Sustainable Prospects – Shoot Mod4#28 – Behind the Mask – My Mask #5
Eyes are often referred to as the windows to the soul. If you can’t see my eyes, you cannot see my soul. You cannot know what I am feeling or thinking.
Psychologists Sebastiaan Mathôt and Stefan Van der Stigchel proposed that our eyes (and in particular our pupils) react to our emotions, revealing our true feelings and intentions to those we engage with. We have no control over this response of the pupils. They argue that “studies have shown that the light response is far more than a reflex, and reveals what you attend to, how you interpret what you see, and even what you think about” (Mathôt and Van der Stigchel, 2015: 374)
My gaze does not return your gaze. Your eyes are drawn to this image, yet you cannot penetrate beyond the flowers. There is tension between what you see and what I reveal. It is easy to fake a smile with my mouth, but not so easy to fake it with my eyes. My eyes always give me away. By looking at my eyes, you will know how I am really thinking.
So are the eyes the window to my soul?
It says in Luke 11:34 “the eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body is also full of darkness.” (The Holy Bible, 2005: 809). I interpret this as if you look into my eyes you would be able to see how I feel; you could see the truth and sincerity in my expression. My true self and identity is accessed through my eyes. I take away the option to look into my eyes and you cannot know who I am. I will then be who I want you to think I am.
When I am ready I will let you look into my eyes.
REFERENCES
The Holy Bible. (2005). Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Bibles.
Mathôt, S. and Van der Stigchel, S. (2015). New Light on the Mind’s Eye: The Pupillary Light Response as Active Vision. Current Directions in Psychological Science, [online] 24(5), pp.374-378. Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963721415593725 [Accessed 25 Nov. 2017].