Seeing your hands with your eyes closed in a dark room

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Magical Realist, Aug 10, 2013.

  1. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes..it IS possible. Try it yourself. Among spelunkers it is a well known phenomena that they can see their hands waving in front of them when in a completely dark cave. Oddly enough the effect doesn't work with other people's hands. Or at least when they're not told about it. Knowing hands are being waved seems to make them appear slightly. Why is there no science on this? I DID find this blogger talking about it. He too is dismayed how ignored this phenomenon is by science. My hands tend to be bluish and ghostlike when I wave them over my closed eyes. Others experience different colors like reddish brown.


    http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2007/05/with-your-eyes-closed-can-you-see-your.html


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  3. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    I can wink with just one eye !
    When I stand up, my lap disappears !
    The walkway/pathway/sidewalk in every place I have ever lived has always came all the way up to my front door - but has never once come inside !
    I can boil water in a paper cup set directly upon a camp fire of wood !
    I can remember some of my dreams, yet other people can not remember any of my dreams !
     
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  5. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    I have spent many hours spelunking (years ago) and do not recall this well known phenomena. Regardles, the answer to the mystery seems rather obvious based on your information. The person waving their hands only imagines they see their hands because they know exactly where they are and there is such a strong mental association between knowing spacially where your hands are and seeing them. They don't 'see' other peoples hands because they do not know the location of them. No big deal. So no, you can't see in the dark
     
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  7. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    I'd suggest a bag of phosphorescent chalk or night vision goggles work quite well (If you supply your own darklight).
     
  8. wegs Matter and Pixie Dust Valued Senior Member

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    While an interesting article Magical, I agree with origin's explanation.
    Our brains merely detect the motion, because we are causing it. Not that I'm actually 'seeing' anything at all. Just my take.
     
  9. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    i used to do quite a bit of spelunking when i was younger.
    it's somewhat amazing i survived some of my treks.
    anyway, it is "pitch black" inside a cave, you can't possibly see your hand even if it was 1/2 inch from your face and your eyes wide open.
    you CAN however feel its heat.

    i have "seen" my glasses when i was laying in bed though, i even on occasion had to feel to make sure i wasn't wearing them.
     
  10. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    No..there's definitely something being seen. I can totally think about something else while waving my hands and still see them. Most likely has to do with brain wiring--perhaps some synaptic crossover between kinaesthesia and vision.
     
  11. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    LOL. What a baffoon....

    Go back to the fringe land!
     
  12. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Reported...
     
  13. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    " I can totally think about something else while waving my hands and still see them. "

    So,...you can apply your total conscious to think entirely about one single thing, while concurrently unconsciously waving you hands in front of your face, and also, concurrently, unconsciously perceiving the movement through your unconsciously closed eyelids in a pitch black room ?

    And you posit that it :

    "Most likely has to do with brain wiring--perhaps some synaptic crossover between kinaesthesia and vision."

    Is there even the slightest possibility that it might, I say, just might, mind you, that it could possibly have anything to do with delusion or fantasy?

    Oh oh, ....he's reporting again!!

    mommy, mommy.......
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2013
  14. Lakon Valued Senior Member

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    MR, I recall noticing this years ago, and was initially quite fascinated by it. Subsequent investigation, over time, led me to the conclusion that it's just imagination, as others have pointed out here. Your mind 'figures out' where they are. It was fascinating, nonetheless that the mind should do this.



    Edit speling
     
  15. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Yes..about 2 years back I mentioned it here, but only ran across others experiencing the same thing just recently. I doubt it's delusion as there is no reason for the mind to think it can see the hands in the dark. Yet despite that very solid assurance it still happens. Besides, seeing something that's not there would be the definition of delusion. In this case I'm seeing something that's really there. That the mind projects visual imagery is nothing new though, especially in dark conditions. One can see many things if one stares at a dark mirror long enough.
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2013
  16. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    Oddly enough, it's a challenge for me to find a place where it is completely dark. Even in a door shut, electric lights off, storage closet at night, I still seem to see vague splotches conforming to items on the shelves. The outline of my hand seems faintly present even when it is not waving. Surely a deep cavern or mine would indeed accomplish the job, though.
     
  17. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Mr. Magical Realist so,...you can apply your total conscious to think entirely about one single thing, while concurrently unconsciously waving you hands in front of your face, and also, concurrently, unconsciously perceiving the movement through your unconsciously closed eyelids in a pitch black room ?

    And you posit that it :

    "Most likely has to do with brain wiring--perhaps some synaptic crossover between kinaesthesia and vision."

    Is there even the slightest possibility that it might, I say, just might, mind you, that it could possibly have anything to do with delusion or fantasy?

    Oh oh, ....he's reporting again!!

    mommy, mommy.......this guy is spewing BILLSHUT !!

    I could probably edit because of spilleng.
     
  18. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    16,600

    Amazingly enough I even see the bluish glow of my hands with my pillow over my face in the dark. That blog reported similar experiences blindfolded in the dark as well as seeing objects in the room but with no sense of their distance. New agers have a field day with this calling it third eye or astral vision. But I suspect far more mundane causes involving our brains.
     
  19. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Is fantasy mundane?

    Is delusion mundane?

    I know Billshut is mandune ! (pissoble spilleng orrers)
     
  20. Lakon Valued Senior Member

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    As I said, I experimented with this many years ago. I just now remembered one of (perhaps the main) reasons why I wrote it off to imagination.
    I was laying in bed, almost asleep and was waving my hand in front of me, eyes closed, to see what I could see. All this takes much time and persistance and a very relaxed state. Eventually I 'saw' my hand. I kept waving, and lost it for a while. I kept waving for many minutes, and saw it again - palm outstreched, etc, as at the beginning, and very clear.
    I got exited and woke. Alas, my hand had closed into a fist, due to tiredness, etc. Thus, I was seeing what I wanted to see - what I THOUGHT I should be seeing - a palm outstretched, as opposed to the actual closed fist. Thats mainly why I wrote it off as imagination.

    I've never stared at a dark mirror. I wouldn't think you'd see much. What are you saying ?
     
  21. Trooper Secular Sanity Valued Senior Member

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    Last edited: Aug 11, 2013
  22. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    It sounds like what you were in is a hypnagogic state--half awake half dream state. I've had that before. Once I saw my bedroom door slam shut by itself. Then I immediately woke up and saw it was still wide open. When I see my hands with my eyes shut otoh I am wide awake. I checked it again last night. Still there, especially when they are waved back and forth.

    I bring up the mirror in a dark room effect because it seems it might particularly apply to the mental expectation of seeing. Many people see scenes and even images of their dead loved ones while staring at a mirror in dark room. Now you may wonder why this may be. But remember, your mind knows it is looking into a mirror, so it expects to see images even if totally in the dark. There is a projective aspect to this that may unleash unconscious dreamlike imagery upon the mirror. Some attribute this to the psychic ability to scry or see the past/future in mirrors/crystal balls. I haven't tried this yet cuz I lack a large mirror. One day I will and hopefully see what happens.
     
  23. wegs Matter and Pixie Dust Valued Senior Member

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    Closest I could say to coming to what the article suggests...is when I got out of the shower last night, I held my hands up to the lights above my mirror, and then about 30 seconds later, I shut the lights off, closed my eyes, and I could "see" or visualize, my hands. Reddish brown was their "color."

    Sitting in darkness with no exposure to light for a while...I can't see how one could visualize hands in front of them, eyes closed.

    I will have to be a skeptic for this one, Magical.

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