the ability to see ultraviolet light (this is not exactly true, but things that reflect lots of UV light “glow” for me in a way other objects don’t (most noticeable with flowers))
This is fascinating! Do you know of others who have gained this ability? Has anything been written about this (by you or anyone else)? This seems like something which should definitely be investigated seriously!
Yeah, I don’t know. I was also surprised when I first learned this was possible after I went looking for info when I noticed the glowing thing, but it’s the best explanation I have for what’s going on. My best guess is that what’s actually happening is that I’m noticing how things that reflect UV light are brighter than other things because they are reflecting more total light even if I’m mostly failing to see the UV light itself (or there’s something wrong with my lenses and meditation just made me able to notice what was already going on and I was previously ignoring?).
How did you connect the objects you see as glowing with UV light specifically? Couldn’t the glow be a hallucination or a perceptual rewiring like the persistent “breathing wallpaper” LSD users can start seeing, or some different physical property entirely? Can you see UV light emitted by machines that should be invisible like a person in the newscientist link claims he could after he got an artificial lens?
On leaving hospital, I decided I deserved a pint of bitter. Standing at the bar of my local pub, I noticed that their device for detecting counterfeit banknotes was emitting very bright bluish light. I mentioned this to the barman, who looked at me with a very quizzical expression but made no comment. I then realised that he couldn’t see the light: it was visible through my right eye alone.
Mostly because I first noticed the effect with objects I knew reflect a lot of UV light, like flowers, which gave me the idea, and then I did a little experiment and sure enough stuff that should reflect a lot of UV light glowed more than stuff that doesn’t.
As I say, I may be wrong to say I see UV light, and instead what’s happening is I see something that correlates with UV light. I didn’t have any devices that emit UV light only to test with. Just hasn’t been that important to me to test, since this is just a random thing of little consequence other than it’s a small example of a perceptual “power” I got from meditation, and if I’m wrong about the UV then it’s something else going on causing me to notice some other quality of light I was ignoring before.
This is fascinating! Do you know of others who have gained this ability? Has anything been written about this (by you or anyone else)? This seems like something which should definitely be investigated seriously!
Huh, apparently this is a thing. Retinas can see into UV, but UV light is normally filtered out by the lens.
Young adults can see UV light
Claude Monet got cataract surgery in his 80s and might have started seeing into UV with the filtering lens gone.
Medical article about cataract surgeries and UV protection
No idea how you could start seeing UV by rewiring your brain if your eyeballs still have the original lenses though.
Yeah, I don’t know. I was also surprised when I first learned this was possible after I went looking for info when I noticed the glowing thing, but it’s the best explanation I have for what’s going on. My best guess is that what’s actually happening is that I’m noticing how things that reflect UV light are brighter than other things because they are reflecting more total light even if I’m mostly failing to see the UV light itself (or there’s something wrong with my lenses and meditation just made me able to notice what was already going on and I was previously ignoring?).
How did you connect the objects you see as glowing with UV light specifically? Couldn’t the glow be a hallucination or a perceptual rewiring like the persistent “breathing wallpaper” LSD users can start seeing, or some different physical property entirely? Can you see UV light emitted by machines that should be invisible like a person in the newscientist link claims he could after he got an artificial lens?
Mostly because I first noticed the effect with objects I knew reflect a lot of UV light, like flowers, which gave me the idea, and then I did a little experiment and sure enough stuff that should reflect a lot of UV light glowed more than stuff that doesn’t.
As I say, I may be wrong to say I see UV light, and instead what’s happening is I see something that correlates with UV light. I didn’t have any devices that emit UV light only to test with. Just hasn’t been that important to me to test, since this is just a random thing of little consequence other than it’s a small example of a perceptual “power” I got from meditation, and if I’m wrong about the UV then it’s something else going on causing me to notice some other quality of light I was ignoring before.