We can address the eyes in many ways in our explorations: in this lesson their calm, and the quality of our vision of the dark, is a marker of the overall state of the nervous system. See Bourdon’s image to feed your sensing and thinking.
What else can you do with this lesson? We go left and right, up and down. How about making clocks?
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Here are some quotes from the transcript of this lesson in Alexander Yanai:
“Notice that even though your hands are covering your eyes you still see all types of shapes and different colors as in a kaleidescope. This happens because when your optic nerve is excited it cannot record anything except colors and shapes. This shows that your whole system is not quiet.”
And later, about the spreading darkness, “This is the type of black your whole optic nerve sees when it is calm and not doing any movement or receiving any impulses. This is the darkest black a human can see.”
I have felt for myself over the years that times when my “whole system is calmer” (as I have come to understand that feeling) indeed there is less activity and color when I close my eyes, and the reverse.
I’m curious to know what the point of palming is thought to be in other traditions–is it characterised in energy terms? And I’m curious whether anyone bothers to investigate it scientifically now. It’s the sort of thing that could easily be investigated.
Thank you. My eyes saw more as I went on in the darkness and everything was getting lighter and less dark, more even colour and pattern though.
In the morning I finished the lesson off. Fell asleep. I saw more blackness.
Interestingly doing this exercise freaked me out, my vagus was stimulated, my body was getting weird sensations that I was uncomfortable with which I moved parts of my body to make me more comfortable in the weird sensations. And the difference in quality between eyes oh wow. I don’t know why it freaks my system out so much but that’s interesting in itself.
Thank you
This is the first time I’ve understood the connection between lessening/calming the activity of the nervous system and the increasing darkness behind the eyes. Is this the objective of what is known as ‘palming?’
Laurance Rudic