Hacker News Reader

Comment by sitharus | Hacker News Reader

Seeing snow when your eyes are closed or in darkness is fairly typical from what I understand. Visual snow as a diagnosis is visible at least in reading-level light and against light backgrounds.

I see snow against all colours in a typical office environment. It’s less noticeable in daylight but still there.

View on HN

I can both see it and "unsee" it. If I'm actively doing something and using my eyes for things I don't notice. But if I'm just sitting listening to music or whatever I can notice the "fuzz" and noise. In low light it's a very fine grain. In daylight it's a coarser pulsing of white and black.

I've always thought this was normal. I've asked a couple other people and they've said they see it too, :shrug:

I've always had visual glows when I close my eyes. Not eye floaters, I only see those when my eyes are open.

When I close my eye, I usually see an outline of bright/dark somewhat matching what I last saw, but desaturated and splotchy.

If I keep my eyes close, the patches kinda drift around. It's kinda fun to watch sometimes but I get bored eventually open my eyes.

I've always assumed its my eyes just adjusting to the dark, or maybe its residual light my eyelids can't filter out.

I always remember the term 'eidetic' and always think I am misremembering the correct term, but it is "eidetic imagery" I am searching for. To me this refers to the phenomenon of seeing above-threshold-of-perception patterns or motions, such as lava-like swirling. As you say, such things can be interesting for a time.

This following link discusses the phenomenon in terms of phosphenes:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-do-i-see-patterns-when-i-...

Arguably, there have been spiritual movements fueled by relative ignorace around these things, with gurus allegedly claiming that they enable these unexpected experiences for their disciples.

> with gurus allegedly claiming that they enable these unexpected experiences for their disciples

I can voluntarily cause a burst of those color patterns by, after closing my eyes, relaxing all my facial muscles and letting my eyes go unfocused. Works best when trying to fall asleep, so I can imagine people unintentionally doing the same during, say, meditation and correlating it with their spiritual leader.

A sort of natural prior is that when you close your eyes, it must be black, right? But it is not, as you observe.

A sociologist who studied the spiritual cultures concluded there were many conformity-related behaviors at work. Oh, yea, I had the experience.

I think I get phosphenes and never had the word for it. I can more or less elicit them on demand by closing my eyes, relax and let them cross slightly. A stroby concentric circle set ensues for a few seconds. Always the same pattern. Red.

I thought that was normal, what everyone saw. Aren't they called something like "phosgenes"?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com