Pareidolia

Elephant Rock, Ausable Chasm, NY

human tendency to perceive a meaningful image in a random and often ambiguous visual pattern

Man in the Moon, Pyramids in Mars, Canals in Mars – there are several examples of the human tendency to perceive a meaningful image in a random and often ambiguous visual pattern. The human mind’s intrinsic ability to see familiar figures and patterns has been in existence for a really long time. Prehistoric humans saw familiar animals and figures in the star clusters and named them based on the pattern they perceived.

When you connect the stars in the constellation of Leo, what you see is something straight out of an Origami book. Seeing a Lion may require stretching your imagination really wide, in cosmic proportions. Maybe the skies were different back then. Maybe the halo around the stars created an outline that looked like a Lion. Who knows. The key takeaway is that we humans seem to have been born with this ability. Like the senses.

Did that help us in our evolutionary history in any way? Maybe not. But I do find it an amusing exercise.

Even the Great Bard was interested in this. In addition to the famous “to be or not to be”, that we most associate Hamlet with, he also made him mouth these words “Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in the shape of a camel?” He didn’t stop there. He made Hamlet and Polonius go back and forth and they even see a weasel and a whale.

I remember one of my middle school teacher who almost always walked into the classroom with a glass of water. With a mischievous smile, he would throw the water on the blackboard with a flourish and take his seat. Like a ritual, there will be a minute or two of silence and the hands start going up. It happened nearly 30 years ago and the fact that I still remember it is proof that it was a fun exercise.What is weird is that I still continue to do this is.

To be honest, it does bother me at times. Is that a sign that I have not grown up yet? When I see mentions of an Elephant Rock, or when I read about people mourning the death of the Old Man of the Mountain, my faith gets restored. If I am crazy, so is a lot of people. Hamlet probably was not demonstrating his madness. He was just being human.

Here are some of Nature’s Sculptures from my vault. These rocks were chiseled by natural elements and nature does what it naturally does, but the human mind is what made them works of art. The beauty of Pareidolia is that once you “see” it, you can never “un-see” it. Without much ado here are some of the art works sculpted by Nature.