I am a huge, huge fan of Derren Brown. He is a true master of Magic & Hypnosis. A perfect trickster. In one of his latest shows, he covered ‘Pareidolia’ in brief. I finding it quite bemusing, decided to cover it in my next post. So here we go people.

Let’s first be familiar with the literal meaning of the term and who defines any term better than 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.’

Simply put, Pareidolia means trying to observe patterns in everything. Attaching meaning to randomness and common happenings. Having said this, I want each one of you to pause and think…aren’t we all Pareidolic?

Superstition and Pareidolia do overlap in the Indian context. And most of us like me are born philosophers-cum-pareidolics (or think ourselves to be). Others are blind followers of superstitious beliefs. We pick up a gnarled potato and claim to see Lord Ganesha vested in it. When I was 8 years old, I accidently stepped on a black stone with white markings. My gardener told me that I had disregarded the holy Lord Shiva and would have to pay the price. I couldn’t sleep the entire night, thinking what would happen to me. I was terrified. Some days later, I observed very similar stones piled up in a rivulet bed at a resort- ‘Bhagirathi Resort’ if you are so keen to know the name. Coincidentally, the resort also had a python encaged and many tourists clicked photographs, posing around the snake. I was absolutely sure that the python would coil around my neck and choke me to death, the moment it spotted me close. To my international readers, Lord Shiva is widely seen with a snake around his neck, though it is a King Cobra; to me as an infant, snake was snake…cobra, python all alike. I couldn’t shake off my ‘ophidiophobia’ till the end of teenage. Now I can pet one…Hahahaha.

There are so many other instances which I can point out. But I want all of you to share your experiences too. Tell us about similar sightings/stories in your house/ family/ locality/ school/ college/ place of work etc. so that we can have a big compilation to go through and enjoy.