Is magic eye really bad for your eyes? My mom says that its bad and wont let me see them?

Question

if you answer without providing serious links I will mark it as spam given that its a serious question.

Answer 1

Magic Eyes is not bad for your eyes and most people can probably view them correctly.  I have strabismus and the muscles in my eyes do not work correctly.  I have some mild issues with depth perception and double vision as a result of it.  

My brain does not process most of the Magic Eye images correctly and I will get headaches if I view them for an extended period of time.  I rarely see the hidden message in a Magic Eye image so I usually do not even bother with it.  I also experience similar issues with 3D movies.  I will see two images that are slighly out of sync and I usually end up with  a nasty headache if I try to watch one.

If you have issues with stereoscopic vision, then be cautious while viewing magic eye images or 3D movies or you could end up with a nasty headache.  That is about the worst thing that could happen while viewing them and it is not even that bad.

Answer 2

I don't have a link, but I asked my eye doctor about this several years ago.

What he told me was that in the general sense, no they aren't really bad for you. Some people gaze at them for only a few moments and either see the hidden image or give up.

However, the reason the myth about them being bad for your eyes arose is becuase some people stare at them for too long, and their eyes become strained as they concentrate too hard on seeing the hidden image. The reason for this is many people have one eye that is dominant over the other, and one must use both eyes equally to see the 3D image. In trying to overcome this, some people strain the muscles behind their eyes.

However, if you really disire to look at them, you can show your mother this wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Eye

Towards the end of the article, it dicusses how magic eye has actually been used to help treatment of lazy eyes. So obviously, it can't be too bad.

Also of note is the fairly new Magic Eye book, which claims to actually improve your vision. http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Eye-Beyond-3...

Answer 3

stereograms are actually good for your eyes... they help you rest them and relax them... lemme try to find the links to add

"Good for the eyes? — I get frequent questions concerning positive physiological affects for the eyes from viewing stereograms. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for this. In fact, the primary publications of my work claim eyesight improvement. I also get email from Doctors, and other viewers that claim vision improvement. However, I tell people, I was nearsighted before I began creating stereograms, and I am even more nearsighted now. Who's to say I am not less nearsighted than I might have become? I truthfully don't know if stereograms help the eyes, or not."

http://www.colorstereo.com/texts_.txt/fa...

this one explains it better :D

http://www.vision3d.com/VTdocs.html

also you dont have to be a D(#K about it saying you will mark it as spam if someone doesn't provide links... yahoo answers can be opinions or it can be fact... threatening to mark someone as spam just puts me in a violent mood punk.

It annoys me when some lil punk thinks hes invisible online and due to that myth thinks they can be a jerk... you will cross the wrong person someday and wish you hadn't.