The Four Agreements: Introduction: The Smokey Mirror Summary & Analysis

Three thousand years ago, a student studying to be a medicine man sleeps in a cave and has an out of body experience in a dream, through which he realizes “I am made of light. I am made of stars.” The student realizes that everything is made of light, which is alive, and it is one being spread throughout the universe. He calls the stars “tonal” and the light between them—including himself—“nagual.” The student concludes that “Everything is God,” and that human perception is “light perceiving light.”  The student decides that matter is like a mirror, a dream, or smoke that occludes humanity’s real nature, which is “pure love, pure light.” 

After the student’s realization, he recognizes himself in everything he sees, from other people to clouds. He perceives that life as we know it manifests as varied mixtures of the tonal (starlight) and the nagual (light between the stars). Suddenly, the student feels an overwhelming sensation of peace and wants to share his vision but he cannot not communicate it adequately. Nonetheless, others notice a change in the student’s demeanor: he radiates beauty and doesn’t judge anyone. Other people think the student might be an incarnation of God, and the student says that he is—but so is everybody else. The student can see himself in everyone else, but they can’t see themselves in him.

The student concludes that everyone is dreaming and can’t see their true nature because of the fog or smoke between them, meaning the layer of interpretation that humans add to reality. So as not to forget his insights, the student decides to call himself the “Smokey Mirror.” This name represents the idea that mirrors are people who dream up interpretations of reality that occlude the true picture. Their interpretations are the dreams, or the smoke, that stop them from seeing themselves as the light that comprises everything.