OCTOBER 24th, 2015
By LANA CARBON
Have you ever looked at a bush or wallpaper pattern and were sure you saw a face looking back at you? Have you seen the man on the moon? If so, you aren’t alone. This occurrence even has a name… pareidolia. It is defined by Dictionary.com as “the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist, as in considering the moon to have human features.”
On October 16th, I posted a photo on our Facebook account which I had taken the night before. I was staying with my parents for a few days and had this feeling like I was being watched. Now I think it was just that I was somewhere I am no longer used to sleeping (even though it was my old room) and I didn’t have John there with me and was missing her. As I lay there staring up at the ceiling, it occurred to me that the light cover sort of looked like it had eyes if I looked at it the right way. I decided to take a picture to see how the camera on my phone would pick up what I was seeing. It came out even better than I could have thought. The barely there eyes were now well defined and extremely prominent but it also picked up an evil looking mouth making the photo quite creepy. I decided I would post the photo the next day.
We had quite a few replies commenting on the creepiness of the image and people relating tales of others seeing faces and feeling watched but one response really stood out. One kind lady suggested that it was time for a cleansing and blessing of the house if the image was in fact “real”. Apparently she took this as an honest attempt on my part of sharing evidence of a paranormal entity. I right away explained to her that I was merely sharing a creepy photo of a natural occurrence and literally had to try to convince her that nothing supernatural was happening.
It really made me think…what if I hadn’t been honest about the origin of the photo? She had shared my photo on her page (where again I explained my purpose of posting) and people were already discussing the validity of the demonic looking figure. How far would this have carried on had I not said anything? This really opened my eyes to how simple a photo can be mistaken for something it isn’t. It also showed me just how easily someone can get caught up in supposed evidence, how quickly it could spread and how easy it could be for hoaxers to play their games.
I have always been interested in the paranormal and have wanted to personally find proof that there is something out there but this just shows me how careful we all have to be in deciding what to believe in as real.
