People may accept their essence still resides within the rock. Some rock formations are associated with tales of individuals who have been turned to stone. A formation with a meaningful shape might be considered sacred, perhaps containing or channeling the spirit of the god or entity it resembled. Inanimate material taking a seemingly familiar but uncanny form can be spooky.Īncient cultures may have believed the stone itself was alive. Perspective, shadows, and light often come into play. These natural simulacra can be strikingly obvious or entirely subjective. So it is unsurprising that natural objects will readily be perceived to form or contain faces.įortean Times magazine still retains a section called “Simulacra Corner” where readers send in pictures of natural objects that seemingly depict interesting faces and creatures. Our brains are wired to seek familiar patterns, especially faces. – is a common experience for most people. Seeing faces in things that do not actually have faces – clouds, rocks, trees, stains, textiles, etc. Pareidolia is a form of apophenia where the viewer experiences an illusion of seeing (or hearing) something specific in a vague stimulus – like seeing the religious images in food products, or hearing words and phrases in noise. Stone Faces EverywhereĪpophenia is the human tendency to perceive a meaningful pattern in random things. As we see pictures in the sky as constellations, we see faces emerging from rock.
Rock is supposed to be “stone dead” but legends recount handiwork of the gods and entombed spirits that live on in local geological features. Yet, around the world, all cultures find familiar-looking forms that appear spontaneously in the mineral masses. The word “rock face” is not usually to be taken literally.
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