What is the strangest illusion you've ever seen?

  • Thread starter Loren Booda
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In summary: I remember vividly being in physics class and learning about the double slit experiment. We were shown a video of a particle going through the two slits and the path it took was completely random. We were then asked to think about what could happen if we could control the particle and sent it through the slits in a specific way. We were told that we could use this information to build a machine that could see through walls. In summary, the particle was able to go through the slits in a specific way because we controlled it. This experiment is an example of how science can help us understand natural phenomena.
  • #1
Loren Booda
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No wonder that people have superstitions when science furnishes no immediate answer to natural phenomena!

What did you experience?
 
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  • #2
I was driving a straight shot from Seattle to Milwaukee several years ago. The next day just before dawn, somewhere around the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, An enormous tumbleweed came rolling across the road. The thing must have been ten feet tall. I swerved into the other lane to avoid it and then realized that there was nothing there at all. Not long after that I pulled into a rest area to sleep for a few hours. I had heard that the animal that kills the most people in the U.S. is deer. After worrying about deer jumping out at me all night I was almost taken out by an imaginary tumbleweed.

Then there was this one time in Mexico I was watching the sillhouettes of a traveling circus on my bedroom cieling. The hue shifted as I watched. Occassionally some of them would appear to come closer to me than the other vague shapes. I remember the shapes of giraffes and elephants and clowns, lots of clown heads. The entire time I felt like Goldilocks, trying to make sure my heart wasn't beating too slow or too fast, but just right. The experience seemed to last for hours, but my internal clock wasn't working. A minute could have been an hour for all I could tell.

It was a terrifying experience. That isn't the way I would choose to die and I thought that night it was entirely likely I might. I had been smoking some pot earlier and I suspect that it may have been laced with something else. I don't think the priests at the church I was staying at would have been happy to find an overdosed american in their church.
 
  • #3
Loren Booda said:
No wonder that people have superstitions when science furnishes no immediate answer to natural phenomena!

For me, it's the double-slit experiment
 

1. What is the definition of an illusion?

An illusion is a false perception or interpretation of something that is not in line with reality. It can be a visual, auditory, or cognitive phenomenon that tricks the brain into perceiving something that is not actually present.

2. Can you provide an example of a common illusion?

One common example of an illusion is the "rotating snakes" illusion, where stationary images appear to be moving due to the way our brains process visual information.

3. How do illusions occur?

Illusions occur when our brain tries to make sense of ambiguous or incomplete information, often filling in the gaps with our own expectations or assumptions.

4. Is there a difference between an illusion and a hallucination?

Yes, there is a difference between an illusion and a hallucination. An illusion is a misinterpretation of real sensory information, while a hallucination is a false perception without any external sensory input.

5. What is the strangest illusion you've ever seen?

One of the strangest illusions I've ever seen is the "hollow mask" illusion, where a concave mask appears to be convex when viewed from a certain angle. It's a great example of how our brains can be easily fooled by visual cues.

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