PAREIDOLIA : explanations and examples

[Coco]

for correcting me If someone is brought to talk about pareidolia, do not take it badly, do not be angry, it is not an insult !

 

Pareidolia is not a disease, it is a process that occurs, under the effect of visual or auditory stimuli, which leads to recognize a familiar form in a landscape, a cloud, smoke, roc or ink spot etc...

 

The brain structures its environment continuously, by relaying information it receives to known objects. The pareidolia is an expression of this tendency of the brain to create meaning by assimilating random forms with forms that it has already referenced. The brain seat of the function for detecting forms, which is extremely important for socialization and development of the species, is located in the temporal lobe. A lesion of it can cause visual aperceptive agnosia (for example, prosopagnosia, which means that a face cannot be identified) and in reaction to this may cause pareidolia.

 

Personally, I often do not recognize people that I have met several times, even though I have had a long conversation with them. I suffer from a little prosopagnosia, but that does not prevent me from living despite some discomfort in front of people who do not understand that I do not recognize them. As time passed, I understood and accepted the situation, now I explain why. However, this situation does not prevent me from recognizing fossils or minerals...

 

A partial view of an element can also fool our mind !

 

Here are some examples of pareidolia in pictures.

 

Animal shaped rock

 

Island in the shape of a cat

 

Dolphin shaped island

 

Mountain village in the shape of a man

 

Illumination of a bridge arch at night in the shape of a moon

 

Cloud in the shape of a bird

 

Leaves in the shape of a bird

 

Caca on a leaf giving the illusion of a bird

 

Rock shaped like a raptor

 

Boat sinking giving the impression that a shark is coming out of the water

 

Rock shaped like a snake’s head

 

Various rocks in the shape of a snake

 

Rock bars in a forest resembling submarines

 

Zipper giving the illusion of a fish head

 

Tree trunk suggesting a human face

 

Landscape made up of natural lakes, formed by meteorite holes, suggesting a face (or smilie !)

 

Photo of a "face" on the Cydonia region on Mars (Thanks Yoda for correcting me )

 

Snowy tree trunk showing a "face"

 

Shark descending into the sea, suggesting a face

 

Landscape letting guess a face

 

Rocks in Turkey making believe a camel

 

And finally, three views of landscapes turned 90° to the left that reveal faces

 

We could feed this topic by the most beautiful fossils related to Pareidolia that have been presented on TFF !

 

Coco

 

 

 

 

Edited September 5 by Coco

[Randyw]

Heres my favorite example

[Bobby Rico]

I also created a thread a few years ago.  This maybe of interest here .

 

https://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/132834-show-us-your-pareidolia-images/

[North]

Pareidolia is an interesting topic.

I personally have quite strong one and it can side track to very beneficial traits.

 

Key thing is how information is used, since you could compare it as an optical illusion created by your brains.

[Yoda]

The "face" is not on the moon, but the Cydonia region on Mars 

[Coco]

Thanks @Yoda I wrote this from memory without checking. Yet I know that I should not trust it ! I will correct I will correct that

 

Coco

[Yoda]

17 hours ago, Coco said:

Thanks @Yoda I wrote this from memory without checking. Yet I know that I should not trust it ! I will correct I will correct that

 

Coco

Astronomy....another interest of mine