Our Eyes and Our Vision

Among our senses, vision is our primary sensory system which we use most. With it, we experience the outside world – we see people, houses, cars, water, mountains, trees, flowers, animals and we also see ourselves in a mirror. Our vision is highly developed and extremely efficient. We can quickly determine the nature of an object we see, its distance and movement and within a split second recognize the gender, age, familiarity and expression of a face (a feat which humans have used for many centuries and which only very recently is now also being used by laser-computer technology, for instance, to identify an individual). We can rapidly judge the speed of an oncoming car or can run to catch a ball thrown towards us. We can also remember the looks of a multitude of people, houses, sceneries, objects, pictures and alike for many years and can even “picture” some of these in our minds even if we do not see them at a particular time. Vision is essential and indispensable to many parts of our daily lives, our work, free time or pleasures. We use our vision to get up and dress in the morning, prepare or eat our food, drive or commute to work, do our jobs, have visual contacts with our colleagues and computers or tools, go shopping, play sports, read books, watch TV and enjoy operas or plays. Vision is essential and indispensable for a normal life – and we take it for granted and give it not a thought until impairment or loss of vision starts to severely restrict our lives. We use our vision to evaluate other people or objects like “I saw it with my own eyes” as proof and evidence. We often judge the character and personality from the appearance and behavior of a person. Well dressed persons are viewed differently from sloppily dressed individuals. Certain gestures and behaviors might be interpreted as sincere while others as shady but we will say that “we will see right through them” as if they are transparent. A law office, doctor’s practice or bank is judged by its appearance and these institutions often try to impress efficacy and honesty with cleanliness and a nice ambience and might institute or enforce a certain dress code of their employees. Facial impressions of other people are seen as smiles, disgust, anger or frustration and will influence our interactions with them. We will treat individuals who smile often quite differently from people who exhibit a sad or sullen face. A smile can dissipate our anger while an angry face can make us even madder and can lead to more arguments or sometimes to a fight. In contrast, other people also judge us as they see us. Our physical appearance – over which we unfortunately have little or no control – affects our social interactions and how we are viewed by others. Studies have shown that tall and handsome men are more successful in business than short and less handsome men. Psychologists found in simulated or experimental trials that unattractive defendants were more likely to be convicted and received longer prison sentences than did good-looking ones. Pretty young women have a better chance to be noticed and to be married by more influential and wealthy men. Knowing the value of appearance and the importance of how other people view us, we are keenly aware of how we look. We try to improve our appearance the way we style our hair and how we dress. We select clothes and wear them to enhance our self-confidence and to be better seen and recognized by others. We dress casual when we relax and appropriately when going to work. We choose our cloths carefully when going for an interview to make a good “first impression”. Fashion trends are very important to many people and they would not be seen in outdated clothes or shoes - a fact well known to the fashion industry. Women knew the value of beauty for centuries and have constantly tried to enhance their beauty with the help of all kinds of real and magical creams and ointments and colors. Cosmetic surgeons are visited and paid large sums of money to enhance certain bodily features or to change or remove unsightly anatomical parts. All this is done to augment – at least in the eyes of the individual – one’s personal appearance which might be necessary to enhance one’s self-esteem or to succeed in a job or a business. Beauty, however, is “in the eye of the beholder” and will often change during one’s lifetime and certainly will vary among different cultures and over the course of history. Light and eye sight are not only important how we see others and how we are seen by them, but they also affect our lives and wellbeing physically and mentally. We need sleep and dreams to stay healthy. The light-dark cycle dictates in most cases our daily routines. We go to bed when it gets dark and fall asleep quicker and more easily when the room is dark or our eyes are covered with a blindfold. During the night we dream and dreams are mostly visual images. We dream very little in terms of speaking or hearing or rarely of smelling, tasting or touching. These visual images can be insignificant but can also be nice and pleasant or bad and frightening. After awakening from our sleep, these nightly “visions” can spill over and make us start the day more happy or sad. Looking out the window, a sunny and warm day will stimulate and invigorate while a rainy and cold day will depress and dampen our feelings and emotions. Some people will suffer from seasonal depression during the winter time with long periods of darkness which can partially be counteracted and overcome by being exposed to bright lights for short periods of time during each day. The suicide rate in Alaska peaks during the long winter nights. Colors affect our mood and blue will be pleasing and soothing to most of us while other colors will make some of us feel somewhat uncomfortable and nervous. Studies have shown that prisoners kept in pink rooms were less violent and patients with tremors had fewer tremors while watching a blue light. In 2010, a color chart was developed to study people; healthy individuals did mostly choose yellow while individuals with underlying depression selected gray more frequently. The perceptions of a particular color, shape and form of the eyes of a person, can even be considered “evil” in some cultures and countries. A person with “evil” eyes can cause great distress and even illness to others and pain and suffering to the person per se. Many customs have been invented by superstitious people to counteract or prevent the effects of the “evil eye” like certain secret hand signals, visits to special persons to lift the spell or wearing of amulets which often bear the image of an eye. An ophthalmologist practicing in a southern European country reported, for instance, that a substantial number of his patients blamed their eye diseases on the “evil eye” of a particular person usually an old woman, a person with eye deformities or with touching eye-brows. This is in contrast to the “good eye” which can not only protect you from the “evil eye” but can also avert bad things and illnesses from other causes. In some rural areas it is still sometimes practiced that a young girl with light blue eyes is brought into the barn of sick animals so that the innocent eyes of this child will cure the animals. Eyes can bring harm and can bring benefit to believing individuals. The “eye” has even crept into politics and economics. One side of the one dollar bill shows a pyramid with an eye at the top and the words: “Annuit coeptis” and the letters MDCCLXXVI. It was designed by our forefathers so that the eye is to represent the eye of providence which “favors our undertaking” meaning the declaration of independence and origin and future of the United States in 1776. While we “see” - and are seen - most of us never give it much or any thought how we actually do “see”. We take eye sight or our vision for granted – except perhaps if problems arise with our vision. While we accept vision as a basic