WHO ARE WE?
The VESM, or Voluntary Extinction of Sight Movement, is more than just a movement: it is an international community of conscious individuals who have chosen to radically free themselves from the oppressive reign of the image. We deeply believe that sight, traditionally considered precious and indispensable, is in fact a subtle constraint imposed by a society dominated by the visual.
Within the VESM, we assert that seeing limits our true ability to feel and understand the world.

By voluntarily choosing visual extinction, our members rediscover authentic perception, deep inner listening, and heightened awareness of their surroundings. Behind this approach lies a revolutionary aspiration: to dismantle the tyranny of appearance and restore direct experience—one unmediated by the constant filter of vision. This sensory revelation unveils a hidden reality, where touch, hearing, smell, and taste become the new guides to a life finally fully lived.

OUR VALUES
We affirm that contemporary vision is profoundly corrupted. Overrun by an incessant flow of stimuli, saturated with imposed images, and dominated by prefabricated truths, it confines rather than liberates.

• It imposes instead of suggesting.
• It divides instead of uniting.
• It conceals instead of revealing.
• It projects illusions where the self should fully feel.

In the face of this visual tyranny, we teach that darkness is not an absence, but a fertile origin. It is not a void, but a field saturated with invisible presences. What some call "blindness," we call Renaissance. For us, this radical choice is by no means a loss: it is the conscious and lucid restitution of a truth long hidden by the absolute reign of the image.

THE RENAISSANCEThe Renaissance, a method developed by Ivan Sutherland and adopted by the VESM, is a radical therapy aimed at healing disorders caused by visual overconsumption by fully liberating perception. Based on a central idea—what we see is what destroys us—this practice enables a deep sensory reset, carefully guided by a Facilitator.

The image has become the silent toxin of our modern age. An endless stream of visual stimuli, illusions, and simulacra generates a neurological overload known as cognitive hyperrealism. This phenomenon leads to chronic stress, recurring insomnia, anxiety exacerbated by constant social comparison, and psychosomatic disorders worsened by excessive visualization.

The VESM defines this modern affliction as the Accepted Hallucination Syndrome (AHS). Voluntary blindness thus emerges not as a loss, but as a true liberation: a return to direct and genuine sensory perception.

WHO IS IVAN?
CHAPTER 1: THE KING OF IMAGES

Do you want to know more?

GOING FURTHER?
THE LIBRARY THE ULTIMATE STEP
BUILD YOU OWN BUD

TESTIMONIALS

“I stopped believing in the image. And in this withdrawal, I found the invisible. VESM offered me the rarest thing today: a gaze that does not divide.”
 – A., G2

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“I didn’t know I was living in a spectacle. I was both spectator and prisoner. VESM cut the power. I finally heard my own silence.”
 – C., A2

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“The world looked at me through me. I was no longer a subject, but a surface. It was within VESM that I managed to withdraw from this infinite mirror. Finally, I exist without a reflection.”
 – I., B1

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“My vision was saturated. My soul too. The Blindness gave me back my body.”
 – T., E1

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“At first, I was afraid. Afraid of the dark, afraid of not seeing anymore. But the Accompanist said to me: ‘You will see differently.’ And it was true. Today, I perceive what I could only brush against before.”
 – M., G1

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“The flow of images had stolen the name of my body. The Renaissance gave it back to me, syllable by syllable, in the dark.”
 – M., C2

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“We think we see to understand. But I saw so much that I no longer understood anything. The Accompanist guided me towards dissolution. Today, I am lighter from myself.”
 – J., F2

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“Every look I cast on the world was an unconscious pact. The Renaissance showed me what I was signing without knowing it. I broke the contract.”
 – Y., E2

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