RECOGNIZE: YOU MAY HAVE PAREIDOLIA

Ezekiel 20:22 - "Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth."

Don't forget to add your vote to yesterday's thinkjoust! Just vote on the poll just below the ad.

A little bit ago, I was lying on the unused mattress in my room (my place was built for two, but because of the terms in my contract, I have it all to myself until I move out) when I noticed, all at once, the outline of a peculiar creature in my spackle.

Do you see the scorpion?

For a while, I sat there, staring at it, wondering what prompted us members of mankind to see shapes in things where there was none. It's kind of like looking at clouds, I mused. I seemed to recall an actual definition for the experience of seeing shapes in clouds, and so, even as the scorpion stood above me, I began to research.

The term for this psychological phenomena is Pareidolia. You may laugh at the source, but this link is where I gathered most of my information. Forgive my crude drawings, but which picture from which do you feel more hostility?

                                                 
From what I was able to learn, humans are built to recognize and ascertain potential threats on a subconscious level, even to the point of labeling a mere stick figure as possessing aggressive traits. In regards to the previous exercise, in all honesty, there is little difference between the two set of lines I drew. Both have five lines and two circles. However, if you're anything like me, you are naturally wary of the set of lines on the left. I drew the darned thing, and my eyes keep shifting over to it, almost like I'm waiting to see what it does next.

Again, though, that same trait--to label potential threats--can also be used to label good things. True, Pareidolia is most often connected to faces, but when I look up into the clouds and use my imagination to see the shapes of things not there, I am exercising that gift God has given us.

And yes; I do believe this is a gift.

I can think of several times in my life when I have instinctively recognized a threat and reacted in time to save my life, or at least my skin. I can also think of times in life when I have recognized sorrow in another, and known to reach out. There have even been times when I have recognized a happiness in another, and sought them out for strength and guidance. And with all those, they who were once my enemy, they who once were sad, they who once raised me up ... with them, I have laid on the grass, looked to the skies, and dreamed.