Black and white

In preparation for a workshop on “evil.”

I have two cotton blindfolds, one white, one black. I ask for a volunteer. I say, now I am going to show you experientially the difference between good and evil. Volunteer says,OK.

First I ask him to put the black blindfold on, snug, he can’t see around the edges. I ask him what he sees. He sees nothing. We take the black blindfold off and put the white one on. I ask him what he sees now. Again he sees nothing.

Black is evil, white is good.
Lesson #1: both make you blind.

Then I ask, was there any difference between having a black or a white blindfold on? Yes, there was. What? The white was lighter, more light came through, it was noticeable

Black is evil, white is good.
Lesson #2: black blocks the light more effectively than white does. White is closer to being transparent to the light.

I ask the volunteer to place the two blindfolds on the floor and then to stand himself in relation to them, where he thinks he himself is. He does this and places himself in the middle between the black and the white. (Aside to the audience: he must have read Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell… )

Then I ask him to imagine he is God and change his position in relation to good and evil. He walks over to the white blindfold, moves past it, looks back at white, and at the black that is now in a straight line further away from him. Does God see evil?

Black is evil, white is good.
Lesson #3: No, God only sees white. The black that lies a little further away from God than the white, is just that: it is a little further away from the light. Seen from God.

Go to part two: contrasts.

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