Most of us know about the uncommon features of the human body that not everyone can perform, like wiggling your ears, shaking your eyes sideways really fast, or whistling extremely loudly. There are even the rare ones that almost everyone experiences, like an eye twitching, or the lightheadedness occurring when standing up too fast. The conscious versus the autonomous features.
The latter has been particularly interesting to me in my life as a human being. I have noticed quite a few bizarre phenomenons repeating themselves that I’m quite sure is not just me being wired differently, yet I have barely read or heard anyone else talking about them. So I decided to start listing the ones I know about so far, while also trying to research them on the internet.
Zooming fatigue
I’m sure a better expression could be invented for this. The effect occurs in the exact center of my vision, typically after having exerted myself. I’ll see a transparent zooming tunnel, and it’s most clear to see against the blue sky or even the tarmac. It looks a little like the zooming tunnel you see when space ships are traveling at hyperspeed in Star Wars, although completely colorless.
Back when I was working as a postman, having finished a route and ready to go home, I used to see a strong version of this phenomenon while waiting for the bus. That was many decades ago, but I can still see it today if I have been busy outdoors. I’ve almost never seen it indoors. Maybe the sunlight is required for the effect to be clear? I’m not sure if that makes sense.
Let’s start by getting the obvious explanations out of the way first. No, it’s not floaters. It’s also not the Alice in Wonderland syndrome nor is it the Blue field entoptic phenomenon. It’s difficult finding anything about this on the internet at all. I did find this thread on Reddit that sounds like the same thing, although my version was never purple. As mentioned before, it’s completely colorless to me.