January 2024 Newsletter

Hello, and a joyous January to you!
Welcome, or welcome back, to my newsletter. Today's issue is about seeing what's really there. Enjoy!

When several people are witnesses to a traffic accident, they can report seeing very different events, even though supposedly they were all looking at the same scene. Then it's up to the authorities to decide what actually happened. In my teens I read a lot of science fiction, and I well remember a concept in a Robert Heinlein story about a woman who was trained as a Fair Witness. This was a highly regarded position in that future society. When asked what the color of a house on a faraway hill was, she answered carefully "It's white on this side".

It was many more years before I started vision improvement, yet I wondered back then whether I would ever be capable of being a Fair Witness myself, seeing and reporting only what was true. Getting the right answer was important to me, being accurate and reliable in my communication so people could count on me. Like the accident onlookers or the figures viewing the six or the nine, most of us try to be as honest as we can about what we're seeing, although our own perspective and history can change how we interpret it. The same person can appear scary and intimidating to someone, or uninteresting, or even friendly, to someone else.

Dr. Bates wrote about optimums and pessimums, objects we see better or worse than would be expected. Being a scientist, this intrigued him. Why would we see one letter clearly on the eye chart, when another letter next to it of the same size is blurry? We are not machines, but sensitive emotional humans each with our own history, so what is pleasing for me to look at may be distasteful to you, or vice versa. Taking this beyond vision, when my understanding of a situation differs radically from someone else's, I often go back and review my assumptions. Was that teacher or boss being intentionally demeaning with her criticism, or only trying to guide me toward improvement?

New Age thought like the Law of Attraction tells us our emotions and intentions are tangible and can affect our physical reality. If you're expecting good things to come your way, that's more likely to happen than if you're grumpy and grouchy. To an extent I agree with this, though I think it's an over-simplification. Big life problems don't usually disappear if you imagine a sunrise or angels, though being optimistic that you will find a workable solution to your current situation can help you move forward instead of staying stuck in despair.

Several years ago, during a workshop with vision teacher Peter Grunwald, he took us on a walk after dark over a mountain through the dense woods. I complained I couldn't see anything, almost panicking, I was so out of my comfort zone. Peter told me to stop walking and to look directly overhead. All my focus had been on moving forward, trying not to trip and fall, not able to see much more than the shapes of the people surrounding me in the gloom. Peter asked me if I could see the difference between the sky and the trees around us when I looked straight up, which I could, barely. So it wasn't true that I couldn't see anything, and I started to calm down, then to be able to see more detail.

No one turned on a light for me to see more in those dark woods, I simply relaxed. When we see ourselves as capable of coping, it usually helps us to know we can keep going forward. If you're feeling inadequate, remember the problems you've solved in the past, and the difficulties you've already overcome. You've gotten this far, maybe with some help, and maybe while making a few mistakes, yet you did it -- you're still here! You are a survivor, likely one who has overcome many obstacles. Appreciate your uniqueness, and what you have to give that no one else can.

To read about seeing more clearly when the scene pleases you, click here.

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Please send me your questions and comments
Let me know what you've wondered about concerning energy medicine or vision or dreams. I'll be glad to write a short article addressing that topic. Thank you to those who have sent me questions, or see a question you asked me in a private session written about here. You're helping many other people! Enjoy the start of this juicy month of January, and of this never-before year of 2024. I'll write again in a few weeks. Take care!