Seeing Jesus on a slice of toast is normal

Tuesday, May 13th, 2014

Seeing Jesus on a slice of toast? It’s common for people to see non-existent features because human brains are uniquely wired to recognise faces, scientists say.

Whether glimpsing the blessed Mary in a grilled cheese or eyeing up Nebuchadnezzar in a freshly crisped bagel, we all know that Americans are constantly beset by visions of biblical figures in toasted food products.

Now scientists say they’ve shed more light on how this happens in the first place.

The phenomenon is known as facial pareidolia (pronounced pari-DOH-lee-a) and is a subset as apophenia – a general term that describes our tendency to see patterns in even random data. Continue Reading

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News category: Odd Spot.

Tags: Apparitions, pareidolia

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