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Pareidolia (Seeing Faces and More in Everyday Scenery) · I Hate Talking

• 0:29
  I Hate Talking: Welcome to episode 63 of I Hate Talking.
• 0:33
  I Hate Talking: Hi everyone.
• 0:34
  I Hate Talking: So, we have an interesting word or phrase of the episode, and that is the word era do lia.
• 0:41
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 0:43
  I Hate Talking: Yes, and I did have to slow down and pronounce it.
• 0:48
  I Hate Talking: Headolia Headol Heololia.
• 0:54
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 0:55
  I Hate Talking: So, any guesses at what that means?
• 0:57
  I Hate Talking: Well, pararo would mean like side, right, or secondary.
• 1:01
  I Hate Talking: So, just reading syllables, I would say it would be like program or uh cooperation where you come alongside someone to learn language.
• 1:15
  I Hate Talking: Is that right?
• 1:17
  I Hate Talking: Like a secondary language?
• 1:19
  I Hate Talking: So that would be era.
• 1:23
  I Hate Talking: This is actually era.
• 1:24
  I Hate Talking: I can't hear the difference.
• 1:27
  I Hate Talking: Say that again.
• 1:27
  I Hate Talking: Pera or era.
• 1:29
  I Hate Talking: Say it again.
• 1:31
  I Hate Talking: Para or era.
• 1:33
  I Hate Talking: Y'all, do you hear a difference?
• 1:35
  I Hate Talking: It sounds exactly the same.
• 1:36
  I Hate Talking: So once P A R A, once P A R E.
• 1:40
  I Hate Talking: Yes, and the word that we're doing is P A R E.
• 1:44
  I Hate Talking: It sounds 100% the same.
• 1:46
  I Hate Talking: Say it one more time.
• 1:48
  I Hate Talking: Pera or era.
• 1:50
  I Hate Talking: Can't hear the difference.
• 1:52
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 1:53
  I Hate Talking: This is why I hate talking.
• 1:56
  I Hate Talking: It sounds the same.
• 1:57
  I Hate Talking: OK, go on.
• 1:58
  I Hate Talking: So, it is a word from Greek, but it does not come from the Greek into our typical.
• 2:07
  I Hate Talking: European languages and then into English it actually went from Greek into German.
• 2:13
  I Hate Talking: And then became used within the English language.
• 2:19
  I Hate Talking: So we'll get into more about that in a moment.
• 2:21
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 2:22
  I Hate Talking: That is the origin was from Greek and it means era beyond and Eilon image.
• 2:32
  I Hate Talking: So beyond image, beyond image in the literal definition of paraoia.
• 2:40
  I Hate Talking: So what does the para mean?
• 2:42
  I Hate Talking: P A R E.
• 2:44
  I Hate Talking: And then doe, what was that, do.
• 2:50
  I Hate Talking: So the original word was Eilon for image, those when they become combined, I guess the E.
• 2:59
  I Hate Talking: Comes combined, so there's only a single e when those two Greek root words are combined.
• 3:08
  I Hate Talking: So then you have eradolia.
• 3:11
  I Hate Talking: So beyond image.
• 3:13
  I Hate Talking: Beyond image.
• 3:15
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 3:16
  I Hate Talking: And how did you hear about this word?
• 3:18
  I Hate Talking: So the reason that this word came up is because it has become more frequently used in the modern English lexicon, and the particular thing that I saw was that this word has become used more frequently and that the person's thesis I was talking about this was that it is an instance of predictive programming.
• 3:41
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 3:43
  I Hate Talking: So I guess we should define what the word means because we've surround it, I guess a little bit with the origin and the Greek etymology, but it basically means that you see faces in things that have no faces.
• 3:58
  I Hate Talking: Well, OK, that's not what I would have guessed it meant.
• 4:01
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, so, typically it's used when you see the image of a face within some scene or picture, but it can actually be any familiar pattern that is in random or ambiguous images.
• 4:18
  I Hate Talking: But essentially that you see some sort of familiar image in that typically faces.
• 4:24
  I Hate Talking: So, like, in Catholicism, it's pretty um popular or they're excited to see maybe Mother Mary in a rock formation or in a breakfast plate, right?
• 4:40
  I Hate Talking: Right in your -- cereal or pancake or waffle or a -- Pringles chip.
• 4:45
  I Hate Talking: So that would count.
• 4:46
  I Hate Talking: That would be an instance ofadilia.
• 4:49
  I Hate Talking: So a secondary count would be maybe seeing something else in a formation.
• 4:57
  I Hate Talking: Does it have to be natural or would like Mount Rushmore count?
• 5:01
  I Hate Talking: This would typically be some sort of natural, random or ambiguous formation.
• 5:09
  I Hate Talking: So the examples given here are clouds, rocks, or other inanimate objects.
• 5:16
  I Hate Talking: OK, so we're looking at clouds and we're like, hey, I see a bunny, and someone else is like, I see a crane.
• 5:21
  I Hate Talking: That's perolia.
• 5:23
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 5:25
  I Hate Talking: Right.
• 5:25
  I Hate Talking: So.
• 5:26
  I Hate Talking: But something structured like Mount Rushmore or the Lincoln Memorial would not be, cause that was man-made.
• 5:35
  I Hate Talking: Correct, yeah, that is actually formed to be the face.
• 5:39
  I Hate Talking: So if you see a face in something that was specifically formed to look like a face, that is not peridolia.
• 5:45
  I Hate Talking: But maybe the rock formations that maybe look like a bear or a table, and that sort of thing, that would be peridollium.
• 5:52
  I Hate Talking: Adelia, yes.
• 5:55
  I Hate Talking: Adolia.
• 5:55
  I Hate Talking: So the person is actually not incorrect in the fact that this has become more frequently used in recent times, at least within English.
• 6:07
  I Hate Talking: Mhm.
• 6:08
  I Hate Talking: OK, how's it spelled?
• 6:09
  I Hate Talking: E A R E I D O L I A.
• 6:15
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, I pronounce it very differently.
• 6:18
  I Hate Talking: It's Adolierradolia.
• 6:22
  I Hate Talking: OK?
• 6:23
  I Hate Talking: This is from the Greeks.
• 6:26
  I Hate Talking: He said that's how we pronounce it.
• 6:28
  I Hate Talking: Correct.
• 6:29
  I Hate Talking: So if we look at the Ngram viewer from the 1800s to 2022 is for this particular word, the latest record that it has in its library of word and usage.
• 6:46
  I Hate Talking: But it essentially is flat from 1800 until maybe the late 1900s, early 2000s.
• 6:53
  I Hate Talking: So, if we zoom in here from 1990 to 2022.
• 7:00
  I Hate Talking: You can see that basically around the year 2000, it starts a steep incline to its peak usage in the very recent time of 2022.
• 7:13
  I Hate Talking: OK, hmm.
• 7:14
  I Hate Talking: So the reason that this person brought this up is because like I said, they believed it to be a case of predictive programming where people are being told to see faces and things, and not necessarily just the fact that perhaps this is an adopted word from the German that again adopted it from the Greek.
• 7:36
  I Hate Talking: To describe finding images that are beyond the original.
• 7:43
  I Hate Talking: Thing that they are looking at.
• 7:45
  I Hate Talking: So, because this is in reference to different stuff or because it's just more culturally acceptable?
• 7:55
  I Hate Talking: Cause I remember, you know, 20 years ago or almost, when you and I would go hiking and see a rock formation that looked like a bear.
• 8:06
  I Hate Talking: And that was, it seemed like it was a long time ago.
• 8:09
  I Hate Talking: And then, like, if I use my imagination, I could see the bear.
• 8:14
  I Hate Talking: But if I was walking past it and on our hike, I would not have, like, recognized that initially.
• 8:19
  I Hate Talking: Yes, so, I believe that maybe some of the reason that it's become used more in recent time might be a little bit culturally related, perhaps with the fact that Perhaps people are being a little bit more interested in mysticism, as it were, and some of the things around perhaps some of the unexplained things with different cryptids or aliens or something like that that.
• 8:50
  I Hate Talking: This actually could be somewhat of an explanation perhaps of those things is that.
• 8:56
  I Hate Talking: You're not just making it up, but.
• 8:59
  I Hate Talking: There actually is something there.
• 9:02
  I Hate Talking: Hm.
• 9:03
  I Hate Talking: Again, I think that is all, again, perhaps more of an explanation.
• 9:09
  I Hate Talking: That the brain is actually seeing something that is not there because the brain is simply looking for familiar patterns.
• 9:17
  I Hate Talking: And making up these images that are beyond what is actually real.
• 9:24
  I Hate Talking: So I guess the one famous The particular thing was of a hiker that took a selfie or maybe perhaps set the camera on a tripod and took a photo, or maybe they were even just taking a photo of the scenery, and then after they posted this picture, there was a lot of commentary on social media that there was a person there.
• 9:47
  I Hate Talking: In the background.
• 9:49
  I Hate Talking: Huh, cause I saw like a ghost or like a rock, or what do you mean by that?
• 9:54
  I Hate Talking: So, let me see if I can find the picture here, and we'll see if we can See if you see the face.
• 10:04
  I Hate Talking: So, upon searching this, As we were Doing that, I found a different story.
• 10:12
  I Hate Talking: So you can take a look at this image and see if you see anything in the background that looks.
• 10:19
  I Hate Talking: Familiar.
• 10:21
  I Hate Talking: From this Image Correct.
• 10:26
  I Hate Talking: OK, if I'm using my um I imagine, I screenshotted it, we'll share it on Instagram.
• 10:34
  I Hate Talking: So, if y'all wanna make your guess before, pause it right now, and go look at Instagram, and come back.
• 10:41
  I Hate Talking: Uh, I would say it looks like.
• 10:46
  I Hate Talking: An eagle.
• 10:48
  I Hate Talking: And their egg nest.
• 10:51
  I Hate Talking: That's what I see.
• 10:53
  I Hate Talking: OK, interesting.
• 10:54
  I Hate Talking: What am I supposed to see?
• 10:55
  I Hate Talking: Let's zoom in.
• 10:57
  I Hate Talking: Add the red circle.
• 11:01
  I Hate Talking: OK, I just screenshotted.
• 11:03
  I Hate Talking: And again with the red circle and zooming in, it looks like a man.
• 11:09
  I Hate Talking: White shirt, black pants.
• 11:11
  I Hate Talking: Right, there is no other person there.
• 11:14
  I Hate Talking: According to the person because there was a hike in the middle of nowhere and they had no other.
• 11:23
  I Hate Talking: Awareness of any other people in the area.
• 11:26
  I Hate Talking: That's like a formation, that would be too big for a human.
• 11:31
  I Hate Talking: Precisely.
• 11:33
  I Hate Talking: So, OK, scroll back to the screenshot we had.
• 11:37
  I Hate Talking: The very first screenshot.
• 11:40
  I Hate Talking: So I'm looking back at the original photo, that's not highlighted.
• 11:45
  I Hate Talking: Now that I know what to look for, I see the white shirt.
• 11:50
  I Hate Talking: I don't see the black pants, and I, it just looks like.
• 11:54
  I Hate Talking: An area that the trucks dug out and A hike in area during the hiking.
• 12:02
  I Hate Talking: What do you see?
• 12:04
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, I think that I agree that from the zoomed out perspective that it may be just a feature of the rock formation in the background.
• 12:15
  I Hate Talking: there is actually some similar colored rock.
• 12:20
  I Hate Talking: And then down south too, yeah.
• 12:22
  I Hate Talking: But it would be, it's not a regular sized person, it's like a rock formation person.
• 12:28
  I Hate Talking: So, That is not the original image that I was looking for.
• 12:32
  I Hate Talking: It's another one that came up when looking for this hiker picture with a face in the background.
• 12:38
  I Hate Talking: So let's see if we can find the one that I was thinking of.
• 12:40
  I Hate Talking: So their faces, are they thinking it's like a ghost, or they acknowledge it's their imagination.
• 12:47
  I Hate Talking: That's the debate is that many people on social media sites and Reddit and things of that nature will just cite this paraadolia effect, explain it.
• 12:58
  I Hate Talking: But there are the other side that think that it's actually a person or some sort of like you said spirit or other worldly being that is present.
• 13:09
  I Hate Talking: And again, the reason that this particular word came up is because the person that was describing this word.
• 13:17
  I Hate Talking: Described it as only being used within the past 20 years and I was like, hm maybe that's true, maybe that's not because this is a word that's formed on Greek and Latin so it could be much older, but they were actually quite correct that in the modern English it has only been used in the last two decades.
• 13:38
  I Hate Talking: OK, well, good job for them.
• 13:39
  I Hate Talking: Good job.
• 13:40
  I Hate Talking: You know who you are.
• 13:41
  I Hate Talking: This, as you're looking that up, it reminds me of my childhood.
• 13:46
  I Hate Talking: Uh, my parents' bathroom, like the bathroom in her, my parents' house, the main bathroom had a, like a wallpaper with random designs on it.
• 13:58
  I Hate Talking: Do you know what I'm talking about?
• 14:00
  I Hate Talking: I still have it.
• 14:00
  I Hate Talking: That sounds familiar.
• 14:02
  I Hate Talking: So, when I was a child, I was convinced they were faces, different pictures on there.
• 14:08
  I Hate Talking: And it freaked me out so bad.
• 14:11
  I Hate Talking: So much so that when I was at a certain age, I couldn't use that restroom.
• 14:15
  I Hate Talking: Because I was convinced all those faces were looking at me.
• 14:19
  I Hate Talking: And I had to create a song that I'd seen out loud, using the bathroom about, like, I'm not scared of you, you're just my imagination.
• 14:29
  I Hate Talking: I'm like, I'm not scared of you.
• 14:31
  I Hate Talking: You're just a picture.
• 14:33
  I Hate Talking: And I'd like, say those things over and over again, because I could not use the restroom.
• 14:39
  I Hate Talking: And still to this day, when we go visit them, It's the same wallpaper, and I still see the same photos, and I just have to repeat like, I'm not scared any longer.
• 14:50
  I Hate Talking: But that phrase in my head of like, you're just a picture, I'm not scared of you, comes to my mind every time I use the bathroom.
• 14:59
  I Hate Talking: It sounds like you're still a little bit scared.
• 15:01
  I Hate Talking: But in, I mean, this was 30 years ago, maybe, maybe even more.
• 15:09
  I Hate Talking: So, the phrase may have not been around, but the concept, I guess, was, right?
• 15:14
  I Hate Talking: Have you seen, OK, you know what I'm talking about.
• 15:17
  I Hate Talking: In their wallpaper, do you ever see pictures?
• 15:20
  I Hate Talking: No, I don't think I've particularly looked though, so.
• 15:25
  I Hate Talking: Mm.
• 15:26
  I Hate Talking: Are you gonna look next time you're there?
• 15:28
  I Hate Talking: Perhaps I will.
• 15:28
  I Hate Talking: I remember your little song.
• 15:31
  I Hate Talking: Yes, just repeat to yourself.
• 15:33
  I Hate Talking: I'm not scared of you.
• 15:34
  I Hate Talking: You're only a picture.
• 15:35
  I Hate Talking: Only a picture.
• 15:36
  I Hate Talking: All right, well, this is only a picture that we're gonna look at, but it was a picture taken of real life.
• 15:42
  I Hate Talking: So let's see what you think of this one because this is the one that I was thinking of as an example where people are hotly debating whether it is a case of paraolia or if there's something else going on.
• 15:54
  I Hate Talking: OK, we'll screenshot it and share it, right?
• 15:56
  I Hate Talking: Yeah we can just put a link to the Reddit post, either or or both.
• 16:00
  I Hate Talking: All right, I'm looking, there's definitely for those not on Instagram or Reddit.
• 16:07
  I Hate Talking: It's a rock wall.
• 16:10
  I Hate Talking: With a shadow and some grass and shrubbery.
• 16:15
  I Hate Talking: I don't see anything.
• 16:18
  I Hate Talking: Maybe like an eye with like a head and a big circle nose, like a, I don't even know what animal that would be.
• 16:26
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, I feel like I'm not on the right track.
• 16:28
  I Hate Talking: And this is a similar experience when I first encountered this post, because when you look at the image from the full size, you don't really particularly see anything, but I think when your attention is called to the particular thing that is a case of paraelia or some other thing, you'll be actually quite shocked because this is even more abrupt.
• 16:53
  I Hate Talking: And the previous example.
• 16:56
  I Hate Talking: OK, what are we looking at now?
• 16:58
  I Hate Talking: All right, so draw your attention to the bottom right.
• 17:00
  I Hate Talking: Are you talking about that like trash that's in the bottom right corner?
• 17:05
  I Hate Talking: I don't know if she would appreciate you calling her track.
• 17:08
  I Hate Talking: Is it not trash?
• 17:12
  I Hate Talking: So now we'll go to the high res zoom of that particular area.
• 17:18
  I Hate Talking: Just click that right arrow.
• 17:22
  I Hate Talking: Oh, that's I don't like that.
• 17:25
  I Hate Talking: That's unsad.
• 17:26
  I Hate Talking: I don't wanna look at it.
• 17:27
  I Hate Talking: That freaks me out.
• 17:29
  I Hate Talking: OK, we'll put this on Instagram, uh, with the Reddit leak.
• 17:34
  I Hate Talking: I don't like, I saw that little blur.
• 17:37
  I Hate Talking: And it literally just looked like trash.
• 17:40
  I Hate Talking: Now I don't want to look at it cause I'm gonna have nightmares.
• 17:43
  I Hate Talking: Don't look if you're prone to nightmares like me.
• 17:47
  I Hate Talking: So do you think that's a case of I don't know.
• 17:51
  I Hate Talking: I don't like it.
• 17:52
  I Hate Talking: It does remind you of something, I guess that is unnatural.
• 17:57
  I Hate Talking: It's scary.
• 17:58
  I Hate Talking: -- So -- you think it's a person or some kind of being?
• 18:01
  I Hate Talking: I say, OK, so high resse, that was not just AI making up like AI connecting the dots to make a person.
• 18:09
  I Hate Talking: That freaky person standing there, like when Google Earth.
• 18:14
  I Hate Talking: Did uh Scan Now I believe this would be.
• 18:20
  I Hate Talking: Back in the day that The images would be resized.
• 18:25
  I Hate Talking: On the quality perspective, so perhaps a larger image would become less quality when it's uploaded.
• 18:33
  I Hate Talking: So if you have the original image, you could zoom in and create a higher res image that would then be hosted by this particular image hosting site.
• 18:42
  I Hate Talking: So I think that's perhaps what we have going on here and why the, if you zoom into the original image, it is lower quality, but if you Scroll to the next image, you have actually a higher quality image.
• 18:54
  I Hate Talking: So anyone that doesn't have Instagram.
• 18:58
  I Hate Talking: Uh, readily available.
• 19:00
  I Hate Talking: When you look, it's just like your regular photo of a wall, like a rock wall, and there's like something blurry in the corner, then you zoom in on it, and it's like this really How do you say it without being mean?
• 19:16
  I Hate Talking: It's a photo of a kid, like maybe a 13 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old girl.
• 19:23
  I Hate Talking: And she just, it looks like all those horror movies, you see like Children of the corn or anything like that, they're awkwardly standing there with very vacant eyes.
• 19:35
  I Hate Talking: They don't like it.
• 19:37
  I Hate Talking: Indeed, -- so -- I'm gonna have a nightmare tonight, I guarantee it.
• 19:42
  I Hate Talking: Oh man.
• 19:42
  I Hate Talking: So, those are some of the particular examples of where people just say this is Delia, and that that is just some sort of natural feature that looks like a person.
• 19:55
  I Hate Talking: Well, OK, is it where, like, where did that original photo come from?
• 20:00
  I Hate Talking: Cause I feel like, maybe I'm wrong, but I believe I've heard from like Google Earth, that when they, like, scan photos, if people are like, maybe in their driveway, they remove them or blur them out.
• 20:13
  I Hate Talking: Is that what they did, like this kid was with her family, and they blurred, but they didn't do a great job, and then people got the original, were able to reconstruct the FBI or whatnot, what she looked like.
• 20:29
  I Hate Talking: And it was like a family picnic on this great trail that now is giving everyone nightmares.
• 20:37
  I Hate Talking: So, we'll link the Reddit post, but I'll just read it verbatim here where it says, hey everyone, a few years ago, an older family member of mine went on one of her regular hikes.
• 20:50
  I Hate Talking: The trail she takes runs through a fairly remote area of the side of a mountain with no buildings nearby and very few people ever around.
• 20:58
  I Hate Talking: One of the places along the path is an old cave with a long history stretching all the way back to the Stone Age, Ice Age, and Viking times.
• 21:06
  I Hate Talking: I've been there myself.
• 21:07
  I Hate Talking: It's definitely an interesting area.
• 21:10
  I Hate Talking: She took some photos and later posted a few of them on Facebook, as older people tend to do.
• 21:15
  I Hate Talking: Everything seemed normal at first, but then people started commenting on one of the photos asking who she was walking with, but she insisted that she had been completely alone.
• 21:26
  I Hate Talking: She looked at the photo again and that's when she noticed it, a figure in the distance.
• 21:31
  I Hate Talking: There was no one else out there that she noticed, and she hadn't seen or heard anything unusual.
• 21:37
  I Hate Talking: She was honestly really shaken by it.
• 21:40
  I Hate Talking: She's not someone who believes in the paranormal and definitely not someone who would ever fake a photo.
• 21:45
  I Hate Talking: She has absolutely no interest in that kind of thing and to be honest, she's far too old and inexperienced with technology to know how to photoshop something like that, even if she wanted to.
• 21:55
  I Hate Talking: If you don't immediately see what I'm referring to, the second image, it's a little clearer there.
• 22:01
  I Hate Talking: I posted this on Reddit before and other subs, but never got a solid explanation.
• 22:05
  I Hate Talking: Still, the photo has stuck with me for years.
• 22:08
  I Hate Talking: I think about it now and then because it still really puzzles me.
• 22:11
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, I mean, I want to take that Redditor by his word, but it's so hard to believe him because it's so hard.
• 22:21
  I Hate Talking: They used to say like, a picture is worth 1000 words, but it's not anymore, because you can doctor anything and especially with AI change things.
• 22:32
  I Hate Talking: Uh nowadays, when I'm reading something, you always have to do a double take to see like, is this an AI dupe or is it real?
• 22:43
  I Hate Talking: That's true.
• 22:45
  I Hate Talking: And even now video has become pretty robust in terms of AI production, so it used to be text and image you had to be careful on, but now even video is getting pretty good and it's hard to tell the difference.
• 23:00
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, right, so we will post some of these relevant links in the show notes and you can check it out and let us know what you think are these cases of paraia or not.
• 23:13
  I Hate Talking: And is paraelia predictive programming, and perhaps maybe that's something we'll get into in a future episode.
• 23:20
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, well, predictive programming is.
• 23:22
  I Hate Talking: Indeed.
• 23:23
  I Hate Talking: So, from your friends at I hate talking until next time, remember, it is only through talking that we begin the journey to understanding.