question about human vision

[Herr_Noob]

hi i just registered because for years this question of mine has intrigued me and I don't know the answer or who to ask...

 

Hopefully this is the right section of this forum

 

Okay so here is my question/how to set this up. close your eyes and put your hands to cover them in order for there to be no light near so you see full darkness, dont push hard on your eyes, just covere them and sort of zone out or do not attempt to focus anything,

 

now what i see when i do this is a bunch of dots moving across like if i was traveling and they go past me as in they come from the center and go to sides, these dots very small are by colors in a spectrum form, usually they go from like purple to blue to green, and if I try to follow one dot its rly hard as they go past...

 

I really always wondered if im the only one who sees this and why i see it, my guess is that it has to do with possibly the cones in my eyes that have color sort of burned into it or something like that, eh so yeah anyone know what this is?

 

thx

[Taq_is_hot]

I know what you are talking about. I get that sometimes. I get it when I haven't been in a light room and I have to have my eyes shut for a while. I get it a lot before I fall asleep at night. I think I may have an idea or two of what this is, but don't necessarily take my word for it...this is just a guess.

 

I think that after you have been seeing things all day long, your brain is used to sensing light. Have you ever tried going in a doorway and doing the following? If not, you should try it. Go in an open doorway. Stand so you can put one hand on each side of the doorway. Keep your arms straight. Then push as hard as you can with the backs of your hands against the doorway. Stay this way for about a minute. Then, relax your arms DO NOT MOVE THEM. Then take a few steps forward. Your arms will automatically move up without you forcing them to. It is a weird feeling! This happens because your brain is thinking that you are still pushing against the doorway.

 

I think this is the same with your eyes. After you close them, your brain thinks you should still be seeing something. So it causes you to see shapes or dots or squiggles or something. The reason you can't follow the dots it probably because each dot is in a certain part of your eye so, no matter what you do, it moves along with your eye so you can't look directly at it. It is the same thing as when you look at a bright light out of the corner of your eye and then shut your eyes. You can still see the light. No matter where you look, the light stays in the same spot and you can't look directly at it.

 

Hoe this helps

[Daecon]

Do you mean like "snow" on an untuned TV screen, except in red, green and blue?

[Herr_Noob]

I know what you are talking about. I get that sometimes. I get it when I haven't been in a light room and I have to have my eyes shut for a while. I get it a lot before I fall asleep at night. I think I may have an idea or two of what this is, but don't necessarily take my word for it...this is just a guess.

 

I think that after you have been seeing things all day long, your brain is used to sensing light. Have you ever tried going in a doorway and doing the following? If not, you should try it. Go in an open doorway. Stand so you can put one hand on each side of the doorway. Keep your arms straight. Then push as hard as you can with the backs of your hands against the doorway. Stay this way for about a minute. Then, relax your arms DO NOT MOVE THEM. Then take a few steps forward. Your arms will automatically move up without you forcing them to. It is a weird feeling! This happens because your brain is thinking that you are still pushing against the doorway.

 

I think this is the same with your eyes. After you close them, your brain thinks you should still be seeing something. So it causes you to see shapes or dots or squiggles or something. The reason you can't follow the dots it probably because each dot is in a certain part of your eye so, no matter what you do, it moves along with your eye so you can't look directly at it. It is the same thing as when you look at a bright light out of the corner of your eye and then shut your eyes. You can still see the light. No matter where you look, the light stays in the same spot and you can't look directly at it.

 

Hoe this helps

 

hmm very interesting connection and the door thing I had done something similar before so I get the idea, yeah i guess it might be because of this, if only i could remember in morning to see if i can still see that or if its after a colorful day...

[Herr_Noob]

you dont need your eyes lids close, you can see it too if you enter in an extremely fully dark area aswell

[lucaspa]

I really always wondered if im the only one who sees this and why i see it, my guess is that it has to do with possibly the cones in my eyes that have color sort of burned into it or something like that, eh so yeah anyone know what this is?

 

It happens to me, too. It seems to be a phenomenon called "closed-eye visualization". However, the only real discussion of it I can find is a Wikipedia article without references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination

 

We need to do more looking.

[insane_alien]

i seem to get level3 (from the wikipage) rather regularly.

 

i know it says a bunch of stuff about meditative relaxation techinques but i get them nearly everytime i close my eyes. also when i'm not under the influence of any psychadelics(i am far from a regular user, occasional at most).

 

can be annoying at times.