What do you see when your eyes are closed?

Question

If you are in pitch black and you close your eyes, you sometimes can see strange shapes of various colors. A lot of the time these shapes and colors change as you observe them. This phenomenon still occurs if you are not in complete darkness.I am wondering what this is that you are `seeing'? Is this phenomenon classified as seeing, as how can we be looking at something if our eyes are closed?If you are not seeing these shapes and colors, then what you observe is pure darkness. What is this pure darkness that you are seeing? Since you are seeing it, is something stimulating the vision parts of your brain? Is it the back of your eyelid?

Answer 1

This is an answer from my friend who is an eye doctor:

"You are seeing phosphenes when your eyes are closed. Phosphenes are created within the eye as a product of biophotons. This is a natural effect created by the eye, within the eye, that the brain normally ignores as insignificant "feedback." The retina that picks up the images/flashes is non-discriminatory, and so it picks up the light and transfers it to the visual processing center in the brain..."