The companion term
Phantasmadorescent
The word for the specimen that displays the vision.
The institute coined two words and they are not interchangeable. This is the one for the stone itself — the specimen in which the figure appears. Its companion names the phenomenon rather than the thing that shows it.
You are here
Phantasmadorescent
The specimen that displays the vision.
The companion term
Phantasmadorescence
The phenomenon itself. Open that page →
The word
Definition and Etymology
The term the institute coined for a specimen
Phantasmadorescent
The word is built from phantasma, meaning an illusion, a ghost, or a supernatural vision, and labradorescent, meaning the stone’s own flash of light. Where the companion term names the effect, this one names the thing that carries it: a specimen that displays the figure or vision within its flash — the stone in which the figure is seen when the light is laid across it.
The distinction is the whole of the difference between the two words. A person looking at the phenomenon is looking at what a stone does; a person looking at a Phantasmadorescent specimen is looking at the stone that does it. One is the occurrence and the other is the object, and the institute keeps them apart on purpose rather than letting a single word carry both.
The term is the institute’s own. It is not a geological classification and no claim is made here that it is recognised anywhere outside the institute — it is the name the institute gave to what it found, and it is used consistently across this site for the same thing every time.
The full entry. The institute is still writing its official definition and etymology for the term. It replaces the entry above as it arrives, word for word, and the companion entry on Phantasmadorescence© is replaced on its own so neither is disturbed while the other is being written.
Photographs & evidence
The specimens themselves
The institute’s own photographs, shown whole and uncropped, each with the title the institute gave it. Tapping any one opens it at full size so the detail can be seen properly. Captions are the institute’s to write, and a frame without one says so.
The labradorite held in an open hand
Caption to come
The labradorite in the hand, a second angle
Caption to come
The labradorite held up to the light
Caption to come
The oval labradorite in the palm
Caption to come
The labradorite turned, the flash along one edge
Caption to come
The labradorite seen from above
Caption to come
The labradorite in the hand, the flash broken into patches
Caption to come
The labradorite at its fullest flash
Caption to come
A polished labradorite slab, blue grey and black
Caption to come
A labradorite slab with dark veining
Caption to come
A labradorite slab, heavily veined
Caption to come
A labradorite slab standing upright
Caption to come
A labradorite slab with visible crystalline structure
Caption to come
A labradorite slab, mottled blue grey
Caption to come
A fractured labradorite slab with flashes across it
Caption to come
A labradorite slab, dark grey and brown
Caption to come
A labradorite slab with gold and grey streaks
Caption to come
A labradorite slab, swirling brown and black
Caption to come
A labradorite slab, fractured and veined
Caption to come
A polished stone egg, amber brown and grey
Caption to come
A polished stone egg, banded amber and grey white
Caption to come
A polished egg shaped specimen, light brown and orange
Caption to come
A polished egg shaped specimen, brown and tan banded
Caption to come
A translucent piece held in the fingers
Caption to come
A dark textured piece in its wrapping
Caption to come
A polished egg shaped specimen, brown and tan
Caption to come
A polished egg shaped specimen, amber and grey
Caption to come
A rough reddish brown piece in a paper bag
Caption to come
A translucent fragment with reddish brown inclusions
Caption to come
A polished egg shaped specimen, light brown with marbling
Caption to come
A polished egg shaped specimen, brown white and quartz banding
Caption to come
A textured piece enclosed in a clear bag
Caption to come
A translucent piece with a glassy section
Caption to come
A rounded specimen, dark purple black and tan
Caption to come
A rounded specimen, pale to dark mottled
Caption to come
A curved surface, yellow brown and dark brown
Caption to come
A smooth rounded surface, golden yellow and dark brown
Caption to come
A curved surface, golden brown
Caption to come
A curved surface, yellow tan to dark brown
Caption to come
The piece at its fullest flash
Caption to come
The piece turned, the flash on the left
Caption to come
The oval, blue and green across it
Caption to come
The detail, blue and gold pooled
Caption to come
A dark stone, mottled through
Caption to come
The blue and green patch, held to the light
Caption to come
A dark brown and black stone
Caption to come
The Miichelangelo Stone
Caption to come
A rounded stone, the face in profile
Caption to come
The piece in the hand, blue across it
Caption to come
The labradorite in the open palm
Caption to come
The oval, blue and green in the hand
Caption to come
Bright blue flashes across the stone
Caption to come
The blue iridescence in the palm
Caption to come
One word for the thing, and one for what it does.
Both pages sit behind the same threshold, and each carries the institute’s mark wherever the word is written.