scatter vision

Sometimes you can 'see' greater detail in nature by looking more rapidly, a technique used by professional trackers, naturalists, outdoor educators, nature psychologists, martial arts practitioners, and others called "scatter" vision.

You apply this method of seeing by letting your attention sweep quickly across your entire field of vision, taking everything in broadly rather than detail by detail. 

As you look, first try to see out of the sides of your eyes in an  "unfocused" manner, and then zoom directly in on something, anything, that catches your immediate attention, such as a sound, color, movement, shape, or even an internal feeling.

Call upon as many ways of knowing as possible, beginning with the common senses of sight and sound, and then arousing the more obscure senses, such as place, direction, motion, territory, season, weather, temperature, color, form design, community,  etc.

As you begin to "scatter" your vision, connect deeply to your surroundings, half by eye and half by ear, and then make intuition-based connections to all facets of nature.

Try jumping back and forth from your conscious, 'thinking' senses of sight and sound to your unconscious, 'being' innate  senses.

This is "scatter" vision, which might also be called natural alertness, wakeful awareness, or deep listening in place.

To connect to Nature, one has to adopt physical invisibility, while heightening sensory visibility.

Read John Berger’s moving essay, "Why Look at Animals?" (1980) to enhance your appreciation of the importance of animals to the health of Earth, community, and self.