My Vision Quest: Mind Creates Body. . .

[Note: The same preface precedes all the blogs on my vision quest and the ones on giving up grievances. It provides the personal context regarding the relationship of each piece to my quest to restore my eyesight since I've exhausted all that Western medicine can do to repair the damage done by my advanced case of glaucoma. Therefore, if you've read it before, you may want to refresh your memory or skip to the new blog entry below.]

My Vision Quest
On New Year's Day 2011, I began the 365-day journey through the dailly lessons in the workbook section of A Course in Miracles. Given all the amazing synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) I've had since completing The Space Between Stars, I am certain that the course holds the key to restoring my impaired vision, which currently fits the definition of being legally blind both in terms of severely restricted visual angles and visual acuity. The last line before the epilogue of the The Space Between Stars(see www.drsrj.com) ends with the words of the man born blind who is healed by Jesus, ". . . I was blind but now I see." This is the title of the book I am currently writing. The subtitle is: "A Miracle of Restored Vision Redefines Reality." The book chronicles my quest for rstoring my vision that began with events leading up to my first and second trips to see the healer/medium John of God in Abadiania, Brazil. What I been led to considier is quite remarkable. I have always seen the healing of my vision as a twofold process. First, I have done what medical science can do for glaucoma, namely, the reduction of the elevated intraocular pressures which have damaged the optic nerves in both of my eyes. Until encountering the redefining of reality in A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, a spin off of the course,, as well as on my trips to Brazil, I have always seen the second phase for healing my vision as regenerating my optic nerves. I have used the following metaphor to describe the damage: If a healthy optic nerve could be seen as a tree in summer with all its green leaves, my optic nerves are like a tree in late November with a few brown leaves left on their branches.

John of God speaks Brazilian Portuguese. So before going before him, you have to tell a translator 3 things you would like to have healed. Your requests are written on a small piece of paper which is read to John of God. I asked my guide if I should ask for the regeneration of my optic nerves. He instructed me not to ask for that but for restored vision. He recommended this because a woman who had "severed optic nerves" had her vision restored, and when doctors examined her optic nerve, they expected to see her nerve reconnected. But, to their astonishment, it was still severed.

Later, as the plane took off from Brasilia, my friend Rod was reading a book containing case studies of individuals healed by John of 'God. With a trace of excitement in his voice, he read aloud to me the case of another woman with completely "nonfunctional optic nerves." Her vision was restored, and guess what?

When doctors examined her, her optic nerves were still nonfunctional. Both of these individuals had several trips to Brazil to see John of God before their sight returned. This got my attention. A Course in Miracles and The Disappearance of the Universe, as well as some sacred spiritual traditions claim vision involves more than the "body's eyes." It is in this spirit that I offer the excerpted material for your consideration and for your spiritual growth and "restored vision" back to what it was before you emerged from the womb.

[Note: The words in brackets as well as the female-gender based words are my additions.]


Excerpts from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.

"What you perceive as a dense physical structure called the body, which is subject to disease, old age, and death, is not ultimately real, is not you. It [the bodily] is a misperception of your essential reality that is beyond birth and death and is due to the limitations of your mind which, having lost touch with being, creates the body as evidence of its illusory belief in separation and to justify its state of fear.

"But do not turn away from the body for in that symbol of impermanence, limitation, and death that you perceive as the illusory creation of your mind, is concealed: the splendor of your essential and immortal reality. Do not turn your attention elsewhere in your search for the truth for it is nowhere else to be found but within your body."

These passages are in line with the teachings of A Course in Miracles and the experience of those individuals in Brazil whose vision was restored while their optic nerves remainined unhealed, Last night I had one of those dreams in which I am suddenly able to see clearly both near and far. I was able read a passage in a book and I was also able to see across the street. When we dream, our body's eyes are closed. With what are we seeing? Certainly, it is not the body's eyes just as it is not with the mechanism of the body's eyes that the individuals whose vision was restored in Brazil now see.

• Today, reflect on what this may mean about who and what we really are. In line with St. John's claim that God is love, A Course in Miracles states, "God is but love and therefore so am I." From time to time today, take a deep beathe and, as you exhale, consciously let the tension drain from your body, and silently repeat these words. Notice how you feel in your body. I once received that when I can see through the eyes of God with total love and no fear, my vision will become clear.