Chapter 1 : SEEING AND LISTENING

Animals need both their broadband and focussed sensory abilities to survive.
And, either focussed or broadband, they are now. They are not lost in abstract thought.

EMPATHY WITH ANIMALS
BROADBAND SENSING

Chapter 1 :
SEEING AND LISTENING

I know the main info. is here - but maybe it's too long.

SEEING
Human eyes have constantly become more focussed. Early man survived partly because he could focus on things in the distance. But then, from craftsmen to books, television and now miniature phones, something has suddenly changed.

This is also clear from how looks have become so important for our sense of identity, yet mirrors were only generally available since the 1850's and now the kids are hooked on selfies.

Interestingly, the main option offered by meditation is to close the eyes and look within, but there the intense visual focussing often continues with inner images, like chakras, Buddha, Jesus or Gods etc..

So, around 10 years ago, i asked myself : How else can i use my eyes - what else can i do with them apart from focussing or closing them? And i realised i could use my peripheral sight like some birds (ducks, blackbirds, blue tits and pidgeons), or horses and deer.

We are so unfamiliar with this way of sensing, that we don't have any words for it. We could describe it by its opposite, as non-selective sensing. Unfocussed, or defocussed denote unclarity, but everything is quite clear. Peripheral, refers to the peripheries and i'm meaning everything. Panorama could apply to seeing but not listening and smelling. So i call it broadband sensing.

Maybe to start with it's good to just physically open your eyes as wide as they will go, but in practice, this should be done by stretching your field of vision all around the peripheries as far as you can, ... and then look at everything you can see and see everything you're looking at.

We sometimes spontaneously experience a short moment of broadband seeing, looking into the distance with a landscape or seascape - and a panorama is best for this exercise. Ideal is to lie down in the centre of a clearing in the woods, look at a clear sky, and see the leaves on the trees moving, all around the periphery.

If you don't get the feel for the whole picture spontaneously, (i didn't), there are a number of exercises to encourage and stimulate the feeling.

At first i wondered how animals used their peripheral sight, because as soon as i tried to look at something on the peripherie, my focus always went to that point, (or to anything else moving or bright). So i focussed on something straight infront, and then directed my attention to a point on the peripherie, at about 30° up on one side. I quickly realised i could see points at 30° on both sides simultaneously, still physically focussing on a boring focal point infront, and the experience was interesting enough to want to repeat.

Slowly, over the next few weeks, i chose different angles, checking out all the points of the compass. Then one day i realised, i didn't need the central focal point straight ahead and if i looked at a blank space, i could see the whole shape of my field of vision with multiple things moving inside it. (I was outside, obviously in a room things don't move.)

It seems to help if there is a monotonous wall or a ceiling straight in front, anything which has no focal point. If your eyes wander, then look at a neutral and motionless focal point. Outwardly it will appear as if you're staring. (Take off your glasses, better half-blind, and i don't know yet if it's easy with contact lenses.)

Wait until it all merges into the oval shape, then look at the whole picture – if anything moves you will notice it, but don't look at it, keep looking at the whole picture.

My experience is that instead of looking at the world like a T.V. screen, it feels as though i'm right up close, inside the T.V.. The normal feeling of subject looking at object is considerably different, it's a 'being with' what i'm seeing, instead of looking at it.

This quasi mystical effect leads to an interesting discovery : Most religions warn about the dangers of sensual pleasure and desire, and so to find inner peace, the devotee must shut off all sensory stimulation and turn within. This experience shows : it's not the senses which lead to desire, it's when we focus (either with our eyes or with our thoughts) that it can lead to desire.

CLOSED EYES
An offshoot of 'seeing' must be mentioned : Normally, with closed eyes, we see little stars or vague shapes and lines or sometimes a kaleidoscope image. This is a result of our normal habitual focussed vision. When looking to the peripheries with the eyes closed, we can see light all around the perimeter, as though it shines through the forehead, temples, and cheeks. I think people often unknowingly do this as part of the relaxation in sunbathing.

It must be a sort of optical illusion, but we can easily imagine that animals with our type of eyes, who use their peripheral vision, would have had this experience through millions of years of dosing. And that includes ducks and horses, and all animals who have their eyes on both sides of their heads. And so now, the question is : do you want to really stretch your empathy and imagination to feel how it might be for a duck or a horse to see light in and through their entire heads?

It's important to get the hang of broadband seeing before going too far with this essay, otherwise you will only intellectually understand some of the things i'm saying.

To see everything you've just got to stop thinking, and just look. And the easiest way stop thinking, is to listen. So i recommend starting with the following listening exercise, it is far easier, and essentially practices the same thing.

LISTENING
Listen to everything, as helpless and vulnerable as babies are before they learn to filter out the boring everyday sounds, even before they learn that they have ears.

It helps us civilised adults, to regain this openness by actively listening, searching for sounds, listening out. Not only aware of all we hear, but also listening out for any really quiet sounds - always ready for any sudden surprises. Listening out for distant dogs and children is often a good idea.

It depends on the time of day and where you live, at night listening to a single car or motor bike driving away into the distance is good. Birds, rain and wind are usually relaxing, but don't focus on anything special, always listen to all the other sounds as well. (It's possible, but difficult to 'listen' with the windows shut, and some modern sounds aren't worth listening to: modern ear plugs are my advice ...).

For most of evolution life was a lot quieter than it is today. It's been a few thousand years since the first blacksmith started hammering, but now, with motors, amplifiers, drills, bombs and beat music, we have suddenly become a very loud species. I suspect we have also become a little numb to quiet sounds.

Listening has an immediacy which the other senses don't have, and this is because sounds are sometimes very sudden and over in a split second, smells and sights usually last at least a few seconds.

So, there's quite a difference between listening to nothing; listening to something specific; and listening to everything. Listening to everything is full of suprises.

By empathising with the animals acuity of listening, we can't think. If we think we stop listening, and in that moment an animal would be vulnerable. For most animals, security and survival depend on listening out for everything.

Trying to stop thinking directly is very hard to do, this is a way of side stepping the problem, a clever trick. I know no better and simpler exercise to stop thinking or at least slow the thoughts down for a few seconds, and enjoy a few moments peace and quiet, a holiday from the eternal internal chatter.

Ready and waiting, passive but alert, as some animals are when dosing, we may recognise and name some things, and that's O.K., but then, (before the associations start the wheels of thought spinning) we just have to want to listen again ... why? ... For a Hare or Deer, it's survival, but we don't have that compelling motive, maybe we need to recreate a touch of that primitive angst and urgency, and the compelling motive for us is : if we don't stop thinking for a few moments, we will go crazy. It is urgent that we find some peace of mind.

From the way we sense and the way we use our senses, we create the world we feel. This has often been said, but only rarely applied anatomically. It is nothing mystical, it's just rather strange: I'm suggesting a practical physiological method of using the senses to find a moments peace and harmony with the world.

There's one other thing, maybe unimportant but when i feel open to hearing everything, the sensation is that i'm listening with the whole of my head. This subjective sensation may be my imagination but even if it is, it's a pleasant feeling. And i could easily believe that this is how it feels for many animals, birds for example (with no exterior ears), and babies, who learn to cover their ears with their hands at around 9 months.

THE METHOD
Please spend a couple of months, a few minutes a day experimenting with the exercises in Chapter 1. They are the practical basis for what follows.

SEEING and LISTENING
This is the single most basic, most essential exercise.

Combine broadband seeing and listening. I usually start with seeing and then deepen it together with listening.

At first, it's important to do this for only a minute or so at a time. The attitude is important, the ability to switch it on.

We need only look at a pidgeon or blackbird while eating and notice how quickly they can change between their focussed mode of seeing and their broadband mode : with their head popping up and down every second to check for danger. They are so familiar with broadband seeing that the split second when the head is up, is enough to register if anything dangerous is moving.

Though a measure of concentration is necessary, concentration and will power are forms of focussing. I would like you to develop these exercises with the right attitude. Our non-selective or broadband abilities are a 'knack', a trick, a talent, a feeling, and they are best re-developed by trusting your subconscious.

I suggest starting with just one minute a day. If doing this - even trying to do this - is enjoyable, you will want to repeat it. A minute a day which is interesting or enjoyable is the best way to give your subconscious the signal that you are open and available. Your subconscious knows how it feels to use the senses like this, but what's the point of remembering if you're not really intertested?

Some people have difficulty with this exercise. If so, i suspect this will be because you are thinking too much. Appendix 1 has additional exercises.