Eyesight
Our
sight is one of the most active features of the brain. We stimulate two thirds
(70%) of the cerebral cortex when we are looking at a child running. There are
30 brain areas that will be working on the details of that vision. We need to
know who is the child, where it is, how fast it moves, where it is going, what
clothes it wears, its colors, the risk it runs, the kinship it has with us, if
it comes to us to say something and if we need to open our arms to embrace it or
help if there is a danger of falling.
Our
sight record is not the photographic type, it is interpretive, and it constructs
a landscape with what it sees. What we see creates a "representation" of what we
"think" we are seeing. From this it follows that more than ninety percent of
this activity takes place in the mind; and this is what allows each one of us to
see as it seems to us and not as the thing really is.
Why do we see?
Human sight only exists with light. It all starts with a wave of vibratory
energy that strikes our retina reflecting in it the image of objects. Here the
light acts on cones and rods producing thousands of combinations in black and
white or in colors, in a mixture of three fundamental colors: red, green and
blue - color is almost a miracle, and it is good to know that it exists in us
and not in objects. When the light energy is converted into a nerve impulse, it
travels through the brain producing a series of other phenomena that will enable
us to "qualify" what we see, giving them properties:
The
moonlight meekness
The
stillness of the valleys
The
birds chirping
The
rushing of water
The
brightness of the stars
The
children's generous smile
The
strong red of the strawberries
The
bright red of Sunset
The
soft red of the roses.
Sight and language
Our
mind creates symbolic representations for what we are seeing. We give them
qualities to understand their existence.
The
properties of the objects and scenarios described above are not primary
qualities, they are "imaginations" that we create to relate, interpret and
explain how these things are for us. We learn to use our representations with
their meanings so that they can be part of our everyday language, dispensing the
presence of the visualized object.
Our
childhood is full of imagination that we learnt to listen to and create to
represent the world and lessen our anguish and fears. We created the little
angels with wings, the man who is half man and half horse, the little fairy who
produces stars, the monsters, the giants and the dwarfs, the witches and the
heroes. However, the greatest invention we created to represent our images was
writing. Only the human being is able to represent an object by a set of
letters, a word a phrase or a poem.
It
is said that an eagle is able to see a letter from a distance of 15 meters, but
surely it cannot read it, or give meaning to this letter and understand what it
says.
Anatomy’s impulse - sharing the image
When
the image reaches the back of the brain in the occipital region, important and
curious anatomical phenomena occur. The information is distributed in layers
from a central point, in the last turn of the occipital lobe. There we build the
focus of our gaze, from which some detail of the image spreads like the peel of
an onion. One part will be sent to the parietal lobe in the Angular Groove,
another to the temporal region in the Medial Groove, and a third path will also
reach the Fusiform Groove, also in the temporal lobe.
Let's see what the purpose of this threefold division is:
The Angular Turn and its neighborhoods
Located in the parietal lobe, this rotation plays very interesting functions -
it allows us to have a GPS in the brain - it locates us in space and allows us
to be informed "where" – precisely this: where a certain object is. Let us
imagine we pick up a cup among several crockery and glasses, the clumsy ones
always cause small accidents at home.
In
the right parietal lobe some surgical experiments were able to stimulate the
vicinity of this area and the patient reported feeling outside the body - a
projection of the body image occurs outside the body - similar to the known
metaphysical reports of "out of body experiences" that count today with vast
evidence in the medical literature.
The temporal lobe
Here
there are regions that allow us to have a sense of "what is" and of the
movements of people and objects identified - to understand the importance of
this function would be like walking in the corridor of a mall where
several people are hurrying in our direction, forcing us to get away from each
of them. And here also the clumsy ones have no success and often bump into each
other.
The Fusiform Spin
It
is a phenomenon of extreme importance - it is an area where the faces of people
are projected, thus the identification of friends and strangers is processed, a
fundamental distinction for sociability and survival. And in this particular, we
all stumble when we remember that face, but we often forget the person’s name.
A
brief summary
We
conclude then that soon after we have the images recorded in the occipital lobe
they spread their connections to neighboring areas so that we can become aware
of the color, shape, movement and precise location of the visualized object -
for each of these functions there is a group of neurons performing this task.
Neurology tells us that we have, yes, a neuron for our Grandmother and another
for Angelina Jolie.
Between the brain and the mind
Neurology teaches that the image that comes to our eyes is not interpreted as a
reflection projecting into a mirror. Brain and mind will build what they "think"
to be seeing. Therefore, for all we see the brain and mind assemble a
representation of what they imagine to be what is being seen.
It
is worth repeating with the scientists that our reality is pure imagination.
More important, yet, is to know that each of us imagines the world in its own
way.
Neurology teaches that as we build our mental images, we assemble some pieces
that combine in this imagination. First, the expectation - if I expect to see an
angel I must give it wings as one of its properties. By repeating what we have
already learned, sight is an active process; it is our mind that puts in objects
or people the characteristics it expects to see in them.
Then, our memories - if I already know the “pequi do cerrado” (1), it is easy
for me to identify this fruit when I find it in the middle of the rice coloring
it with its yellowish color. When I see a face in the crowd I will know who it
is if my memories detect our kinship or friendship.
Finally, it interferes with our personal and collective culture - the land
worker who recognizes the animals in the field; the mechanic who works with the
engine parts; the doctor who handles the surgery instruments; the cook who
chooses the ingredients for the food; the bushman who walks easily through the
forest; the pilot who lands the plane even in the fog of the storm - they all
see details that their knowledge makes possible to compose.
The extravagances of pathology
Injuries, inflammations, tumors and various syndromes are able to trigger
manifestations that distort our vision. Out of the classic neurological
frameworks of blindness and hemianopia, it is worth pointing out curiosities
that occur with some people.
If
the area that identifies the movement of objects or people is affected, then the
individual reports unbelievable curiosities - one of them says he cannot pour
milk in the glass. When he turns the bottle he does not notice the liquid
falling into the glass and he spills the milk. Another one says there is no way
to walk in the mall, because he never knows if people are coming toward him; and
it is terrible trying to cross the street when the cars are passing. A third one
will note that those birds that are flying around actually seem to be standing
still, but he can see them in one place or another, leaving him confused.
Colors have several tones or disappear in patients with epilepsy - they can
report visual “crises" during which they perceive in their field of vision the
unfolding of a scene as if it were a movie. It may initially be your black and
white images, followed by the appropriate coloring filling the scenery.
The mediumship - seeing Spirits
Clairvoyance is a rare type of mediumship. Children usually see a lot, just like
the elderly in the later stages of life.
Good
clairvoyants make very interesting reports that we can better understand by
knowing what the brain tells us as we are studying.
It
must be said that the medium does not see the Spirit; it is the Spirit that is
made visible - using the sharing of a special physiology available to the
clairvoyant. The perception of a spiritual entity happens through a combination
of phenomena - it takes a combination of the fluids of the incarnate with the
disincarnate; there is a fluidic attunement with assimilation by the medium's
perispirit of what is projected by the disincarnated Spirit.
And
finally, the image that the Spirit wants to show has its expression in the
physical brain of the medium to which he must submit to what we study about it.
We
can summarize some of our statements registered above:
The
visible world is an imagination of the mind - this is called visual perception.
Visual stimulus reaches the "brain," but it is the mind that builds the
representation of what it sees - we create a mental picture of what we think we
are seeing.
Each
of us builds his visual images according to his expectations, his memories and
his culture.
There are differentiated regions in the brain located around the occipital
region, for the perception of space and what it contains, the location of
objects or people, their movement, shape, color and facial identity.
Let's take the examples in the mediums' reports:
What we can learn
1 -
In The Book of Mediums, Allan Kardec teaches that clairvoyance is a kind
of a rare mediumship and that its development should not be caused, letting it
take its natural course, avoiding the risk of being deluded by the imagination.
The brain has plenty information and the mind is very creative and can make us
see what does not exist.
2 -
In the fantasy world of the child it is common for the child to talk with
characters built by its imagination, but not everything is fictitious in the
world of the child. In the history of many mediums they report their
clairvoyance from childhood, and at that time they did not have enough knowledge
to identify what part of the conversation with spiritual entities was really
taking part.
3 -
In the elderly and in terminal patients, there are reports of visits by Spirits,
who were relatives, and which are seen by the patient - the veracity of these
reports deserves unquestionable credit - in this respect, the Spiritist Doctrine
is rich in proofs.
4 -
In epilepsy, although academic neurology still does not admit it, it is possible
that certain crises are precipitated by disturbing entities, and we can imagine
that the images visualized in the crises have to do with the spiritual
dimension. In the words of Kardec, clairvoyance is often a fleeting episode,
much resembling a cortical "crisis" - we believe it occurs through excitation of
neurons in the occipital region.
5 –
Clairvoyance is not a continuous phenomenon, it usually occurs in flashes,
often restricted to a focus, at a certain point in the environment - sometimes
the Spirit appears systematically in the same place, or here and there. From
what we have studied, the fixation of the Spirit at a particular location occurs
by stimulating localized neurons in the medium's brain rather than as a real
fact. It is not, for example, the fault of the Spirit to always appear next to
the piano, it is the medium's brain that can only see it there.
6 -
The appearance of the Spirit has to do with the stimulation of neurons of the
occipito-temporal area that allows us to identify the forms of objects. The
popular concept teaches that the description of the forms depends on the eyes of
the beholder - watch out for the bride's wedding dress, each guest will make the
description that most affects him. That is why in the visions both saints and
demons can be described - wings, haloes, tridents or mantles of light.
7 -
When Wilder Penfield began the first neurosurgeons to cure epilepsy, the patient
was operated on awake, with the brain exposed. This allowed certain areas of the
brain to be stimulated electrically by the neurosurgeon. Dr. Penfield was able
to obtain, with this technique, that the patient reported what he was seeing or
feeling or moving his fingers. He could also utter a few words, cries, see
scenes from his past, describe places where he had lived or where he felt
projected.
Allan Kardec teaches that our soul, when emancipated partially from the body,
can "see" pictures or scenarios stored in its own physical brain. This means
that our neurons store signals that allow us to recompose memories of things
seen or experienced - we think that this is a very appropriate vulnerability for
the obsessors to act.