In the matrix(ing): Pareidolia and beyond

When reviewing evidence post-investigation, staring at photographs and listening to hours of audio can play tricks with your mind. It’s totally normal. But understanding and recognizing these tendencies of the human subconscious is essential in order to avoid mistakenly classifying examples of matrixing or pareidolia as evidence.

Our minds naturally seek patterns in our surroundings and in external stimuli. From the time we are small children, we look for familiarity and try to find order amidst what otherwise seems to be chaos. Our seeking of communication and making sense of the environment can be manifested in a natural psychological phenomenon called apophenia. More specifically, pareidolia occurs when an image can be perceived and interpreted as having meaning or significance, while anthropomorphizing is a similar term for perceiving human forms or attributes to non-human things or images.

According to Martinez-Conde (2012), “our aptitude to identify structure and order around us, combined with our superior talent for face detection, can lead to spectacular cases of pareidolia, with significant effects in society.” Prime examples of this have made their way into our culture, including seeing faces in celestial objects like the moon, identifying familiar shapes in clouds or medical imaging, or even spotting religious figures in toast.

Even Google has recently been utilized to further look into pareidolia. A German design firm has begun scanning the globe utilizing satellite imagery provided by Google maps (Dickey, 2013) in hopes of finding familiar images. This process has been slow-going at best, only scanning about 5% of the Earth’s surface thus far, but has been able to identify some examples of the phenomenon in images of our planet’s terrain.

The term “matrixing” has come into vogue and common use among some in the paranormal field as another word for pareidolia, but there is some debate as to whether these two terms are really interchangeable. While the difference is subtle, there is some consensus that pareidolia refers more to illusions that may be misperceived within untouched audio or photos, while matrixing refers to perceiving familiar shapes within media that has been enlarged, compressed to the point of diminishing quality, or otherwise distorted.

When evaluating evidence, a critical eye is your best defense against mistaking instances of pareidolia or matrixing as ghostly evidence. Drowsiness, darkness, and peripheral vision can multiply the effects of pareidolia, so ensuring that you are focused, rested, and in good lighting may help you scrutinize potential evidence more effectively. Refraining from enlarging or compressing evidence is helpful as well. If you find an image that you feel may be paranormal, but could also be a case of pareidolia or matrixing, keep in mind that an honest, critical analysis is key. It’s better for you and your team to constructively question and debunk your evidence than waiting for others to do so. When in doubt, go back to the location where the evidence was gathered (always seek permission first, of course!) and see if you can recreate or debunk the image. By carefully examining your own photos and audio, you can help ensure that your evidence stands up.

 

References

Dickey, C. (2013, June 5). Virgin Mary grilled cheese? Newsweek Global, 161(21).

Martinez-Conde, S. (2012). A Faithful Resemblance. Scientific American Mind, 19.

 

Originally published here

Defining the Field

You may be wondering just what it is that a ghost hunter (or paranormal investigator, for professionalism’s sake) is really looking for or may accidentally find.

If you’ve ever watched an episode of Ghost Hunters, you probably have a good feel for some paranormal jargon, but here’s a brief intro into some common paranormal terms. Visit The Atlantic Paranormal Society for some more glossary terms, tips, and other information.

Anomaly: Occurrence or condition outside of normal experience. Basically, lots of experiences out in the field can’t be completely understood as fully normal or paranormal. Things like unexplained smells, touches, or feelings while in the field are anomalies.

Apparition: Manifestation of some quasi-physical entity. Though commonly reported, apparitions are tricky to catch on camera. So, capturing one on film is like the Holy Grail of paranormal investigation. But be wary of photos/videos claiming to feature an apparition: due to the relative ease of tampering with video and digital evidence, hoaxes are abundant.

Debunking: Dismissing or explaining a claim, experience, or so-called paranormal event as something normal or at least physically explainable through research.

Entity: Disembodied “consciousness” which may be referred to as a ghost, presence, apparition, or even demon (if obviously resentful or malicious).

EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon): Disembodied “voices” or other sounds imprinted on recording equipment. EVPs can be captured on tape recorders, but for less static and clearer sound, a digital recorder is an investigator’s best friend. EVPs are relatively hard to find, and take a lot of patience in order to sift through possibly hours of silence.

Floating Orb: Usually a whitish or even bluish spherical image that appears inexplicably on film or other photographic equipment. Again, be wary of “orb evidence,” as it’s easy for amateurs to mistake things like dust particles or even bugs that happen to show up in photos as orbs, due to exposure and flash. If you find an “orb” in one of your own photos, is it perfectly round, and quite crisp-looking? Congratulations, you probably caught a dust speck on film, or maybe even a small bug. If it’s a little uneven, mist-like, or a tad smeary-looking, you may have a legitimate orb.

Haunting: Ghostly presence or manifestation attached to a specific place or person. Hauntings are divided into four basic types–Intelligent, Poltergeist, Residual, and Demonic. (For more explanation of the distinctions between these hauntings, TAPS and ProofParanormal have great information!)

Materialization: A ghost or apparition forming visually. (This is something I haven’t experienced, but would love to!)

Matrixing: Natural human tendency for the mind to “fill in the blanks” or interpret visual, audio, or other sensory information as familiar. Matrixing could be responsible for less-than-stellar paranormal “evidence” like people seeing images of a face or something in a random picture, or for seeing faces (other than their own) in mirrors.

This is by no means an exhaustive list or anything, just some of the terms I personally find interesting. Learning about these terms can help you understand what’s easily misconstrued as paranormal, and help you appreciate the occurrences that may very well be paranormal. As an investigator, the key is to know what is considered good, legitimate evidence, and what is easily debunked.

I encourage you to get out there and dive into the world of paranormal research, even if you just start out surfing the web for famous cases or definitions. Have fun, and happy hunting!