What causes that freaky light show?

By pressing on the surface of the eyeball you are transferring some type of kinetic energy to the retina and the optic nerve.

I have read of blind children frequently striking their own eyes just to see the flashes of light.

Beyond that I can give no explanation..

SRM

I think it might be unique to postal workers. The side effect of looking at too many envelopes and carrying too many catalogs. It might be called mail induced stress disorder.

It might be all that acid you dropped in college ; )

Just turn up the Zepplin and press away man, press away.

I think it’s because of the blood flow, or something like that.

Sometimes, I like to jab a corner of my eye and see the reverse ‘image’ wiggle around on the other side. Been doing it since I was a kid and I have 20/20. I also sometimes stare at it cause my ‘light show’ shifts and swirls and changes colors – a lot.

It’s just pressure, light filtering through with all the blood, etc.

They’re called “pressure phosphenes,” caused by physical stimulation of your eyes’ photoreceptors. Here’s a study about vision as neurostimulation, and an explanation of the patterns you see: “The geometry of the resulting hallucination thus reflects the intrinsic architecture of the visual cortex…”