Seeing things in a blue sky

Does anybody have any information/experience/opinions on this:

Whenever I look up at a blue sky, after a few seconds I start to see these little sparks or specks of light seemingly randomly darting about and lasting for around a second each. I've tried to look this up on tinternet but the best explaination I can find is that they are caused by blood cells impacting the sides of the capilleries inside my eye. Now, fair enough, that seemes rational and i'd be willing to accept it except for the fact that I can conciously bring them in and out of focus implying (to my way of thinking and knowledge of how the eye works) that they are independent from the eye. Also, other optical phenomena which often seem to be confused with what i'm talking about, such as floaters or dust drifting on the retina are still visable when the eyelid is shut, wheras these sparks are not.

So, a few questions remain...
Is what i'm seeing really there. i.e. does it exist in physical reality independant from my eyes?

If so, what is it?

Why is it only visable when I look up at a blue sky?

Is there any chance/proof/possibility that the human eye has the capacity to see energy other than the wavelengths of visable light?

Scheerer's phenomenon in Wikipedia.

Good to see that there are still people who wonder about what it is like to be.

[edit on 11-4-2007 by Rotwang]

[edit on 11-4-2007 by Rotwang]

Thanks for that dude. Scheerer's phenomenon... Good to know that it has a name and others know about it. I apologise if this has already been discussed in other threads, I'm pretty new to ats.

The only problem I have with the wikipedia definition is the part where it says that the lights move in a uniform direction. This makes sense in accordance to the white blood cells in capillaries explaination, but when I see them, they move in all directions in a completely random fashion as far as i can tell. Any thoughts?

sounds to me that you are seeing cosmic rays. I think it was john glen who when in space noticed that when he had his eyes closed he could "see" what you decribed, like sparks, explosions and things that looked like fireworks going off. when he got back to earth, he reported this to nasa and they said it was radiation supossedley from the big bang that was still flying around. it only makes sense that you are seeing this too, because it only happens when you look at a clear blue sky.

Oh man - was I disappointed when I was a kid - and had experienced this bright, chaotically ( wiggle ) moving 'dots' - and my mom tolled me that this has a name: Scheerer's phenomena - moving 'holes' in blood.

All along _ I was thinking - that it is something special - some kind of me seeing 'pure energy', not just leukocytes in front of my retina.


But I was still wondering - why on sunny day 'dots' are moving much faster, than on cloudy day? There is also answer : it is in sync with heartbeat and blood pressure.


Or maybe what we see - are Wilhelm Reich's 'orgone bions'!

Well, my first guess at why you are seeing random movement might be because you have both eye's open. Remember that we have stereoscopic vision and that in the optical lobe of the brain, both inputs from the eyes are blended into a single image. So obviously both eyes will have different retinal capillary patterns - thus when gazing at a blue field with both eyes open the movement will appear random. Try closing one eye, perhaps you will see a more consistant flow.

Have, fun.

Originally posted by Rotwang
Well, my first guess at why you are seeing random movement might be because you have both eye's open. Remember that we have stereoscopic vision and that in the optical lobe of the brain, both inputs from the eyes are blended into a single image. So obviously both eyes will have different retinal capillary patterns - thus when gazing at a blue field with both eyes open the movement will appear random. Try closing one eye, perhaps you will see a more consistant flow.

Have, fun.

Well, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. thanks rotwang, I think I finally have a solid conclusion in which there are no holes. In all the time I've been thinking about this, the stereoscopic nature of our vision didn't even occur to me to be a factor. thanks again.

Glad to have been of service. Well, I have a confession... I'm not an Othomologist, I'm a Folklorist. I've studied the impact of visual-perceptual illusions, entoptic phenomenon and optical illusions on the creation of supernatural folklore for some time now. If this kind of stuff is of intrest to you, check out my thread on the Foo Fighters of WWII. I've also posted a research paper: A Historical and Physiological Perspective of the Foo Fighters of World War Two. Let me know what you think of it.

Enjoy

Originally posted by Rotwang
I've also posted a research paper: A Historical and Physiological Perspective of the Foo Fighters of World War Two.[/url] Let me know what you think of it.

Enjoy

Thanks, I've haad a quick scan through it and will read it thoroughly when I get a chance. interesting topic.