Laura Sewall, a professor at Prescott College in Arizona, has written an entrancing and soulful "perceptual guidebook for deepening our experience." As a mystic scientist or ecopsychologist, she also sees this volume as a prayer for the planet. The author has admirably succeeded in both her goals.
Long ago Henry David Thoreau wrote, "We do not know where we are." He was talking about being distracted and alienated from the natural world. David Abram, who wrote the introduction to Sight and Sensibility, calls this state "collective myopia." The antidote, according to Sewall, is mindful eyes, seeing as if the world matters. Here we can learn much from the Sufis who look through the eye of the heart; from indigenous people who have "a seamless form of perception"; from shamanic traditions where vision weaves together imagination and the natural world; and from the Buddhist ideal of mindfulness where wakeful attention is cultivated.
With a lyrical and pensive writing style, Sewall uses her wilderness experiences to open our eyes to a contemplative perception of reality. She ends with a vibrant celebration of what it takes to be a visionary in these high-tech times. Sewall's relational way of seeing the world is positively inspiring!
