Pareidolia: Letting Your Imagination Run Wild

Post

Subscribe

You may not have heard the term pareidolia before but you would certainly remember experiencing it. Think of when you've seen images in clouds or rocks or in a mountain silhouette. Pareidolia is the tendency of the human brain to "see" images defined by the shapes and shadows being observed. It's an imaginative activity for anyone to try.








Cottonwool clouds can evoke images of animals or human figures. Rocks, stalactites, and stalagmites are another rich source for our pareidolia-loving brains. Some people have also reported images they've seen on burnt toast and in misshapen vegetables.

Another way to let your imagination run wild is to make inkblot images by putting a few drops of ink or small dollop of paint at the centre of a sheet of paper before folding the sheet in half and lightly pressing to spread the ink. Open up the sheet of paper to reveal your Rorschach test. Can you "see" anything in the irregular inkblot shapes?

Our brain tries to make sense of random phenomena by converting the strange into something familiar or meaningful.

Do you have memories of playing the game of pareidolia and what were the most intriguing images you've seen? The man on the moon or face on Mars don't count!












#parks
#outdoor
#nature
#free
#family
%wneverywhere