Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

What really happens when you look directly at the sun?

19:41 / 08.04.03

Is "you'll go blind" like "the goblins will eat you if you put your hand in the cookie jar" or is there some validity to the claim? I've heard reports of people looking directly into the sun and undergoing all sorts of mental/spiritual transformations, and was wondering if you guys had any similar experiences.

19:58 / 08.04.03

Good question.

For years, I've heard and repeated the old canard that Galileo eventually went blind from staring at the Sun (specifically, at sunspots) with his telescope: But a little research reveals that Galileo made his sunspot observations in 1613, when he was in his late 40s, and didn't lose his sight until he was in his 70s—by which time he may have simply gotten cataracts, glaucoma, et cetera.

Note, though, that Galileo made his observations of the Sun as it was setting, when it's far from full brightness.

So it is entirely possible that staring at the Sun at high noon will not send you blind, but will instead open your mind to messages from the alien intelligences behind our universe—and that the you'll-go-blind story is perpetuated by The Man to keep us all from evolving into an enlightened Type Omega civilization of godlike superangels.

I wouldn't bet the rent on it, though.

20:00 / 08.04.03

The goblin story, though? That one is true, as I tell my children.

You see, we used to have three kids.

Poor little Jimmy... we all miss him terribly—but he could

NOT

keep

his

hand

out of the

cookie jar.

21:09 / 08.04.03

OK, here's your eye:

It has an opening (the pupil), with a window (the cornea) over a lens (the lens). The lens focuses light on the retina just like a magnifying glass.

And you know what you can do with a magnifying glass and sunlight, right?

The lens in your eye does that to your retina. You don't notice the scorched spots so much until they really start adding up.

Tryphena Absent

22:51 / 08.04.03

Two of my housemates are studying optometry and I asked them that exact question. Basically if you look at the sun too often you start getting little black spots in your vision all the time. It's like sunburn but it's a permanent affliction.

23:41 / 08.04.03

The thing is, the sun's light is actually hypnotic; it affects your brain directly through the optic nerve. Indirect exposure is okay, though you don't want to get too much of it, but look at it for too long and it will start to reprogram you.

Humans have developed a defence mechanism against this: looking at any bright light is unpleasant, and if we look at the sun too long we'll go blind. But that's really just our brain shutting off visual input, so as to protect us from being reprogrammed by the sun. Apparently, on an evolutionary level, you're better off being blind than sun-affected. As an individual, who can say? If you could shut off your defence mechanisms and look at the sun for long enough to allow it to restructure your brain, who knows how you might end up?

00:02 / 09.04.03

When I look directly at the sun, the sun goes blind, baby.

I don't have the slightest idea what that means, but I just woke up, so it sounded kinda nifty. Sorry, I'll quit rotting the thread.

00:36 / 09.04.03

d00d, you can't rot this thread

busy licking richard nixon

01:45 / 09.04.03

Hence the consensus here isn't that your face melts like the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark - that bit when they opened the Arc of the Covenant?

Damn, I had money riding on that.

05:45 / 09.04.03

What are small translucent spots in your vision from, anyone know?

07:52 / 09.04.03

Venus.

07:55 / 09.04.03

Dust or blood vessels or somesuch. Or orgone, if you prefer.

08:36 / 09.04.03

I think I prefer orgone.

08:40 / 09.04.03

"Personal note: When I was little my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did."

.......and then I became a mathematical genius, until I went a bit mental and drilled my head.

09:33 / 09.04.03

Four words for you Rage:

DROP ACID NOT BOMBS!

Err, on second thoughts, don't.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

17:19 / 09.04.03

hoorah jub, i was thinking the same thing...

so what are the little bright spots that shoot around your peripheral vision from time to time, someone told me they are faeries, but i see em at the regular bars as well...oh wait...

but yeah, i think they may be related to blood pressure, i see them sometimes when i get that standing up to fast feeling.

19:44 / 09.04.03

"So it is entirely possible that staring at the Sun at high noon will not send you blind, but will instead open your mind to messages from the alien intelligences behind our universe—and that the you'll-go-blind story is perpetuated by The Man to keep us all from evolving into an enlightened Type Omega civilization of godlike superangels."

Screw narcissisim, right, but "are ze making funa me?" If so, I'll let you know that I no longer think like that, honest!

What's wrong with dropping acid? Never tried it before, though I used to drop the name acid in a way similar to a hip band I'd never actually heard. The cool kids liked me for it, I think. But seriously, though, I heard acid made you jump off of buildings. This one kid I know took acid and decided to stick his hand in a cookie jar. Next thing you know and he thought that goblins were coming for him! Scary shit!!!

Fridge: how do think that looking directly into the sun could restructure our brains?

20:40 / 09.04.03

In my experience it's actually really hard to stare directly at the sun - the brightness forces your eyes shut. To do it properly you'd have to wedge yr. eyes open Clockwork Orange style. And let's face it, if you did that and proceeded to go blind, you'd look like a right arse.

There's been a lot of sun synchronicity going on down this way today actually. I was reading an article about The Wicker Man that concentrated on sun worship and the film's final shot, and my dad was going on about that Isaac Asimov book Nightfall, with the planet with five suns, and then there was a *really* impressive sunset, and my brother was going on about what you see when you look at the sun through a microscope, and now this thread.

It's been a totally sun kind of day. I'd listen to the Grateful Dead's "Anthem of the Sun", except I don't own a copy. So I'll listen to Oneida's "Anthem of the Moon" just to be sarcy.

20:46 / 09.04.03

Through a microscope?? I mean telescope..

I like the idea of looking at the sun through a microscope though.
MICROSCOPE OF THE GODS!

21:50 / 09.04.03

Did Galileo actually look at the sun through a telescope?

Astronomers nowadays use the telescope to project the sun's image on a piece of white paper (which works surprisingly well). I always thought that practice went back to Galileo. You can see the sunspots and everything.

A

06:39 / 10.04.03

You sneeze.

What do I win?

06:56 / 10.04.03

Nope, never look at the sun. Otherwise be prepared to go blind. To see if you are ready to become a blind person, purchase an opaque eye-mask, put it on for 365 days a year, make sure you wear it when defeacating, when urinating, when bathing, when taking a bus, when walking on heavy traffic roads, when watching movies or television, etc

08:45 / 10.04.03

Don't look at the sun too long, you'll go blind (see clear pictorial explanation in Grant's post above)

DO THIS:
1) Find a field or park on a sunny day without clouds
2) Lie on your back and look up at the blue sky
(this gives you a featureless field of vision)
3) Look at the little hairs, specks etc. that skitter away when you focus on them.
THOSE ARE THE SCARS ON YOUR RETINA FROM LOOKING AT THE SUN WHEN YOU WERE A KID- they are permanent.
4) Now you've looked at them, look at the sky for a minute or two. Soon you will see loads and loads of tiny tiny white specks wriggling around in a brownian motion sort of way- those are the little bits of crap floating about in your aqueous humour (the transparent jelly that fills your eyes).

Now you know what you're looking through when you see things. Of course, some people have permanent perceptual hallucinations that hang around- my friend has a coloured tetrahedron permanently in his field of view like an afterimage, from too much acid as a young man. Seems similar to the subjective appearance of synaesthetic phenomenon.

The Natural Way

09:30 / 10.04.03

Rage: I knew this thread had something to do with you before I saw who started it.

"Yeah man, fuck the Sun! It's all shit! Don't take that shit for granted! Yeah, question everything!"

It's become a bit of a bad joke.

10:20 / 10.04.03

I don't think it's totally a bad joke... 'tis complex... it would appear that though staring at the sun will do damage, anti-LSD propaganda has used this idea (see here) in da past.