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2/05/2010

There are many optical illusions that test the human eye in a psychological context. They're designed to train your eye, trick your brain, and question what you really saw or didn't see. This one is called the Orange Card:

Take a few deep breaths and relax your mind.
Stare at the blue dot for 30 seconds.
Close your eyes and an after-image should appear.


At first, the after-image you see is the colour orange; the same after-image will then take on the colour blue. The colour and shape of this test can be changed (red dot in a green square) and will yield the same results.

The Orange Card test shows that by staring at the blue dot for long enough, upon closing your eyes, an after-image of orange then blue will appear. Even if it disappears for a second, just by thinking that it will re-appear.. it will in fact, re-appear. Try it.

So what is the point of a test like this? Is the blue after-image actually there? Is it hidden behind the orange? Does the after-image even exist at all? Or is it just something we're imagining because you've stared so long at an orange square (simply yet purposefully presented with a central blue dot) that you expect to see something? Is it our mind playing tricks on us, or the science behind the power of the human eye?

There's a good chance that it could be purely psychological, where the mind makes up an after-image to satisfy our need for an answer, or some sort of outcome. Whatever you believe it to be, the same questions can be applied to how the mystical experience is percieved. It seems that the more you read on mysticism, the more you buy into the idea that maybe the "experience" of it exists afterall and is actually possible to achieve. Think of the all the texts as the orange that fills the square, solidly composed by scholars over time. Reading text upon text, seeing how much R&D has been put into the topic of mystic theory & practice, you would expect to find a blue dot in the end.

Here are 2 more fun mind/eye tricks to try, enjoy! The Tube Optical Illusion, is the black spot growing? And the Jesus Optical Illusion, stare at the image then stare at a blank white wall.. maybe you'll be lucky enough to see Jesus.

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