Entoptics and the phenomenon of universal trance

This article explores the fascinating phenomenon of entoptics—optical effects perceived in the human eye, known as "eye floaters." The author, Floco Tausin, recounts an encounter with Nestor, who interprets these visual phenomena as a manifestation of our consciousness shaping the material world. These phenomena have interested both scientists and spiritual researchers for centuries, and their connections to prehistoric art and shamanic practices are a subject of controversy and further research. In the context of contemporary materialism, the article encourages reflection on the spiritual values ​​and possibilities offered by exploring these subjective visual experiences.

In the mid-1990s, I met a man named Nestor, living in a remote area in the mountainous Emmental region of Switzerland. Nestor is known for a unique and provocative claim: that for years he had been focusing on a constellation of large, luminous spheres and strings that had formed in his field of vision. He interprets this phenomenon as a subtle structure created by our consciousness, which in turn creates our material world. Nestor, who calls himself an observer, attributes this subjective visual perception to his long-standing efforts to develop his own consciousness. He explains his vision as an expanded perception of a phenomenon known in ophthalmology as "floaters."

In optics, eye floaters are harmless, opaque vitreous bodies. They are an "entoptic phenomenon," a visual optical phenomenon caused by certain conditions of the human visual system. Entoptic phenomena, whose symptoms can be manipulated by selectively induced alterations in states of consciousness, are of interest to both scientists and spiritually oriented researchers. As physical and neurological symptoms, entoptic phenomena fall within the purview of physicists; and as subjective light phenomena, for people like Nestor, they can acquire spiritual significance. Because the Western medical study of entoptics has a centuries-old tradition, it is likely that the interpretation of entoptic phenomena, such as eye floaters, as spiritually significant perceptions linked to altered states of consciousness arose early in the history of human art.