Part 3. Intermezzo: Seeing the Unseen

Time for a break from the metaphysical musings. When something is "unseen," you have no visual image of it, right? Well, sort of'

Whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our own mind."-- William James

Here are three "pictures." What do you see?

1.Do you see a white square on top of 4 purple discs?

2.Do you see the solid white triangle superimposed over the triangle bounded in red to form a "Star of David"?

3.Do you see the outline of the white cube in front of the green circles?

If you said, "Yes," to any of these questions, you're wrong.

What you have “seen” – the square, the triangle that completes the Star of David, and the cube, -- do not exist any place other than in your own mind.

What is there to seen are colored figures (shapes) on a white ground. It is your mind, and your mind alone, that creates and labels the white shapes. The white "shapes" are the result of the mental process of Gestalt formation - examples of how, without conscious effort, the egoic mind "thingifies" the unseen.

The image above has circulated in Britain since the late 1950s. It contains a face of Christ, but not everyone can see it straight away. The story that goes with it says it was taken by a Chinese photographer who was riding home one day through the snow. According to the story...

His soul was troubled. He had been witnessing a great movement towards Christianity among his friends since the Japanese invasion. He longed to know the truth of what he had been hearing from Christian missionaries.

As he rode along he said, "Lord, if I could only see your face, I would believe." Instantly a voice spoke to his heart, "Take a picture. Take a picture."

He looked out at the melting snow forming pools of water and revealing here and there the black earth. It was an unattractive scene. Nevertheless, being thus strangely compelled, the man descended and focused his camera on the snowy roadway.

Curious to know the outcome of the incident, he developed the film at once upon returning to his home. Out from the black and white areas of the snow scene a face looked at him, full of tenderness and love - the face of Christ. He became a Christian as a result of this experience.

Provocative thought - "God as Gestalt."