What is Pareidolia?

This will explain it better than I can..JN


http://skepdic.com/pareidol.html

Basically it means that the human brain tends to look at jumbled patterns and form them into coherent and familiar images such as faces . also known as matrixing or anthropomorhizing. It tends to happen a lot with pixellated images that we will see faces /shapes that aren't really there .

Thanks.

I don't mean to sound rude, but one of the miracles of modern technology is a thing called "google".

Hmmm, that does sound a bit rude, and I apologise, but starting a thread to ask a question, and making others google it for you seems a bit pointless, and well, lazy.

Some folks are not computer literate, and after all we are here to answer questions..JN

True, but if you're computer literate enough to get to this site, register, and post - then you're computer literate enough to type www.google.com.

True, however we all have the choice to skip over the thread..JN

Too late.

........................

Not too late I hope, to say I can see the points made here and can also see both sides of the argument. I open this thread, read what the question was and then read the responses so far. I really don't think it is worth pursuing a point which was not the origin of the thread. Either I answer a question that has been posed or I ignore it and look for something else more to my liking and mood. It is true that any person has the right to ask any question. Any person aware of the question has the right to ignore the question or supply an answer. Surely that is what what these forums are about. In any case, I see that the question was satisfactorily answered way back, before all this subsidiary discussion which deserves a different thread altogether.

I didn't mean to turn this thread into an argument. My point is just that people come here to read and comment on experiences and thoughts, to debate, rather than answer questions that could very easily be googled. Your point is very vaild. (it's also not very interesting to come on here and just read arguments for the sake of arguing- like this )

Maybe a glossary thread would be good. Mods?

Yeah, a glossary thread would be a good idea. I see people throwing out all kinds of terms around here that I don't know - I usually don't care enough to go searching for the definition, but if all the unusual terms were put in one place...

The UM has on its opening page an encyclopedia; press the letter 'p' and -wait hmmm.... no Pareidolia there???

Its the stuff that dreams are made of...NO!

What you see in clouds like sheep, cars, blondes in yellow polka-dot bikini ah er no?

aww skip it.

This would be considered a Paraeidolia: I see is a dragon, but someone may see something else, or nothing special at all, just clouds.

http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlnasa/pictu.../ConeNebula.jpg < Who do u think of when you see this picture? I still like it..

Pareidolia is fun, especially in the Summers. Ours clouds here in Saskatchewan are stunning to look at. They are very huge. I see Dragons, Angels and Gods.

Ohh, I understand.
That always happens to me when I stare at my schools carpeting for a long time. I see some weird shapes.
I was also wondering what that was called.

I see Beelzebub about to deliver a crushing axe-blow to a baby.

Here you go!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Have a look at the.. See also links.