This episode of Living Myth tells the story of Gustave Fechner, a scientist and professor of physics who went blind while doing experiments involving human sight. After years of living in utter darkness, his eyesight returned, bringing with it a renewed vision of the world. After decades of looking at the world through the lens of physics and the hard sciences, Fechner had a spiritual awakening that brought a deeply personal connection to the living pulse of nature.
Having dwelt for years in darkness, the doctor had developed a kind of vision that revealed the living soul of nature. His book on The Soul Life of Plants showed how plants and trees are part of an ensouled world. It was an international best seller for over seventy-five years. Dr. Fechner became a renowned teacher of natural philosophy and “psychophysics,” a branch of psychology which refuted the artificial separation between mind and body, between subject and object.
In the great lost and found of the cosmos, important knowledge keeps being forgotten. It also keeps trying to become conscious again, but tends to do so after we have experienced a period of darkness. When the world turns dark again, as it has now, it's important to know that the inner light of the soul is not a reflection from the outer world, but an inner light itself, a visionary flame that burns with emotional heat and vitality, but also with a capacity for illumination.
Everyone has access to a key that can open the door to a meaningful life, yet each must enter their own darkness in order to discover it. In learning how to follow the light hidden within our own darkness, we help break the spell of single-eyed vision that has damaged the living realm of nature and help in the recovery of all that has been lost in terms of genuine vision, ancient wisdom and the underlying unity of life.
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