Perception Deception

The Dress in Question

An interesting topic was addressed on the PBS show NOVA. It’s called Your Brain: Perception Deception — and can be found on youTube if anyone is interested in viewing it. One example, given in this program, is The Dress — the dress which to some seemed white and gold, while others saw a blue and black garment. Apparently, there were huge disagreements over what color this dress was. The end result of this discussion is that color occurs within the brain. The light that enters your eyes is not color; the brain interprets it. Light comes in different wave lengths, which change when they hit different surfaces. There is quite an in-depth discussion of the reasons for this, but this doesn’t hold much interest for me and I won’t bore you with my elementary interpretations. What I have gleaned from the explanation is that our perceptions are not only colored by past experiences and knowledge, but by environmental differences, too. This has strengthened my desire to hold no strong opinions which, after all, close my mind to other ideas — perhaps even the fact that the dress is blue and black!

“If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. I can see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see or not. What I have chosen to see has cost me vision. Now I would choose again, that I may see.”
—A Course in Miracles W-52.4:2-6

“The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 406:11-12

A Meaningful World

Image created by Laura Iverson

I had a sleeping dream of Utopia. There was no need to speak, as we knew each others' thoughts. We had no fear, as our thoughts were uncluttered and pure. Everywhere I looked there were happy people, busy at tasks which would benefit everyone. There was no need for television or radios, as we knew everything, and it was Good. At one point, I thought I was lost in the woods, but that was impossible because others sensed my confusion and were there immediately to lead me to a safe and beautiful home. While traveling on a road, suddenly the way was filled with huge boulders and ancient fallen trees. But to the left side there was a field filled with beautiful flowers, and a pathway leading to my destination. All needs were met before I knew of them, and there was the most wonderful sense of peace. I will hold to these beautiful feelings today, while seeing the meaningless basis of my thoughts and desires.

“Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning. What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.”
—A Course in Miracles W-53.1:2-5

“Sleep and apathy are phases of the dream that life, substance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night dream is sometimes nearer than are the thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its mundane flights quite ethereal.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 249:24-30

Walking in Gratitude

Graphic from Deborah Martin

A return to Love is a simpler way of living. There need be no battle within yourself as to which choice is better than the other, whatever those choices may be. Comparisons need not exist in the way of Love and, without them, an arena of conflict is dissolved. We are learning that Oneness is more than an airy-fairy concept; it is reality! The concepts brought forth from these realizations are unlike anything humanity has experienced to this point! Seeing everyone as reflections of Love, all from the same source, frees us in ways we haven’t hitherto allowed. We then can experience Love in all of the harmonious paths which are so easily overlooked by mortal eyes — and I am grateful!

“Gratitude is a lesson hard to learn for those who look upon the world amiss. The most that they can do is see themselves as better off than others. And they try to be content because another seems to suffer more than they. How pitiful and deprecating are such thoughts! For who has cause for thanks while others have less cause? And who could suffer less because he sees another suffer more? Your gratitude is due to Him alone Who made all cause of sorrow disappear throughout the world.”
—A Course in Miracles W-195.1:1-7

“We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by following the example of our Master in the understanding of divine metaphysics.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Pages 192:27-29

A Deeper Love

Photo of unknown origin

In the past few decades, we have seen a great evolution in the way we think about people. A video story set in Australia in the 1950s has reminded me of how far we’ve come. (For you video buffs, it’s called A Place to Call Home.) It’s inspiring to see what beliefs we have given up, replacing them with Love rather than fear. For instance, we had many closed-minded ideas about people of different skin color marrying each other, not to mention the barriers imposed by religious separation and gender. People had to endure electrical shock treatment and its aftermath to “cure” homosexuality or hysteria. Natural acts, such as giving birth, were thought of as a disease which needed to be managed in torturous ways. We’ve come a long way in dispelling erroneous thought and replacing it with what we now see as advanced thinking! What if we’re meant to advance even further? We’ll never know until we are able to divest ourselves of the shackles of the past which hold us in place, and listen to the guidance of divine Mind leading us to heights never before imagined!

“For in the holy instant, free of the past, you see that love is in you, and you have no need to look without and snatch love guiltily from where you thought it was.”
—A Course in Miracles T-15.V.9:7

"Our false views of matter perish as we grasp the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the inspiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be lost."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 281:28-1

Images of Thought

 

Art by Oleg Shuplyak

There’s a video of a woman sitting at a table. She is asked to hold her right arm out, resting it from elbow to hand on the table surface. They erect a barrier so she cannot see her hand, and then they place a rubber hand and arm in front of her, which she can see, with the elbow ending at her body. Then the person sitting on the other side of the table uses a soft paint brush to stroke both her hand and the rubber hand. The woman admitted feeling a little odd, because she was beginning to experience sensation in the rubber hand. When the person moved the brush to the rubber thumb, stroking it but not her actual hand, she jerked back because the feeling was so strange. Then the man across the table pulled out a hammer and hit the rubber hand. You can imagine how the woman reacted! This demonstrated how, in a matter of two minutes or less, a rubber hand became a human hand in the mind of this woman. This is, in essence, what we've done with everything around us. Belief becomes our reality -- and very quickly! So today I will practice moving away from beliefs and opening my mind to the reality of 4th-dimensional thought!

"Mortals evolve images of thought." "Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it with all material conceptions."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 86:13 and 86:29:1

“It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your ‘seeing’ was made. This is the function you have given your body’s eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.” 
—A Course in Miracles W-15.1:1-7

Breaking the Chain of Darkness

Created by Deborah Martin

For a Facebook Post 

Have you ever caught yourself saying or doing something which surprised you? — and not in a good way! Recently I did just that. While chastising someone for their actions, suddenly I realized that while pointing a finger, three were pointing back at me. It’s something to know, intellectually, that what bothers us about “other people” is what bothers us about our own selves. But when the emotional, spiritual implications of that action suddenly hits you in the head (so to speak), it’s a different feeling entirely. It’s an opening of the heart and a humble asking for divine guidance on how to think about the situation. And, of course, that guidance came through quickly and thoroughly. The following ACIM quote is what found its way to me. The whole section will be pondered soon. Namaste, my friends …

“The guilty always condemn, and having done so they will still condemn, linking the future to the past as is the ego’s law. Fidelity to this law lets no light in, for it demands fidelity to darkness and forbids awakening. The ego’s laws are strict, and breaches are severely punished. Therefore give no obedience to its laws, for they are laws of punishment. And those who follow them believe that they are guilty, and so they must condemn. Between the future and the past the laws of God must intervene, if you would free yourself. Atonement stands between them, like a lamp shining so brightly that the chain of darkness in which you bound yourself will disappear.”
—A Course in Miracles T-13.IX.1:1-8

“Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 296:4-9

No Neutral Thoughts

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Every thought is important: it gives rise to perception, and it either extends truth or multiplies illusion. A well-known story, which you may have heard, illustrates this. A grandfather is talking to his grandson about anger. He tells him that we all have a peaceful wolf and an angry wolf living inside us, and the one that grows is the one we feed. While I find this to be an exemplary tale illustrating a truth of this material existence, it does nothing to speak to the metaphysical truth we are learning: There is no angry wolf. As A Course in Miracles workbook lesson #16 states, "you can multiply nothing but you can't extend it". Our thoughts which feed an angry wolf have no power as they're feeding something which does not exist. We are learning that erroneous thoughts can seem real and may even seem to grow, but that's impossible because Truth trumps error every time.

“Besides your recognizing that thoughts are never idle, salvation requires that you also recognize that every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as unimportant, trivial and not worth bothering about that it is essential you recognize them all as equally destructive, but equally unreal. We will practice this idea in many forms before you really understand it.”
—A Course in Miracles - W-16.3:1-4

"Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought." 

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 114:23-27