Copy: Shadows

[WalnutGrove]

Why I see shadows? not a joke, real shadows. I'm crazy or something? I have panic attacks. Is there any way to keep them away? I only readed one book, "astral dynamics" a long time ago, recently buy it the spanish version because i want to read it again. I dont have the knowledge about this, I apologize for my ignorance.

[CFTraveler]

I made this copy because I had something to offer, so I left the original one in the 'Ask Robert' section.
You are not going crazy.
The human eyes have a blind spot in peripheral vision (there is an exercise to test this that eye doctors use). We don't notice gaps in our sight because our brains are wired to maintain stability in our vision, so the blind spots are usually 'filled in' by the 'imaging department' in the brain. This is normal for everyone.
But sometimes, when people start studying consciousness practices, such as 'being present', meditation, and other varieties of this type of thing, there may be a side effect, that affects people differently- they start 'seeing' the glitches in the senses. And then stuff like moving objects (caused by retinal fatigue, and other types of things) and shadows in peripheral vision, because, let's face it, there are shadows in our peripheral vision. And when we become 'hyper aware', we momentarily 'see' the gaps and the brain's efforts to cover them up, and then this effect becomes weirder.
So don't worry Fidel, you're normal- just more aware than you used to be.

[CFTraveler]

If you want to test it, look perfectly forward, and raise your right arm to the front, and then start moving it to the right- very slowly, all the time looking forward. You're looking at the hand with your peripheral vision. You will notice as you move the arm, that there is a section in which the hand dissapears, and if you keep going it reappears again- you have found your 'blind spot'.
Since the brain already knows what's to your right (or left, depending on which arm is up) it 'fills in' the gap with whatever's supposed to be there (from visual memory), but this is not a perfect process, and it's fast, as we constantly move our eyes.
But when you're alone, introspective, or meditating, you tend to observe without observing, and this is when you see 'interesting things.'