Seeing

Subtitled 'beyond dreaming to religious experiences of light', this fascinating book is by a Baptist minister who has taught the history of religions in India and is based on a subtle analysis of his own experiences of what he calls the fullness of light experienced as the presence of God ("I have experienced God in the light"). He raises the question of visual perception without eyes in dreams so that in a very real sense this seer is both seeing and seen - what is the nature of the light experienced? He notes that seeing any visual image is a form of eyeless seeing. He also relates his own near death experience as well as many lucid dreams and other fine states of consciousness that are hard to describe, define and conceptualise - especially the ineffable and formless. For the author, all visual imagery is the seeing of light, and brightness is the intensity of image, nevertheless seen with a perceptual mindset unless it fills the whole visual field: 'The fullness of light is a vibrant, intense light with a boiling effect, filling the elementary visual field and appearing to surround me…it is customarily accompanied by deep devotional feelings and uncontrollable joy and reverence in addition to the knowledge that God is present.' (p. 120) This is also an experience of numinosity, a non-rational awareness of the holy. Anyone with a serious interest in spiritual light and experience will want to study this book closely.