For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about: what appears to 3D shadows of people seen briefly from the peripheral vision.
I’ve seen it all the time most of my life, and I just wonder if it’s the norm. I’m not concerned about paranormal **** or anything (although any relevant input is appreciated), just wanna know – is it statistically normal?
✅ Answers
? Best Answer
Yes it’s not uncommon.
What really fools a lot of people into thinking they saw a “shadow person” is the very common corner-of-the-eye illusion. This happens because our peripheral vision is due mostly to rod photoreceptors which are extremely sensitive (almost anything can trigger them) but are not good at imaging shapes or colors. In contrast, cone photoreceptors are good for detecting color and shape, but they are concentrated in the middle of the retina. So when you see something out of the corner of your eye, its image focuses on the periphery of your retina and you are unable to distinguish the color of what you are seeing. And, because there are fewer rods the further out on the periphery, the ability to resolve the shapes of objects at the periphery of vision is limited. Normal peripheral vision, called visual field, for one eye is approximately 150 degrees from side to side. For both eyes, it is approximately 180 degrees.
So if a rod photoreceptor gets triggered in the corner of your eye (by a subtle change in ambient light intensity or even an eyelash, for example), you may see an ill-defined dark object moving in the peripheral vision that you can’t identify. Since it is an illusion related to the retina, the “shadow” moves as fast as you move your eyes, so the effect is that it seems to dart away when you look at it. Since you can’t identify it visually, the mind tends to fill in the gaps and the image is modified by your imagination — if you think it was a black cat, it then seems to look like a black cat. If you’re afraid of demons, you may think you saw a demon, etc.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hba…
Yes it happens to a lot of people. I have that happen a lot. If I stop and don’t move and think about it, I realize it is a group of objects or a shadow or something that sort of looks like a shape of a person. Your peripheral vision is not very clear, so it is easy to mistake shapes and forms as a person. It is quite normal. A lot of my friends have this happen to them also. It always turns out to be just normals objects and nothing special.
You are amongst a small group of people who are far sighted who’s peripheral vision creates a sort of 3-d effect, There is a name for it but I cannot recall it off the cuff right now, my optometrist told me about it and explained it to me in detail and it made sense to me at the time. He said that only a small number of people have the condition and these same people have “floaters” as well, basically dead cells floating around in the back of your eye and they can appear at anytime I have several one looks like a pretzel and another looks like an amoeba.
I hope this helps you.
Nathan
Source(s):
my eye doctor