Week 1, Day 1: Blind spots: When we can’t see what is there

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
    and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

I keep a file of my favorite optical illusions, and I sometimes use them with clients who are disturbed by hallucinations.

To normalize hallucinations, I tell them that we are always hallucinating. Our brains are piecing together what we see, hear, and experience every moment from incomplete information. Your brain filters out information you don’t consider relevant, and adds information it believes is missing. And even if your eyes are wide open and your vision is fine, your brain is not aware of what it cannot see.

Until you see something like this:

There are several dots in this illusion, but (depending on how close your face is to the screen) you will likely only see a few of them at a time.

The illusion above has to do with how your brain processes information, but there is a more obvious, physical blind spot where your optic nerve attaches to your retina. You can read about the experiment here. You seldom perceive your own blind spot, because your brain fills in missing information. It’s only when you try to track more than one spot with one eye open that you become aware how your brain is tricking you.

There is a lot of language in the Bible and in Christian tradition about healing blindness which, while sometimes ableist, is a good metaphor for coming to a new understanding. We talk about “revealing” or “revelation,” having an “epiphany,” or finding “enlightenment.” All of these metaphors are about light and sight. But we are walking around with “veiled” vision all the time and do not notice it.

Acknowledging that there is much that we do not perceive or know is called “epistemological humility.” It means trying to keep in mind that we jump to conclusions, make faulty assumptions, and have cognitive biases that shape our perception of the world. I’ll say more about epistemological humility later in the week.

The New Testament tells a story of a messiah who shows up but remains unseen, veiled, hidden. Looking at a crowd of people, you might miss that God incarnate is walking among them. Once you see the Incarnate One, you may become aware that there are other places you’ve missed seeing them. You might start to see Christ all around.

Prayer: God, reveal to us what is hidden. Amen.

—Rev. Dr. David Barnhart, Jr. 

(Optical illusion first posted on Facebook by Dr. Akiyoshi Kitaoka, from a paper by Jacques Ninio and Kent Stevens.)

For the next five weeks, I’ll be sending out a short daily devotional informed by my work as a pastor, theologian, organizer, and psychedelic-assisted therapist. I’ll be delving into scripture, theology, and recent research into neuroscience. If that sounds like your jam, feel free to sign up!

(You can support the ministry of Saint Junia United Methodist Church by clicking here.)