It is uncomfortable to not have answers and we tend to go out of ourselves looking for them. This is an exercise in staying in our bodies at all times.

Dick: Is there anything else from anyone?

Cl: I think I followed most of the work but what was that thing you did where you had him use his eyes like magnets?

Dick: Okay, this is important. Most people when they look at something go out there with their eyes and touch it. Look at those narcissus over there that France bought especially for this group for me to look at because when I was 19 years old I had a mystical experience. The first mystical experience that I ever had, with flowers like that. That shaped my entire life for the last 60 years. Look at those flowers. Now notice what you are probably doing. You are probably going out there and being with those flowers. Most of you probably are. Now close your eyes and image that your eyes are either magnets that draw in iron filings or little kinds of vacuum cleaners that will draw in dust or scraps of paper. But your eyes are not drawing in iron filings or scraps of paper. They draw in images and color and form. That is what your eyes draw in. Now sit and as best you can give yourself the sensation that you are drawing everything in. You are sitting wherever you are sitting on the floor or on a chair. And you are not moving, and just sitting there and you are just sucking this in, form and color . Now you are going to look at the flowers with your eyes closed. And gently as you continue to suck in, open your eyes and suck in the flowers. ..........Do that deliberately. And as you do that with your eyes, feel the rest of your body. .......... Now I don't want anybody to take my word for it, I want to see a show of hands, how many of you experienced this way of looking at things as a different experience? And I see that almost everybody's hands went up. Right. I'll tell you what is different about it. This is a way of centering. When you look at those flowers and draw them in., you are in a sense, you are feeling your physical eyes. You are feeling your physical body because your eyes are a part of your body. You could also do this with your hearing through your ears. But this is really a way of looking in a centered way because I feel myself here and I bring those flowers here. I don't go out of myself. Now this can be a very important exercise for very many people. It can be an important exercise for people who are pretty well grounded and pretty well centered. It can help them. And can be particularly helpful for people who have a tendency to be kind of schitzy and lose themselves. They lose themselves by being drawn out and losing themselves. And that is why I had him do it. Not because he was having a schitzy tendency, that is not the point. I do this for anybody. And it is a way therefore of centering him, because he is there with his eyes closed and he ...all the worlds....starting out with the space with all the stars and everything else he experienced. Now he is going. I am going to ask him to open his eyes and come back to this world. I want him to continue what he was doing there. And the significance of it is, "I remain in my center." It is not just that I draw in. That is not what is important. If I draw in ....I remain in my center.
So I offered you that exercise.

Cl: It is a nice one.

Dick: It is a nice one. You feel the difference.

Cl: I can smell different when I took the flowers inside and I felt softer inside.

Dick: OK. Fine. So that is the best answer that I have in mind.