PAREIDOLIA THROUGH OUR EYES

Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague stimulus such as images or sound which is often perceived as clearly being something. There are two types of pareidolia namely Visual Pareidolia and Auditory Pareidolia.

Auditory Pareidolia existed since 1971 with the discovery of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). Voices or messages can sometimes be heard in some music or recordings. Visual Pareidolia is more common as it can be found on items surrounding us, namely household floor, toilet wall, tree bark, cloud formation or even in the food we are eating.

The human mind works differently when given a drawing to describe. Whatever you “see” through your eyes does not necessary be the same as what another person may perceive. There have been cases that some people saw images of certain religious figures on certain items in front of them. For example, in 1978 a Mexican woman found the face of Jesus Christ on one of the burned mark of a tortilla she had made. This incident has attracted thousands of people from all over the world to her place to view the tortilla.

Based on a theory, humans are born to identify a human face even with poor visibility. It is a survival technique to identify friends and enemies. This technique may lead them to interpret random images or patterns of light and shade as being faces or objects. So how observant are you in identify patterns within your surroundings? Let us discuss further with some images below:

STARE at the 4 black dots for 30 seconds. Blink your eyes 3 times. Now look at the empty space on the right. What do you see? It is an amazing optical illusion right?

Now look at this landscape shot of a valley. It is beautiful right? Now tilt your head to the right. What do you see now? It is God’s own creation.

Here is a snapshot of my cat, Jon. Study the marking on its forehead. Can you imagine seeing Davy Jones with a pirate’s hat?