Cats Have Super, Psychedelic Vision

news.discovery.com...

Given their sleek ways, cats have long been a symbol of mysticism, and now the reputation gets a boost from new research that finds common house cats see things that are invisible to us.

Everything from psychedelic stripes on flowers to flashy patterned feathers on birds are likely detectable by cats and certain other animals, while humans remain oblivious to such things. We are also -- perhaps luckily -- missing out on seeing a whole world of urine markers blanketing the landscape.

The secret behind the feline vision "superpower" is ultraviolet light (UV) detection. A new paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that cats, dogs and certain other animals see this form of light that is usually invisible to humans.

Apparently cats and dogs can see ultraviolet light that the human eye cannot detect.

In the study, scientists took the eyes from a variety of deceased animals and measured how much light could pass through the lens into the retinas. What they found was that dogs, cats, ferrets, and a couple other animals have lenses that allow ultraviolet light to pass through them.

Now i've never owned a cat or a dog but i've always thought cats were weird. They are always staring at nothing or playing with random things and this may explain why.


www.livescience.com...

DeepVisions
news.discovery.com...

Given their sleek ways, cats have long been a symbol of mysticism, and now the reputation gets a boost from new research that finds common house cats see things that are invisible to us.

Everything from psychedelic stripes on flowers to flashy patterned feathers on birds are likely detectable by cats and certain other animals, while humans remain oblivious to such things. We are also -- perhaps luckily -- missing out on seeing a whole world of urine markers blanketing the landscape.

The secret behind the feline vision "superpower" is ultraviolet light (UV) detection. A new paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that cats, dogs and certain other animals see this form of light that is usually invisible to humans.

Now i've never owned a cat or a dog but i've always thought cats were weird. They are always staring at nothing or playing with random things and this may explain why.


www.livescience.com...

Yes, this describes me quite well

Well, when your mind gets messed up from TLE, it sometimes shuts down the filters in the brain that filter out these things. Our eyes can see these things but the mind filters them out. When I first had the TBI the filters were all messed up and I could see the pollen swirling around the bees in the sun from the flowers. I thought I was hallucinating, but I don't think I was, I was seeing something that was real, something I had never been able to see before. I studied the filtering system of the brain pretty intensely to see why I had seen these things. There is some articles addressing stuff like this around. It has to do with high misdirected energy levels in the brain. I don't think it was a hallucination. One article I read recently said that our eyes are somewhat capable of seeing thing in the UV and infrared spectrum. Most people do not know we have this ability though. We also have a fairly good echo location system, sort of like the dolphins and bats have.

Critters eyes are natural light gatherers. Thats why they glow in the dark.

Caught this not to long ago about night activity of lions…

reply to post by rickymouse


What's TLE and TBI? Interesting post. And thread.

reply to post by DeepVisions


Cats are cool. I have two.
Their eyes are different, the iris goes into vertical slits when it contracts. They see in the dark better.
They're sharp as a tack at sensing things. I think they see colours more vibrantly.

Aleister
reply to post by rickymouse

 

What's TLE and TBI? Interesting post. And thread.

Best guess temporal lobe epilepsy and traumatic brain injury.

This IS an interesting thread!

Aleister
reply to post by rickymouse

 

What's TLE and TBI? Interesting post. And thread.

TBI is traumatic brain injury

I took this pic of my two cats at Xmas. The female cat's eyes are really cool

reply to post by intrptr


Yea, I think what separates the human eye from most others is our need for paying attention to detail. This is probably why the lens in our eyes blocks UV light, so there is less distortion in the things we see.

reply to post by DeepVisions


I drew some amazing artwork (for me) when I was sensing at a high level with little filter. Kind of like that beatles song ya know? My cat stares at these pictures all the time. When I read "cat's psychedelic vision" It made me think of that. I'm pretty sure I have seen part of what cats see all the time. You can change your focus. Solid objects are too easy to see. For instance at any moment you can focus on the surface of your eye and see all these blood vessels and black splotches. Your brain controls what you see. You can control your brain.

Beyond just seeing, you can do the same for any other sense. I can sense Magnetism or EM from electronics, and I can sense that it disrupts my energy flow if I wish to meditate. I assume this is a widespread problem, but also something not noticed too often, due to a different focus of the senses.

reply to post by DeepVisions


Cats are having a perpetual psychedelic experience.
I had a cat who would stare at the ceiling. Sometimes she would look at me, but just a little beyond me. A little above or to the side. Made me wonder if cats see something like an aura.

rickymouse
Well, when your mind gets messed up from TLE, it sometimes shuts down the filters in the brain that filter out these things. Our eyes can see these things but the mind filters them out. When I first had the TBI the filters were all messed up and I could see the pollen swirling around the bees in the sun from the flowers. I thought I was hallucinating, but I don't think I was, I was seeing something that was real, something I had never been able to see before. I studied the filtering system of the brain pretty intensely to see why I had seen these things. There is some articles addressing stuff like this around. It has to do with high misdirected energy levels in the brain. I don't think it was a hallucination. One article I read recently said that our eyes are somewhat capable of seeing thing in the UV and infrared spectrum. Most people do not know we have this ability though. We also have a fairly good echo location system, sort of like the dolphins and bats have.

I wonder if you see those things because you are very near-sighted? In high school, I was laughed at by the biology teacher because I told her that I could see the critters swimming around in the pond water under our microscopes. Only, I was looking directly at the slide of water, not through the 'scope, and without my "corrective" glasses for near-sightedness on. Extremely near-sighted people have excellent close visual acuity, far better than 20-20 folks..

reply to post by violet


It looks like it's trying to hypnotize me!



reply to post by ItCameFromOuterSpace


You know, i've thought about that too. Both cats and dogs seem to either love or hate someone without ever seeing them before.

reply to post by ItCameFromOuterSpace


I agree, I think the fact humans are so self-aware makes it difficult to recognize the full potential of our senses. This is shown when certain substances are taken that alter one's state of mind and their senses are extremely heightened as a result.

reply to post by ItCameFromOuterSpace


I apologize in advance for this and please dont let this turn into another LOL cat thread , however I cant help but wonder what would things look like to a cat wearing 3D glasses ?

What a silly waste of perfectly good cat eyeballs

reply to post by DeepVisions


Thanks for the post. very instructive. gave you a star. also, one more big fat bowl, and as far as phsycodelic? my cat and I should be seeing eye to eye !

My cat is always running around after something that i can not see he goes absolutely crazy arches his back up and claws at nothing then zips up and down the house in like .01 seconds like he is chasing something, i always thought he was just really really strange maybe this explains why then!

tencap77
reply to post by DeepVisions

 

Thanks for the post. very instructive. gave you a star. and as far as phsycodelic? my cat and I should be seeing eye to eye !

Are you psycho? Psyche is a different word.
Psyche = Soul, mind, or personality.
"Psyche delic" = of or noting a mental state characterized by a profound sense of intensified sensory perception. I often think the sense of time passing is an inverse to the amount of information you take in. Hence time goes very slow as you speed up, naturally or otherwise.

Meaning literally by the article Cats see more. It doesn't have to mean cats see "trippy" things.

I do bet that my energy does look trippy though, as my cat smiles at the me that is bigger than my body all the time.

I used to be able to see energy during mediation, but I think starring at computers too much, and falling out of any kind of focus has degraded my sight pretty bad.

reply to post by KnightLight


if you mean do i have mental health issues yes i do. if you want to cast aspersions on me beause i spell poorly and want to tell me i'm stupid and illiterate that's ok too, i'm a veteran. i'm used to people dumping crap on me because of who i am and what i believe. i believe that you consider yourself enlightened in this respect. good for you. it is said the quality of mercy is not strained. i know the quality of mercy. it's why i prefer the company of cats to people like you. of course, i recognize your intellectual superiority right away. expecting me to bow down to it would be like asking john kerry to "get it".