Meta-Truth
Lake Murray, SC
“What is behind our eyes often has more to do with what we see than what is before our eyes.”
I always liked this quote by Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, former President of Columbia International University. I recently read a book called ‘The Brain’ by David Eagleman, and it’s fascinating to consider the complexities involved in what we so readily take for granted, simply ‘seeing’. Vision requires much more than just functioning eyes, and the visual system is much more complicated than that of a camera. The eyes are a tool to transmit light, and the brain is where the magic happens. In the technical terms of David Eagleman, there are electrochemical signals from the outside world carried by brain cells, and photons and neurons all working in harmony to give us the ability to see; however, in layman’s terms, the significance of the ‘mind’s eye’ sure becomes more of the reality worth considering.
In one case study mentioned, a man who lived with blindness for 40 years received a stem cell treatment to repair the physical damage to his eyes, and even though the transplant was a total success by all surgical standards, his experience post surgery couldn’t be considered as ‘vision’. It seems that in his 40 years of blindness, the visual cortex of his brain had been taken over by the other remaining senses such as hearing and touch, and his brain simply couldn’t process and harmonize the data coming through his eyes. As David Eagleman says, ‘vision emerges from the coordination of billions of neurons working together in a particular, complex symphony’. But it goes further than that too, Eagleman would also conclude that ‘vision isn’t about photons that can be readily interpreted by the visual cortex. Instead it’s a whole body experience. The signals coming into the brain can only be made sense of by training, which requires cross-referencing the signals with information from our actions and sensory consequences. It’s the only way our brains can come to interpret what the visual data actually means’.
All this draws my mind to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:22 which says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light". The website “Got Questions” provides a good commentary that sums it up well: “It is not only what we see, but how we perceive what we see that makes the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between light and darkness. Bad eyes lead to bad perception, but if our eyes are good, our whole person will be illuminated. Our eyes can be used to see that which is good or evil, that which is beneficial or harmful, and the things we see and perceive affect our whole being. If we perceive goodness, that will radiate outward from within our hearts and minds. But if we allow our eyes to linger on evil, we are so affected by what we see that darkness actually begins to emanate from within and can corrupt us and those around us.”
Simply put, your brain is powerful, and the interconnectedness of our being is seemingly infinite. The brain’s ability to process and store information is limitless, and as a comparison, a supercomputer with enough storage to rival your brain would require a nuclear power station to power it. When God says ‘dwell on these things…’ (Phil 4:8), ‘let the word of Christ richly dwell within you… (Col 3:16), ‘be transformed by the renewing of your mind…’ (Rom 12:2), and “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Pro 4:23), it matters exponentially.
Renowned pyschologist, Dr. Jordan Peterson, speaking from a purely psychological perspective, questions and posits that Biblical truth is the precondition for truth, the basis of truth, the precondition for all judgements of truth, and the meta truth, per se. I would agree. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Surrendering to this truth, His truth, Jesus Himself, changed my whole paradigm of myself and the world around me, and it’s a reality of hope and joy available to all people in all places in all times. Be rooted in Truth. Be rooted in Him.
