Art and the Soul

Painting by blind artist Esref Armagan

Turkish artist Esref Armagan has been blind from birth. Yet, beyond the information available to him through his sense of touch (shape, texture, hardness, etc.), he clearly has an understanding of things like color, shading and perspective. He has formed in his mind's eye, as it were, a "picture" of the world around him which he is able to communicate through standard art media--pencil sketch or (as in the image above) paint applied to canvas with his finger tips. Scientists who study cognition and perception are astonished by this man's ability to accurately perceive and portray the world, without the use of his eyes. I suspect that much of their confusion stems from their assumptions about the nature of human beings. Most scientists today (under the reigning paradigm of materialism) assume that the human mind is nothing more than the human brain--a entirely physical system that responds to stimuli which are fully explainable with reference to physical phenomena. They are hard-pressed to explain how Mr. Armagan is able to perceive and to draw with an almost mathematically accurate perspective. Indeed, if the mind is merely the physical brain, this shouldn't be possible to do without any visual input.

Human beings are not merely physical, though, they have a dual nature--both physical (the body) and spiritual (the soul). The mind is part of this spiritual aspect of humanity we call the soul. Perception and cognition of concepts like color, shape and spacial relationships, are capacities of the soul. Color isn't a frequency of light. It is a non-physical concept of a mind. Our souls have the capacity to perceive such things because they first existed as concepts in the mind of the Creator God, who then created the universe to exemplify them. He also created human-kind such that our bodies would interact with that physical world (through our senses) in ways that give us accurate knowledge about the world He made for us. That is, He created our souls with the mental ability to conceptualize color, shape, etc. as He intended us to.

Given this dualistic understanding of human nature, we can more easily understand how a blind artist can perceive the world and communicate it so accurately in his art. Even though his body does not function visually, all of the capacities associated with vision (which reside in his soul), as well as his ability to conceptualize them, are fully operational. Mr. Armagan "sees" the world because God created him with a mind designed to apprehend accurately, all of the concepts a sighted person might describe in visual terms. Though blind, he is able to apprehend visual aspects of the world by the spiritual/mental activity of his soul.

A wonderful promise of Redemption is the healing of blindness, both of the physical and spiritual kind:

Rev 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

1Cr 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

For more information on Esref Armagan, be sure to watch the video on Facebook. My thanks to Larry K. for bringing it to my attention!