Dear LPG readers,

Here is a bit of useless information for you… 

I am an old lady who has relearnt to use British Rail.  I say relearned because my previous experience was the daily commute to work each weekday morning.  I am sure that many LPG readers will remember travelling in times gone by, when some of the people around would be reading a book or taking up more than one seat because their newspaper made them more expansive than they would otherwise be and enjoying the journey was so often marred by the fact that you had to stand all the way.  These days, almost every person in the carriage is either watching a film, texting or playing some video game, but there is more space per seat as a result.  There have always been many things to do when travelling fast while not feeling like you are moving, but I was always a gaze-through-the-window traveller.  

Times have changed; I am well and truly retired, and many of my close family are not so close anymore.  In my case, they have all moved way down southeast of London, so meeting up has become either a video-call electronic habit, the less frequent visits they make to see me or the need for me to visit them.  The last option gets me out of the house a bit, so I again find myself on trains pretty often and, for all the technology available to pass the time, I find myself back there, window gazing during most of my journeys.

When travelling in the daylight, that means watching the familiar hedges, back gardens, farms and grazing animals, but I often focus on the train lines as they slide past.   I have always wondered about that feeling you get when the train lines start to run into each other, leaving you bleary-eyed, somewhat hypnotised and losing track of time.  Then, as old as I am, I begin to wonder how far along the journey I am, and instead of getting the phone out, I try to see one of the signs as a station passes, and I can’t do that either.  My eyes get jumpy, and I wonder if they are working right. 

I know that I am not the only person to whom this happens, and I have been meaning to work out why for a long time, but I did take a look recently and found that it has more to do with our brains than our eyes.  The optic flow effect and the online explanations make for some heavy reading, but I have shared what I have found out, which has left me with the conclusion that it is temporary for most people and not too dangerous (as long as you don’t miss your stop).

RB, Grove Park

As RB said, this makes heavy reading, but the facts are linked below…

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LPG found a like-to-I video that contains some eye challenges that might get your optic flow systems working…

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