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"Holistic Vision" |
The latest News from www.eye-floaters.info
September 2009 (3/09) |
Dots and strands in our field of vision: Vitreous opacity
or light of consciousness?
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This
is the latest issue of "Holistic Vision". I am Floco Tausin, author,
consciousness researcher, and initiator of this spiritual project.
The focus of "Holistic Vision" lies on entoptic phenomena,
mainly on so-called eye floaters (in ophthalmology
known as vitreous floaters or by the French term mouches
volantes, see
pictures).We see these as easily floating dots
and strands in our field of vision. The close observation indicates
that there is a correspondence between altered states of consciousness
and specific appearances of floaters. Thus, the novel and provocative
main thesis of this project is: eye floaters are the first appearances
of a shining structure of consciousness within which we cover
a distance to our spiritual origin. We can see and experience
this way. As an object of concentration and meditation, these
dots and strands are therefore a significant key to our consciousness
development.
Read
further … |
News Content
1) Lead Story: Awakening
the Inner Sense
2) Reader’s Hints, Experiences, and Pictures: E-Mail
from David
3) Nestors knowledge on eye floaters: The
basic structure of the picture
4) Quarterly Picture: Spiritual-Religious Art from Giovanni di Paolo
5) About the Author’s Projects: Mouches
Volantes – Eye Floaters 2; Publications by Floco Tausin
6 ) Last but not Least: Reader’s
comments on the Holistic Vision Project
Lead
Story
Awakening the Inner Sense.
Some Methods and Meditation Objects
What
is the inner sense and how do we develop it? This article deals
with open eye meditation that imply the concentration on both, material
and subtle objects. As subtle objects, I present some entoptic phenomena
and provide a short introduction on using them in our daily meditation.
Part 1/2: The inner sense and the material meditation objects
What we know
as our weekday is a tide of miscellaneous information which we receive
with our five senses and put together to an integral picture in the brain.
The sense organs are the gates of our body – they connect the outside
world with the inner world and determine, dependent on our state of consciousness,
how we experience this world.
But is there
more to human sense activity than touching, seeing, hearing, smelling
and tasting? There is, according to many cultures and religions where
we find the notion of an inner sense. This sense is thought of as a mode
of perception which directly and intuitively gives insight to the essence
or true nature of the object perceived. Often this subtle or inner sense
is linked to the eye as a widespread symbol of light, cognition and truth.
It is then addressed as the “inner eye”, “third eye”
or “eye of the heart”, common among mystics who experienced
the divine light. In Indian mythology, for example, this inner sense is
expressed as god Shiva’s frontal eye that gives him unifying vision.
Accordingly, tantric yogis try to open this third eye by activating the
“Ajna Chakra”, located between the eyebrows. Likewise, the
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama received enlightenment through a “celestial
eye” (prajnacaksus) which permitted him to understand the forces
of existence and their manifestation in the chain of causality. The Greek
philosophers spoke of an “Eye of the Spirit” which has to
be opened and purified to see the truth. While the Old Testament calls
the prophets “seers” and refers to an all-seeing eye or “Eye
of Providence” that turns to those who fear God and gives them superior
insights or strength, the New Testament takes up the Greek philosopher’s
notion of the “Eye of the Soul or Heart”: the eye becomes
the object of purity (Matthew, 6.22), and the Eye of the Heart has to
be opened in order to see God (Acts 9.18). Over the centuries, Desert
Fathers, Gnostics, and Mystics alike further reported experiences of the
inner sense as inner eye or eye of the heart or soul. Since the early
modern period, Western esoterics and scientists interested in unifying
the scientific and spiritual traditions are trying to find a physiological
correspondence of this inner sense. In recent years, for example, the
inner sense was associated with the pineal gland, based on scientific
insights about the light sensitivity of this gland.
The
Eye of Providence at the Aachen Cathedral, Germany.
|
The
relation between perception, soul and pineal gland after René
Descartes (1596-1650). |
Meditation
for the development of the inner sense
Developing our
inner sense, therefore, is a way to improve our spiritual life. In fact,
many of us are doing this already, more or less consciously. For example,
while meditating, many have come to experience subjective visual appearances,
ecstatic feelings or intuitive insights – first aspects of an inner
sense waking up. But if we want to develop that inner sense to its full
bloom, years and decades of constant exercise are necessary. In any case,
awakening the inner sense means choosing a meditation method which works
directly with the inner sense or with its objects and function. Generally,
meditation can be carried out on material objects which stimulate the
inner sense; or on subtle objects which can be conceived of as objects
of this inner sense.
Material meditation objects
Material meditation
objects are perceived through the eyes, not through the inner sense, but
concentrating on them can stimulate the inner sense and lead to subtle
appearances. Meditation on material objects should support the inner sense
or third eye in its function to mediate between the two brain or consciousness
hemispheres. It should make aware to us our right intuitive emotional
side as well as our left analytical rational side, bringing them into
harmony with each other. This turns out best by means of squinting techniques
which have been developed likewise in Western and Eastern traditions.
Two different types of squinting must be distinguished here, though: the
letting go of the eyes (parallel viewing) in which the concentration point
shifts behind the object looked at, and the concentrative directing inside
the eyes (cross viewing) in which the concentration point is drawn in
front of the object looked at, in the direction of the observer. To distinguish
these two types, we call the second type “doubling”. Doubling
is the type of squinting ideal for meditation.
The simplest exercise of doubling is looking at the root of the nose,
according to the way of Indian yogis. However, doubling can also be applied
to distant material objects. Anthropologist and author Carlos Castaneda,
for example, mentions a seeing technology called “gazing”
which at first means to focus the view on an object, similar to the yogi’s
cleaning exercise “trataka”. Sometimes, though, it is combined
with squinting in which the practitioner moves apart the two pictures
and thus superimposes two equally formed objects. The concentration on
this superimposed object synchronizes the two consciousness hemispheres
and, regularly practiced, produces a depth perception which carries the
practitioner into other spheres of consciousness.
Another example of this form of meditation is the meditation on the “Tables
of Chartres”. The tables are three legendary geometric figures of
equal surface area, made from red and blue colored metal pieces shaped
as rectangle, square, and circle. They are put down before oneself in
two rows of alternating color and shape and doubled until a superimposed
third table group appears in the middle. The knowledge around this old
meditation type was maintained and passed on by gypsies and published
by the French author Pierre Derlon for the first time.
The Tables of Chartres.
to be continued...
Source
and Literature(both parts):
Literature
- Bókkon, István:
Phosphene phenomenon: A new concept, in: BioSystems 92 (2008):
168-174
- Chen, Spencer C. u.a.:
Simulating prosthetic vision: I. Visual models of phosphenes,
in: Vision Research, vol. 49, nr. 12, June 2009, p. 1493-1506
- Castaneda, Carlos: Voyage
to Ixtlan, 1972
- Castaneda, Carlos: The
Second Ring of Power, 1977
- Derlon, Pierre: Die
Gärten der Einweihung. Sphinx Verlag, Basel 1978
- Lewis-Williams, J. D.
/ Dowson, T. A.: The Signs of All Times, in: Current Anthropology,
vol. 29, nr. 2, April 1988
- Meslin, Michel: Eye,
in: Eliade, Mircea (Ed.): The Encyclopaedia of Religion (2nd ed.),
2005, p. 2.939-2.941
- Pennington, George:
Die Tafeln von Chartres. Die gnostische Schau des Westens, Patmos
2002
- Sinclair, S.H., M. Azar-Cavanaugh,
K.A. Soper, R.F. Tuma, and H.N. Mayrovitz. "Investigation
of the source of the blue field entoptic phenomenon." Investigative
Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 4 (1989): 668-673.
- Tausin, Floco: Mouches
Volantes. Eye Floaters as Shining Structure of Consciousness,
Bern: Leuchtstruktur Verlag 2009
- Tausin, Floco: Kokons
und Fasern – Leuchtkugeln und Leuchtfäden. Mouches
volantes als Inspirationsquelle für Carlos Castaneda?, in
: AHA Magazin 5/2006
- Trick, Gary L.; Kronenberg,
Alaina: Entoptic Imagery and Afterimages, in: Tasman, William;
Jaeger, Edward A. (Ed.): Duane’s Ophthalmology, Philadelphia:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2007 [electronic edition]
Inner sense –
inner eye
|
Third
eye and pineal gland
Inner sense or
open eye meditation
Two kinds of squinting:
cross viewing and parallel viewing
Afterimages
Phosphenes
Eye Floaters
Blue field entoptic
phenomenon
|
Reader’s Hints, Experiences,
and Pictures
E-mail from David
The following
question was asked by reader David.
„What do you think of
the bates book, ‘better eyesight without glasses’ opinion
on floaters? It is a covert spiritual guide masked as an eyesight improvement
book in my experience. A different view on floaters for sure.“
Dear
David,
I appreciate the ophthalmologist William Horatio Bates’
alternative approach to good eyesight very much – and I
indeed think the Bates Method has spiritual significance since
it integrates psychological aspects. With regard to eye floaters however,
Bates is ambivalent: on the one hand, he judges them as something „bad“,
that is, an illusionary non-existent object, produced by mental and
eye strain. If we leave it at that, I can’t agree. To me, something
I can perceive is perfectly existent.
On the other hand, this
opens up a possibility in line with my thinking: if floaters are caused
by eye and mental strain – and if we think of the positive aspects
of „strain“ –, then they also may be generated by
concentration exercises like meditation or yoga. Doing such practices,
we voluntarily and consciously develop strain of mind and body which,
in my experience, will intensify eye floaters. In that case, floaters
would become something „good“ or even spiritually valuable.
Better Eyesight
- The Complete Magazines of William H. Bates. (source).
However, this
doesn’t seem to be the case with Bates. And since Bates
is the father of many of today’s alternative or holistic visual
schools, this doesn’t seem to be the case with these
schools either. Generally, they adopt the traditional notion of floaters
as a visual dysfunction. But like Bates, they don’t explain them
in naturalistic optical terms, but in psychological or even spiritual
terms. As a consequence, alternative visual teachers try to cure floaters
with gentle, non-invasive methods like relaxation strategies, a cleansing
eating regimen, meditation (!!) etc. – but in their view, this
phenomenon is still something to be cured.
So yes, there’s
been some recent progress in the Western reception history of floaters,
but, IMHO, no breakthrough yet. And I don’t dare say we’re
halfway, because that would mean another 2.000 years of bobbing up and
down
Floco
Thank
You, David,
for your report!
Dear readers,
do you have personal experiences with eye floaters or other entoptic
phenomena? Or any suggestions what they could be? Send your hints, experiences
and/or pictures to me, I am very interested.
Email: floco.tausin@eye-floaters.info
Nestors
knowledge on eye floaters
The basic structure of the
picture
Eye floaters
and their meaning were interpreted differently depending on the time,
culture and personality of the observer. We learn a spiritually meaningful
perspective about floaters from Nestor, the seer, with whom I have studied
and whose teachings I recorded in the book „Mouches volantes
– Eye Floaters. The Shining Structure of Consciousness“.
In this new category, a particular statement from the book on floaters
shall be presented and explained.
"
I
told Nestor about my perceptions and didn’t make a secret
of my concerns, either. He calmed me down with his usual compelling
persua¬siveness and confirmed that he knew quite a bit about
the phenomenon, adding that he saw it every day, for years already.
»And what are you doing against it?« I asked.
»Do against it?«
»Yes. Aren’t you disturbed by these things floating
in your field of vision?«
Nestor scratched his head; obviously he couldn’t follow
me. »How could they disturb me? After all, I want to see
them.«
»So then these opacities are part of the perfect restoration,«
I as¬sumed.
»They are the key to the perfect restoration,« he
corrected me. »You should practice looking at them consciously
and deliberately, just like you do with the afterimages.«
Nestor went into the kitchen and put a pot with water for some
tea on the stove.
»I’m not sure. To me, it feels as if I add to them
by looking at them.«
»Yes, more of these dots and strands become visible the
more often you concentrate on them,« Nestor confirmed. Obviously
this notion didn’t have anything alarming to him, quite
the contrary: interpreting his tone of voice, I concluded that
he considered it desirable and worth¬while to make them visible
and proliferate.
»But I don’t want them to proliferate,« I defended
myself. »I just want to get rid of them: they’re reducing
my eyesight, they’re distracting me from perceiving the
world around me – perhaps they eventually even make me lose
my eyesight.«
Nestor knitted his eyebrows and negated my concerns in a way that
it seemed I had said something silly. He replied that the dots
and strands did not deprive anyone of his eyesight at all.
»They are the basic structure of the picture,« he
knew. »That which remains when your small world has completely
dissolved in the picture.«
»You call these eye opacities the basic structure of the
picture?« I called out, stunned about his naivety.
»They’re not opacities in the eyes,« he countered.
»They’re dots and strands lighting up. But at this
time you’re still too far away from per¬ceiving the
light inside of them. At some point you’ll be able, though,
to see it.«
" |
From: Mouches
Volantes – Eye Floaters. The Shining Structure of Consciousness,
p. 176 et seq. (Source)
In one of our
first conversations on floaters, Nestor already held a distinct and seemingly
irrational view of these dots and strands. This interpretation lets him
act in a way which is in stark conflict with the behavior of most other
people. When people start to deal with their floaters, is is often because
they want to get rid of them. Nestor on the contrary wants to
see them. For him, they are the „basic structure of the
picture“, something like a „higher reality“ which can
be directly seen. Thus, eye floaters are holding the „picture“
(our sensorially experienceable world) together in the innermost part.
Here, Nestor already mentions a central point of his teachings: eye floaters
can’t be recognized as „higher reality“ without effort,
it needs a visual change. That change takes place along with the „perfect
restoration“ (consciousness development) and contains several aspects:
the number of eye floaters will increase, as does their luminosity. In
addition: this development needs time …
Quarterly
Picture
Giovanni di Paolo
The
category "Quarterly Picture" introduces realistic, artistic,
and/or spiritual/religious representations from different cultures
and times which could show entoptic phenomena, or be inspired by it.
In this issue: Spiritual-Religious Art from Giovanni di Paolo.
Giovanni
di Paolo: Expulsion from Paradise, 1445, wood, 45 x 52 cm.
In
former times, everything was better – that’s what everybody
knows. Former times even were paradisiacal, that’s
what the Bible knows – and it could still be so today, if Adam
and Eve had chosen their meals with a little more respect for the
generations to come. Apparently, this was not „in“ back
then either, and that’s why we have to carry the can for that
faux pas by the sweat of our brow. No wonder, generations of artists
tried to grasp that incomprehensibility through depicting, as did
the Italian painter Giovanni di Paolo (1403 (?)-1482).
His works, stylistically between Gothic and Renaissance, are considered
mysterious and visionary. At least, this applies to the scene in „Expulsion
from Paradise“: our ancestors have been caught red-handed and
banished to the rock desert opening up in the middle of a polycyclic
concentric circle. Now, a legion of theologians and historians will
make clear that this circle represents the medieval geocentric world
view: the Earth in the center, orbited by the sun, the moon, the five
planets, the fixed stars, the „prime mover“, and the highest
heaven, the empyrean. Visually, however, this nine-spherical „disc
world“ has an effect of depth, and it is conceivable that the
artist considered it a tunnel which connects our world with Paradise,
and which, if found, will lead back there. Anyway, Nestor sees such
connections in the floating dots and strands. He speaks of a „source“,
a tunnel-like array of spheres in this shining structure, which we
may find and enter in our lifetime. What expects us at the other end
of the tunnel is uncertain, though, figured and described differently
by each religion.
You will
find this and other pictures in the gallery.
Do you have drawings of eye floaters or other entoptic phenomena (flying
corpuscles, afterimages etc.)? Do you know of realistic, artistic,
and religious representations of such appearances? Then send
me the picture or give me the tip; I would like to publish
it in the newsletter and/or in the gallery.
„Mouches
Volantes – Eye Floaters. The Nine Lights“ (Source)
|
About
the Author’s Projects
- Mouches Volantes
– Eye Floaters 2: second book project started
- Publications
by Floco Tausin |
Mouches Volantes –
Eye Floaters 2: second book project started
The At the beginning of May,
the second book project of Floco Tausin started. „Mouches
Volantes – Eye Floaters. The Nine Lights“ –
the anticipated title – picks up the thread of the predecessor.
The central subject will be the „principle of the basic structure“
which was mentioned, but not explained, by Nestor in the first book.
It turns out that this principle is a constellation of spheres which
reveals itself to the seer in intensive consciousness states as a universal
principle of being. Guided by the seers, Floco is trying to find that
constellation of spheres in the left side of consciousness.
After the failed
jump into the left side, Floco continues his efforts to overcome the „Bridge“
– in the basic structure as well as on Mari Egli’s secretaire
which he tries to restorate „perfectly“. This time, he’s
not the only one trying hard to reach that goal: Floco makes acquaintance
with further students who look for the same basic constellation of spheres
and, thus, for an answer to the existential questions of life. Everyone
of these students has got an individual approach to cross the Bridge in
the shinings structure – Floco is searching for the universal principle
in the cultural and intellectual heritage of mankind. But the students
recognize more and more that their further progress on the path in the
basic structure is dependent on their acting together. The seers share
their mystic and mysterious warmth and wisdom in many unconventional conversations
and exceptional acts with the students and, thus, show them the way …
The date
of the publication is not determined yet. The writing ideally
will be completed within the next three years. But as always it means:
the book will be published as soon as it’s done AND mature.
Publications
by Floco Tausin
Find a complete
list with all previous publications (monographs, anthologies, journals)
on Website.
Medizin und Religion. Die spirituelle Dimension der Migräne-Aura
(German)
A contribution to the dialogues around the merging of religion and
medicine. I’m examining the phenomenon of migraine aura from
a spiritual perspective, making it a condition of body and mind
which is accessible and changeable through the lived spirituality.
Published:
- Extremnews (Part 1)
- Extremnews (Part 2)
Last
but not Least
Reader’s
comments on the Holistic Vision Project
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„Jesus,
what are you smoking!?“
--
Anonymous |
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I would like
to remove the quarterly appearing newsletter "Holistic Vision" |
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