paroptic

English

Etymology

para- +‎ optic

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒptɪk

Adjective

paroptic (not comparable)

1. Of, or relating to the alleged capability to perceive colors, differences in brightness, and/or formed images by means other than eyesight, especially through the skin or upon touching with the fingertips.
   • 1920, “Psyche, Volume 1”, in Psyche‎^[1], volume 1, Routledge/Thoemmes Press, page 368:

     These five series of experiments confirmed him in his opinion that there is a "paroptic" perception which is sui generis, and he decided to examine this in greater detail rather than establish further instances of its existence.

   • 1987 April 1, Earlyne Chaney, The Eyes Have It: A Self-Help Manual for Better Vision‎^[2], Weiser Books, →ISBN, page 5:

     The paroptic vision—that of seeing with the fingertips—could be a bridge between physical and psychic vision.

   • 2003, Gary Lachman, A Secret History of Consciousness‎^[3], SteinerBooks, →ISBN:

     Experiments with paroptic vision were carried out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the scientists Cesare Lombroso and Jules Romains, with startling results. (See Colin Wilson's Poltergeist [1981] and Afterlife [1987] for an account of Lombroso's work.)

   • 2012 May 10, Frederick Burwick, The Damnation of Newton: Goethe's Color Theory and Romantic Perception‎^[4], volume 86, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 218:

     In the Farbenlehre Goethe had classified color phenomena into the subjective physiological colors, the objective chemical colors, and the subjective-objective phsyical colors. he identified entoptics as subjective-objective, to be added to his earlier discussion of dioptric, catoptric, paroptic, and epoptic.

   • 2018 March, Natalya Serkova, “Learning from Machines, Seeing with a Thousand Eyes: On the Relevance of Russian Cosmism”, in e-flux‎^[5], number 89, archived from the original on January 22, 2023:

     According to Gorsky, a new mucous membrane would be photosensitive, restoring the body’s evolutionarily forfeited ability to see with its entire surface. Citing the experience of French writer Jules Romains, Gorsky writes of the possibility of paroptic vision, meaning that thousands of tiny eyes would open all over the human body, while ordinary optical vision would atrophy due to the paucity of its powers.

   • 2020 July 18, Smita M, “'The UnXplained: Superhuman Senses': Our reality is grounded in human brain’s guesses based on sensory inputs”, in Meaww‎^[6], archived from the original on March 14, 2023:

     Most of the case studies on this episode, while unusual, are all still in the realm of possibility. But towards the end, when the scientists are exploring "paroptic sight" that refers to people 'seeing' color by touching them with their fingers that you start wondering about the nature of the reality we perceive.