Pareidolia
Grilled Cheese Jesus. The Face On Mars. The Man in the Moon. The ghost head of a Tyrannosaurus rex spotted in a curl of smoke in a picture of Neil Gaiman. What do all these things have in common? They are all excellent examples of pareidolia.
Pronounced "pa-ri-DOE-lee-a," pareidolia is an innate quality of the human mind that makes us see things in chaos. If you have ever seen subtle patterns marching across a television screen of static (do they even have those anymore?) or made shapes out of the clouds in the sky, you have exercised a little pareidolia.
In ghost hunting circles, pareidolia is called "matrixing." This frequently turns out to be the explanation for ghosts spotted in photographs, and for the results of some EVP sessions. (Some people argue that almost every piece of EVP evidence is simply the result of matrixing on the part of the listener, perhaps aided by static bursts, or accidentally recorded electronic cross talk from broadcast stations and CB radios.)
Pronounced "pa-ri-DOE-lee-a," pareidolia is an innate quality of the human mind that makes us see things in chaos. If you have ever seen subtle patterns marching across a television screen of static (do they even have those anymore?) or made shapes out of the clouds in the sky, you have exercised a little pareidolia.
In ghost hunting circles, pareidolia is called "matrixing." This frequently turns out to be the explanation for ghosts spotted in photographs, and for the results of some EVP sessions. (Some people argue that almost every piece of EVP evidence is simply the result of matrixing on the part of the listener, perhaps aided by static bursts, or accidentally recorded electronic cross talk from broadcast stations and CB radios.)
