A TRANSPARENT EYE

Someplace in the last weeks I read an article about the planet’s oceans being cleared through the action of some tiny creature that lived in great numbers, and how that clearing so increased the usefulness of seeing that the smallest creatures began to evolve to be light sensitive.

One of the great appeals of writing is that, properly done, the "water" clears and one can see.  Then one begins to evolve an eye (and an ear) that sees, but is unseen.  Somehow there is an illusion that an unseen viewer will be seeing unguarded truth.  This is probably not true, since most censoring is done by the one who is looking, in his or her own head, seeing on terms of suspicion.  It is opening the mind that counts, not opening some shutter.

The Ebola eye is on the right, dilated for examination.

In the same news-span we have learned about the doctor who was cured of ebola, except for his eye, which turned green because the virus was still in the vitreous fluid of his eye.  Other things we laypeople learned was that there are small reservoirs in the body where the immune system is blocked out because the place (the eye and the testicles, for instance) is too delicate and crucial to tolerate the battle the immune system will put up against intruders, maybe even turning on the person.  The phrase you need to search for is “immune-privileged regions of the body.”  Other viruses can taken shelter in the placenta, hair follicles, and  “the haematopoietic stem-cell niche” in bone marrow.  It’s not easy to find information about these niches because there is so little known.  

The human brain also has a blood barrier for many substances.  More is known about this because docs want to get meds past the barrier and so do those wanting to experience derangement of the neurons in order to get high.  These “immune-privileged” parts are supposed to be sanctuaries, but there is something in some humans that psychologically despises all sanctuaries or privileges.  Nor do we necessarily admire unembellished nature.

A friend, who acquired one of those antibiotic-resistant hospital infections when surgery was done on his leg, struggled for more than a year to get rid of it.  In the end, they removed some immune cells, tagged them radioactively, injected them back in and traced where they went as they traveled to fight the virus.  Then they injected the most powerful drugs right into the “sanctuary” location.  It worked.

When doing an autopsy, the investigator is likely to take a biopsy of the vitreous fluid of the eye, perhaps by withdrawing some of it with a needle.  The fluid is likely to preserve a record of substances that have cleared the rest of the body.  The tissues of the eye are the slowest of the body cells to replace and the least able to resist intruders, which is why toxoplasmosis worms like eyes, even though they can be seen there.  

The progression of this post has been from ancient limnology and the development of first life to the persistence of primitive life within the complexity of the human body.  Now let us step over to a spiritual level.

from Emerson's notebook about his essay on nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson has been key for those who have strong sympathy with the Transcendental style of Unitarian thought that was influenced by Buddhist and Hindu sources brought to Boston by Yankee Traders on the seas.  It also speaks to those who see the Sacred in nature.  But the place where Emerson had his key epiphany of fusion with creation was on Boston Commons, a city park, not during the wilderness treks his essay inspired in Henry David Thoreau.  Emerson was simply going about his business when he was struck by a deep experience of felt meaning.  Every time I’ve ever preached about these moments, people have come up afterwards to report their own light-struck interval.  They were always mundane times doing routine things, that were suddenly interrupted for a few moments.

“Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,—and all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. “ -- Emerson

The idea of the transparent eyeball first appeared in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Nature", which was published in 1836.  The eyeball is not the theme, which is instead nature as the closest experience to experiencing the presence of God.  This process requires absolute "solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society" to uninhabited places like the woods where . . .  "We return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson is often thought of as a wise old man with no troubles, which is a cultural archetype we are constantly pushing.  But in fact he was so in love with his wife that he insisted on marrying her though she was too young and suffering with tuberculosis, the HIV of the time.  After she had died, he would occasionally return to her tomb and open it to see if she were truly dead.  Dealing with his guilt was complicated because she had family wealth which he inherited and which supported his genteel philosophical life so that he could leave the Unitarian ministry with which he often quarreled.  

He finally arrived at the idea of an Oversoul that includes everything and is palpably felt in the experience of being a “transparent eyeball.”  It’s closely related to the notion of the “Oceanic feeling” which might be welcomed or rejected, depending on the psychology of the person and whether they have had the experience.

by Joseph McGurl

From Wikipedia:  “The concept was coined in a letter of December 5th, 1927 from Romain Rolland to Freud as part of their correspondence, where Rolland writes:

“Mais j'aurais aimé à vous voir faire l'analyse du sentiment religieux spontané ou, plus exactement, de la sensation religieuse qui est (...) le fait simple et direct de la sensation de l'éternel (qui peut très bien n'être pas éternel, mais simplement sans bornes perceptibles, et comme océanique).

“In strict translation:

“But I would have liked to see you make an analysis of the spontaneous religious sentiment or, more exactly, of the religious sensation which is (...) the simple and direct fact of the sensation of the eternal (which can very well not be eternal, but simply without perceptible boundaries, and like oceanic). Similar as an independent contact, the feeling is fundamentally subjective.”

Freud is another we press into the mold of genius wise old man, unchallenged.  (At least he spoke French.)

Alex Grey, visionary

The ideas of the oceanic feeling -- fusion, love, and loss -- are merged and culturally recognized in the lyrics of a song from “Nine Inch Nails.”

Staring at the sea

Will she come?

Is there hope for me

After all is said and done

Anything at any price

All of this for you

All the spoils of a wasted life

All of this for you

All the world has closed her eyes

Tired faith all worn and thin

For all we could have done

And all that could have been

Ocean pulls me close

And whispers in my ear

The destiny I've chose

All becoming clear

The currents have their say

The time is drawing near

Washes me away

Makes me disappear

And I descend from grace

In arms of undertow

I will take my place

In the great below

I can still feel you

Even so far away

And that's only human love!  This complex of metaphors evades both the cold mathematics of theological argument and mawkish commercial hearts and flowers.  Once felt, it is haematopoietic, the term for the bone marrow stem cells at the core of the body that can give rise to vital tissues in the sanctuary niches of the mind.  And eye.

Manga