Optic light trick perhaps?

It's 1230 am where I am and I'm unable to sleep. Sometimes when I lay in the dark I can see through my closed eyelids what appears to be a light in the darkness. However, when I open my eyes there's no light at all. Only the pitch black I was in when I closed them. Does anyone else experience this?

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Not normally but yes, sometimes, more so a few years ago. I would be able to close my eyes and relax to the point where see swirling white ghostly clouds. If I'm really relaxed I think they can hook into the parts of the brain which dream, and they manifest familiar shapes or scenes. I used to experiment with them as 'waves of the Force' and opening the 3rd eye :silly:

Bright points of light not so much.

Ever since I fried my limbic system in an accidental medicine interaction a few years ago I think they've stopped. It put back my lucid dreaming too, but I've made progress there so I will see if I can do it again, as I had forgotten entirely about it.

It's an odd thing to be laying in the dark and suddenly see a fictitious light sweeping across what would be your field of vision were your eyes open. As if someone is standing in the dark room running a flashlight across you. Bizarre feeling.

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Krieger wrote: It's an odd thing to be laying in the dark and suddenly see a fictitious light sweeping across what would be your field of vision were your eyes open. As if someone is standing in the dark room running a flashlight across you. Bizarre feeling.

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For me? It was like visual feedback. Have you ever filmed a screen while playing on that screen, with old cameras it would create a nice effect which resembles my experience of closed eye ghosts. It feedbacks onto itself in such a way it recedes seemingly forever, and any movement is cast into the patterns.

Full field of vision, more easily closed eye but if dark enough open eye also.

Here are some random vids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOnQ9MvWHdQ

or more modern, with Prodigy playing LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ArcY_R8ExY

When I close my eyes at night I see blending of colors like a kaleidoscope or I see white dots in a way that makes it look like I'm moving in space. I had surgery on my eyes when I was really little maybe that has something to do with it, maybe not.

Another thing is that when it becomes pitch black in a room, after awhile with my eyes open I can see everything in shades of grey, maybe because I just know what is where and what's not but I always thought it was interesting. A few times I had to look around to see if there was a tiny light somewhere.

Lightstrider wrote: Another thing is that when it becomes pitch black in a room, after awhile with my eyes open I can see everything in shades of grey, maybe because I just know what is where and what's not but I always thought it was interesting. A few times I had to look around to see if there was a tiny light somewhere.

That's actually quite normal. We have different kinds of light-sensitive cells in our eyes, some can differentiate colours (cones), others can only identify brightness (rods). The latter ones are more sensitive. Once your iris opens up to let in more light, adapting to the darkness, enough light enters for you to see shapes in greyscale but not quite enough to set off the cones.

I'm not sure what I'm seeing in the dark with my eyes closed but I suspect it might me drifting in and out of a dreaming state because they can be rather clear and vibrant images.

I see a kind of static when I close my eyes. It's still mostly black, but the static is different colors. After a few moments I see ripples form in the static and fade. I'm officially recognized as tetrachromat (I see colors most people can't). So maybe that has something to do with it.

I think everyone's experience when they close their eyes, is unique to them. A combination of how the cells and rods are placed, and the brains interpretation of the random signals.

Krieger wrote: It's 1230 am where I am and I'm unable to sleep. Sometimes when I lay in the dark I can see through my closed eyelids what appears to be a light in the darkness. However, when I open my eyes there's no light at all. Only the pitch black I was in when I closed them. Does anyone else experience this?

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This is simply your brain trying to fill the void. Same thing happens during meditation when thoughts keep creeping in. The brain, just like everything else in the universe, abhors a vacuum. When there's too little sensory information, it'll create its own. It's a great lesson as well: just imagine how much of what you believe to be 'reality' around you is actually just made-up information and has nothing to do with reality at all. Include in this everything you worry about in terms of the future, for example, and all the elaborate regrets about the past you keep pushing in front of you.

Cyan Sarden wrote: The brain, just like everything else in the universe, abhors a vacuum.

You do understand that the amount of space occupied by something is vanishingly small compared to the amount of space filled with nothing, do you? If everything in the universe abhors the vacuum, what does a universe look like where it is not so? Also, no sight does not mean that any part of your brain gets replaced with nothingness. If in place of brain you have a vacuum anywhere in your head, that's not a good sign... So to your explanation I shall comment by quoting something else you said so fittingly:

... imagine how much of what you believe to be 'reality' around you is actually just made-up information and has nothing to do with reality at all.