How Your Minds Eye Can Affect Your Vision
Since the time you stood in line for your eye test at school, you\’ve thought that your eyes are either good or bad. If you \”failed\” the school eye test, you were told to see an eye doctor. The doctor probably told you that your eyes were weak, long, short, cloudy, or had too much pressure. Blurriness, double vision, eyestrain, cataracts, glaucoma, iritis, nearsightedness, and other eye conditions may have been involved in the diagnosis.
Your mother, father, or other family members probably comforted you by saying that you inherited their \”weak\” eyes. You solidified the perception that you had a problem. For most of you, each visit to the eye doctor meant further bad news. Your eyes needed a stronger lens prescription, surgery, or medication. The belief that your eyes were bad became further ingrained. Could it be that this thinking contributed to the decreased capability of your eyes to do their job?
Let\’s think about our aboriginal counterpart again. In the middle of the jungle there are no optometrists or ophthalmologists. If and when the jungle-dweller experiences a problem with his eyes, such as a sore, puffiness, redness, or blurred or impaired vision, he visits the local medicine man or shaman, where, in addition to obtaining a cure, he is encouraged to explore why the gods or spirits are making his eyes the way they are. In a sense, the shaman acts as a teacher by helping the person to determine the cause of the condition.
For example, redness with swelling may be metaphorically associated with inner anger or upset. A ritual might follow. Perhaps a natural concoction from vegetation, animal juices, and soil (we would call it a poultice) is given to the person to place on the eye(s). The healing process
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