I had a fascinating experience last night in which I saw vivid, clear red triangles instead of singular red lights on the highway, on buildings, everywhere I looked.
I had been to a nice dinner that included multiple courses of pretty fancy food, with many ingredients I was probably unaware of. This may be relevant. I enjoyed the meal immensely and on the drive home I began to notice a weird visual anomaly.
At first I thought I noticed a car on the side of the highway with several of those triangular hazard warning reflectors, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Triangle-Foldable-Emergency-Reflector-Roadside/dp/B085Q6W776. But then I saw the car was moving down the highway.
Then I noticed that all of the cars on the highway, with the exception of the first three or four in front of me, had these large red triangles all over the back end. I realized it was the red tail lights of the cars. Instead of seeing the red tail lights, I was seeing a clear, crisp, red triangle instead of each tail light.
It was fascinating. I kept trying to explain it to my companion and he became concerned I was having a stroke or some other medical problem. But I felt 100% normal, physically and mentally.
Here are some of the details to consider:
The red triangles were not fuzzy images. They were well defined, quite clear to me. Three red sides, equilateral, with a black center. Dozens and dozens floating down the road ahead of me.
This occurred only with red lights. White and green lights were not affected. The effect began about 40 feet ahead of me, so the first few cars in front of me looked normal.
Red traffic lights also became oversized triangles. As I approached the red traffic light, from about 40 feet out I could see the three points of the triangle start to come together and when I was stopped at the light they all converged into a normal looking red circle.
Any red light light was subject to this. At one point I passed a cluster of buildings with the red aircraft warning lights on top, and a few red lights elsewhere. It looked like the buildings were decorated with red Christmas trees all over. Quite beautiful, actually.
The red triangles were oversized. That is, they were considerably larger than the single brake light or other light they represented.
Even reflections of red lights were affected, like tail lights reflected on the windows of a building.
I only wear reading glasses. This wasn’t a function of a glasses prescription.
This only started on the drive home last night. I don’t have any way of knowing if the effect is still with me, but perhaps I’ll go for a drive tonight and see.
I can’t emphasize enough how very clear and distinct these red triangles were. It wasn’t like when you squint and you can make lights look weird. The effect really was blowing my mind.
My dinner companion Googled for some ideas and came up with hallucinatory effects from certain foods. Our dinner included a single tempura oyster, and he found a reference to how some oysters will mess with your head if they had consumed a lot of a certain diatom, or something like that. But that seemed to mostly induce brief amnesia, not hallucinations.
And I had a single cocktail at the beginning of the evening that included hibiscus, which is rumored to have some mind effects, but not necessarily hallucinations and the evidence of any effect seems pretty iffy.
My friend has experience with helping friends who took hallucinogenic drugs and he says what I was describing was very much like what people on hallucinogenics report – particularly the eagerness to convey how vivid and real the images are to them. He said it reminded him of people on MDMA, except on a much, much smaller scale.
I don’t have experience with any drugs like that, so I don’t know. But the night of the red triangles was absolutely fascinating and bewildering.
I went to bed soon after getting home, slept well, and feel fine today.
Any thoughts on what I experienced? I understand that I shouldn’t accept medical advice from the Internet, and that’s not what I’m seeking.
Klüver’s form constants have appeared in other [than mescaline] drug-induced and naturally occurring hallucinations, suggesting a similar physiological process underlying hallucinations with different triggers. Klüver’s form constants also appear in near-death experiences and sensory experiences of those with synesthesia. Other triggers include psychological stress, threshold consciousness (hypnagogia), insulin hypoglycemia, the delirium of fever, epilepsy, psychotic episodes, advanced syphilis, sensory deprivation, photostimulation, electrical stimulation, crystal gazing, migraine headaches, dizziness and a variety of drug-induced intoxications. These shapes may appear on their own or with eyes shut in the form of phosphenes, especially when exerting pressure against the closed eyelid.
Klüver’s form constants seems consistent with what I experienced. Thanks for noting that. I can check advanced syphilis off the list of causes with some certainty. The others too. (Crystal gazing??) So drug-induced intoxications sounds most likely, and that leads to the hibiscus powder in the cocktail.
I’m going to second beofulff’s suggestion of an occular migraine. The link he provided didn’t show the spiky pattern that some of them have. Here is another link that has some better pictures.
it may be that with it being dark other than the tail lights of cars, you only saw the triangle patters on the tail lights. The fact that you only saw them in the periphery rather than the center might also fit, although usually it starts in the center and works its way out.
The first time this happened to me, I was sure something was horribly wrong with my eyes. Fortunately my father-in-law was an eye surgeon and a quick call got me diagnosed over the phone. Now when it happens I just quit what I’m doing, lie back and enjoy the show for the next 10 minutes.
Not occular migraines. I get them sometimes; just got one yesterday. They are totally independent of the objects you are actually seeing. They can’t be attached to cars or red lights or anything else. They even persist if you close your eyes. They are not a manifestation of the eyes, but of the brain.
Either way, if this happens when you’re driving, pull over.
My grandfather, when he was experiencing transient ischemic attacks, described his vision as “crystalline”. It appears that this is sometimes called kaleidoscope vision. Given the variance in manifestation, triangles don’t seem like too much of a stretch.
It does seem pertinent that the triangles were attached to actual lights. That is, they were distortions of something that exists in real life rather than images superimposed over the visual field. So the occular migraine and scintillating scotoma might not be the best fit.
I did worry about transient ischemic attacks, but I had no symptoms at all other than the vision issue.
The reference to kaleidoscope vision is kind of, sort of, what I experienced. But again, the attachment to specific real objects seems inconsistent.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Anyone ever experienced sensitivity to hibiscus? Still wondering if that could be it.
You mentioned reading glasses. Have you worn them while driving at night before?
I got glasses for the first time five weeks ago. And I don’t know if there’s something wrong with them, but at night headlights make what seems to be a dashed line of blue light appear everywhere at about the midline of the p lenses. They’re not bifocals so I’m at a loss as to the cause of this effect.
The glasses aren’t new and I see the same effect with or without them. (The top part is just clear glass and the bottom is a reading lens.)
The triangles are still with me. I hadn’t driven at night for a week since the first time I saw the triangles and assumed the effect was gone. But I drove at night over the weekend and it’s still the same. So I guess it’s not the hibiscus or anything else I consumed.
It was curiously entertaining at first, but not so much now.
Do the triangles change in orientation if you tilt your head? Do they continue to appear if you close one of your eyes (that is, are they only present in one eye)? (Regardless, if this is a permanent issue, you should of course see an ophthalmologist or GP as soon as possible.)
They don’t change orientation if I tilt or move my head. I’m pretty sure I checked with just one eye and it was the same, but I should confirm that.
I probably should see a doctor, but I’m pretty certain they will just send me to a neurologist for a work up, and I don’t relish spending a huge amount of money on this. If I develop any other symptom, I’ll be more willing to go that route.
What if you look at pictures of red dots? Do a google image search for red dots. Do they look like circles or triangles? And is there any difference between small dots and large ones?
Pictures of red dots look normal. The effect only happens with red lights at night, and at some distance, beginning about 30 yards away.
The triangles are commensurate with the size of the actual red light, but oversized in each case. In other words, the triangle is large enough that it surrounds the actual red light. But the actual red light is not visible in the black center of the triangle.
But as I approach, the three points of the triangle come together on the actual light until the effect is gone. This is very clear as I drive up to a red traffic light.
By any chance, do you know if both incandescent and LED bulbs have the same effect? Most modern stoplights, taillights, street lights, etc are LED bulbs, which might have some kind of polarization or other difference over normal incandescent light which might contribute to the effect. Older cars will have normal bulbs, so you can see if you notice any difference with them.
One experiment you can try is putting some different kinds of red lights in a dark room in your house and see if you can replicate the effect. Use both incandescent and LED red lights. Christmas lights might be good for incandescent. Most modern electronics have LEDs, so anything from a clock radio, telephone, router, etc. might have red LEDs.
Have you experienced this at all when not driving? If not, then maybe the problem is with your windshield. If it got etched somehow, say by being sandblasted, then it could have similar effects to what you’re mentioning, aside from the red light connection.
That it only happens with lights implies that the brightness is significant. When light scatters (as it would from an etched surface), a bright source can still be brighter than the surrounding objects, and appear as something floating above them. This doesn’t happen so much with non-emitting objects since the ghost image ends up very dim.
The ghost image tends to be fixed in angular size. So it will appear larger than faraway objects and smaller (maybe wholly contained in) close by objects. It’s easy to think of the ghost image as growing/shrinking, when in fact it’s only getting relatively bigger or smaller.
I do see the triangles when not driving. If I’m out of the car and standing in a parking lot, the red traffic light 30 yards away has the same effect.
I haven’t tested the incandescent lights. I’ll try to do that soon.
Hi There
I have this exact experience where I see triangles instead of the individual break lights of vehicles at night.
It has been happening for sometime and i usually ignore it but last night i mentioned it to my wife and she said i should google it…and I stumbled on this message trail.
It only happens at distance and though i havent done as detailed an assessment as Dingbang I don’t recall it happening with other colours but i will check and report.
I have no headaches, consume no drugs, but i now use a 2.5+ reader at the age of 52.