Part ONE to this story linked HERE
I posted that story below, about the curious little face in my vision, with a lot of trepidation.
Part of the reason I put it on-line was because I knew that Mac Tonnies would have been delighted by it. Really, he would have added a comment straight away, I know it. He would have said something like: “Wow, that is SO weird!”
And it is.
I totally realize the thing is just a curious image caused by light as it passes thru the small milky cataracts in my right eye. Seeing the face is no different than seeing a teddy bear shape in a cloud. I know this.
I’ve told a lot of my friends about my curious memories, and (pretty much) they have all been supportive and encouraging. Sometimes, they will respond thoughtfully, telling me that maybe everybody has these experiences, and for some reason I actually notice them. Maybe I try and add deeper meaning to them. That has the ring of truth to it, and I take it to heart. This psychological phenomenon even has a name, Pareidolia.
Two nights before I first noticed this weird image in my eye, I did something I do often. I slept out under the stars deep in the backountry of Joshua Tree National Park. I asked the universe for help, and then I went to sleep. I’ve had some powerful results to this kind of request, but I awoke that morning with out any dreams. But less than 24 hours later I saw this image. Am I projecting too much meaning onto something totally normal? Undoubtely.
Also, I had just spent two days at Whitley Strieber’s DREAMLAND conference. William Henry had a really cool presentation (with LOTS of images) about how there are clues in ancient texts and paintings that man can achieve a light-body. He had multiple images of Jesus and Buddha in a rainbow ring, or halo - or a star gate.And this little face seemed to have that exact same colorful ring around it. Now I’m making an analogy to this little face and Jesus. Am I spiraling into some delusional place of false self importance? I don’t think so, I just thought it was really interesting.
Just so y'know, when I first saw that glimmering little face, out on the grass in a park in Pasadena, my initial reaction was: “Damn! Now I’m gunna have to draw this thing and put it on my stupid blog, and everybody will think I've gone totally nuts!”
Part of me wanted to delete this post, and I almost did, until I received this comment:
"If more people reported their personal observations of the many crazy things I suspect we all experience, I think we'd agree to collectively broaden our limitations on what constitutes sanity. As most choose silence due to fear of judgment, our perceptions of what is normal or even possible from other human beings is censored and distorted."
YES! What she said! If only people as a collective whole could all agree to just stop ignoring "it," --think how much higher up the ladder of consciousness we'd all be.
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Part ONE to this story inked HERE
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Follow up:
As of December 9th I can no longer find the same image in my eyesight. I still have the effect from the cataracts in my right eye, but it doesn't look like a face anymore. It now looks like nothing more than a swirling blur.
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5 comments:
~~ Larissa here:
=^D
That is all.
Hi, Mike---
Excerpting from this post:
"I totally realize the thing is just a curious image caused by light as it passes thru the small milky cataracts in my right eye. Seeing the face is no different than seeing a teddy bear shape in a cloud. I know this."
~~~
"...telling me that maybe everybody has these experiences, and for some reason I actually notice them. Maybe I try and add deeper meaning to them. That has the ring of truth to it, and I take it to heart. This psychological phenomenon even has a name, Pareidolia."
I'm curious--this post would seem to suggest you have concluded that a combination of the light affecting the cataracts in your right eye, combined with some degree of pareidolia, are the sources of the "little man" effect under the conditions you described in your earlier post.
Did you try the experiment I suggested with blocking each eye in turn to help determine this, or have you concluded the cataracts are the primary cause as a result? It is not clear. Also, pareidolia, strictly speaking, is an inborn genetically related capacity of mind, which we first employ as infants to identify the faces of our parents, initially usually our mothers in nursing or early care, as a kind of feedback loop prior to either actual intellect or consciousness of the act, in order to establish a feeling of safety, care/comfort, and emotional equilibrium.
Pareidolia is an artifact of this brain-based visual and psychological early process, whereby we can later also see faces or usually other facial features of other organisms in the shape or structure of things like clouds and the grain of wood, like knotholes can appear as eyes, for example.
But you did not specify or note if the realization you seem to have had was based in the feedback comments you received from others, including myself, as to what might be the cause, or if it was a reexamination or reconsideration of the cataracts photo and learning some things about the nature and causes of pareidolia.
I was just wondering if you could be precise and explicit as to what has changed in your opinion as the the cause of the "little man" effect between this post and the last, if any, as it seemed you were unsure as to the source of the effect in your first post as to how or why it was occurring, and your opinion or conclusion has shifted between the time of the two posts to a more concrete interpretation as to cause. Is my understanding correct?
Reply to intense observer:
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You asked
1. ...what has changed in your opinion as the the cause of the "little man" effect between this post and the last, if any, as it seemed you were unsure as to the source of the effect in your first post as to how or why it was occurring, and your opinion or conclusion has shifted between the time of the two posts to a more concrete interpretation as to cause. Is my understanding correct?
Mike replies: In the first post I was absolutely sure as to how I was seeing the "little face" - it just took me a lot of writing to explain it. I wanted to be careful not to sound like a crazed zealot as i conveyed what I was actually seeing. If I was too limited in my explanation, I was worried it might come off as a fanatical religious vision.
That said, it is quite extraordinary in it's uncanny detail and symmetry (and it's perfectly upright too).
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2. Did you try the experiment I suggested with blocking each eye in turn to help determine this, or have you concluded the cataracts are the primary cause as a result?
Mike relies: Yep, it is in my right eye only. It's definitely an effect due to the cataracts and how the sunlight refracts when I look into the sun.
It was a good idea that the original message of this thread wasn't deleted. Cheers and namaste.
Mike said: "And this little face seemed to have that exact same colorful ring around it. Now I’m making an analogy to this little face and Jesus. Am I spiraling into some delusional place of false self importance? I don’t think so, I just thought it was really interesting."
You've got it. Images like your seeing are where the idea of halos on angels seems to come from.
Everyone's actually got them more or less, incarnate and excarnate, we just don't see them usually. They get blocked out buried by the baggage and junk most of us carry around on Earth anyway. Hens they usually get depicted on beings we tend to view as enlightened.
Mike said: “Damn! Now I’m gunna have to draw this thing and put it on my stupid blog, and everybody will think I've gone totally nuts!”
So much empathy when you said that. I used to feel like that all the time.
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