Close-up of blue eye

DECEIVED BY OUR OWN EYES: The difference between exoteric and esoteric sight

When we think about life, or the concept of life, there are two distinct realities that we all must deal with. Those realities are how things appear to be and how things really are. In fact, although we’re clearly addressing things from a more spiritual standpoint, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) also teaches people how to be aware of how their thoughts and feelings can affect their behaviour. Oftentimes, what a person perceives a situation to be isn’t based upon evidence, but rather, it’s just their own perception of reality.

Nonetheless, whether it’s from the spiritual standpoint or the clinical standpoint, this is the concept that we’re focusing on at this particular moment. In fact, spirituality, or spiritual therapy, and clinical therapy often share common ground.

Two sets of eyes


Unbeknownst to many, all human beings have two sets of eyes, whether they realize it or not, and whether they make use of them or not. Their physical eyes are called the “exoteric eyes,” and their spiritual eyes are called the “esoteric eyes.”

The fact of the matter is that, although so many people put a great emphasis on things that they can see as opposed to things that they can’t see, our eyes, more often than not, are deceiving us. And this deception has a great influence on our thoughts, behaviours and feelings. In simple terms, many of us often see things as they appear to be, rather than how they actually are, and our thoughts, behaviours and feelings are based upon this illusion.

To make this concept more relatable to people who are working on their attachment to their Higher Power, we can simply say that our spiritual eyes (esoteric eyes), or “the eyes of our heart,” as some say, are more reliable than our physical eyes, provided that we’re using our intellects properly, since there is a major connection between the two. In any case, here are a few examples of how our physical eyes deceive us:

  • Our physical eyes make easy things seem difficult, which ultimately leads to fear and anxiety.

For example, imagine getting ready to hike a mountain for the first time. When you stand at the base of the mountain, to your eyes it seems huge, and too difficult to hike, but when you actually begin to do it, you find that it wasn’t as hard as it appeared. Your eyes deceived you.

  • Our physical eyes make difficult things seem more difficult or virtually impossible, which ultimately leads to fear and anxiety.
  • Our physical eyes make risks, in a life in which everything is a risk, seem much riskier than they really are, which leads to lost opportunities and could also lead to negative emotional states.

An example of this could be that a person was presented with a business opportunity, which they passed up, thinking it was too much of a risk, when in reality, it wasn’t. In hindsight, they wish that they accepted the opportunity, realizing that the risk wasn’t actually that risky at all. Or, in other words, their anxious mind would only allow them to see the negatives, and they were unable to realize the positives.

  • Our physical eyes make it seem that other people are always in a better situation than we are, which ultimately leads to negative emotional states.
  • Our physical eyes make our Higher Power’s blessings on other people seem like much more, and His blessings upon us seem like much less, which ultimately leads to negative emotional states.
  • Our physical eyes make the path to our Higher Power seem more difficult than it really is.
  • Our physical eyes make us think that we have more time than we really have. They make us think we have time to waste.

For example, when we’re 15 years old, our eyes see being 50 years old as being very far off, but being 60 years old and looking back, we realize that time actually passed by very quickly.

Seeing things as they really are


Side mirror of car as it goes down highway

Based upon what we just mentioned above, most of us spend a great portion of our lives preoccupied with the wrong visions or thoughts that we perceive, which ultimately results in feeling dissatisfied and disconnected, as we look for the meaning of our lives. We say, “I’ll think about my Higher Power later on… I’ll think about this or that thing later on… I have plenty of time to worry about that.” In reality, once time passes, we never get it back.

Once people begin to see things as they really are, instead of how they appear to be, life itself becomes much more enjoyable and fruitful.

Nonetheless, once people begin to see things as they really are, instead of how they appear to be, life itself becomes much more enjoyable and fruitful. With our spiritual eyes (esoteric eyes) or “the eyes of our heart,” we see things as they really are. Easy things are seen as easy, difficult things are seen as doable and the blessings of other people are seen as small, whereas our own blessings are seen as huge, like they really are.

Similarly, cognitive behavioural therapy also teaches this concept to patients, but it focuses only on the outer eyes (exoteric eyes), and maybe the reason this skill is so hard for so many people to apply is because we need to start educating them about using their spiritual eyes (esoteric eyes) as well. Most certainly, seeing things as they really are is much more comforting than being deceived by our own eyes.

In simple terms, our untrained eyes can be a major cause of fear and anxiety, which is very common today among the masses. Furthermore, the fear that results from our own eyes is a false fear, or a pseudo-fear. We need to be aware that it’s an illusion that can cause us to make wrong moves in life, and it can also cause us not to make beneficial moves in life.

An analogy of this could be that it’s like the mirrors in our cars. They say, “Caution: Images are much closer than they appear.” We must not be fooled by how we see things in these mirrors! These are similar to our real eyes, which often make things seem different than they really are… distorted. With that being said, it’s safe to say that, for a person to actually see things correctly, they must make use of all four eyes simultaneously.

Let me also add that our eyes, and our perception of things, are also among our trials and tribulations in this life of ours. Meaning that some of what we truly believe we’re going through may actually be misperceptions. The use of all four of our eyes will allow us to get through our trials and tribulations without feeling broken down, since making major life-altering decisions based upon false notions or illusions is going to cause us some sort of difficulty, sooner or later.

Y.A. Shahiid and Fran Lanza are the co-authors of Seek And Ye Shall Find Vol.1: Attaching Ourselves To Our Higher Power. Y.A. Shahiid is a teacher, public speaker and author who is dedicated to helping individuals have a better relationship with, and understanding of, their Higher Power. Fran Lanza is a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) with 22 years of experience. For the last 10 of those years, she has been a behavioural health associate provider with one of the largest managed health care companies in the country, providing direct patient care to a diverse population for trauma, severe depression, monitoring suicide and intensive treatment programs, all focusing largely on minority communities.

Excerpted from the book Seek And Ye Shall Find Vol.1: Attaching Ourselves To Our Higher Power. Copyright ©2022 by Y.A. Shahiid and Fran Lanza. Printed with permission from Y.A. Shahiid and Fran Lanza.

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