Charlize | Week 11 | Stars in the Night
I used to enjoy keeping my window open when I sleep because my window happens to face the east, allowing me to see the sunrise over my neighbors’ rooftops. But with a patio heater conveniently placed right outside my window, it looks like there’s an 8-foot tall silhouette looming over my room. I ultimately decided to sacrifice the pure bliss from waking up to a sunrise-painted sky for the feeling of comfort of knowing that I won’t get jumpscared in the middle of the night.
Lights out—it’s completely dark now. Then I’m reminded of what’s out of the ordinary, and they seem to appear even brighter.
Do you see it too?
Endless rainbow static at night. Pixels that seem to form an indiscernible shape. Whether or not my eyes are closed or open, they’re always in my field of vision.
Sometimes, the pixels even come together and form something, whether that be streaks of disconnected horizontal lines, or even an image that seems to resemble a molten face, kind of like an inkblot test. Perhaps the hazy shapes from the pixels are just from my brain working overtime as the neurons that activate my imagination continue firing.
On that note, it’s a crazy thing isn’t it? Your imagination?
Merriam-Webster formally defines it as “forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never wholly perceived in reality.” Sure, but that doesn’t seem to truly encapsulate everything that can be done with the mass of tissue in your skull.
I absolutely adore CJ the X’s interpretation of how mystical the power of imagination is. If someone tells you to imagine yourself in Portable E on the last day of school, it shouldn’t be too hard to picture the little classroom with desks arranged in groups of four. Yet, you’re likely not in P-E right now and can’t perceive the room with your senses—instead, you’re actively “reconstruct[ing] the past” with your memories and “simulat[ing] the future.” You are visualizing things in a whole new dimension, astral projecting yourself into this time-space continuum that you (yes you!) able to manipulate. You can clone things and people! Create a new parallel universe! Merge reality and fantasy! Travel the multiverses!
Except that you’re confined to your little mind-space…but that shouldn’t stop you from exercising your inherent, supernatural abilities (unless you have aphantasia, which may hinder your ability to fully transcend the physical).
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I asked a few of my friends about this phenomenon and have received responses from “isn’t this normal” to “no not really but there’s like random flashes I think it’s from all the reels I’ve watched” to “what are you saing ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜.”
The pixels are probably because of something like the reels, caused by staring too long at my computer that the many pixels are burned into my vision. It’s kind of like when you stare at a colored light, close your eyes, and see an afterimage in contrasting color. I couldn’t find anything on it online, so I’ve just accepted the pixels that may haunt me at night, depending on whatever image my imagination wants to overlay in my reality.
Patio heater guy outside my window. You can't tell me this doesn't look terrifying.
Hello, Charlize! I don’t know if the phenomenon you’re referring to is more like static in your vision, or more of a strange shape, but I certainly occasionally see static in my vision. Glad to know it’s not just me!
ReplyDeleteOn that note, I don’t see strange creations from the mysterious haze in my eyes. I really kind of just space out whenever that haze comes into my vision, and I think it’s just my brain telling me to take a break.
However, on those rare occasions where I just space out looking into the distance, my imagination runs wild. I think of the scenery, what I want to be, and as you said, I “Merge reality with fantasy.” I think in those times, I come to appreciate the beauty of imagination.
I especially resonate with your assertion that the imagination is a simulation of the future. Sometimes, in those meaningless silences, I get these weird daydreams that seem to mirror the future. It’s only when that event happens, a couple months after, do I realize that I seemed to have imagined this exact moment in a brief moment. I can never recall the daydream that I had, but I know it happened. Is it fate? The power of the imagination? I can never tell.
Sunrises are truly magnificent things to awake too, but honestly I would also choose the comfort of not being jumpscared over that. Seeing creepy, dark shadows looming around your room when you arise in the middle of the night is terrible, especially if one has an overactive imagination.
ReplyDeleteImagination truly is a wonderful and bewildering thing. It’s such a complex and marvelous thing for something that many dismiss as a simple, commonplace function that all people can easily use.
Your description of how one can manipulate anything one wants in their own minds and create endless possibilities reminded me of authors, since they dream up their own worlds, then bring the world to others by writing it down and sharing their stories. A lot of people I know are artists and writers who love telling me about their worlds and the different nuances, and I felt like that connected to your stories of how one’s imagination holds limitless possibilities.
As for the flashes of light you mentioned, personally I haven’t seen this kind of thing, but sometimes there are these red shapes that float around whenever I close my eyes, and these shapes are mainly just random shapes of things I saw earlier. The only other similar thing zI can think of are floaters, these dots that float in people’s vision and move around, but those are mainly a sign of bad vision.