Struggling for a word here... Photasm?

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Bartholomew

Bartholomew

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Grrr.

When you stare into a light too long, and look away, you'll often see a blue-ish light shaped like the light, even if you turn all the lights off.

I thought these were called Photasms, but I can't find that in the dictionary.

What's the damn word!?
 
Prawn

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You might also want the word pareidolia.

That's when you see something out of the corner of your eye (or an image on your retina) and your brain finds a pattern when there is none. I saw a ghost! I saw a ufo!

Nope, pareidolia.
 
Bartholomew

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Nifty pie. I see faces via pareidolia all the time. Cats, too. Except sometimes there actually is cat. Sitting there. Staring. Waiting. Mewling.

/shudder

Incidentally, the word in my title should be "photism," and it isn't an afterimage; it's any hallucinatory luminescence.
 
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