The pentecostals and charismatics in general aren't the only people who claim that they can either 'hear' or 'see' Elohim (God) speaking to them. The New Age Movement and occultism in general is full of people claiming festoons of prophecy, visions and revelations of divers sorts. The fighting in the Levant, Syria and Iraq, at least from the extremist Moslem side, is based on the apocalyptic claims of the Islamic 'prophet' whom these terrorists fanatically believe they are fulfilling...and not only them but the so-called moderate 'rebels' too.

Interesting though an examination of the claims of others would be - Christian as well as non-Christian - I want today to limit myself to the physics (or perhaps I should say 'metaphysics') of the phenomenon itself, and in particular, what we call a 'vision' as there remains much confusion over this subject. This is particularly important at a time such as this where 'apocalypseois' (if I may coin the word) is (understandbly) running rampant with more than a mere token number of voices offering 'prophetic' insights and making 'prophetic' claims. We need to know what we're dealing with.

Firstly some definitions. A biblical 'vision' may properly be spoken of as a visual (the more usual) or auditory event (or combination of both) which reveals something otherwise, with dreams being closely related, the latter being received or seen/heard while unconscious (asleep) and the former while either fully awake or in a semi-conscious trance-like state. Confusingly, the two are, unfortunately, often used interchangeably. When I speak of seeing visions I am refering to what is seen while fully awake or in a semi-conscious state. As far as the latter phenomenon is concerned, it is commonly testified that visions are seen in this 'inbetween' state between sleep and wakefulness. 'Visions' seen while fully asleep are more accurately described as 'dreams'.

Visions were a commonly accepted means of communication and revelation between man and Elohim (God) both throughout the history of Israel and in the early Messianc Community (Christian Church). Visions occur throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament), in the Torah (Law, Teaching) proper, in the Nevi'im (Prophets) and in the Kethuvim (Writings). They are particularly important in Acts and Revelation. Visions are related to, yet distinct from, other revelatory phenomena such as theophanies (manifestations of Elohim/God), angelophanies (physical appearances of malakim/angels) and heavenly journeys - in these, the emphasis is usually in the message conveyed or the mystery revealed rather than to the image as in visions.

Visions may broadly be categorised as follows:

• 1. Visions of Deity or the Divine Council (Ex.24:9-11; 1 Ki.12:19-23; Is.6; Ezek.1:1-3,15; Rev.4:2-11);
• 2. Visions of other scenes or events which require no interpretation (1 Ki.22:17; Jer.4:23-26; Ezek.8-11; 40-48; Amos 7:1-3,4-6; Zech.2:1-5; 3:1-10; Ac.16:9-10);
• 3. Visions based on wordplays (Jer.1:11-12; Amos 8:1-3);
• 4. Symbolic visions which require interpretation (Jer.1:13-19; Ezek,37:1-14; Dan.7-8; Amos 7:7-9; Zech.1:7-2:5(9); 5:1-11; Ac.10:9-16); and
• 5. Allegorical visions found primarily in apocalypses (Rev.12;17)

Biblical visions of all categories contain certain elements in common. They are usually narrated in the first person by the seer ('I saw this or that'). As in dream accounts, there is often an introductory 'frame' which provides the information on the date, time and place where the vision occurred (you'll find several of these in the Book of Ezekiel, for example, which are not chronological making the frames very important indeed). This is followed by the narration of the contents of the vision and an interpretation, if necessary. The account often concludes by noting the reactions of the visionary or seer.

Some biblical visions simply provide an occasion for an accompanying oracle and in these cases, the oracle carries the primary message, with the vision being secondary. In other instances, particularly in symbolic visions, the vision itself is the primary means of communication, often revealing future events. Visions in the B'rit Chadashah Scriptures (New Testament) tend to be of the symbolic type. The apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation tend toward highly symbolic or allegorical visions with vivid and even bizzare imagery and are typically the most understood, particularly in our generation of exaggerated literalism.

Let us first of all be clear what divine visions are not. They are not the one-sided conversations that constantly take place in adjacent sections of the mind. This babble is going on in everybody's head more or less continuously. These conversations take place quite independently of the trend of conscious thought, like a radio playing in the background. Many people make the huge mistake of believing that this is 'God' or the 'Spirit' speaking to them. It isn't. Most of these voices speak such triviality that most of us would hardly dare give samples of them to others for fear of being viewed by them in the most disparaging terms. I include in this babble of semi-random voices those sudden and bright mental images (for example, the face of a loved one who is dead) which may be conjured up in the mind from its memory banks by the wing-stroke of the will, however dramatic they may at times appear to be. These are not remotely visions in the biblical sense and contain no revelation or prophecy. They are but memories which may, or may not, be shaped in part by fantasy filling in those parts of our memory that we may have lost over the course of time. Even in those moments when we can vividly recall the picture of someone or or an event long past, because of their connection to deep-seated feelings and experiences-past, down to the last detail, we are not dealing with biblical visions even if we are dealing with the visionary mechanism. Of this I will speal more in a moment.

Some of you may have heard of what are called muscae volitantes in physiology or shadows cast upon the retinal rods by motes (specks) in the vitreous humour or the eye. Hopefully none of my readers believes for a single moment that there is anything of any spiritual import in these. Nor, I hope, would you ever be deceived into thinking there is anything 'spiritual' in hypnagogic mirages which are coloured spots, those stabs of an afterimage, with which the lamp, once turned off, causes what is known as a palpebral fissure, a shock to the eye which causes all sorts of colours and shapes to pass before ones field of vision even when your eyes are closed. These 'visions' come and go, even without our participation, and though we 'see' them in the same place as we do objects that we see with our eyes open, or in dreams when we are asleep, or in visions when we are awake or in a trance-like state, they are nevertheless purely physical phenomena caused by temporary damage to the retina.

Herein lies the problem. Our brain processes all and every kind of 'vision', natural as well as supernatural, in exactly the same way. If you close your eyes and attempt to locate where in your brain you do your 'seeing' of any and every sort, you will quickly discover it to be between your eyes, at the front of your head, where occultists claim a 'third eye' is located. We view all these phenomena in the same way and in the same place in our brain, whether these phenomena have a material, psychic or spiritual origin, in the same way that we use the same system of speech to describe all three with our larynx, tongues and lips.

The signals we receive from our eyes may be traced in the brain to the back of our head to an area known as the visual cortex which is a processing centre. These signals pass between the eyes, optic nerve, and lateral geniculate nucleus en route to their destination. Nevertheless when we actually 'see' this processed data it seems to appear somewhere behind our brow in the front of the brain, though this could be an illusion created in space/time since what we often 'see' is a far greater 'space volume' than that limited volume which is our brain. The following diagram illustrates the three sources of 'visual' input that our visual cortex receives and how we see them:

There is a parallel auditory system which I won't elaborate on here but it works in essentially the same way as the visual one as far as the interaction of the three dimensions are concerned.

A complication must here be mentioned for the one seeking to understand how to discern, and it is this: all three dimensions - the physical, psychic (including the fleshy and demonic) and spiritual - are simultaneously operating and interacting, even if not equally, so that visual and auditory perception will vary depending on what one's primary 'tuning' is. (For more on the 'three heavens', see Devil's Paradise: Will You take the Bait?). Distinguishing between the different kinds of visual and auditory experiences is something you have to learn through prayerm surrender and purification. Spiritual impulses from Yahweh, through the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), from your own fleshy nature, or from demons whispering and flashing pictures through the neuronal doors that are open to them, come and go without the drowsy oberver's participation, all seeking your attention and for responses. These 'photisms', if I may collectively call them this, make their individual demands, most which we ignore to such an extent that we lose consciousness of them altogether, causing them to sink into the subconscience. When these become highlighted in the conscious state, especially in those who are very sensitive to these kinds of stimuli, they can be a nuisance and eventually a burden requiring serious prayer to resolve - to silence the dark impulses to allow the light side to dominate.

Undealt with, these photisms and auditisms, if they start crowding the mind, can lead to overload and profound mental disturbance. People often turn to psychototropic and halucinogenic drugs to silence them but these invariably cause even problems - both biological and psychological - than they solve and are best left alone. Some of them directly open demonic doorways which in extreme cases can lead to insanity.