The main source of information about the world around for a person is undoubtedly visual perception. Suffice it to say that over 80 percent of it comes through the eyes. In the cerebral cortex, the zone that perceives and analyzes information about the world around it, coming through the “mirror of the soul,” far surpasses the associative zones of other senses (smell, hearing, etc.). The nature of these phenomena is still unknown, but one cannot dismiss them without risking ruining science.
Beams of sight
One of the carriers of information, as you know, are photons - the most widespread of all elementary particles in world space. They fly out of atoms from the surfaces of objects, and it is thanks to them that a person perceives the surrounding reality. However, if the eye is capable of fixing photons, then, probably, it can itself emit these material particles. The mysterious rays of sight have been known since time immemorial.
Thus, Albinus, one of the students of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC), says: “Having set luminous eyes on the face, the gods made them restrain the fiery light enclosed in them, the smoothness and density of which gave birth to him, in their opinion, with ancient light. This inner light, the purest and most transparent, easily pours out through the eyes as a whole, but especially easily through their middle. Facing like like with like, with light from outside, it creates visual sensations. " The great ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC) argued that a woman on certain days "with her gaze often stains the mirror with blood drops."
The famous Roman historian Suetonius (c. 70 - c. 140) wrote about the sunshine of the eyes of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. Later, the version about the rays of sight was supported by the idealist philosopher, neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499): “And that a ray emitted from the eyes entails a vapor of spirits …” the eye of the beholder is made to suffer from a similar disease.
There are people whose gaze is almost impossible to withstand. Such a feature was possessed, for example, by Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, the favorite of Tsar Nicholas II. Here is what EF Dzhanumova, who personally knew the elder, wrote about this: “Well, his eyes! Every time I see him, I am amazed at how diverse their expression and such depth. It is impossible to sustain his gaze for a long time. There is something heavy in him, as if you feel material pressure, although his eyes often glow with kindness, always with a bit of slyness, and there is a lot of softness in them. But how cruel they can sometimes be and how terrible in anger."
By the way, many people feel when they are looked at. These sensations are difficult to describe, but it is usually born in the back of the head or upper cheeks. Scientists from Queen's University (USA) decided to experimentally prove or disprove the prevailing idea of the possibility of feeling someone else's gaze.
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The experimental technique was simple. In the center of the room, with his back to the researchers, a man sat, at which at certain moments another had to look. If the subject felt a gaze, he reported it. More than a hundred volunteers took part in the study. The result was astonishing: 95 percent of the time, people felt the gaze directed at them! In the occipital region, there was a fleeting feeling of pressure - like a breath of breeze.
Killing with a look
Some people are capable of having a stronger effect on others with their eyes. Thus, A. David-Nel, a traveler in Tibet, in his book "Mystics and Magicians of Tibet" writes about an incredible incident, which she witnessed. Her translator Davasandyuk, who was trying to get the wandering magician to take the money, was hit with a “look”. “Dawasandyuk considered it his due to insist and went to the table with the intention to put money near the lamp. But that was not the case: before he had time to take three steps, he staggered, flew back, as if from a strong push, and hit his back against the wall. At the same time, he cried out and grabbed his stomach under the spoon with his hand. The magician got up and walked out of the room, laughing maliciously.
In the 70s of the twentieth century, Doctor of Technical Sciences G. A. Sergeev conducted research with the famous psychic N. S. Kulagina (1926-1990). In one of the experiments, Ninel Sergeevna had to deflect the laser beam with an effort of thought. However, something happened that no one expected. The cylinder through which the beam passed was filled with a luminous haze, and he himself was gone. Gennady Alexandrovich, sitting opposite the subject, looked into her eyes and … went blind! After that, he was treated for a long time, until his vision finally recovered.
But the look of some people, as it turned out, can not only blind, but also kill. One of the inhabitants of Messina enjoyed the sinister reputation of a murderer in the 1880s in Sicily. When people saw him, they turned into lanes in advance. They feared becoming a victim. However, no one could either bring this monster to justice, or even bring charges. Because he killed in a very original way. With a glance … And yet fate punished him. Once he stopped at a shop window and looked at his reflection in the mirror for a long time … This was precisely the reason for his sudden death. So, in any case, eyewitnesses said. The rays emanating from his eyes bounced off the mirror and struck back at the assassin.
It has been observed that the gaze of a person who is in a state of extreme emotional arousal can also be very dangerous. This fact has been known for a long time, so it is no coincidence that those sentenced to death were blindfolded.
Evil eye
As you can see, the rays emanating from the eyes are capable of having a tremendous force of influence on another person. Therefore, it is not so incredible to assume that the organ of vision is a kind of instrument with which you can influence others in a certain way. Otherwise, how can one explain the belief in the "evil eye" widespread in the East and West?
In the history of the existence of human society, a certain kind of attitude has been formed towards those who are able to jinx. But what circumstances and reasons give rise to an individual with an "evil eye"? There are several assumptions on this score. The main cause is believed to be heredity. In the event that one of the relatives of the newborn had an "evil" eye, it must have been inherited. Another reason may be a strong curse on the person. And such a situation is also possible. If the mother weaned her child from her breast, and then pity him and give it back, the child will become the owner of the "evil" eye.
It is a widespread belief that not everyone "marked" by the devil can deliberately cause misfortune with their gaze. For individuals, this happens even against their will. How to determine if a person has an "evil" eye? The experience accumulated by people over many centuries testifies that the “marked” by the devil have something strange in their appearance or character. Often they are endowed with large eyes and a steady, unblinking gaze. By the way, the poor among many peoples of the world were considered very capable of the evil eye.
People susceptible to this ailment were the objects of his numerous demonstrations to medical students, as well as at the Pirogov Congress of Russian Doctors in St. Petersburg in 1904. One of the patients of the world famous neuropathologist was so afraid of the effects of someone else's gaze that he constantly wore dark glasses. "In other cases," noted Vladimir Mikhailovich, "patients experience a kind of magnetic influence of someone else's gaze." This condition is often complemented by "psychopathic urinary difficulties." This is how one of the patients of V. M. Bekhterev described his condition: “A strange look causes me an unpleasant sensation, which is expressed in a strong and uncontrollable tightening of the eyelids and muscles of the eyeball and convulsive twitching: the eyes seem to grow cloudy, perceive nothing, the gaze wanders …"
However, the fear of someone else's gaze is a disease, and people suffering from it are aware of their illness.
Meanwhile, absolutely healthy persons are afraid of the "evil eye". The famous researcher of Slavic folklore A. N. Afanasyev wrote: “Black and brown eyes have always been considered unkind eyes”. But the most dangerous were the slanting eyes. Since such a person cannot look directly into the eyes of the interlocutor, it was believed that he was looking at the devil. Therefore, the word "oblique" is used in the sense of "devil". By the way, death was also called "a scythe old woman holding a scythe." It is no coincidence that the words "braid", "oblique", "mow" have a common root. There are many ways to protect yourself from the "evil eye". However, the main preventive moment was the desire to avoid someone's envy. Therefore, vigilant people have always tried not to stand out from the crowd and not to attract the attention of others with their appearance.
What do the eyes emit?
But what is the nature of the energy impulse produced by the eyes? There is no exact answer to this question yet. The Soviet scientist, pioneer of research in the field of biological radio communication in our country, B. B. Kazhinsky (1890-1962) in 1923 put forward a hypothesis that the eye not only sees, but also simultaneously emits electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency into space. These waves are capable of affecting a person at a distance. They can influence behavior, induce certain thoughts and actions. The rods of the retina were considered sources of radiation, and the cones - receivers of oscillations. Since the peculiar antennas - rods - were very small in size, it was assumed that the upper boundary of the waves extends far towards the infrared rays of the spectrum.
A similar opinion that the eye emits electromagnetic waves was shared by the English physicist Charles Ross. In 1925, he made a device, the main part of which was a thin untwisted thread of silk with a thinnest metal spiral suspended horizontally at its lower end. The lightest magnetic needle was attached to the silk thread above the spiral. Its purpose was to fix the position of the spiral in a freely suspended state.
Experiments have shown: if you look closely inside the spiral so that the direction of your gaze coincides with the geometric axis of the spiral turns, and after that you begin to slowly turn your head until the "line of sight" becomes at a certain angle to the axis of the spiral, you can see how a spiral will begin to rotate the same angle. In some attempts, the angle of such a "forced" turn of the spiral reached 60 degrees.
This experiment convincingly confirmed the hypothesis that the eye not only perceives light energy, but is itself a generator of radiation into space of electromagnetic waves.
In recent years, some researchers believe that the eye emits electromagnetic waves outward. So, the English scientist Benson Herbert suggests that they may be biogravitational.
Hallucination in the photo
To this day, psychiatrists consider visual hallucinations to be "imaginary perception", "deception of the senses." In other words, it is believed that the patient sees something that does not really exist. The origins of hallucinations are attributed to various conflicting theories. Meanwhile, back in the 19th century, researchers discovered an interesting fact - visual hallucinations obey the physical laws of light refraction. So, in 1885, Binet and Feret noticed a doubling of hallucinatory images in space in patients with pressure on the eyes and when a prism was applied to them.
Later, in 1903, Sterring found the following. If the patient looked through binoculars, then the vision seemed to her closer or, conversely, distant. It all depended on whether she was attaching an eyepiece or a lens to her eye. Despite the fact that the described phenomena have been repeatedly recorded, no one has given a scientific explanation for them.
The first to capture visual hallucinations on a photographic plate was in 1880 by a little-known Parisian artist Pierre Boucher. In addition to painting, he was fascinated by photography, which was still becoming fashionable. Once, while at a party, he got drunk, as they say, "to hell." All night long a couple of terrible horned creatures with a pitchfork in their hands chased Pierre. In the morning he began to develop the materials he had shot the day before and … on the very first disc he found disgusting faces of the night "guests".
The unfortunate photographer showed the picture to his friend, the naturalist Emile Charro. An acquaintance was very interested in the unusual phenomenon and even wrote a scientific article about this, which he sent to the French Academy of Sciences. However, venerable scientists refused to publish it - they did not even admit the idea that alcoholic delirium could be photographed. The fact that took place with Pierre would have sunk into oblivion if the popularizer of science and the famous astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) had not learned about it. In one of his articles, he made public the case that happened to the French artist.
Later, in 1883, the famous Russian psychiatrist V. Kh. Kandinsky (1849-1889) continued his research in the field of photographing visual hallucinations. His verdict is as follows: "mental pictures", which are often called visual hallucinations, are often caused by reality - some kind of physical radiation, the nature of which modern science is not yet able to comprehend. Then, in 1967, the American psychiatrist D. Eisenbardd suggested the possibility of photographing visual hallucinations from the retina, and in 1967 - the Moscow physicist V. Skurlatov. However, these were only theoretical fabrications. There was no experimental confirmation.
Incredible discovery
And finally, in 1974, a 32-year-old psychiatrist from Perm G. P. Krokhalev undertook to experimentally confirm his hypothesis. And it was as follows: "In visual hallucinations, there is a reverse transmission of visual information from the center of the visual analyzer to the periphery with electromagnetic radiation from the retina into the space of visual hallucinatory images in the form of holographic images that can be objectively recorded using photography!"
In order to capture the hallucinations on film, Gennady Pavlovich took out the glass from the half-mask for diving, attached an "accordion" from the old camera instead, and inserted the camera lens into its narrow end. This was done to ensure complete darkness between the patient's eyes and the fixing equipment. The entire structure was worn over the patient's face and when he had visual hallucinations, photographs were taken. In addition, hallucinations were recorded without any instruments on flat negative plates and films placed in translucent bags. The researcher kept them a short distance from the patients' eyes for 10-15 seconds.
From 1974 to 1996, G. Krokhalev took photographs of visual hallucinations in 290 mentally ill patients (mainly suffering from alcoholic psychoses). He managed to capture on film images of hallucinations in 117 people, which is about 40.3% of the repeatability of experiments.
So the Permian doctor in practice brilliantly confirmed his hypothesis.
In order to increase the objectivity and reliability of experiments while photographing radiation from the eyes, the subjects aloud described the images they saw. Their stories were entered into the protocol and subsequently checked against the image on the film. The juxtaposition was amazing. The photographs clearly showed what the subjects were talking about during the shooting: "road", "tanks and soldiers", "fish", "snake", "animal head" and much more. When the patients had no hallucinations, there were no images on the control frames.
In January 1977, the Committee for Discoveries and Inventions accepted from G. P. Krokhalev an application for opening No. 32-OT-9465 "Formation of holographic images by the eye in the space of visual hallucinations." In July of the same year, the aforementioned institution accepted the second version of the application for the discovery, No. 32-OT-9363 "Formation of Visual Hallucinations by the Brain in Space". After some time, the author received a laconic answer: "Your application … cannot be accepted for consideration due to the lack of convincing evidence of the reliability of your statement." The attitude to the innovator in the USSR turned out to be the same as in the annoyingly sad past with heretics-cyberneticists. That is why the priority seemed to dissolve and did not become a registered domestic discovery.