The Fire That Comes from the Eye

One of the earliest ideas about vision is that it depends on light that streams out of the eye and detects surrounding objects. This view was attacked in its own time and finally disproved more than 2000 years later. Yet the idea of a beam leaving the eye persisted in beliefs both about the evil eye and the power of a lover's gaze. It is still widely held among both children and adults. NEUROSCIENTIST 5:58-64, 1999