravagance—all are forces that, with the great masses of mankind, are turning the mind from life's true purpose. They are opening the door to a thousand evils. Upon the youth they have almost irresistible power.” (EGW, Adventist Home, pg. 135.1, emphasis added).

What is the true purpose of life? Some would say it is to get rich and famous, others to accrue as much degrees and education as possible, and still others will point to the benefits of living long with much posterity. But what says the Scriptures: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3, emphasis added). If this is true, that means that the aim of life can be easily diverted in the minds of men by the various worldly enterprises in which they gain – and it is here that Satan finds a firm stronghold.

AI Technology

Enters in the phenomenon that we now have as Artificial Intelligence, aka A.I. The proponents of such advancement in technology boast of its use as a benefit to mankind for its ease of accessibility to knowledge and information. They claim that it would bring us into a higher state of existence in which humanity will have more freedom with less work to do. But there is more than meets the eye to such arguments. The Omnipotent One sees through the schemes of the enemy – “the prince of the power of the air”(Ephesians 2:2, emphasis added) and declares the matter in an altogether different light.

When God first created Adam and Eve, there was nothing false or artificial about their existence. The shade of the trees under which they slept, the living green grass whereon they walked, the untainted air which they breathed, the sumptuous fruit which they partook, the living animals which they named, and most importantly the face-to-face communion they held with their Maker and angels in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8), all gave them a very real and living experience that did not leave them hungering for something deeper. Each was a schoolmaster designed to bring them into a closer and truer knowledge of God. But no so with the modern advancements of technology, whose tendency is to cause us to be distracted and disillusioned as to who God is and our desperate need of Him.

“True knowledge has decreased with every successive generation. God is infinite, and the first people upon the earth received their instructions from that infinite God who created the world. Those who received their knowledge direct from infinite wisdom were not deficient in knowledge.... There are many inventions and improvements, and labor-saving machines now that the ancients did not have.....But God has not been in all man's inventions. Satan has controlled the minds of men to a great extent, and has hurried men to new inventions which has led them to forget God. In strength of intellect, men who now live can bear no comparison to the ancients. There has been more ancient arts lost that the present generation now possess......Those who are deceived, and flattered on in the delusion that the present is an age of real progress, and that the human race has been in ages past progressing in true knowledge, are under the influence of the father of lies, whose work has ever been to turn the truth of God into a lie.” (EGW, 4aSG, pg. 154-156).

The poster child of much of the A.I advancement, billionaire and proclaimed richest man on earth - Elon Musk – has developed a project called Neuralink which harnesses the human electrical power of the brain in an unheard of manner. The process involves surgically implanting electrodes so the hardwired brain can be wirelessly connected to proxy devices claiming to “redefine the boundaries of human capability.”(https://www.npr.org/2024/01/30/1227850900/elon-musk-neuralink-implant-clinical-trial)

We know that nothing is as calculated to elevate and expand the mind than the study of God through the themes of nature and revelation. By tampering with the ‘holy of holies’ of our living temple we are treading on very slippery ground. It is mixing the holy with the profane, and causing us to rely on human power rather than upon the divine. “The more quiet and simple the life of the child—the more free from artificial excitement and the more in harmony with nature—the more favorable it is to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength.” (EGW, Child Guidance, pg. 139.1, emphasis added).

Mental health challenges have been and continue to be a pressing issue, one that is on the rise in particular upon today’s youth – Gen Z. In an age when fake dating apps, fake food, fake bot accounts, and fake clouds have defined what the norm is, the youth of today are looking – yea craving – for something more tangibly and substantially real. ChatGPT is fast reducing the memorization capacity of the next generation so that even the simplest of definitions and facts are deferred to A.I rather than to a diligent study of God’s Word and history. The invention of man’s mind is supplanting the trust in the mind of the Almighty. The advent of A.I apps has opened pandoras box of unforeseen dangers into which we are now plunging and out which there is no going back. Fake news is being generated on worldwide platforms causing political and religious figures to be misrepresented and falsely accused. Nudifying A.I. apps and deep fakes are causing online predators to find a ready field in which to capture the unsuspecting youth into sexual exploitation. Bullying, comparison and peer pressure is thus engendered leading to untold self-harm, suicide, and mental breakdown. As the invasion of privacy becomes less of a thing dreamed of, the masses of people have lost a sense of identity and even purpose.

Mental Health Impacts of AI

In a recent 2025 study entitled: ‘AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking’ (https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/1/6 ), several observations were found to be true after following 666 participants. Firstly, frequent engagement with A.I technology caused individuals to cognitively offload tasks of problem solving to a computer rather than to exercise independent thinking. Secondly, it was found users also demonstrated a reduced capacity for higher critical processing skills or for formulating nuanced answers. Thirdly, it was noted that there was a generation gap between the young and the older participants, the former of which depended more on A.I and caused researchers to have a greater concern for future implications of sound judgment and understanding. Is A.I. making us smarter..... or more stupid? Is it elevating man or reducing his God-given capabilities into a mere automaton that repeats whatever he is told? Are we being conformed more into the image of a man-made robot than in the image of God? Are we inadvertently creating a generation of intellectual weaklings? Could this technology strike at the very heart of true education? Notice the following quote:

“Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator—individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.” (EGW, Education, pg. 17.2, emphasis added).

A Better Way to Mental Healing

The world has had a longstanding solution for the mental health crisis of our age, one in which the author has himself been victim to – namely, the theory of “chemical imbalance”. I can well remember myself as a young teenager who struggled with mental health issues. Not knowing God’s method of healing the mind, I looked for the solution in the drug options that were readily available to me. I went from one SSRI prescription (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) to another seeking for the peace that seemed to keep alluding my grasp.

Though the theory has never actually been clinically proven to be true, it has become the gold-standard in the approach to psychiatric medicine, ranking in billions for the pharmaceutical companies, and creating enormous mental health side effects, not the least of which is death ( https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/Use-of-antidepressant-medication-linked-to-substantial-increase-in-risk-of-sudden-cardiac-death).

However, this gigantic, decades-long monoamine hypothesis which blames low serotonin levels for the root cause of mental depressive episodes is now crumbling. A 2025 landmark Swedish study has busted the proverbial bubble of the psychotropic doping community. The conclusion found that SSRI’s “was associated with faster cognitive decline” and “associated with higher risk for severe dementia, fractures, and all-cause mortality.”

(https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-025-03851-3).

Are we as a society treating chemical imbalances with these medications, or creating them?

God has provided us with something better, much better! In nature and nature’s God are to be found the healing remedies for the mind. Here we can find influences that do not molest or confuse but strengthen and ennobles the faculties of higher learning. Here the youth may follow in the pathway of noble examples as Moses, Joseph, Enoch, Daniel, and others who received a true rather than false education. Away from the din of the artificial, the brain can be fitted for its highest working capacity as it links with the mind of the Creator. The tendency of the sun is to illuminate the eye of our understanding to increase our mood and sense of wellbeing and make us more like Him who is light (Ecclesiastes 11:7; 1 John 1:5; Psalms 84:11; Malachi 4:2). The natural green environment that is lush with complexity and bustling with life draws the attention away from the artificial to the true and living God which made the earth and sea and desires to commune with us in a special way on His Sabbath day of rest. Like their Master, they may obtain a well-rounded education from the heaven-appointed sources: (1) useful work, (2) the study of the Scriptures, (3) from nature, and (4) from the experiences of life—"God's lesson books, full of instruction to all who bring to them the willing hand, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart.” (EGW, Ministry of Healing, pg. 400.1).

The country living message affords us a multitude of benefits which cannot be gained while dwelling in the cities. Not only is it 10x easier to form a right character, but the soul is less-likely to be corrupted as the family of Lot who chose to dwell in the apparently prosperous city of Sodom. The rural lifestyle develops economy since luxury and convenience are not always available. Innovative thinking and on-demand solutions cultivate the powers of the mind which a click of a button would fail to do. Like our horticultural parents, we can work the soil with sweat and toil for our own good and development of character (Genesis 3:17), growing our own food provisions and herbal medicine; thereby learning to be self-reliant.

In fact, research has proven that working the soil has direct antidepressant effects. Integrative Physiology Professor Christopher Lowry suspected that the move to the city might play a prominent role in our greater mental behavior patterns. His research revealed that the soil contains a microbe called Mycobacterium vaccae which exhibits antidepressant effects upon neurons by boosting serotonin levels and thereby increasing cognitive capabilities, lowering stress, and improving concentration (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7813891/).

Even the rocks are crying out! The question is.... will God’s people listen?

“The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautified by the hand of God Himself, was not a gorgeous palace.....but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings—the handiwork of the great Master Artist. In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time—that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in communion with God through His created works. If men would give less attention to the artificial and would cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has placed within the reach of all.” (EGW, Adventist Home, pg. 132.1).

Yafet Tegene is a medical missionary based in Ontario, Canada. He is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, and has degrees in Bible and Health from Hartland College. He serves as a high school Bible & Health Instructor, and Nutrition Coach. He also works at an outpost called Paradise Fields, while pursuing his Masters in Counseling Psychology.