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Posts categoriezed as pareidolia

Pareidolia of the day: Ew

Pareidolia of the day: Ew published on 1 Comment on Pareidolia of the day: Ew

Jesus found in Texas bathroom mold

 

A Texas family says they are getting strength from an image of Jesus they found in the mold growing inside the shower of their home.
Chyanna Richards, who lives in the home, told KTRK-TV, Houston, she doesn’t know if it’s mold or mildew in the bathroom but said the appearance of Jesus’ image has meaning.
“Maybe it means something. Maybe look into yourself and see if you need to change something in your life,” she said.

Maybe you need to clean your freakin’ shower.

Pareidolia of the– hey, wait a minute….

Pareidolia of the– hey, wait a minute…. published on No Comments on Pareidolia of the– hey, wait a minute….

If you’re just too impatient to see Jesus or the Virgin Mary’s face appearing in bird poo, a cliff face, or a testicular tumor, for just $32 you can see one of them appearing reliably in an easily accessible location– your toast. Jesus and Virgin Mary toasters are apparently a hot commodity this holiday season, with 50 to 100 of the Jesus variety reportedly being sold daily by Vermont entrepreneur Galen Dively.

Fairly straightforward, huh? I thought the aura around Jesus’ head was a nice touch. Turns out the image is formed by an insert that slides into the toaster and can adjust the heat applied to imprint virtually any image on the surface of bread, from happy faces to peace signs (apparently the second most popular design after Jesus) to other religious symbols including the Star of David and the Hindu god Ganesh. I can’t help but think that in addition to most Americans not being Hindu, Ganesh doesn’t show up more often because it’s harder to detect an elephant face in a door or block of concrete than a human one. Hmmm…
Anyway, in CNN’s video interviewing people about the Jesus toaster, nobody appears offended by the product. Is that because they don’t view the deliberate placing of the face of the holy figure on a slice of toast as a mockery of the “real” incidences of it appearing in such places? Or because they do view it as such, but don’t care? I think it’s fair to call the toaster irreverent in that regard, but perhaps even more so in that as Ed Brayton points out, “nothing says religious piety like spreading peanut butter over your savior’s face.”
Don’t get me wrong; I love toast. But I think I’ll stick with plain ol’ boring evenly toasted bread, thanks.

Pareidolia of the day: Cliff’s note

Pareidolia of the day: Cliff’s note published on 2 Comments on Pareidolia of the day: Cliff’s note

This time on a cliff in Ireland, by a pilot called (appropriately) Sandra Clifford:

Clifford, a pilot fron San Francisco, spotted the figure recently while visiting the famous Cliffs of Moher in County Clare with her friend, Fiona Fay.  The two saw what Clifford thought looked like the image of Jesus on the side of one of the cliffs and she immediately snapped a photo on her digital camera.  “I definitely felt a divine presence,” Clifford told HuffPost Weird News. “To me, it was definitely a face, but I realize some people may interpret it differently.”  Clifford feels her training as a pilot has honed her vision and also taught her to be skeptical about what she sees, which is why she asked the folks around her their opinions of the cliffside Christ.  Clifford proceeded to ask a group of German men if they could see the outline, according to IrishCentral.com, and after looking at it closely, she says they too nodded their heads in agreement, and began taking photos.  “I am glad I asked strangers about what they saw,” she told HuffPost Weird News. “I hope they come forward with their pictures as well.”

This is interesting to me because how Clifford apparently defines skepticism: confirming that you are not the only person who interprets a thing you saw in a certain way. “I think I saw a face….did you see a face? Then it must have been a face!” Which, being an interpretation dependent on perception, is exactly like saying “I think the cannelloni at this restaurant is good…do you think it’s good? Then it must be good!”

The fact that some Germans agreed with her and might “come forward” with their pictures (doesn’t it sound like a criminal investigation?) provides corroborating evidence for the assertion “There are some rocks on a cliff in Ireland that look like a face.” It could not, however, provide any evidence at all for the assertion “This image indicates a divine presence,” Clifford’s feelings notwithstanding. I do wish she had asked the Germans if they also felt themselves to be in the presence of the divine, but their answer would not have affected the truth of her statement either way. The face in the rocks might actually have been that of Odin. Or Mohammad. Or Santa Claus. Or no one at all. It might be– and very likely is– simply an image that formed in the rocks naturally through erosion, with no intent by anyone to convey an impression of anything face-like. Cool, certainly, but not necessarily divine.

Most of us probably recall staring up at the sky as children, trying to identify shapes in the clouds. For some reason when we become adults, we tend to forget (if we ever realized in the first place) that the perception of the shapes comes from us, and not something inherent about the clouds themselves. Or the wood grain in a door, the gravel on a road, or the rocks in a cliff. Making patterns out of randomness is what humans do, and we’re very very good at it.

Pareidolia of the day: Face of foreboding

Pareidolia of the day: Face of foreboding published on 1 Comment on Pareidolia of the day: Face of foreboding

Here’s an interesting one: a face in a testicular tumor.

The image of the man’s face, seemingly in some distress, was sent to Urology, the International Society of Urology’s official journal, and was published in the journal’s September volume. G. Gregory Roberts and Naji J. Touma, from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, had conducted the ultrasound to examine an unusual mass in the testicle of a 45-year-old patient. Writing in the journal, they said: “The residents and staff alike were amazed to see the outline of a man’s face staring up out of the image, his mouth agape as if the face seen on the ultrasound scan itself was also experiencing severe epididymo-orchitis,” wrote the authors, referring to an inflammatory condition.

The article notes that no religious significance was attached to the image, as is often the case when faces appear pretty much anywhere else– doors, underpasses, grilled cheese sandwiches, and so on. I can’t help but wonder whether the reason for that might be the unfortunate location of this appearance. What person would want to believe that a higher power deliberately placed the image of a face on something like a tumor? Especially a face with….well, an expression like that?

Pareidolia of the day: Holy sh!t!

Pareidolia of the day: Holy sh!t! published on 2 Comments on Pareidolia of the day: Holy sh!t!

Today’s incidence of pareidolia is a doozy. Or a doo-….no, I’m just not going there. The title for this post was enough. For the record, pareidolia is

a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse.

Or in this case, bird poo. From Bryan, Texas:

Image Of Virgin Mary Appears In Bird Dropping On Area Family’s Truck The image that came in an unlikely form of a bird dropping appeared on Sunday. That was the first time Salvador Pachuca had been back to the home since having an accident there four months ago. “I told my brothers come over here and see what this is and they say this is the Virgin,” he said.

Family members made their way outside to see the image on the truck’s side mirror. Cristal Pachuca said she took pictures and began making calls to invite others to see, what she describes as, a miracle. “We just all feel protected. It’s a blessing to our family and to everybody that comes to see it,” says Cristal Pachuca. Cristal says the truck doesn’t get much use, but last weekend her husband decided to take it out of their garage and wash it. 

A few moments later the image appeared. Since Sunday, a steady stream of family, friends, neighbors and strangers has stopped by to pray and take pictures of the image. The Pachuca’s say the image is more than a coincidence especially since it happened on the 12th. The family says in Mexico, Dec. 12 is celebrated as the day of The Virgin Guadalupe. 

Onlookers say the image is a miracle because the distinct colors and outline of the image on the truck match the image of Virgin Guadalupe. The Pachuca’s say they will continue to welcome anyone who wants to see the image, because the image isn’t going to go away anytime soon. “I think we’re going to just put it on a shelf outside, probably take off the mirror and keep it there cause its something special to us. I’m not going to wash it off,” says Cristal Pachuca. 

You make the music go back; you hear Satan speakin’

You make the music go back; you hear Satan speakin’ published on 2 Comments on You make the music go back; you hear Satan speakin’

According to Wikipedia,

Pareidolia ( /pærɪˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-DOH-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para– – “beside”, “with”, or “alongside”—meaning, in this context, something faulty or wrong (as in paraphasia, disordered speech) and eidōlon – “image”; the diminutive of eidos – “image”, “form”, “shape”. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia.