Paranormal or Pareidolia?
This weekend I received a photograph and a email from someone that will remain anonymous. It’s a very typical thing to get in my inbox. People wanting me to analyze their photographs to get a second opinion or to just see if I will agree with them that their photo is in fact something as extraordinary as a real “ghost” captured on their camera.
Here is the email (edited for privacy reason)
Dear Tonya,
This picture was taken at my sisters house around Sept. 25th. My nephew***** took it with his cell phone and posted it on facebook. We did not see the face until someone pointed it out to us. I sent the picture to ***local paranormal team*** and that posted on fb the picture was tampered with. There may be an explaination but I did not appreciate them call my family a liar. It could have been handled better. Anyway, please look at the picture and let us know what you think.
My sister says that there has been some unusal things happening at her house. After the photo was developed some people say they can see more than one figure. Thank you
for taking the time to look at this photo.
Sincerely,
Name Removed”
Here is the image that has been analyzed by another team on Facebook. I do have to say that getting other opinions is crucial in the the field of paranormal research but posting images on the internet for anyone to boast off their two cents, call people liars and not offer a single bit of education is rather immature.
Here is my email response to her.
Hi *****,
I am not going to say your photo is fake or your family is lying. I would rather take the time to educate you before calling you names. I do need to be honest with you. I do see the face. But it’s probably nothing more than what our brains are naturally trained to do from birth. We recognize faces as humans, that is how we relate. We will see faces even images in photos, the sky, wood paneling and so on because that is what our brains are trained to do. It is called Pareidolia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia Click on the link to learn more about it. Click here for other examples of faces seen in smoke. I can see why that team would say you faked it. The image is very similar to those faces of Jesus on toast, smoke or other random objects. In my opinion, saying it’s “fake” was a lazy excuse and a quick analysis just to make themselves feel important. Anyway, the case of having unusual things take place at her home, that’s another issue. I personally would not attribute unusual with a haunting. Remember to think critical concerning all unusual moments. There probably is a good obvious explanation for what took place. Ghost, that’s the last thing on the list and always should be. If you or your sister are thinking critical and logic to the strange things taking place in her home, chances are the unusual things will just stop. Start a journal and document each moment in detail. Remember to never assume it’s a ghost. It’s a lazy way of understanding a situation. We can’t blame ghosts on everything lol
As for your photo, it’s not a ghost. Just a fantastic example of Pareidolia. Not faked, just a normal reaction to a very common trick of the mind that many people (even certain ghost hunting teams) fall victim too. I do not see anywhere it was tampered. No pixelization or anything. Start a journal and don’t take photos of smoke unless you are doing it for fun to see how many faces you can get ! lol
If you are wanting someone to tell you that the photo is of a ghost. There are plenty of stupid teams in this state that will create a whole big fat lie about “who” is in the picture. They will come out and investigate, record crappy audio, take crappy pictures and literally scare the hell out of your family telling you that you have demons in the closet. If you want to get in touch with them, let me know, I will send you a link.
I do hope I helped you out. Honest mistake. Ghosts are so “popular” these days, there are a lot of floating heads and faces popping up. Some people want to be haunted while others would just want to know the truth. Have questions, just ask.
Sincerely,
Tonya
More and more spooky faces and images are popping up on the internet. It is because “ghosts” are very popular these days. TV shows are offering the assumption that capturing ghost evidence is as easy as putting on a pair of one size fits all stretchy pants. It is not easy to collect evidence of paranormal activity. Sometimes researchers will spend weeks even months at a location and will only be able to bring a couple potential examples to the table. Photographs and the paranormal do not go hand in hand. There are basic tips on how to properly take photos in the light and dark and none of those basics are applied, even with Oklahoma’s most “Top Scientific Teams.” Taking hundreds of photos in hopes that at least one of them will have something the untrained eye can call paranormal, is not paranormal research. It’s amateur. Same goes with today’s version of EVP – Electronic Voice Phenomenon Today’s EVP examples are also directly linked to Pareidolia. A good example is watching ghost hunting TV shows where they need to spell out or offer subtitles so the viewer can hear what they hear. If a person needs to have an EVP example spelled out and looped back several times before it makes sense, it’s probably not an EVP, it is Audio Pareidolia.
I do ask that anyone that is actively conducting any type of paranormal research, no matter what their methods or belief standard are that they understand Pareidolia and embed it into their mindset. It will not only prevent the person from looking like an idiot but it will also help them help people. That’s what teams are doing these days, right? “Helping People?”
As always, feedback is welcome and encouraged. As we enter into October I have a feeling my inbox will hold a few more surprises.
Sincere Blogger,
Tonya Hacker
Paranormal Eyes
