The Way I See It

OUR EYES

“Opinion is holding something to be provisionally true which you do not know to be false.” Saint Bernard

For most of us, our vision is our dominant sense. We rely on what our eyes see—it is said that 80% of what we learn is through the information our eyes irradiate to our brains about the world around us. It is from that perception, that sense, that we collect experiences. We form opinions, and certain attitudes, based on what we see. But the way I see it, our vision may be unreliable. What we do with the information passed from eyes to brain mostly depends on our personal perspectives. No two people see an object in quite the same way. There is a reason mankind has constantly speculated about the nature of reality. The human race has spent endless hours, years—even centuries--debating about what is real; the conclusion, thus far, is that reality is subjective or may not even exist.

The Mechanism Our eyes are one of God’s masterpieces. The human eye is a complex sensory organ that collects light reflected off objects, bends it, focuses it, and sends information to the brain about the texture, color, and distance of those objects. It is composed of more than two million working parts, and the muscles that move the eye are the strongest in the body. Our eye muscles move about 100,000 times a day, even when we are sleeping. However, in order to see—even with these marvels of divine engineering—we must have light. The correlation between the shape of our eye and the intensity of the light determines whether we see things clearly or in a blurry haze. Light goes into the cornea (the “window of the eye”) and reflects back to the retina the information gathered by 126 million nerve cells. I find it interesting that the crossed-over rays produce an upside down image in the retina. This is true of our spiritual vision, too. Our earthly eyes have turned upside down what He meant to be perfect, giving us a blurry vision of reality, confusing us and distracting us from what God wants us to see. Is anything we see with our carnal eyes real? What if what is unseen by our eyes is a more reliable, unchangeable, absolute reality? Even the brain, the most important organ in the human body (and probably the most complex biological structure in the universe), is obviously unreliable. The information about color, shape, movement, position, and size are all processed separately; there is no area in which they all come together in the brain. So no one can pinpoint, physically, the location of our consciousness. And if the information that my brain receives from my vision is in any way ambiguous, my brain will fill in the blanks, resulting in optical illusions. How, then, can I trust in my own reality? Or anyone else’s? Perhaps God is trying to tell us that—in spite of the complexity of our eyes and the marvelous capacity of our brains—our eyesight does not compare to the simplicity and accuracy of our heart sight. We are trying to find the source of our reality—but can we? Are we looking at nothing but our own wrong perception, reflected again and again, distorting objective reality beyond comprehension? Subjective reality is nothing but an opinion… in my opinion.

Quantum Physics and the Spirit My own experiences in the past few years have led me to the conclusion that there is a reality beyond my own subjective opinion, one that is being slowly revealed to me through acts of obedience. I feel like I have tuned into a new frequency of consciousness. God is trying to show me realities that are in front of us all, but have been hidden until now by the cloaking device of sin and pride. God has gifted humans with the highest form of consciousness. We think, and we are aware of the fact that we think. Most animals see a stranger when they look in the mirror. Humans are the rare exception, as we see ourselves. Some scientists—in search of easy answers that pack life’s mysteries into a nice, solid, measurable box—have wondered whether free will is nothing more than learned brain activity; a mere result of past experiences. I dare to disagree. I believe we, as the Bible says, are composed of body, soul, and spirit. An average human, in denial, refuses to believe in this simple concept. So they spend their lives, energy, and resources proving that they can think and ignoring the more ethereal aspects of life. This open-minded, self-sufficient, proud attitude brings contradictory results. It causes people to keep their eyes closed without hope and conduct an endless search for what is right in front of them. It is those with “narrow” minds, who allow God’s divine light to flood their consciousness, who are allowed a magnificent awareness of His infinite love and purpose. The quarrel between science and religion is long-standing. But God will make use of the very tool—science—that has been used as justification for intellectual superiority to shun His truth and shut out His ultimate and absolute reality. In view of the vastness of the universe, we can see the minimization of man. By contrast, in view of the minuteness of the atom we can see the magnification of God. Physicists have come to the conclusion that the atom is not the smallest particle and that matter, as we know it, acts and reacts in ways that defy the laws of space and time. This leaves them scratching their highly intellectual heads and becoming more abstract in their musings than a small-town preacher. Could matter be spiritual? And Spirit, matter? God’s Spirit has shown me parallels between the physical world and the spiritual world. Whether or not these parallels are easily apparent, is a matter of choice. We are the observers of reality as we choose to see it. Thanks to quantum physics, we can now realize that there is another order of reality, one that lies beneath that which we have taken for granted for so long. This unseen realm seems to be built primarily on foundations of faith, but God’s Spirit has given us many hints and suggestions in science. We just have to make a choice: we either choose to stay blind and refuse to see, or we humbly admit that we are not our own gods. It isn’t a matter of what the world portrays to be the truth but what we “perceive” as the truth. The way we “see” things, people, and circumstances define who we ultimately are in relationship to the world we live in. What we think and feel determines what we experience and perceive. However, there are many illusions out there ready to fool us. “We are born to inquire after Truth,” Democritus said; but he never lived in a world like ours where the truth hides behind virtual reality and digitally-enhanced visual illusions. What chance do we have of discerning what is truly real if our eyes can lie to us and send incorrect messages to our brain? What a terrible and sad outcome awaits us then—unless there really is an absolute truth and reality. There is: the I AM who transcends time and space and never changes.