Hi John
good of you to share your experience with us, I enjoyed it very much,
because it resonated with me in so many ways.
I too have often been out by moonlight, and often I feel as though there is
a certain clarity of vision, its as if you see things afresh, on a night
with a full moon and little light pollution from " civilisation ",
everything becomes more ( i want to say 3d but....) solid, or appears to
have a definite distinct form, whereas during daylight, there seems to be
much more of a general melding of edges and textures. I guess this could be
because at night you are mainly using the rods in your eyes and not the
cones which need more light to "fire". Whether the visual processing between
retina and cortex is different for rods and cones I don't know.
Also maybe the light from the moon having been reflected off its surface is
polarised ( as most reflected light is!), and this may also account for the
enhanced 3d feel of objects.
In the Maldives, it's possible to read by moonlight on the beach, and every
single word seems to jump out of the page at you one at a time, the fact
that my brain was having to try harder than normal to grab information from
my field of view may account for this, but it certainly does let you see old
things in a new light ( no pun intended...ha! ha!)
More interesting to me though and certainly the more mystical experiences,
have come from DRUGS... yes I know, I should know better, but aside from the
do's and dont's, when I have taken ecstasy and wandered off away from the
party, into the country ( by moonlight ) I am amazed at just how much more
you see than in full sun, every fold of bark on a tree trunk becomes a
highly detailed, fully 3-dimensional object, you can see how all these folds
and grooves fit together, the leaves appear as individual leaves, not just a
mass of foliage...I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea, the
same thing also happened the one time I tried Opium with the Karen
Hilltribes in Thailand, only this was even more extreme, like walking in
daylight!!!
The biological expalnation maybe related to the D light everyone talks
about, as I know ecstasy does dilate the pupils involuntarily, allowing more
light han normal into the eye... but I don't think this is enough, thereis
an element of processing in the brain which seems tobe bypassed, allowing
you to see things as they are...
Having had these experiences once, it is possible to let yourself go and see
things new anytime I like, my brain allows me to turn off the categorising
it normally does, and explre things as if seen for the first time, very
important to me as I am a photographer by trade...
I don't have any great revelations or insights, only more questions!!!!!
Rod
on 3/3/02 7:41 PM, John Beasley at beasley@austarnet.com.au wrote:
> I am reminded of James' remark that there exist forms of consciousness
> separated from our ordinary states by the thinnest of veils. Part of the
> learning of mysticism that Wilber refers to is no doubt learning to see, or
> rather, experience, with something of this immediacy. In other words, to
> really attend to here and now reality. When I was experimenting with theta
> states using biofeedback techniques, I found that I could remain in theta
> while still indulging in a sort of 'slow' thought, but immediately I became
> focussed on describing my experience, for example, I would slip out of
> theta. Opening my eyes had the same effect, and my friend who was allowing
> me the use of his neuro-processing equipment suggested that it was not
> possible to remain in theta with open eyes. Yet my experience in the
> moonlight had something of the character of a theta state, with eyes wide
> open.
>
> I do not want to repeat Pirsig's error and attempt to reduce lived
> experience to scientific concepts. Rather, I am interested in expanding my
> understanding and awareness of experience, including those unusual and rare
> states which perhaps would be more commonplace if I could turn off my busy
> cognitive brain. I would be interested to hear if others have had similar
> experiences.
>
> John B
>
>
>
>
>
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