Transforming Light into Thought

Perception, illusion, and knowledge between science and inner experience

I have transformed light into thought. Every day the sun dazzles me, new words are born.

Today is one of those days when the sun’s rays flood the lake, making the waves seem metaphysical. Everything, to me, is metaphysical: the clouds scattered like forgotten sheep in the sky, the stains that the clouds’ shadows draw across the mountains.

When a mind is metaphysical, everything that is not becomes boring.

Do you recognize yourself in this trait? Probably not. You should already be beings of Light. Today they call them starseeds, but perhaps starseeds are simply those who, like me, transform light into thought.

The Masks of Survival

To survive in this world, I have had to reorient myself many times, to transform into what I am not, to wear different masks.

At school we used to sing:“It’s a hard world, happiness comes in moments.”But is it really so?

We have been given a distorted idea of happiness, made dependent on people, on consumption, on everything that only resembles it on the surface.

Happiness, instead, is grounded in rationality: in seeing reality clearly.

To transform light into thought means allowing only what deserves to emerge to pass through, because only what is transformed is, in the end, true.

It seems like a paradox, but it is not: what cannot rise beyond matter is not an intention strong enough to deserve realization.

Waves as Illusion

If you observe the waves of a lake or the sea for a long time, you realize that they are also optical illusions: they truly exist and move only when you grant them attention.

Reality often works in the same way.

The Camera Obscura: Where Science and Intuition Meet

This reflection led me to the camera obscura, a scientific device studied and refined by Arab scholars, particularly Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) in the 10th century.

In a dark room, a small hole allows light to enter, projecting an inverted image onto the opposite wall.

This discovery revolutionized the understanding of vision: perception is not a passive process. The image is not “in the eye,”but arises from the interaction between light, space, and visual structure.

Even waves are temporary manifestations of light, perceivable only when mind and attention are aligned.

Modern psychology confirms this. According to Gestalt theory, the brain completes incomplete forms, interprets patterns, and constructs coherence even where none objectively exists.

When reality is ambiguous, the mind creates a convincing illusion—and that illusion becomes experience.

Light and Heart: Perception and Spirituality

The spiritual dimension broadens this reflection even further.

In the Qur’an, Surah An-Nur describes Allah as “the Light of the heavens and the earth,” suggesting that true knowledge goes beyond mere physical sight. In Al-Baqarah, it is said that it is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts.

Understanding, therefore, is not only perception: it is an inner act.

As in the camera obscura, where the image slowly emerges from darkness, the mind too needs time and silence to develop knowledge.

Illusions are not simple mistakes. They are tools that show us how perception worksand teach us that what appears does not always coincide with what is.

Mental Illusions as Thresholds

The waves, the stains on the mountains, are all signs—enigmas that invite us to question perception.

The mind interprets, anticipates, fills gaps, constructs meaning. In this sense, optical illusions are not deceptions, but thresholds: points of passage between what we believe we seeand what we can learn to understand.

Observation thus becomes an act of inquiry.

Like a scientific experiment, it requires attention, openness, and the ability to question the obvious.

It is in this space that science, mind, and inner reflection meet.

Between Light, Shadow, and Mystery

Perception is always an intertwining of external reality and mental construction.

The discoveries of Ibn al-Haytham teach us that light alone is not enough: it is structure that gives it meaning.

In the same way, the mind interprets sensory dataand transforms it into knowledge.

Spiritual traditions remind us that seeing does not mean fully understanding.

Optical illusions and fleeting appearancesare not errors to avoid, but opportunities to explorethe limits—and the power—of the human mind.

Reality never offers itself all at once.

It develops slowly, like an image in the camera obscura: between light and shadow, presence and absence,truth and appearance.

And perhaps this is its greatest gift.