Spirals of Static

[Johnny Pneumatic]

A few hours ago I was starring at a TV screen of static and the static went into many spirals and a weird feeling came over me. I tried to get it to happen again but couldn't. I did get weird sights of looking like I was flying through those "hyperspace jump" tunnle warpy things except it was static instead of looking like stars. What in the world is happening? How do these visual tricks work? I saw lots of other weird stuff to, things that almost look like long strings of words that then spiral around like a hurricane and disapear.

 

[phildonnia]

The brain is a master of pattern recognition. This is how you can instantly recognize your friends through a dirty window after they've had a haircut. It's how you can effortlessly read words written in a font you've never seen before.

If you stare at a random pattern long enough, your brain starts to figure that there must be something important there and starts making "partial matches". You'll soon see motion, shapes, and eventually, faces and words.

 

[Jeff Corey]

If that's the case, SkepticJ's pattern recognition mechanisms must be a lot more creative than mine. The only illusion I ever got out of TV static was that of color on a BW set.
This didn't sound like seeing the Man in the Moon or bunnies in the clouds or psychosis in a Rorschach test. They are more organized and animated.

 

[Johnny Pneumatic]

I was concentrating or something at the screen. The weird feeling came over me, don't know how to describe it and the screen had "trippy" stuff going on it. I don't do drugs so this can't explain it.

 

[John Bentley]

"They're ba-aa-ack."

"Don't go into the light!"

Edited to add:

No, seriously, it is just your brain trying to establish a pattern out of random noise. It can be quite disconcerting, and the brain usually add whatever details are necessary to "flesh" it out.

Maybe it was something similar to the hallucinations people are supposed to get when immersed in a sensory deprivation tank?

edited again:

But despite my confident answer above, I really have no idea. But I bet I'm right.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I love watching fluorescent tubes, when the line voltage is varying a bit and the plasma starts rotating in the tube. I can imagine all sorts in that. It's like flames in a coal fire- it just seems to hand the visual system the sort of noise it loves to pull patterns out of. Clouds are good too.
Skepticj-Curiosity- was this a CRT TV or a flat screen job?

 

[RussDill]

I was concentrating or something at the screen. The weird feeling came over me, don't know how to describe it and the screen had "trippy" stuff going on it. I don't do drugs so this can't explain it.

nyquil?

 

[Johnny Pneumatic]

was this a CRT TV or a flat screen job?

CRT

 

[Dr. Imago]

I was concentrating or something at the screen. The weird feeling came over me, don't know how to describe it and the screen had "trippy" stuff going on it. I don't do drugs so this can't explain it.

Sounds like you hypnotized yourself.

-TT