Ibn al-Haytham
How do we see the world? The answer seems obvious. We open our eyes, and the world enters. But for centuries, the greatest thinkers of the ancient world believed the exact opposite. They argued that vision was an active, searching force—that our eyes sent out invisible rays to "seize" objects, much like a hand reaching out in the dark. It took the radical work of one man to reverse this idea, and in doing so, to fundamentally change how we understand light, vision, and truth itself.
That man was Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen. He was a polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, a period of extraordinary intellectual synthesis. Living and working in Basra and Cairo around 1000 AD, he was an astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher. But his most profound legacy is his revolutionary work on light.
The Dark Room and the Birth of Optics
Ibn al-Haytham found himself questioning the consensus of giants like Euclid and Ptolemy. Their "extramission theory"—that eyes emit rays—didn't make sense to him. Why, he wondered, does looking at the bright sun cause pain and damage the eye? If the eye was the source of the rays, a bright object should make no difference.
To test his own hypothesis, he used a simple but powerful device. He sealed himself in a completely dark room (in Arabic, al-bayt al-muẓlim, or "dark room"). On one wall, he made a tiny, single pinhole. On the opposite wall, a flickering, inverted image of the sunlit world outside appeared. This device was the camera obscura, and it was his proof.
He correctly reasoned that the only way the image could form was if light travelled in straight lines from the objects outside, passed through the aperture, and landed on the wall. He had proven the "intromission theory": vision happens when light enters the eye, not when it leaves. This discovery, published in his monumental, seven-volume Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), became the foundation for all modern optics, from eyeglasses to cameras to telescopes.
Beyond Light: A Method for Truth
Ibn al-Haytham’s contribution was not just the what, but the how. He didn't just propose a better idea; he demonstrated it with physical evidence. He was one of the first thinkers to articulate and systemically use what we now call the modern scientific method: a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and independent verification.
He famously wrote: “The duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and... attack it from every side.” This was a radical call for skepticism and empirical proof in an age that often relied on pure deference to ancient authorities.
The Parable for the Psyche
At the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic, the story of Ibn al-Haytham resonates deeply with our work. His journey from an "extramission" to an "intromission" model of sight is a powerful metaphor for the therapeutic journey.
From Projecting to Receiving
Often, we begin therapy in an "extramission" state. We project our inner world onto others, seeing not what is truly there, but what our own fears, assumptions, and complexes send out. We believe our reality is "seized" by our will, when in fact we are blinded by our own projections. The goal of Jungian psychology is to stop this projection—to withdraw those rays—and create an inner "camera obscura."
A Dialogue with the Ancients
Ibn al-Haytham did not simply discard the work of Ptolemy or Euclid; he studied them, tested them, and built upon them. His work was a critical dialogue with the past. This mirrors the dual approach of our clinic. Our lead therapist, Martyn J. Shrewsbury, brings a background in Classics and Hellenistic Astrology—a deep engagement with ancient wisdom. At the same time, this is integrated with modern Psychological Astrology and Jungian clinical training, creating a method that honours the past while rigorously testing it against lived experience.
Seeing in a New Light
Ibn al-Haytham’s experiment proved that to see clearly, one must first be willing to sit in the dark. We must create a space where the outside world can be received as it is, not as we demand it to be. Only then can a true image form.
This is the work of therapy. It is the process of creating a safe, contained space—a therapeutic "dark room"—where you can quiet your own projections and allow the light of your own psyche, and the symbolic light of the cosmos, to enter. By blending psychological insight with astrological wisdom, we help you interpret the images that appear, allowing you to navigate your life with a new, more profound clarity.
