For the last 24 hours my left eye has been plagued with a "floater", which pretty much looks like a chromosome-like image floating this inside your retina. The clear gel like material that fills in your eye is called the vitreous. About 80% of the eye's volume is vitreous, many people would equate it to a small spherical fish tank.

The vitreous in children is very firm and gelatinous, while in older folks the vitreous turns to water. That means there's a transition period during which the gel "melts." The medical term for this process is Syrnersis (sin-err-ree-siss).

During syneresis some of the gel is still partially formed in chunks. These free-floating chunks represent your floaters. Although they are clear, these chunks cast an optical shadow on the retina, giving them a dark appearance.

Most floaters go away over time. Either the gel completely dissolves, or the chunks settle down to the bottom of the eye, or (most likely) your brain learns to simply ignore them. There is no medical therapy available to eliminate floaters.

In short it feels like you should be on LSD because you are seeing something that one else can, a thing that is actually inside of your retina and keeps passing in front of your optic nerve. At this point I really want to pull an Oedipus and gouge out my own eyes just to make this nuisance stop.