Another impressive example of pareidolia, found by Jeremy Olden in his house at Lake Stevens, Seattle. Keep reading for the full image and a slightly creepy video showing our brain’s pattern-recognition machine – or something supernatural, you decide.



source: Komonews.com

Now, if Old Man Winter is quite curious, the following may scare our scare-prone brains:

I probably don’t have to point out that there’s something to the right. Which is not that interesting, but seconds later in the same video from where that came from, we have this:

Which to me vaguely resembles a kid sitting with his/her legs up in the chair. Now, would you believe that two different examples of pareidolia would emerge just seconds apart in a video, both interpreted as a small kid?

The screencaps are enhanced from the original video that can be downloaded here. You can also watch the video in lower quality on Youtube, unfortunately the poster disabled embedding so you will have to click it and watch there.

I found it being discussed in the Skeptical Viewer Forums, where Stephen kindly quoted Forgetomori which made me sympathize strongly with him. That and his down-to-earth commentary:

“Looks like the images are pareidolia. In the first image, they’re shooting through a spider web, and I think that’s what the girl is crisscrossing spider web strands with some dew on them. It might seem strange to get that kind of image by chance, but it does happen. A few things to pay attention to: her left side is cut off, so our brains tend to fill in symmetry when there’s none there. Also, the entire image is actually defined by just a few lines. I think that what I’ve highlighted in red is spider web, and the blue is either a dewdrop or the spider itself. The second one had me looking closer, because the "body" seems to fade up dramatically. If you frame-by-frame it, though, it looks like the body fades up twice, and both times when the flashlight point is at a particular angle to the chair. I think it’s a reflection of some kind from the chair. The back of the chair is contoured, and the body seems to match the contours. There’s always the possibility of a hoax with this kind of an image, and my deconstruction could be a kind of reverse pareidolia”.

In another thread in the forum, “Dedicated-Dad” provided some animated GIFs of the three relevant sequences. Here, here and here. I think Stephen nailed it.

Of course, the video could have been hoaxed instead, nowadays, anything is possible with a computer. Personally, I think it’s an authentic, non-adulterated video. If it was hoaxed, the author deserves props for the subtlety.

Assuming it is authentic, it could also be the true record of a ghost or something, in which case you would have good reason to be scared. Of Old Man Winter too, by the way.

If you are prone to believe it was something supernatural, I recommend our post on the best pareidolia ever, which also discusses the Wem Town Hall ghost, with another ghost girl. And don’t miss our post on ghostly simulacra, with yet another ghost kid for a good night of sleep.

[Mostly all information on the video from the Skeptical Viewer Forums]

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