Hello everyone I sure hope you had a wonderful weekend and a safe and healthy 4th of July Holiday. Needless to say here in Florida it was a very hot one. But we had some pretty nasty thunderstorms that's for sure.
Pareidolia, apophenia
The word pareidolia refers to the human tendency to perceive random things occurring in nature as significant, usually meaning of human origin. Examples are seeing a face in the bark of a tree (visual pareidolia, and the human-appearing thing is a simulacrum) or hearing a human voice in the white noise of radio static (audio pareidolia). More recently, Michael Shermer has also used the word patternicity to mean a similar thing. Also see apophenia - the human tendency to find relationships between things or events that have no connection to each other.
According to Wiki Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant, a form of apophenia. 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 when played in reverse.
The word comes from the Greek words para (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead") in this context meaning something faulty, wrong, instead of; and the noun eidōlon (εἴδωλον "image, form, shape") the diminutive of eidos. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, seeing patterns in random data.
I have viewed countless images that were deemed evidence and come to find out they were nothing more than Pareidolia. Example: you know how clouds in the sky can look like a "bunny" in form but we know it's not a actual bunny?? There are many images that do not seem to be a trick of the eyes after all. We have to be very careful in examining our findings and not jump to conclusions to quickly without taking the time to seek any possible natural explanation. I can't express this enough.
Many don't even try to find a organic exclamation or they do a half a$$ job for selfish reasons. It's a type of fraud in my humble opinion. And the more fraud that happens the less we are going to be believed when we do have a phenomenon that cannot be explained. It hurts the fields credibility tremendously and we've already got enough against us to begin with. We have got so many frauds lying about having gifts or claiming years of experience or education that they cannot prove because they do not have. I keep hearing about people are now taking money for events and not showing up it's just ridiculous! That's why I stay out of 98% of it. I post a blog once a week here about the subjects that I know. I don't discuss who are frauds for anything to that nature. I stick to myself and I write only about the subjects that I've researched over the years. I don't write about other people and go out seeking trouble. I do cases here locally when I'm called upon and I answer a lot of emails that have just general questions and that's it. At one point I had a radio show (anybody can do one) that was putting out a lot of useful information to people and it was bringing people to Christ but due to all the para drama it was just impossible... just too much backstabbing. I didn't make it about me. I didn't have just well-known people on the show to talk about subjects. It wasn't like that so I'm not surprised that it didn't work out. I refused to follow the para celebrity train and I refused to kick Christ to the side and change a lot of things that I was doing. I can't believe how many faces I see on posters that are now claiming to be specialists in their area when just a few years ago (or less) they were trying to learn. A lot of things are simple, you either are called to do so or not. In my opinion one can't just decide to be a Biblical Demonologist. It needs to be a calling or you will not have the Lords Hedge of protection when you are dealing with creatures that have never been human. When you go out and take credit and seek the glory you are putting yourself in so much danger. Just the typical enthusiasts that show up at all the events are now all of a sudden experts.... usually because maybe they know someone who is and they're being considered one all because they happen to know someone who is therefore, they gain trust easily. All the backstabbing and the lying and the cyber bullying and ganging up on people it is just embarrassing! Skeptics are watching us and they point this out to everybody! They are convinced we're just trying to gain attention or a TV show. That's why probably the few people who do know what they're doing are quiet and stick to themselves but because they're not on flyers and at all these events and not a para celebrity it is thought they don't know anything. Just because somebody is not known and they don't have their face plastered everywhere or just because they are not on TV does not mean they do not know what they're doing. There are many of us that have been at this many, many years before this became popular in 2004. Now back to the subject at hand...forgive my rant........
One popular examples of this phenomenon is the incident known as The Face of Mars, which showed a face like figure on the surface of the mars as observed by NASA's spacecraft, Viking - 1. This image, when released by NASA, made people across the world think that there was something unnatural on Mars. But later after after this was investigated further with advanced technology showed that this face was nothing but a small hill on the surface of the planet, which incorrectly appeared as a face.
In 1971, Konstantin Raudive wrote Breakthrough, detailing what he believed was the discovery of electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). EVP has been described as auditory pareidolia. The allegations of backmasking in popular music have also been described as Pareidolia.
Ghost Boxes and the related prove to be Pareidolia in most cases BUT not all in my humble opinion. The device is a receiver that scans, or cycles, through the radio spectrum. Since it is constantly scanning the airwaves, it generates white noise that is infused with AM and FM stations. Many believe any ghost or demon could then manipulate the spoken words and through the white noise, make communicate with the living. The device has dials and a lot of other trinkets that help the user hear the sounds more clear to the other side. Ones mind can play tricks especially if we really want to hear a demon. When your mind is in that mode it's so easy to hear what we want. Mind over matter type of situation. The power of suggestion is very much a contributing factor as well.
There is also a phenomenon known as hypnogongia. This happens either when we are just falling asleep or just waking up. During this time, many people have very real visual and auditory hallucinations. Again, if someone already strongly believes in the supernatural, they might intrepret these experiences as supernatural in origin.
Have you ever heard of The Rorschach Test? The Rorschach test was developed in 1921 by Herman Rorschach. The Rorschach test is a series of ten ink blots of varying patterns and colors. It is believed by many psychologists to be the key to unlocking someone’s psyche. The answers a person gives to the different blobs is supposed to be indicative of their personality. The concept is much akin to palm or tarot card reading. In fact the accuracy of such a test is narrow at best.
Apophenia is a form called pareidolia, people pull shapes or sounds out of meaningless data. The most well known example of pareidolia is probably cloud-gazing, in which people see shapes in the forms of clouds in the sky. Many people also obtain pareidolia when they pull meaningful sounds from static in the radio, and it can sometimes be extremely frustrating, as other people will not recognize those sounds or patterns. Apophenia is an example of what is known in statistics as a type I error, or a false positive. Most people do not bring on apophenia by conscious choice; they simply draw connections where there are none out of a sense of false sensitivity. The behavior of someone with severe apophenia can veer into the absurd, as someone may go to elaborate lengths to support the connections he or she makes, or to avoid particular circumstances.
The term pareidolia first came up in 1994 and was used by Stephen Goldstein. It is a form of apophenia which is where the mind will attempt to find connections in random events, thoughts or patterns where none actually exist. Pareidolia concentrates more on the visual and audio aspects of the brain perceiving a vague stimulus as something more important in a persons mind. It is so well known in the field of psychology/psychiatry that they will occasionally attempt to induce a form of pareidolia in a patient to be able to assess them better.
I'm certainly not stating that everything is just a trick of the eye. I'm simply trying to illustrate it's easy for our minds to play tricks on us and we should not jump the gun on certain things without first seeking a organic explanation.
Written By Jennifer L Auld
