It occurred to me earlier this week that Magic Eye pictures, popular in the 90’s, provide a gateway into some truth’s about life. In this blog I’ll use them to illustrate how we only ever see what we’ve been taught to see. But when we’re shown another way to see, we can never not see what we get shown.
I don’t know about you, but I was obsessed with Magic Eye pictures. I had several books containing them when I was younger.
It shocked me to find out when talking to younger people at a networking event, that they had never heard of them! So if you’re ‘young’ then I’ll explain a little about these incredible pictures and leave one below for you to experiment with.
As you can see, a Magic Eye picture is, at first glance, just a mess of colours and lines on a page…
But in actual fact once you know how to look at them you see a 3D image within them. I’ll let you know at the bottom of this blog what the image within this one is, incase you can’t see it.
Learning to look differently
The trick with these pictures is to relax the focus of attention; to allow vision to go slightly blurry.
The way I was told to do that (which might be tricky on a screen) was to hold your nose up against the picture and gradually pull the image away, relaxing the eyes until the 3D image pops out.
Unless you know this, all you’ll likely see are the colours and patterns of the picture.
Unless you’re taught to look differently, you’ll just see what’s most obvious.
It’s the same with how you view life. Consider where you got the rules with which you live your life, or view the world.
For example, why do you think certain things are ‘good’ and others are ‘bad’? Why do you queue to pay for your groceries? Or why do you not queue? Why do you hold the beliefs about yourself, other people and things that you do?
Did you choose those things or were they things that at some point, probably when you were younger, you were told?
I would propose that the way you see the world and others, and the way you behave, all comes from what you’ve been taught, whether by others or through your mind making conclusions about things that have happened to you. For example, “I’m bad at maths” because you got 5/10 in a maths test when you were 7.
But what if all those ideas you’ve collected up about yourself, others and the world, were not true? It’s time to look differently and let me show you how.
What’s really true?
So using the ‘Magic Eye’ analogy, the way you see yourself, others and the world, is the way you’ve been taught to see it. If you haven’t been shown a different way then that’s the only thing you’ll see.
But how would it be to consider that there’s something more obvious than anything you’ve been told, but because you haven’t been shown, you don’t see it?
You are not what you think you are…
Think about this…do you notice the space between these letters and words or do you notice the letters and words?
Do you notice the space in a room, or do you simply notice the items that are in the space of the room?
Would the letters and words or items in your room, exist without the space?
I hope you can see that without the space, none of it could exist because the letters, words and objects exist due to the space. The space literally creates the objects. No space = no objects.
So what about you?
Have you noticed that you notice?
Have you ever noticed that you notice, or that you’re aware? It’s so obvious yet we generally don’t see that because we’re so busy paying attention to the things; the objects, the people, the thoughts, the feelings and emotions that we are aware of..
We get hypnotised by the ‘things’. All attention goes on them, and the obvious fact of simply being aware is not noticed.
Who cares, I hear you cry?
Well, here is why it matters if you’d like a more calm, peaceful, free, experience of life.
The objects, whether thoughts, people, items etc, all change. Have you ever noticed that nothing stays the same? Your body, thoughts, environment, situation, feelings; always changing. Yet if you look, you’ll see that there is something that never changes and has never changed.
The thing that never changes is the awareness of those things.
Like the space that we generally don’t notice in a room or on a page or screen, without that awareness, nothing can be known.
Look for yourself.
Could you know this writing without being aware?
Could you know your body without being aware?
Could you feel without being aware?
Could you know thoughts without being aware?
I don’t think so.
Seeing Differently
The more you come to know this inexplicable, ever present, unchanging non-thing, the less desirable it is to be distracted by that which is always changing.
When attention is entirely on that which constantly changes, the experience of life is like being on a rollercoaster; nothing feels safe or stable.
However, when attention shifts to that which is always here, always the same, always present there is naturally more calm, peace and ease.
But don’t take my word for it. I’ve shown you how to look differently so now it’s time to explore for yourself.
If you need a bit of support, my book “The Truth Beyond Thought; Experiments To Rediscover Peace & Freedom might be useful.
If you have any questions or reflections let me know in the comments below…
And for those of you who couldn’t see it, the Magic Eye picture has a 3D shark in it.
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