Ghost Stuck in Tree Picture.. Not photoshopped

Man in the moon, Jesus in the toast, whatever...

Seriously? Why did I just waste my time reading this?

And posting. That took more time.

I took a dump this morning and saw this:




A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
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Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Looks like pareidolia to me.

Pareidolia - (pronounced /pæraɪˈdoʊliə/), referenced in 1994 by Steven Goldstein, describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- — beside, with or alongside — and eidolon — image (the diminutive of eidos — image, form, shape). Pareidolia is a type of apophenia.

This is correct. The "layman" term would be matrixing. The human mind wants to make patterns out of texture and color changes. It's just what it does.

And before people cry out "Your mind is not open to these things."... I have been a paranormal investigator in the past, I still do photo analysis for people, and I believe very much in the possibility of the paranormal. However, it does us no good as a field to point to every picture and yell out "OMG Ghost!!!" It is much better to work with a scientific mind, get rid of the stuff that CAN be explained, and then what we can't explain is much more interesting.

I have seen photographs like this all the time. They are not paranormal and can be explained by known scientific explanations. It would be similar to saying it's a ghost when it is motion blur or a bug creating an orb.

Seriously? Why did I just waste my time reading this?

^^this. And now I will do myself a favor and move on...

I don't understand people's propensity for settling on the most irrational conclusion they can when they see/experience something they're not familiar with.

Rational: "Look, the shading on this tree bark makes it look like there's an image of a face on it."

Irrational: "That tree has a ghost stuck in it."

Reality isn't so bad. It's cool that the brain actually WANTS to detect human faces in things. Go over to the tree in real-life and look at the marks. Not mystical or scary.

Yep, it's pareidolia (or matixing if you prefer). Just a pattern your brain turns into a recognizable shape, nothing supernatural. I'm prone to this-like another said I'll see patterns in carpet, tiles, etc. Once I was out running and almost tripped over myself swerving to avoid what looked like a snake rising up to strike me on the sidewalk. After a brief wtf moment I looked back- it was a bent, rusted pipe that just happened to have the right shape/angles for me to see it that way. To this day I can remember seeing the snake rise up and back, but I know I didn't. It was just how my brain translated to get me to move away from a perceived danger.