Listen with Your Eyes

Twenty years ago, psychologist Arthur Aron discovered that four minutes of looking into another person’s eyes could bring people closer. When I first saw the video that Amnesty Poland produced based on this theory, I watched it, mesmerized.

The film experiment, conducted in Berlin, shows what happened when refugees and Europeans sat opposite each other and looked into each other’s eyes.

The participants were ordinary people. The situations weren’t staged and the beautiful reactions were natural and spontaneous. A smile creeps across a mouth, a tear wells up, a heavy sigh is breathed, a greeting of hello murmured, and compliments, attempts at communication, and conversations begin.

Immediately, I thought: “This is Listening with our eyes.”

Not one pair knew each other before seeing each other for the first time, but when their eyes started to listen it was truly miraculous.

How well do you do it?
Are you ready for a miracle?

Use your eyes to listen.

Pamela Klein
Editor, On Q