Have you ever looked at something and seen completely the opposite to others?

What they say is clearly obvious, you can’t see at all?

Well, you are not weird. Or alone. It’s a well developed human characteristic of the mind. The mind together with the brain learn. As we grow and age they are fed information. Some of which is advice, a lot though is opinion and influence from people beyond us, even conjecture. The media, and increasingly, social media have become rich sources for our thoughts and beliefs.

All of this data gets added to the mental banks and an individual viewpoint of life and the world is formed. That gets set and from now on we will only see through the lens of that mental imprint.

And what we see can be very far from the truth.

No accident at all.

Every time a disaster or shocking event occurs, our mental projections above kick in.

In November 2020 the A46 motorway in the West Midlands in the UK was shut due to a ferocious car fire. Luckily the inhabitants made it out fairly unscathed. The very same morning a driver who was passing as the fire took hold, shared a picture they snapped to a local Facebook group (this is the header picture of this blog post) soon after.

Within minutes certain members began focusing on one part of the picture. They were sure that there was a human face within the raging inferno. Egged on by this, others joined the conversation stating it was unmistakeable. Not long after, fuelled by this obvious evidence, all manner of spirit and ghost theories were put forwards. Incredibly some began inventing a previous fatal crash near the spot that killed a young man and it must have been him coming back to help. And similar. There has been no such car smash there before.

Now, of course, as you are reading this there may be a few of you who can see a face. Others ‘might’ possibly see one. And plenty who see only a car fire. Who is right? Are the face watchers spotting what the majority seemed to miss? Or are they simply joining dots that aren’t there? Maybe they are just deluded??

The truth is it’s more pareidolia rather than paranoia.

I see what you are believing.

You have probably heard of the phrase people often say, ‘I see what you are saying’.

Change that for, ‘I see what you are believing’.

For example –

Someone who is religious and experiences some unexpected good luck or has a narrow miss from an accident, may tend to see that as their chosen God’s hand at work saving their life from above.

Another person who is a staunch supporter of a political party will elect to see everything wrong with the country if they are not in power, or working hard and fixing things when their party is the ruling Government.

And let’s not forget the good old sport supporters who decide their team are being fouled all the time while they are making no fouls in return.

In each scenario our pre-set mindset witnesses what it has a pre-loaded bias for. Whether it’s UFO’s in the sky or we are a good driver while most others need lessons. If it’s in the mind, it gets projected out into the world of vision including weird and wonderful curious cases we can suddenly explain.

Which brings me back to the photo at the top and the face (or no face).

And the psychological tendency to see patterns, shapes, faces, and more in random images. Otherwise known as pareidolia.

Buildings on Mars anyone?

We’ve seen it all before.

The well known saying tells that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’.

The phrase refers to the fact that history repeats itself, just in different forms, but remains the same theme as ever. We do and see repeat things in restyled ways. A contemporary financial scheme is actually an echo of others that went belly up in the past. The great new trend is merely the modern version from sixty years ago. Stupid little wars always erupting out of pride or self inflated desire to be powerful.

You get my drift?

Turn to the picture and employ the theory. Is there a face? A real face? Or are those who believe in the spirit realms finding what they need to keep their beliefs alive? Because that’s what we all do in what we see through our mind. Keeping our beliefs alive when we look at the world and life.

Belief that God or a spirit guide had favoured us. Belief that our politics are what everyone requires. Or belief that referees are deliberately preventing our side winning because they know they are the best.

So, next time you cast a look over a situation or story or picture of an eruption with a Devil’s evil look peering out, ask yourself what your mind, not your eyes, is not only wanting to see, but expecting to see,

Because your mind has the best eyesight you could ever imagine!!