1. The Fire That Comes From the Eye
Olivia Moreno

2. Extramission Theories
Extramission theories- Theory of vision which depends on something streaming out of the eye.
Alcmaeon of Croton:
1st to advocate the brain as the seat of sensation and cognition and the first to dissect parts of the visual system
Plato:
visual fire streams out of the eye and combines with daylight to form a “single homogeneous body” which serves as am instrument for detecting and reporting visual object
Euclid:
Rectilinear rays proceeding from the eye diverge infinitely and what is seen is what the rays hit and the things not seen is what the rays do not hit.
Ptolemy:
Visual rays formed a continuous bundle or cone

3. Intromission Theories
Intromission theory- A theory of vision that involves something entering the eye from the object seen.
Democritus and Epicurus:
Were the first to give intromission theories. Believed that images came off objects and entered the eye.
Lucretius:
Simulacra- images coming from objects .
Aristotle:
A transparent medium is necessary for vision.
Light is the state of this transparent medium.
The color of an object moves the transparent medium and since the medium is continuous between the object and the eye, movement of the medium is sensed by the eye, yielding visual sensation.

4. Alhazen’s Synthesis 2 parts:
1) Wanted to get rid of extramission theory
Bright lights produces pain in the eye
Not likely our eyes could put out enough material to fill the space up by the stars when looking at the heavens.
2) Introduce a fundamentally new type of intromission theory.
Every point on an object sends light in every direction but only one ray from each point falls on the eye perpendicularly.
The lens responds only to the perpendicular rays which form a cone with the visual field as the base and the center of the eye as the vertex

5. The Fire in the Eye is Quenched
Deformation phosphenes (the “ fire in the eye”) caused by pressure to the eyeball.
Explanations for phosphenes
Giovanni Morgagni:
Experiment: pushed his eye to produce phosphenes and had his assistant look into his eye and see whether any light came out
Findings: Even though a bright light appeared to him the assistant never observed any light.
Georg Langguth:
Experiment: To find out whether light is generated in the eye he pushed his eye in the dark and with a mirror, tried to see if any light came out of his eye
Findings: Never discovered light leaving the eye

6. Persistence of Extramission Views
Can be found in 4 main areas:
The evil eye
In love poetry
Amongst a high proportion of schoolchildren and college students in the USA
Belief people can feel someone staring at them

7. The Evil Eye
Evil eye- belief that there are individuals whose glance can produce harm, disease or death.
So many preventatives against the evil eye that vary from community to community
Spitting
Gestures
Charms
Incantations
Amulets

8. Love Poetry
“The aggressive eye topos” is a tradition of love poetry that has extended from classical poets through Arabic poetry to the Renaissance and beyond.
Lady shoots darts, arrows, or fiery beams to induce love in the beholder

9. Extramission among schoolchildren and college students
Gerald Winer and Jane Cottrell: 57% of elementary school children and 33% of college students said that something goes out of the eyes in the process of seeing.
When asked to choose between “in”, “out” or “both”; 75%-80% of children and 24%-33% of college students answered either “out” or “both”.
Of those who chose those extamission answers about 90% of children and 77% of the college students thought that the eye’s output aided vision and 59% to 63% thought it was necessary.

10. The Feeling of Being Stared At
E.B. Titchener has looked at this feeling
Other studies have been done on the feeling
68% - 86% (college students) in one sample claimed to feel being stared at
Another study found 93% (college students) saying they could feel the stare of other people
Proportion went up with grade level