The phrase, “I’ll believe it when I see it” is one we are all too familiar with but it does raise many issues in my mind. If the eyes are to be the tool by which we measure absolute truth then we will be easily deceived, either deliberately or by chance.

A common football quote is to “give the goalkeeper the eyes”, in other words look as if going to shoot in one direction but then shooting in the opposite direction whilst still looking in the original direction. It is a skill many of us have been trying to perfect for many years without success but there are those who are masters of it.

Street magicians have an amazing knack of making you believe they have created a piece of magic simply by making you believe that your eyes have been fooled, which they have. Who can forget the blue/gold dress internet storm when nobody could decide what the actual colours were?

I see it every day when I am teaching or driving, a dependance on the eyes to ensure everything is ok before making a decision. I always make sure the eyes have found enough information to make a good decision before doing it, but if eyes can be deceived then there must be more to making a decision than just looking.

There is. Eyes are the most important tool whilst driving, every driving professional will tell you that, but only if used properly. Anticipation is a skill that every trainee driver is encouraged to use but doesn’t always understand. This is how I explain it,

“Observation is what you can see, anticipation is what you cannot.”

Simply explained, if you look out of the window you will see lots of things like junctions, road signs, traffic, clouds, shops, trees, etc. All of these things are there but perhaps not all of them are important to the task we have at hand at that particular time. Is it true then to assume that because we have seen these things that they are all under control?

Enter anticipation

What could be in the next road that we cannot see into, what might the traffic do next, what are the road signs telling me about what I could be approaching? All good questions but the eyes cannot answer them because the eyes are only interested in what they can see. If we cannot see these things then how do we know what to do? We can work out the options, just in case, but how do we know which one is the correct one if we really don’t know what is going to happen? Having worked out the options from the information we have got from our eyes and asked what the possibilities are, we can use our intuition or our inner guidance and go with what feels correct at the time, but always with a back up plan in case something changes. Intuition is a subject that features heavily in the book The Psychic Driving Instructor and tells the story of one man’s   search to find it but simply put it is that inner knowing without knowing how you know, you all know what I mean but I bet you can’t explain it!

Many of the mistakes an inexperienced driver makes are simply because they made a decision based on what they could see but did not take into account what they could not. Pulling out of a side road into a major road because they could not see the truck coming is a common example, but if the “What if “ question was asked before pulling out they may have crept out slowly just in case a truck was coming! If we drive round a corner and the pupil is taken by surprise by a parked car I will often ask, “Didn’t you expect that to be there?”. The answer is always, “No”, followed by the obvious, “Why not?” question.

The reason is quite simple, their eyes did not see it so therefore it does not exist! Now the subject gets bigger and isn’t just confined to driving.

“What If?”

What if what I can see is only part of what is actually there?

What if there are things I cannot see simply because the range of vision I have is limited to a range that does not cover most of the energy available?

What if the things I can see and that I take for granted are actually far more intricate and beautiful than I ever imagined?

The eyes are the windows of the soul and are really something special. The next time you are with somebody just stare into their eyes and look at what you see (Ask permission first otherwise it might lead to embarrassment and a court order!).

What you will see is the Universe in miniature. We are all made of the same elements as the Universe and the Universe is made up of the same elements as us, freaky stuff, isn’t it?

Look deeper and you will see past the person you are looking at and see into their soul and, if you are lucky, will touch the soul in a way that will bring peace and calm between yourselves, even feeling emotional.

So the eyes are not just a tool for seeing through, they are information gatherers, they look and see the world in a way that we can take those images and use them for our own purpose, whether that is to gain information or just to appreciate things around us. They have no power to decide what is fact or fiction, they only offer guidance, our own intuition is how we decide our own truths and this is what we must use with the information we have gathered from all our senses.

So what does a blind person believe in? I don’t know, you’ll have to ask one, but just because they cannot see something does not mean they have lost the power to believe.

Because we cannot see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

The book, The Psychic Driving Instructor, is a multi layered account of a Driving Instructor’s spiritual awakening and other similar subjects are discussed in ways similar to this article