Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pareidolia

I took this photo today. In Miami we do have lots, and I mean lots of banyan trees. This is one of the many here. Do not get confused because of the word I use in the title for today's blog. No, that's not the scientific name of this ficus tree. Far from it. This is a Ficus benghalensis. When you see things, that's "Pareidolia." When I look at this photo today, I can't help but to use it for this blog. But first thing first: Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- – "beside", "with", or "alongside"—meaning, in this context, something faulty or wrong (as in paraphasia, disordered speech) and eidōlon – "image"; the diminutive of eidos – "image", "form", "shape". Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, which is the human tendency to seek patterns in random natural surroundings.

You may have seen in this blog this exact type of phenomenon before here, involving another Indian ficus tree.

So, turn on your wild imagination and tell me what you see here. Please don't tell me that you see nothing but a tree. Come on, be inventive. I can see a wonderful imagery here, but too bashful to tell you what I see. But if you were to ask nicely... I may...
If you are curious and interested in the other half of pareidolia, regarding sound, you may find this very interesting.
What do ya' see?

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