wasn't realley sure where to post this. but i seem to notice phosphenes(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphenes) pretty easily. especially when i'm going to sleep or in anyway psychadelically altered. also i can see like almost a colured field at any time if i concentrate but its especially prominent when going to sleep or staring at a large surface of one colour(the sky, a wall, etc..)
i've noticed this since i was a kid and whenever i ask people/friends etc.. if they can see colour in the darkness they tend to look at me like a lunatic.
obviously everyone can induce phosphens by simple pressure on the eyelids, but i mean i notice this shit a lot especially
when trying to sleep as it gets more detailed and complex and i can make out patterns shapes etc.. can actually be annoying sumtimes.
but yeah just interested to hear peoples opinions on them coz i've never really heard a satisfactory answer to what they/it/ are/is. And obviously they seem to play a large role in the psychedelic experience and can even seem like the source of OEV or CEV's.
so yeah wot do u lot rekon?

hope that makes sense.
first thread whoop whoop.

You know that is a good question.

As a kid I used to really enjoy playing around with different ways to produce these phosphenes (didn't know they had a name!)

When I found psycadelics I noticed that they frequently resembled these phosphenes I had enjoyed as a kid. I have always been able to produce them simply by staring at a blank wall or in darkness.

Great first post.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but on this forum we generally try to abstain from "bad language" in general conversation...(e.g. Shit man, what a fat ass f-ing trip I just had, it was f-ing amazing). It's not a Nazi type control thing I swear, we're all just trying to keep the forum on a rather sophisticated level. Thanks

I think I read somewhere that phosphenes can be created by high blood pressure. I have found them to be more prevalent when hung-over after a big night smoking ciggies and drinking... don't know if there's anything in that.

well alcohol is a vaso-dilator...so when the alcohol is gone from your body..it may cause slight constriction of your blood vessels..thus causing higher blood pressure...nicotine might do something similar but dont know..

but anyways...SWIM always has these visual phenomena happen..sometimes they are very 'there' after running(which would raise his blood pressure?) or doing any kind of manual labor..

would seeing little lights 'flying around in the sky' count as phosphenes..they look like little fireflies everywhere..and he says he can focus on individual ones..

its seems to have increased since SWIM started taking psychedelics..and now it happens all the time to him...he likes it though..its like the psychedelics have left their mark on his vision..but hes come to really enjoy it

i think little firefly thingy's are a type of phosphene, but u can also see floaters sumtimes specially wen staring at the sky or wotever, and i think there just little microbial type thingami's.

see i rekon everyone can see like this colour field/feedback/whatever, but just some people notice it more and think about it and everyone else just kind of doesn't really notice and ignores it.
i used to love making pressure phosphens wen i was a kid, can remember being fascinated by them from a really young age.

WHAT ARE THEY!!!!!!
i've never been able to find a satisfactory answer and i've been looking into it for a while now, my freinds probly think im a bit weird when i talk about this stuff, but im sure everyone can see the same stuff just maybe some people filter it out more or something?!
any ideas/opinions welcome.

also sorry about swearing i am trying to watch myself, but i tend to swear a lot normally in life as well as on forums/chatthings/msn/aim etc.... think it might be an english/london thing.
anyways i will make efforts to keep it clean, although everyone needs a good f**k once in a while.

http://www.oubliette.zetnet.co.uk/Intro.html

really interesting article about entopic phenomena/phosphenes/psychedelics and there influence on human culture art etc..

still doesn't really explain what the hell(is that swearing?) they are?!! :evil:

this has been coming more prevalent to me lately...
I get these alot!

fireflies if I look up at a blue sky, looking at my floaters a lot.
I don't ever press on my eyes really but...
in low-light conditions there is video 'noise' which as i've been paying more attention to it, relaxing into it... it becomes more defined, not geometry but, more colors/points/information.

often when I go to sleep I will slowly dim the lights over a 10 minute period... the video noise becomes more and more. I leave the lights on their lowest point and offhandedly stare at patterened cloth or mandalas. relaxing everything and focussing on not focussing on any one point in the visual field.
something very curious has been happening regularly. my eyes are open, but the light levels begin to fluctuate... in a very steady cycle. no matter what I am looking at, my vision will eventally start fading completely to black... in a cycle that repeats every.. 4-7 seconds.. first one eye, then the other.. it's definitely circular.

at any time during this I can feel my eyes are open.. it's not like eyes drooping closed... I gaze for quite a while and when my eyes start to hurt from being open so long, I can blink.. move my gaze a little. and everything looks totally normal. but I can relax back into it seconds later and the cycling effect is there.

I wear glasses usually and pay a lot of attention to my peripheral vision. the brain is very good at filling in the gaps... it feels like what is happening here is relaxing and letting your brain fill in the gaps.

I have read about how in the dreamstate, your creative workspace is feeding the visual field... and when awake it's the immediate physical workspace that feeds the visual field. and at some point between asleep and awake, this workspace swap happens...
I feel like this field swap is something in this state... it feels different from sensory deprivation.. more like sensory surrendering. my thoughts while watching like this are often.. not caring about what is right infront of me. looking at my hands and letting them seem completely alien...

another thing that is prominent when doing this activity is.. there is a tone.. it's not tinnitus, I have that rarely and know what it sounds like... this is much higher pitched. reminds me very much of the tryptamine tone.. it's like I can feel my brain working. and the more I relax into it and let my visual field be taken over by blackness and phosphenes.. the more strength the tone has.

possible manifestation of brain waves resonating with cells in the retina/inner ear/sensory parts of the brain? or just what happens when you start to really pay attention to your input and state of mind??
I couldn't even begin to say at this point...

interesting post man.
i get the same thing if i jus relax an do sum breathing exersice's an jus kind of relax but sort of stare at something.
eventually my whole field of vision gets filled with weird coloured blackness, its sort of similar to wen u get up too quik and get an intense head rush an your vision starts to close in from the periphery

stuff baffles me, is it just like weird brain feedback or like sum useless evolutionary remnant that doesnt really serve any purpose.

i dont think im ever gonna get a satisfactory answer, but tis ineresting nontheless.

been there for a while - psychadelix made it easier to notice - i like it.