posted on Jul, 11 2010 @ 07:28 AM
I see lots of these things out of the corner of my eye at various times. Sometimes black, sometimes white, they usually seem small but sometimes could
be human size. Often they seem to be like a black cat (in size & shape) that jumps away the instant I see it.
I’m not surprised they are black and white as you eye doesn’t see colour at the edges of your vision. You will also find that your peripheral
vision detects motion or small changes and sees in the dark much better as the black and white rods are much more sensitive to light. The down side is
they have a lower visual acuity, essentially a lower resolution than the centre of your eye. Soldiers are trained to look near, not at objects at
night as they will see them better with their peripheral vision.
The result is that small movements or changes in lighting in your peripheral vision are picked up much better in the corners of your eye and that it
will be much harder to determine the shape & size of these changes.
Often I can attribute these things correctly if I pay attention, sometimes it’s a leaf blowing on the ground, sometimes it’s a branch outside
changing a shadow on the wall. I’ve also noticed that I really only see these things when I look around, not really when just staring at one spot. I
assume that what I’m seeing in these cases of me moving my eye, is kind of like a retina burn of light or shadow from where I was looking
previously. By retina burn I mean how you can stare at a light fixture then when you look away you still see a shadow of the light you were staring
at.
As a kid we had a Black cut-out of a ghost and we would stare at it, then when you look away to a blank wall you still see the outline of the ghost.
It’s kind of like
this
So my answer to this phenomenon is that it’s either something really moving / light changing but you couldn’t exactly pick its size or shape
because of the nature of your eye, or it’s an afterimage of the light and shadows you were looking at previously.