Photographs Who Do You Love?

[Hermit]

 

[dirtfarmer]

hello Hermit, dirtfarmer here

A man with long hair and a beard?

 

[Hermit]

hello Hermit, dirtfarmer here
A man with long hair and a beard?

Ha ha ha. Naturally, it's up to the individual what that image may imply.

It is interesting how unconditional love cuts through all those fear-censored stories of what we see.

 

[Edward]

Ha ha ha. Naturally, it's up to the individual what that image may imply.

It is interesting how unconditional love cuts through all those fear-censored stories of what we see.

You my Brother are too perceptive! lol
I liked it. It worked and I saw Jesus! A picture of Him.

 

[Runner]

Just so there's no confusion about the instructions ("shut your eyes and wait for an image to appear"), what you actually do is stare at the four dots for 20 seconds, blink, and quickly look at a wall or ceiling - at least that's how I was taught, and the only way I get a vivid image. When I just shut my eyes, I get nothing.

 

[Hermit]

Just so there's no confusion about the instructions ("shut your eyes and wait for an image to appear"), what you actually do is stare at the four dots for 20 seconds, blink, and quickly look at a wall or ceiling - at least that's how I was taught, and the only way I get a vivid image. When I just shut my eyes, I get nothing.

Thanks for tip.
Personally I have no trouble waiting for the image to appear with eyes shut. It takes about 10 seconds.

Also the mind works by association and will fill in the extra bits it thinks such a face should look like. If the mind associates the dark and light shapes as Jesus Christ, it will add those extra bits to make it suit what we think it ought to be like.

We all have an optical blind spot. It is a point in the back of the eye where all the optical nerves leave the eye-ball. At that conjunction there are no optical nerve ends (cones and rods) to pick up photons from. However, the mind gathers information around that blind spot to guess what is most likely to be in the blind-spot area. It does it so well we normally do not know that there is a blind-spot.

Watching the image form in our mind, or while looking elsewhere, is an inside look at how the mind builds up a picture for us.

 

[Hermit]

Here are two other examples of how to see the mind alter what you see while you are actually looking at something. This is what they call an illusion (an instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception of a sensory experience).

The following experiments may take a long time before actually witnessing the effect. But I assure you it is worth it, for you will realize that what we may be seeing is not necessarily so. It may shock you to find that what you see is actually not from your eyes, but from your own mind.

I like introspection to find deeper truths about myself. This requires sitting with a single thought, such as a single word, and staying with that word for at least 30 minutes. It is not easy to do, because the mind will try very hard to get you to think of other things. The ego-mind will get threatened after a while because of you not paying attention to it. It will even try and convince you that it is insane to carry on with the experiment. To carry on becomes an act of faith.

For me, after about twenty minutes of mental gymnastics, the mind quietens down. After a while, in that quietness, something else arises to mind, as if to say "Is this what you are looking for"? Quite often it becomes a revelation.

One day, I was looking at a newspaper headline. The first letter was 'B' and I decided to focus on that letter for as long as it took to see what truths I could gain from it. After about twenty minutes the letter 'B' changed its appearance to look like 'P'. I ignored it and still staring at this 'P' for another five minutes and then it change to look like 'b'. Then I snapped out of my focussing in awe about how the mind works to please us. In each case, the mind was looking for a solution to my enquiry into the letter 'B'.

Another experiment is to look at a face. Same thing happens as explained above, but what happens is that the face changes appearance. The original face has a left and right side. In the changing of appearance, one side becomes the mirror of the other side, example: a left side and mirror left side. Then later you will get two right sides.

As I said, it is not easy to experience these illusions. It takes a fair bit of patience and single minded focusing, regardless of what the mind may say about yourself during the experiment. Don't worry, you won't go insane.

Actually, in psychology, we get taught to read both sides of a face. One side often expresses something different to the other side. Such as a smile with a touch of apprehension on the other, may possibly indicating a false smile to pacify someone. Try this out on photographs in newspapers. Find out what they were actually saying at the time of the photograph. Then cover one side of the face to read what it is saying to you, then cover the other side and read that. You might find that one side opposes to what they were actually saying, indicating a possible deception. Don't take any of this too seriously though, sometimes a face maybe about what they are going to say next, and not necessarily what they have said then. In other words, like all body language readings, it is not necessarily so.

 

[Runner]

Here are two other examples of how to see the mind alter what you see while you are actually looking at something. This is what they call an illusion (an instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception of a sensory experience).

I have some major vision problems and have made sort of study of the things you're talking about. (As my ophthalmologist said many years ago, "You have learned to deal with a world that is less clear than most of us see" - which I actually sometimes think is an advantage.) The philosopher Immanuel Kant questioned whether we ever see "reality" at all, or merely the reality created by our senses. It's also quite interesting how our vision seems to be "just right" for functioning in the world - if we saw the full spectrum of light, or at the level of detail of an electron microscope, we would be experiencing an entirely different world and probably have a near-impossible time functioning in it. Very simple examples of what you're talking about are simply to stare at word to the point that, no matter how familiar it is, it will start to look misspelled - or at your own hand to the point that it starts to look like a strange object unconnected with you. One of the purposes of Zen training is to snap out of the way that we all sleepwalk through life, seeing every tree as "just another tree" (and essentially every familiar object as "just another" object), and realize that "tree" is just a descriptive label with no reality to it and that everything we see is a unique piece of reality.