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Aug 28, 2023

Optometrist and pioneer in the fields of light, vision and consciousness speaks at Vail Symposium Wednesday

News News | Aug 29, 2023 [email protected] In 1976, Jacob Israel Liberman experienced a spontaneous healing of his eyesight during meditation, which he had been practicing since the early ’70s.

News News | Aug 29, 2023

[email protected]

In 1976, Jacob Israel Liberman experienced a spontaneous healing of his eyesight during meditation, which he had been practicing since the early ’70s. He didn’t use any specific technique and still doesn’t know exactly what happened. Before, he could only see the large E on an eye chart, but since that day, he hasn’t needed any corrective vision glasses or contacts. What’s perhaps even stranger is: As a practicing optometrist, he checked his eyes that day, and his instrumentation indicated he still needed the same eye prescription. Yet, “something inside of me was able to see 300% better,” he said.

“The only way that could occur is if the mechanism we see with is not solely with our eyes,” he said in a phone interview. “I found that the seeing mechanism within us, even though it involves the eyes and even though it involves the mind, it’s something beyond that.”

Since then, he has deepened his understanding of the essence of healing, sharing his insights through books and international talks, which revolve around light: “the luminous intelligence that effortlessly guides us toward health, contentment and a life filled with purpose.”

His most recent book, “Luminous Life: How the Science of Light Unlocks the Art of Living,” published in 2018, reviews how light fundamentally directs — and energizes — plants, animals and humans. In it, he supports living more effortlessly by allowing “the light within us to merge with the light that guides us,” in order to experience oneness and presence, or a relaxed state where we simply accept what is, and do what presents itself next.

“With presence, life becomes magical,” he wrote in the book. “We not only feel better, but our stress dissipates and our bodies heal. We respond to life more fluidly, developing an ability to be with whatever arises, flowing in response to life in the same way that children do.”

Throughout his more than 2,000 talks worldwide, he has never prepared a speech. Rather, he approaches every one as a live conversation, under the broad question of, “How do we know what’s real?”

“(It’s about) discerning the difference between truth and belief, when the word ‘belief’ means the opposite of truth,” he said. “We have been totally conditioned to perceive and respond to the world through the mind, but the mind says, ‘I think,’ which actually means ‘I don’t know,’ and a high percentage of the time it’s totally inaccurate.”

He characterizes most thinking as actually worrying and hoping things turn out our way.

“We’ve lost touch with a built-in mechanism that guides us without thought,” he said over the phone, further explaining in his book. “When the light of God (the invisible light physicists refer to as the ground of reality) interacts and merges with our ‘inner light’ — the light of consciousness — we are instantaneously activated into a receptive state called presence, or coherent guidance, which naturally provides the next step in our life’s journey.”

What: Seeing through the Eyes of God: A Glimpse of Truth in a Mind-field of OpinionWho: Jacob Israel Liberman, optometrist and pioneer in the fields of light, vision and consciousnessWhen: 6-7:30 p.m. WednesdayWhere: Vail Interfaith ChapelTickets: $25 ($10 for Vail Resorts employees, school staff and students)More info: VailSymposium.org

He talks about how most of us view life from a perspective of duality, whereas this other “seeing mechanism” perceives it with nonduality.

“Our entire idea about how life works and how we function is, quite frankly … backwards,” he said, adding that he addresses the root of the problem. “We talk about how to get healthy, how to (deal with) climate change. We’re so conditioned to believe the beliefs that we have lost touch with the truth, with our direct experience. We have an internal GPS — an internal guiding spirit — that is incredibly accurate and present in all living things because our life depends on us. This GPS is rarely, if ever, wrong. Children know that, but we’ve lost touch with that intuitive sense that is common to all living things.”

He encourages people to walk the middle path, so to speak, like driving a car in the center of the lane, not too close to the sidewalk where you’ll scare pedestrians and not too close to oncoming cars that would honk at you.

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“Just follow your guidance,” he said. “We can listen to everyone, but ultimately, something has been guiding you since you came out of your mother.”