Let’s say you’re walking in the woods and suddenly see what looks like a monster’s face peering at you from a gnarly tree trunk. Or, you’re strolling in a field and see what appears to be a lion’s head in the clouds above.
Most of us probably have had such an experience — perceiving what seems to be human or animal characteristics in trees or inaminate objects. Scientists have a name for it — pareidolia (par-i-DOH-lee-a).
Pareidolia helps explain, for instance, why people for millennia have seen a “man in the moon” — a human face, head or body in the disc of a full moon.
Pareidolia once was thought to be a mental abnormality, but now it’s widely regarded as a normal human reaction. Human brains, for instance, may be exquisitely attuned from birth to perceiving faces.
For me, pareidolia helps make a walk in the woods much more enjoyable: As I walk along, I often find myself looking for natural patterns that resemble faces, animals, dinosaurs, monsters and what have you in tree bark, roots, limbs, rocks, stumps, mushrooms and other things. The patterns may be due to natural features such as knots, gnarls or twists in tree bark or chips, cracks and spots in rocks.
Credit: Suzy Hope Downing
Credit: Suzy Hope Downing
Some people seem much more adept at pareidolia than others. My friend, Suzy Hope Downing, who lives in Lawrenceville, is one of them. She has an uncanny ability to see faces and animals in certain trees and other objects.
She and I belong to a circle of outdoor enthusiasts called the Over the Hill Hiking Group, based at Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Decatur. She often points out pareidolic features in trees — “Suzy trees,” as we fondly call them — to her fellow hikers.
“They don’t always see what I see,” she said with a smile.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The South Delta Aquarid meteor shower will be visible all next week, reaching a peak of about 15 meteors per hour on Tuesday night. Best viewing: In the southeastern sky from midnight until dawn.
The moon will be first quarter on Monday and full by the end of next week. Mercury is low in the east just before dawn. Venus is higher in the east and rises about two hours before dawn. Mars rises in the east about midnight. Jupiter and Saturn rise in the east around dusk.
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