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Can We See Ghosts Through Our Peripheral Vision?
Many sightings of ghosts are reported as being seen out of the “corner” of people's eyes
through what's known as peripheral vision. I wanted to explore peripheral vision and ghosts
because some wish to discredit the human ability to accurately see entities through anything
but our central vision. Can ghosts be detected through the sides of our eyes? Let's explore...
The argument against accurately seeing ghosts through peripheral vision has gained strength
because we can be tricked into seeing things that are not there by our brains. While it is
common for the brain to gather snapshots from the periphery and then “fill in the blanks,”
(known as the phenomenon of “seeing something that isn't there"), it is still possible that
peripheral vision can enhance our ability to see and detect ghosts.
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Because many reports of ghosts seem to occur during the evening
(maybe because people prefer to ghost hunt at night), allow me to
briefly explain human eyesight in low-light conditions. Receptor cells in
the back of the eye can be divided up into two types: rods and cones.
Our central vision, used for detailed viewing, relies upon the cones;
peripheral vision depends upon the rods. The differences between
these photoreceptor cells give us different capabilities within our
collective eyesight; and for viewing ghosts, that could be important to
know. For example, when seeing in dark environments, it is well
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known that our central vision is weak (due to reliance upon bright light) while peripheral vision
is much stronger. The rods in our eyes, used for seeing the periphery, operate much better
during low-light conditions than cones; this allows the eye to detect light that is a billion times
dimmer than bright sunlight!
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On the down side, seeing things out of the corner of our eyes does produce images with less
clarity in most cases; but this is not always true. Although peripheral vision is not used to
distinguish colors, it is much better at detecting motion. The combination of seeing no color
coupled with excellent ability at detecting movement could be another reason many have
reported seeing dark, black shadow ghosts move from the corners of their eyes. If you still
think this portion of our eyesight has little merit, then you will need to argue with the military. It
is well known by the US Army that faint objects in the dark are better viewed by our peripheral
vision. Troops are often taught not to focus on objects directly at night but to direct their vision
to one side in order
to see them better. Coincidently, contact lenses would be preferred over glasses in order to maintain a clear path to the periphery.
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Different Frequencies & Wavelengths of Light
Humans see the range of light known as the
visible light spectrum. The typical human
eyeball can see the wavelength range of
380-750 nanometers (see chart above). The
various wavelengths in the spectrum of visible
light are seen as different colors by the three
types of photoreceptor cones in our central
vision, spanning the full range of hues. Peaking
near the center of the visible spectrum at about
500 nm, the vision of our photoreceptor rods is
sensitized to the wavelengths of violet, blue,
green and yellow (though they cannot see them
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as colors but in shades of gray). The longer wavelengths of orange and red are completely
eliminated from the peripheral part of our eyesight. Knowing this, we could say our peripheral
vision is actually more focused toward monitoring more of the middle range of visible light
and not interfered with by higher wavelengths. Could this be a factor that might somehow
make our peripheral vision better equipped to see ghosts at times? Maybe...
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Although I have shared my thoughts about seeing ghosts through our peripheral vision, I want you to know that I have
also seen them through my central vision – a shadow ghost included. My point is that there doesn't seem to be one
simple answer that explains the mystery of when, where, how and why we see ghosts. Therefore, we need to keep an
open mind. - LC
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Ghost Peripheral Vision Copyright 2011 Angels & Ghosts, LLC
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