I've no idea what this means but found it interesting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27680436
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27680436
Eye condition makes man hallucinate tapestries and monks
- Thread starter Typoz
- Start date
S
Reminds me of another situation involving a vision problem -> macular degeneration:
Eye Spirits: Visions of The Blind
Eye Spirits: Visions of The Blind
I met a lady a few years ago who said she saw "little faces" sometimes on the surface of objects. I looked it up for her on the Web and discovered Charles Bonnet syndrome, so I told her that's what it might be. I don't know if she followed it up with her doctor, though. I think it's a disorder in the eye and/or the nervous system. The lady was in every way quite normal apart from that. It's neither a mental disorder nor a psi experience.
This is an area of some expertise for me. The macula is the part of the retina that is responsible for central vision. It is very much the "business area" of the retina with more tightly packed receptors enabling us to see fine detail, and colour. Look at a photo of a retina and you'll notice that the macula is much darker in colour due to the increased blood flow to that area. This area is very metabolically active; in other words, "working" hard.
Unfortunately, there is a cost to that increased metabolism. Without getting into too much detail, after about 70-80 years (give or take, there is a bell curve distribution) the macula starts to wear out, and receptors are lost: Macula Degeneration
Now I know that it is fashionable on here to underestimate the brain (
) but it is very good at making sense of the information it receives, even when there are bits of information missing. (As an aside in a condition like glaucoma the retina can lose up to about 40% of its ganglion cells before a measurable visual field defect can be found - again the brain is able to "fill in the gaps". This is remarkable.)
It appears that in some, with advanced macula changes, the blobs of missing receptors, can be made into recognizable shapes, often faces and people or animals, in a form of pareidolia.
The interesting part of this, IMO, is how under reported this phenomenom is. Elderly people often live alone, and are afraid of admitting to these hallucinations (remember, these folk are invariably in an age group who fear being thought of as "senile" or "losing it")
Following a remark at a conference a few years ago I decided to talk to patients with advanced macula disruption about hallucinations. The stories I continue to get back are amazing. Letting people know that it is a known side effect of their condition allows them to (with some relief!) discuss this symptom. Just last week I had an (extended!) chat to an elderly lady about the "man" who she lived with and talked to. I turned around to see her daughter (who was in the room) eyes wide with shock and her chin on the floor. This woman had told nobody about her hallucinations.
Unfortunately, there is a cost to that increased metabolism. Without getting into too much detail, after about 70-80 years (give or take, there is a bell curve distribution) the macula starts to wear out, and receptors are lost: Macula Degeneration
Now I know that it is fashionable on here to underestimate the brain (
) but it is very good at making sense of the information it receives, even when there are bits of information missing. (As an aside in a condition like glaucoma the retina can lose up to about 40% of its ganglion cells before a measurable visual field defect can be found - again the brain is able to "fill in the gaps". This is remarkable.)It appears that in some, with advanced macula changes, the blobs of missing receptors, can be made into recognizable shapes, often faces and people or animals, in a form of pareidolia.
The interesting part of this, IMO, is how under reported this phenomenom is. Elderly people often live alone, and are afraid of admitting to these hallucinations (remember, these folk are invariably in an age group who fear being thought of as "senile" or "losing it")
Following a remark at a conference a few years ago I decided to talk to patients with advanced macula disruption about hallucinations. The stories I continue to get back are amazing. Letting people know that it is a known side effect of their condition allows them to (with some relief!) discuss this symptom. Just last week I had an (extended!) chat to an elderly lady about the "man" who she lived with and talked to. I turned around to see her daughter (who was in the room) eyes wide with shock and her chin on the floor. This woman had told nobody about her hallucinations.
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If a tumor can displace the eye just enough to cause hallucinations, then theoretically a spirit entity could induce an image in someone's eye in the following way: the eye has a quantum field; the spirit is itself a quantum field. The two quantum fields interact in some very orderly way. The result is that someone sees a ghost, spirit, angel, Jesus, or some event or vision. Tumors merely trigger imagery accidentally.
Hows about we go with a simple explanation of pattern recognition. This is an example
What you see is a face. Yet there is no face. What is actually presented is two dots, a short line and a curved line. That humans excel a pattern recognition has been demonstrated time and time again.
What you see is a face. Yet there is no face. What is actually presented is two dots, a short line and a curved line. That humans excel a pattern recognition has been demonstrated time and time again.
Reality can be as complicated as necessary. Wanting a simple answer incurs a hazard of guessing wrong. I think some parts of reality can be extremely complicated and invisible and are therefore beyond the reach of the scientific community at this time. I'm afraid that spirits and spirit communication is in fact too complicated and beyond our ability to measure. But that doesn't mean it can't be true. In contrast, time travel cannot be true because of the paradoxes; furthermore, lot's of people are witnessing God/ghosts/grey aliens, but nobody is witnessing time travel.
I think some parts of reality can be extremely complicated and invisible and are therefore beyond the reach of the scientific community at this time. I'm afraid that spirits and spirit communication is in fact too complicated and beyond our ability to measure. But that doesn't mean it can't be true. In contrast, time travel cannot be true because of the paradoxes; furthermore, lot's of people are witnessing God/ghosts/grey aliens, but nobody is witnessing time travel.
S
Whoah now - I'd be hesitant to completely rule out time travel, and not only because one of my favorite SF shows depends on it. ;-)
For all we know time might be emergent* or just non-existent...plus I have a soft spot in my heart for the possibilities of syntropy and/or morphic resonance, both of which discuss unusual ideas regarding time.
*As an aside, I was just thinking of quoting Tempest here - "Past is Prologue - Here now the hour comes - Cry to Dream Again!" and the document mentions Prospero. Synchronicity? DUN DUN DUN! <<insert appropriate smiley>>
Also, before I saw that paper - which I've not yet gone through - I meant to link to this article.
For all we know time might be emergent* or just non-existent...plus I have a soft spot in my heart for the possibilities of syntropy and/or morphic resonance, both of which discuss unusual ideas regarding time.
*As an aside, I was just thinking of quoting Tempest here - "Past is Prologue - Here now the hour comes - Cry to Dream Again!" and the document mentions Prospero. Synchronicity? DUN DUN DUN! <<insert appropriate smiley>>
Also, before I saw that paper - which I've not yet gone through - I meant to link to this article.
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