Visual sensitivity. Was [ Re: Article: Rats...]

[Guest guest]

Follow-up to my note on hearing:

I'm near-sighted from early childhood. Wasn't discovered (and

corrected) until I entered college. But that was daytime vision, or

vision in lighted spaces.

My night-time vision, " dark vision " , always has been exceptionally

acute. And my " dark adaptation " always exceptionally fast.

An anecdotal consequence of this: When entering dark spaces from

light ones (eg: coming home late at night) I used to not turn on the

building lights. I just proceeded to do " whatever " in the dark.

Because I didn't *need* the light, ...*I* could see perfectly well.

Not so any companions, who usually complained bitterly about my lack of

concern for them -- my " lack of empathy " with them over *their* need.

A life-long corollary of this is my fairly extreme sensitivity to bright

light. As a child, my mother would catch me reading a book in " dim "

light (, you'll *ruin* your eyes!) and *she'd* turn it higher.

Over my strong objections.

Once I returned from Boy Scout Camp with the summer-time equivalent

of snow-blindness. *That* required medical attention, and a week in a

dark room with eye compresses.

Since then, for decades, I never go anywhere without my

(prescription) sun-glasses.

In my working life, I kept my office lights fairly low. People who

visited me there often asked if I minded them turning the lights higher.

Still today, retired, my home office has shades partly drawn. And at

night *my* room lights are on " low " .

For me, " ordinary " illumination levels are just tolerable; anything

brighter actually is painful. ...The visual equivalent of my painful

auditory sensitivity?.

This too is one of the little strains on marriage both my wife and me

believe arises from me being AS.

For those who believe in " aliens among us " :

My visual range *seems* to be extended! That is, it seems I'm able

to see some frequencies of ultra-violet light! Even to see a bit

*with*, or *by* near-UV light. [How I know this is a tale more lengthy

than I want to give here.]

But I've never met anyone else who can do this. So a little description

here might serve to turn up somebody else.

Essentially, *in the absence* of " visible light " things illuminated

by near-UV appear to me in an un-natural color: a sort of brownish-blue.

That's what my mind tells me it is; I've not been able to mix paints

or colored pencils to get on paper what I see in the experiment.

Even in ordinary room illumination (artificial or natural) - I can

see an " aura " of brownish-blue around objects which can reflect near-UV.

I believe the spectral energy my retina is detecting from near-UV is

translated; ...only *interpreted* by my brain to be this " impossible "

and NON-spectral color. ...FWIW.

- Bill, older, dx AS

--

WD " Bill " Loughman - Berkeley, California USA

http://home.earthlink.net/~wdloughman/wdl.htm