Cultivating Clear Eyes

Orgonomy is a mind-body approach to health. Allopathic medicine (in some quarters) is shifting toward embracing this paradigm, as physicians understand that diseases emanate from a complex interactional mind-body field rather than being limited to a silo of discreet symptoms.

In Orgonomy, we outline a map of the body as it correlates to character structure, and each area – eyes, mouth, cervical, chest, diaphragm, belly and pelvis – has its own functional capacity to open or close its gates to the movement of energy (including sensation, perception, capacity for movement and release) throughout the body.

We designate this map as the seven segments of armoring and describe how each segment acts to either fulfill or limit our capacity to experience aliveness and pleasure; depending on how armored (tense, unyielding, slack) each segment is (see blog Reich’s Understanding of Character and Body Expression, August 30, 2017).

The ocular segment functions as the vehicle for taking in reality, seeing clearly with open eyes that have the ability to express all feelings – softness, tenderness, aggression, receptivity, curiosity. Armored eyes do not interface with clarity, thus distorting reality and resulting in faulty assumptions. Rather than unobstructed curiosity, armoring creates barriers to sincere and unprejudiced interest.

Armored eyes result in projections onto others who are then seen as threatening. We can observe armoring in the eyes when we see wide-eyed expressions that look with continuous alarm, or squinting with an expression of suspicion, or sharp/mean looks of contempt toward others, or looks of dazed fogginess, as if the person isn’t really present.

Our Eyes— The First Point of Connection

One of our first points of contact in early childhood development is the eyes, often paired with the breast or bottle. The eyes are the first vehicle of relationship – taking in and expressing out. The infant reaches out with her eyes while seeking her mother, whose eyes (hopefully) radiate contact and acceptance, love, safety and warmth.

If the infant and developing child observe a distracted mom or caregiver, or witness fearful eyes or eyes that express meanness, then the infant and child will create armor to defend against the lack of inviting or safe eye contact. And so it begins—that segment cannot open to the world or view others with clarity. Our vision becomes skewed and distortion dominates our life, creating faulty feedback loops that contaminate our relationships, work life, and sense of self.

Let’s look from a Jungian perspective at the symbol of the eye. In a recent newsletter from SF ARAS: Archetype in Focus, the traditional symbol of the eye is emblematic of a capacity for consciousness—and the knowing is expressed in deeply intuitive recognition. The eye symbolizes a profound ability to see through things, pierce outer layers to see with expanded awareness deeply into the multidimensional universe in which we are embedded.

In seeing with illuminated depth, one inevitably perceives wholeness rather than the limited perspective of seeing only the parts.

For Jungians, higher development is realized in the capacity to hold opposites within a view of oneness rather than a distorted polarized view that flings us from one side to the other. Jung held the achievement of the Individuated Self as defined by an ability to see the world through the lens of wholeness, as we also see its polarities. Like the yin/yang symbol, it contains both the black and white as differentiated, yet held together within in a single circle.

The abstract eye symbol can be interpreted as a mandala of Self. (CW 8, para. 396) “The Self as ‘eye’ often carries the disturbing nuance of a ‘judgment.’ This is because the center of the psyche ‘searches the hearts of men, laying bare the truth and pitilessly exposing every cranny of the soul. It is a reflection of one’s insight into the total reality of one’s own being.’” (CW 10, para. 639). To tolerate the judgment and “… to endure this transpersonal scrutiny,” we incorporate an attitude of reverence. (ARAS, Archetype in Focus: -Eye)

Jungians suggest: “If we try to see all that God sees, attempt to know the opposites within ourselves (the ways in which we are good and bad, male and female, healthy and defective, knowledgeable and ignorant), then we begin to see from a total perspective.” (ARAS, Archetype in Focus: -Eye)

The insight gleaned from a clear capacity to see and perceive affords a respect for all life; we see the illuminated elements of nature in its energetic flow, the potential tenderness in another’s eyes, or a malevolence, and we know to move away or strike with our aggressive eyes.

My Encounter with Georgia O’Keefe

I am writing this blog from Santa Fe, NM, and delighted in a visit to the Georgia O’Keefe’s Museum. There, I was immediately struck by a perfect example of open, unarmored eyes, as if light radiated from hers in this Jungian context and extended itself to her interactions with the natural world.

She once said: “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.” (Georgia O’Keeffe: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/georgia_okeeffe)

Santa Fe weather is inspiring for the eyes in its multiversity: the sight and sound of thrashing trees flowing with the wind, vast ever-changing skies, red, barren-carved mountains with green scrub, gales of snow, lighting and thunder instantly met with blue skies and puffy white billowy clouds instantaneously shrouded in darkness as gray-black clouds descend.

Georgia O’Keefe captured, with her clear, brilliant, seeking eyes, the magnificence of the area while deepening her relationship within herself to capture her creative, inner drive and vision. She lived her spirit, at one with brilliant color, shape, and intensity that vibrated with her energetic presence. Her drive overcame all fears. She mused: “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” (https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/georgia_okeeffe)

Looking at her artwork, I joined with her rich, intensely colorful, precise vision. As she trusted herself; her consciousness could expand to meet the universe around her and portray it with a vividness that invited you fully into her experience.

I began this blog post inspired by the Jungian perspective on symbolism surrounding the eye and ended with an experience of Georgia O’Keefe’s clarity of vision.