Keke Palmer revealed that she “sunburned her retina” while sun gazing and encouraged her fans to “protect those eyes”.
The 28-year-old actor answered some of the most common questions searched about her on Google during a recent video for Wired. In one question, she was asked if she wore glasses or not.
In response, the Nope star said that she not only wears glasses, but she has also been “walking around lately wearing two glasses” after an incident where she “sunburned [her] retina” at Joshua Tree National Park.
“For all my spiritual heads out there that’s always looking for a different meditation vibe, don’t ever do the sun gazing, honey,” Palmer explained. “I did sun gazing in Joshua Tree and I sunburned my retina playing around trying to be Gandhi and s***.”
She went on to encourage fans to “be careful” when staring into the sun, before noting how her doctor “cannot promise” her that her vision and retina will fully heal.
“So be careful with that sun, the UVs, the global warming. You gotta protect those eyes because now I’m seeing double and stuff,” Palmer said. “My astigmatism is going left. The doctor said he can’t even promise me it’ll heal. So I’ve just been praying, because damn.”
The True Jackson, VP star noted that she has been wearing glasses since she was a child and that the rest of her family wears them as well.
“My eyes have been bad since I was 8 and everybody in my family wears glasses. Hopefully I didn’t do too much to mess it up,” she added. “Pray for me.”
According to Medical News Today, sun gazing “involves staring directly at the rising or setting sun to help focus attention and clear the mind”. It is described as a “meditative practice” that “provides energy and promotes healing”. However, the site also notes that there isn’t any “scientific research to support the practice of sun gazing”.
Ophthalmologists have continued to urge people to wear proper eye protection when out in the sun, in order to prevent their eyes from ultraviolet exposure. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, too much exposure to UV light can cause eye cancer, growths on the eye, and cataracts.
