Eyes wide shut

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In his short story, "The Country of the Blind," H.G. Wells depicts a mountaineer in the Andes who happens upon a hidden valley inhabited by villagers who have lost the faculty of sight. Convinced that "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," the stranger quickly discovers that his gift fails to provide the superiority he anticipated.

Just the opposite: These people have compensated for their lack of vision by hyper-developing their other senses. As the mountaineer struggles with the reality that his sight puts him at a distinct disadvantage, the villagers increasingly regard him as delusional.

I experienced a form of this when I participated in a guided fantasy during my college days. As the facilitator finished talking us through a multifaceted undersea adventure, my friend Chris exclaimed, "That was one wild-looking fish!"

For my part, I hadn't seen anything at all.

Only decades after that meditative exercise did I learn that creativity and visualization have nothing to do with one another. Despite being relentlessly creative, I don't visualize at all. That places me among the less-than-4% of the population who suffer from this week's entry into the Ethical Lexicon:

Aphantasia (a*phan*ta*si*a/ eye-fan-TAY-zee-uh) noun

The inability to form mental images of real or imaginary people, places, or things.

My wife still can't fathom how I don't see pictures to accompany the words I hear or read. What's more remarkable is how this cerebral glitch can prove extremely advantageous.

In fact, aphantasia is found disproportionately among innovators and creatives across all disciplines. A short list of notables includes:

• Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar

• Craig Venter, the biologist who first sequenced the Human Genome

• Blake Ross, creator of Mozilla Firefox

• Glen Keane, Disney animator and creator of "The Little Mermaid"

• Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller

I always considered myself handicapped until 2021, when I was commissioned to write a memoir of the late Dr. Alan Weiss. An internationally renowned cardiologist possessing almost supernatural diagnostic abilities, Dr. Weiss also possessed a unique talent for formulating original theological insights.

In the course of our interviews, Dr. Weiss commented that he did not visualize himself. When he once mentioned this to a noted scholar, he learned how fortunate he was. In the Far East, he was told, students aspiring to higher levels of enlightenment may spend years in isolation learning how not to visualize.

Closer to home, Jewish philosophy teaches that the bridge between pure wisdom and practical knowledge is intuitive understanding -- the ability to discern hidden layers of meaning. In pursuit of true enlightenment, visualization actually becomes an impediment, since concrete imagery inhibits the conceptualization necessary to grasp complexity, nuance and deeper significance.

This demonstrates how the lessons of aphantasia are universally relevant. As much as "seeing is believing," it's equally true that "seeing is deceiving."

At the very least, seeing can be severely limiting. The more clearly we visualize the advantages or the necessity of a particular course of action, the more invested we become in following it through to the end and the more resistant we become to considering possible downsides or ethical pitfalls.

Even if the proposal is a good one, we can easily overlook ways to make it better. Exploring further possibilities may reveal how a genuinely good idea could be improved or open our eyes to discover superior alternatives.

One effective strategy is to pose a series of questions starting with "What if ... ?"

-- What if this idea isn't sound ... how might it go wrong?
-- What if there were other options available ... what might they be?
-- What if this weren't the best way to go ... what other avenues might we pursue? -- What if this idea could be made better ... how might that look?

The power of imagination enables us to reach beyond the known into the hypothetical. The more our feet are set in stone, even conceptual stone, the less free our minds are to explore the vistas of what might be. Ironically, blinding the mind's eye from time to time can prove the most effective strategy for seeing farther than we would have ever believed possible.

Rabbi Yonason Goldson graduated from the University of California at Davis with a degree in English, which he put to good use by setting off hitchhiking cross-country and backpacking across Europe. He eventually arrived in Israel where he connected with his Jewish roots and spent the next nine years studying Torah, completing his rabbinic training as part of Ohr Somayach's first ordination program. After teaching yeshiva high school for 23 years in Budapest, Hungary, Atlanta, Georgia, and St. Louis, Missouri, Rabbi Goldson established himself as a professional speaker and advisor, working with business leaders to create a company culture built on ethics and trust. He has published seven books and given two TEDx Talks, is an award-winning host of two podcasts, and writes a weekly column for Fast Company Magazine. He also serves as scholar-in-residence for congregations around the country.

Previously:

• Increase performance by turning into the wind
• Balancing the Equation of Intentions vs. Outcomes
• To be Human is to be Exceptional
• If You Get Where You're Going, You've Taken the Wrong Road
• Think Twice Before You Take Advice
• Taking intellectual humility seriously
• What are we?
• Are we Pillaging our own Moral Depository?
• Why Sharp Tongues Lose the War of Words
• Good Intentions Never Prevail Over Cold Reality
• Sarcastic Wit Carries Too High a Cost
• Character, not as a bank account. Rather, an investment portfolio
• Are We Programming Ourselves Out of Existence?
• The bigger they come, the harder we try to make them fall
• How to Transform Fallacies Into Actionable Reality
• How to make life worth living --- no, REALLY!
• What Do Opposites Attract? Truth and Wisdom
• Groucho Marx and Embracing Tension
• Toward a more civil civilization
• Break Down Barriers of Thought to Build Towers of Innovation
• 'Tis the Season for Reflecting Beyond your Reflection
• Why Antisemitism Is Not Just a Jewish Problem
• The rank stupidity of 'Just let it go'
• To create a functioning, biblically-based civilization
• The difference between optimism and hope
• The Next Piece of the Puzzle Might Fill the Hole in Your Heart
• Self-Esteem Isn't Given -- It's Earned
• Remember the Past to Promote a Successful Future
• Are We Making Failure the Price of Success?
• Demoralization Is More About Culture than Feelings
• The Lesson We're Missing From the Death of Charlie Kirk
• Invest in Your Own Success by Building Up Others
• The Most Valiant Heroes Fight on a Different Battlefield
• How Pundits Came to Give Punditry a Bad Name
• The Wisdom of Knowing What You Don't Know
• Success Thrives in the Light of Purpose and Passion
• When Seeking Peace, Don't Release the Dogs of War
• Greta Thunberg Sails Toward Moral Hypocrisy
• Checking More Boxes Is Not the Solution
• Why Sometimes NOT Seeing Is MORE Believing
• A Healthy Diet for the Brain Promotes Ethical Clarity for the Mind

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