Claude Monet, Dr. Liberman, & Luminous Life

I have found that if we are open to it, synchronicity can happen to us in many different forms.

The concept comes from that great Swiss psychotherapist, Carl Jung. Synchronicity is when two things seem to happen together that have great significance, but there does not appear to be any hard and fast causal link between the two.

In this case, I believe the synchronicity is between the incredible Claude Monet “immersive” exhibit (that is being held in Sacramento through the start of December) and the “Faith in Action” series that is being done at Spiritual Life Center.

Both the Monet exhibit and the “Faith In Action” series center around the importance of several key factors of life, including:

• The importance of Light

• The Dynamics of Seeing

• The sheer joy and importance of Presence or Flow

• The inability for us to make, or force, certain things to happen

If you have not seen the Monet “immersive” exhibit, then my advice to you is run—don’t walk—to it while it is still in Sacramento.

What makes this Monet exhibit “immersive” you may ask? Well, in this exhibit, you do not just see the paintings of this great French impressionist artist on a wall. You in effect get to walk through them. You get to live in them. This is accomplished by some very interesting technology, including very large photography and computer generated images. It is also accomplished by virtual reality glasses.

Photos from the Monet "immersive" exhibit in Sacramento.

I can’t tell you the beauty of walking through Monet’s poppy fields, seascapes, boating in his lotus and lily ponds, and even traveling in 19th century railroad stations. It is a 360° immersive experience.

Meanwhile, this year’s “Faith In Action” series is based on a wonderful book, Luminous Life, by Dr. Jacob Israel Liberman. As an optometrist, Liberman had the incredible experience of seeing his sight vastly improve. This happened without surgery or any shift in his glasses, etc. He started to explore what happened to him, and this led to his study of the fundamental nature of light and quantum mechanics, the complex dynamics of the seeing process, neuroscience, and spirituality.

For the moment, let’s just concentrate on the dynamic process of seeing. What is important is not just the eyeball and related equipment, but it also relies upon the mind. Dr. Liberman soon found out that the Jewish Talmud was correct when it said that, “We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.”

Through extensive research, he discovered that over 70% of the people he examined were in effect “a house divided against itself” when it came to seeing. The eyeballs and the mind were not, shall we say, focused on the same thing. However, when there is a unity between the eyeballs and the mind, we start to experience what Dr. Liberman calls PRESENCE or FLOW.

While this state of existence might be highly desirable, Dr. Liberman discovered that we can’t force it to happen. The same condition also exists between the ear and the mind in terms of hearing. Our Taoist friends have a concept which can help us here, and it is called “Wu Wei,” which is often translated in English to mean “non-doing doing” or “actionless acting.” In other words, we cannot force PRESENCE or FLOW to happen, but we can develop and practice disciplines that make it more likely that these things will come into our lives.

Meanwhile, the “immersive” Monet exhibit explains that with the invention of photography, cameras could do a lot of the work that painters once performed. If you were an artist, you could experience this as “being kicked out of the job.” But you could also experience it as freedom to express your impressions, feelings, or heart centeredness about a scene or situation.

Monet and the other leading impressionists were very interested in the fundamentals of LIGHT and the DYNAMICS OF SEEING. For example, in the exhibit we are shown a dot which never changes its color. But the impressionist realized that how you framed the dot — and what you put around it — could make a viewer see a very different color from the original dot, even though the color of the dot was never changed.

Instead of mixing colors on a pallet, impressionists would often overlay dots with different colors. This technique could produce incredible effects.

Monet’s home and garden in Giverny, France with the lotus and lily ponds might not force one to a state of PRESENCE or FLOW, but it certainly opens the door to “Wu Wei.” 

If you would like more PRESENCE or FLOW in your life, then I would strongly suggest experiencing both the Monet “immersive” exhibit and Spiritual Life Center’s “Faith In Action.” We can’t force “IT” to happen, but we can do things that increase the probability of joyful things happening to us.

Many blessings,

Rev. Rick