Robert Todd Carroll
SkepDic.com
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Bigfoot on Mars?
or just a rock?
A
pixelated guest
Celestial speciality: Giving constellations a personal touch by Alan M.
MacRobert
Mary on the underpass wall
Voice of Reason: The Viaduct Virgin By Joe Nickell
Jesus in the
oyster shell
Half of 10-year-old Virgin Mary sandwich back on eBay
Woman blessed by the holy toast
Mars Gone Wild By Erik Davis - Wired August 2004
Virgin Mary visits Australia
Jesus in a
blood stain?
Mold,
Not Body Part, Found In Punch |
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pareidolia
There is an universal tendency
among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to
every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted,
and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the
moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected
by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good- will to every thing,
that hurts or pleases us. --David Hume*
Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or
obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. For
example, in
the discolorations of a burnt tortilla one sees the face of Jesus Christ.
Or one sees the
image of Mother Teresa or
Ronald Reagan in a cinnamon
bun or
a man in the moon.
Under ordinary circumstances, pareidolia provides a
psychological explanation for many delusions based upon sense perception. For example, it
explains many UFO sightings, as well as the hearing
of sinister
messages on records played backwards.
Pareidolia explains Elvis, Bigfoot, and Loch Ness Monster sightings. It explains
numerous religious apparitions and visions. And it explains why some people see a
face or a building in a photograph of the Cydonia region of
Mars.
Under clinical circumstances, some psychologists encourage
pareidolia as a means to understanding a patient, e.g., the Rorschach ink blot test.
Astronomer Carl Sagan claimed that the human tendency to see faces in tortillas,
clouds, cinnamon buns, and the like is an evolutionary trait. He writes:
As soon as the infant can see, it recognizes faces, and we now know
that this skill is hardwired in our brains. Those infants who a million
years ago were unable to recognize a face smiled back less, were less
likely to win the hearts of their parents, and less likely to prosper.
These days, nearly every infant is quick to identify a human face, and to
respond with a goony grin (Sagan 1995: 45).
I think Sagan is right about the tendency to recognize faces, but I
don't see any reason to think there is an evolutionary advantage in seeing
replicas of paintings, ghosts, demons, and the like, in inanimate objects.
There is, of course, an evolutionary advantage in seeing images of dinner
or predators against a varied environmental background. There would be no
advantage for, say, a hawk to be dive-bombing shadows on rocks, however.
It seems likely that the modern mind is making
associations with shapes, lines, shadows, and the like that are connected
to current desires, interests, hopes,
 obsessions, and the like.
Most people recognize illusions for what they are, but some become fixated
on the reality of their perception and turn an illusion into a delusion.
A little bit of critical thinking, however, should convince most
reasonable people that a potato that looks like the Hindu god Ganesh, a cinnamon bun that looks like mother Teresa, or a
burnt area on a tortilla that looks like Jesus are accidents and without significance.
It is more likely that the Virgin Mary one sees in the reflection of a
mirror or on the floor of an apartment complex or in the clouds has been
generated from one's own imagination than that a person who has been dead
for 2,000 years should manifest herself in such a mundane and useless
fashion.
See also apophenia, face on Mars, Our
Lady of Watsonville,
Rorschach, subliminal, and
unconscious.
further reading
Guthrie, Stewart Elliott. Faces in the Clouds : A New Theory of
Religion (Oxford University Press, 1995).
Reed, Graham. The Psychology of Anomalous Experience : A Cognitive
Approach (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988).
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark (New
York: Random House, 1995).
Schick, Jr., Theodore and Lewis Vaughn How to Think About Weird Things, (Mountain
View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995), ch. 3.
Zusne, Leonard and Warren Jones. 2nd ed. Anomalistic Psychology: A Study
of Magical Thinking 2nd edition. (Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. 1990). recent sightings
A sweat swastika appeared on my shirt after
exercising. A few days later I found myself eating in a Buddhist
restaurant looking straight up at a painting of a Buddha with the same
shaped swastika hanging from his neck. Plus, I believe that's the Sacred
Heart appearing in my hallway mirror (on the right side). What could it
all possibly mean?
 -
October 15, 2007. Is this Pope John Paul II waving from beyond
the grave? Vatican TV director says yes - 15th October 2007.
- October
13, 2007. Allen
Stone found a stone in his backyard that he thinks has an image of
Jesus.
-
-
 February
2007. Jesus on the cross in a Texas
tree.
- July 21, 2006. God autographs an alligator for beer drinker. The
Divine One even prints so little children and idiots can recognize his
moniker.
-
June 1, 2006.
Rab Navas, a Pakistani fisherman, hooked a Safi, or rabbit fish, with
the word "Allah" inscribed on its belly in Arabic. "I'm overjoyed at
being the one to find this miracle in praise of Allah," he said.
Thousands of pilgrims came to witness the "miracle" fish. The fish was
put on display at the Shindagha fish market in Dubai.
-
May 2006. Jesus appears on a rock in Mexico.
Gregorio Gomez, a 57-year-old Tzotzil Indian, said a voice told him in a
dream that he would find an image of Christ on a rock. And he did.
Another miracle from the power of suggestion!
- December 2005. Jesus appears in a nacho pan
at the Stadium Club in Jacksonville.
- June 3, 2005. Jesus appears in an
ultrasound in a Toledo, Ohio hospital.
- April 18, 2005. Hundreds of people gathered
at the Fullerton Avenue underpass on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago
to see what they say is the image of the Virgin Mary. Skeptics think it
may be due to salt runoff.
- July 22, 2004 -- Crowds are flocking to a
hardware store in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, to see an image of Jesus
that has appeared on a tinted window at the business.
- March 25, 2004 -- Clyde Jackson of
Natchitoches, Louisiana, says he sees the face of Jesus in his pecan
tree. He says he first noticed the face while barbecuing in his
backyard.
- March 24, 2004 --Hundreds of Palestinians
gather in the West Bank town of Hebron to see a lamb born with what
appears to be the word "Allah" spelled out in Arabic on its coat. "This
is clear evidence of God's existence," Yahya Atrash, the lamb's owner,
said. "It was born with the words 'Allah' on one side and 'Mohammed' on
the other."
- December 2, 2003 -- A photo was published by
Reuters (taken by Magnus Johansson) of Ala Edin Ayad kissing his newborn
son Ala who was born with a large birthmark across his cheek that
roughly forms in Arabic letters the first name of his uncle, Ala, a
wanted Hamas militant killed by Israel troops eight month ago. The baby
drew crowds by the
thousands to the Aida refugee camp for a glimpse of the infant many are
calling a miracle baby.
- November 15, 2003 - Vladimir Lenin appears
on Phil Plait's shower curtain.
- November 6, 2002 - The Virgin Mary appears
in frost in Fond du Lac, Saskatchewan.
- July 20, 2002 -- Our Lady of Guadalupe
appears in the trees in West Chicago to Sebastian Cuaya and other
Mexican-Americans.
- July 18, 2002 -- The Virgin Mary appeared in a house window in Ferraz Vasconcelos, Brazil. The owner refuses to let the window
be examined scientifically.*
- April 13, 2001 -- About 1,500 people
flocked to a house in Pittsburgh's Brookline neighborhood after
hearing reports that a vision of the Virgin Mary has appeared inside
the home at night.
- January 26, 2002 -- Ella Huffin of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, saw the image of Jesus on a tree in her backyard.
"News about Jesus on the tree has been bringing friends and family,
neighbors and total strangers to Ella's house on Richards St. in
Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood. She doesn't mind, so long as people
are respectful. She's reasonably sure this is something meant to be
shared."*
- May 2000 -- The Bible seen written on the
ocean floor.
- February 25, 2000 - Face of Jesus
appears on church wall
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pot of oatmeal.
paratrinket