Seeing As If From Behind the Eyes

"Early in the morning when the sun was not yet up and the dew on the grass, still in bed, lying quietly, without any thought or movement, there was a seeing, not the superficial seeing with the eyes but seeing through the eyes from behind the head. The eyes and from behind the head were only the instru-ment through which the immeasurable past was seeing into the immeasurable space that had no time." Krishnamurti’s Notebook, p. 32

That was how I viewed "seeing as if from the back of the head" until I had a very interesting conversation over the phone in early December of 1999 with Bruce Fertman, a friend and Master Alexander Technique Teacher, who lives in Philadelphia, PA.

I had called Bruce, whom I had studied with in Ojai, California, during several Alexander Technique Christmas workshops, mainly because. our mutual friend, Michael Frederick, told me Bruce had studied with Countess Willapolska when he was a young man just starting out in the Alexander work.

When I talked with Bruce on the phone, he confirmed that he had studied with the Countess.

He said that the direction "Eyes free to Go Apart" and also "Eyes Go Apart" had been very helpful to her. It helped her to soften and widen in her face. He told me she also taught her students to use the imagery, "Seeing from the point of vision" or "Seeing as if from the back of the head."

Bruce mentioned, "It's not only the eyeball; it's the whole eye orb that needs to release." He also mentioned that working with seeing "from the point of vision" and "As if from the back of the head" helped him and students he worked with to be more in touch with the environ- ment around them; it cut right through, it helped their coordination.

Bruce told me he would have students working in a circle pretend there is a big rope behind them contacting the backs of their heads. A sense of seeing from this imaginary point of contact was quite helpful to many of his students.

He also mentioned that when we speak of confront we're talking about front to front. He explained that there is a potential to experience deeper connection with everything around you when you can perceive from a deeper, more relaxed place that exploring this kind of imagery tends to encourage. .

He said that he played with how we look a lot. "Outlook is how you look. Some people look out of the corner of their eyes a lot. Some people are looking mostly down. Wearing glasses affects our outlook."

When you change your head position through Alexander work, you need to change your eye outlook. It can become an identity habit. If a person is fixing, they must first get the eyes unfixed: easy eyes, easy breath, easy neck.

"I will say to a student, "It's not your job to control your head." "Then a deeper kind of support can come in." It can break through your construct, break through what is keeping you from sensing more effectively."

When I got off the phone with Bruce, I felt like I had just hit a vein of gold. Why was I even surprised? Bruce had demonstrated to me numerous times previously his willingness and ability to explore mind/body awareness issues with insightful thoughtfulness.

I thought about what Bruce had shared with me. "Seeing as if from the back of the head" began to stand out to me. Hadn't Krishnamurti mentioned that in his notebook?

But something had changed from talking with Bruce. Now "Seeing as if from the back of the head" wasn't just a strange side effect from Krishnamurti's profound heightened awareness, but now it was some simple imagery that one could use, play with, to help release the eyes and learn to come from a deeper, more connected way of seeing the world.

Then I remembered a Special Report document I had from vision instructor, Gloria Ginn, entitled 10 Steps You Can Take Now to Improve Your Eyesight.

Step 4 was entitled: See from the back of the head. How many times had I read it before, but now I was reading it with new eyes.

She explained that when we have good vision we are not really conscious of our eyes, there is little effort involved and it is as if we were seeing from the back of our heads. However, when we aren't seeing well we are often straining with our eyes - almost as if to reach out and grab with our eyes.

She goes on to explain that in fact, "The visual center of the brain is in the back of the head, not in the front of the face. The mental pictures are viewed from the back of the head."

She also explains, "I have found many people are able to recapture the experience of effortless seeing by pretending that they are seeing from the back of the head. They simply imagine themselves sinking back, or stepping back, mentally, to the back of the head."

She gave an example of a farsighted accountant who couldn't focus effectively at the near point. She told him to "put himself in the back of his head." He balked at the idea, because he couldn't figure out what she meant.

A few weeks later he came in for a vision lesson with Gloria, and he reported that he had been in the back of his head all day. She tested him at the near point and he could read right down to a micro type.

Some people, she reports, find it easier to get this sensation of seeing as if from the back of the head, by first closing their eyes and touching the back of their heads, and the awareness of the back of their head is retained when their eyes are opened.

Some others of Gloria's students do not get a sense of "Seeing as if from the back of the head" until they have regained a sense of motion in their seeing - the streaming of telephone poles, divider stripes, and other objects as you drive by them.

This sense of stationery objects appearing to move is very much like the difference between having a digital still camera on top of your shoulders taking occasional still pictures and holding them on the screen of your mind, or having a digital video camera that is constantly recording what looks like moving scenery as you advance into it.

We 'know' it is we that are moving and not the scenery around us, but the input that is actually directly coming into our eyes is of an ever-changing scene if we are moving.

In closing, she reports, "I've seen many dramatic improvements in eyesight, when the person stops trying to "go out" to see, and instead puts himself in the back of the head, letting the light come to him". (Or her)
"It is the sensation of making no effort to see."
Gloria Ginn, Better Eyesight, Special Report: 10 Steps you can take now to improve your eyesight.

I have just recently come across another reference to Krishanmurti and seeing from the back of the head in a book written by Pupul Jayakar, Krishnamurti: A Biography. Pupul writes: Krishnaji showed them how to walk, how to stand, and how to see from the back of the head. This was to let seeing flow backwards and see from depth. He took them for long walks, observing, listening and teaching them to see and listen "pick up a leaf he said. "Look at it - look very near and relate the looking to listening."

"The Tai Chi principle 'one thing moves - all moves' , applies to eyes as well."

Exercise . Hold a posture, for example brush knee twist step is a good one. Focus your eyes with intent forwards .... sense the feeling."

Editor note: This Tai Ji website commentary is making it especially clear to me that "Seeing from the back of the head" or "Seeing from behind the eyes" and "soft eyes" are directly related.

Dona Fahi (SP?) states this also.

"The Tai Chi principle 'one thing moves - all moves' , applies to eyes as well." Exercise . Hold a posture, for example brush knee twist step is a good one. Focus your eyes with intent forwards .... sense the feeling."

Editor note: This Tai Ji website commentary is making it especially clear to me that "Seeing from the back of the head" or "Seeing from behind the eyes" and "soft eyes" are directly related.

Dona Fahi (SP?) states this also.

"The Tai Chi principle 'one thing moves - all moves' , applies to eyes as well."

Exercise . Hold a posture, for example brush knee twist step is a good one. Focus your eyes with intent forwards .... sense the feeling."