Otherworld North East Research Society Journal 01 | Page 7

Journal 2007

An example of cigarette smoke caught in the flash:

Cigarette smoke caught in the flash of a camera
(Source: http://www.hollowhill.com/real-ghost-photos/smoke2.jpg)

So where exactly does pareidolia fit into all of this? A whole host of weird and wonderful
photos can fall victim to pareidolia but by far the most common one on the whole is that
of mists.
How many of you remember sitting out in the garden on a nice warm summers day as a
child staring up at the clouds and remarking "oh, that one looks a bit like an elephant!"?
This is a prime example of pareidolia at its very best. Sometimes the clouds look
remarkably similar to other recognizable shapes. Sometimes they may even resemble
something not dissimilar to the traditional view of what a UFO may look like! Pareidolia
can go a long way to explaining a whole host of so-called paranormal phenomenon.

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