Mirror Neurons

Last night a dear friend of mine, an esteemed member of Y.U.'s Kollel Elyon, told me about a chabura he gave to Y.U. guys, in which he cited the idea of mirror neurons. As he explained it, the idea basically is that if you experience a sensation such as pain and I see it happening - one could actually see proof inside my brain that - I feel the pain too. He applied it to the traditional Jewish concept of how careful we must be with what we allow our eyes to see. We hear a lot about lashon hara, and we sometimes hear the term ayin hara. Ayin hara is a household phrase, used to apply to a superstitious evil eye. There is a more important concept packed inside these words. Ayin hara, and ayin hatov are the steps that precede lashon hara and lashon hatov. Before we speak pejoratively or positively regarding reality we see, we choose what to view, bearing in mind that what we watch profoundly impacts our souls. We are then expected to unpack the pieces of any scene we see and look at it in the most positive light. This theory suggests that there is a visceral reaction to what we watch, which runs deeper than ever realized before.