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Entoptic Microscopy

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Microbes and Other Shamanic Beings

Abstract

The eye has the capacity to perform a microscopy of its own structures and of objects floating in the vitreous humour or flowing through the vessels of the retina. This capacity is unimpeded under circumstances which are correlated with systemic infection, to which the retina with its dense irrigation is particularly exposed. Shamans employ various techniques which can stimulate this form of vision. The first question is whether what they claim to see corresponds to entoptic microscopy, or to the classical interpretation of neurogenic hallucination. This chapter defines the characteristic features of entoptic images and what can become visible to shamans through entoptic microscopy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kopenawa and Albert 2013.

  2. 2.

    Atchison and Smith 2000; Hallett et al. 1962.

  3. 3.

    Gross 2008, 57–63.

  4. 4.

    Adams and Horton 2002; Applegate et al. 1990.

  5. 5.

    Callaway et al. 1999.

  6. 6.

    Bouza et al. 2000; Callegan et al. 2007.

  7. 7.

    Bókkon 2008; Bókkon and Vimal 2009.

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Giraldo Herrera, C.E. (2018). Entoptic Microscopy. In: Microbes and Other Shamanic Beings. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71318-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71318-2_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71317-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71318-2

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