Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:43 pm Posts: 7633 Location: Philly Del Fia Gender: Female
Pareidolia-first used in 1994 by Steven Goldstein[1], describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being mistakenly perceived as recognizable. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, seeing the man in the moon, and hearing messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- – amiss, faulty, wrong – and eidolon – image, the diminutive of eidos – appearance, form.
Human beings are apparently "hard-wired" to identify the human face. One possible explanation for this is that unresponsive infants tended to be ignored or abandoned, as Carl Sagan speculated in The Demon-Haunted World.
Skeptics assert that sightings of religious or iconic figures in everyday objects, such as Marian apparitions, are examples of pareidolia, as are electronic voice phenomena. The Face on Mars is a phenomenon that succeeded the Martian canals, both eventually attributed to pareidolia, when the "seen" images disappeared in better and more numerous images. Many Canadians thought they saw the face of the Devil in the Queen's hair on a dollar bill in the 1954 series, adapted from a photograph. The bills were not withdrawn from circulation, but the image was altered in its next printing.
Sweet Mary, mother of God? Workers at candy company see form of Virgin Mary in chocolate
Friday, August 18, 2006; Posted: 3:31 a.m. EDT (07:31 GMT)
"For me, it was a sign," Cruz Jacinto says of finding the chocolate icon that matches her prayer card.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California (AP) -- Workers at a chocolate company have discovered a 2-inch-tall (5-centimeter-tall) column of chocolate drippings that they believe bears a striking resemblance to traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary.
Since the discovery of the drippings under a vat on Monday, employees of Bodega Chocolates have spent much of their time hovering over the tiny figure, praying and placing rose petals and candles around it.
"I was raised to believe in the Virgin Mary, but this still gives me the chills," company co-owner Martucci Angiano said as she balanced the dark brown figure in her hand during an interview Thursday. "Everyone should see this."
Kitchen worker Cruz Jacinto was the first to spot the lump of melted chocolate when she began her shift Monday cleaning up drippings that had accumulated under a large vat of dark chocolate.
Chocolate drippings usually harden in thin, flat strips on wax paper. But Jacinto said she froze when she noticed the unusual shape of this cast-off: It looked just like the Virgin Mary on the prayer card she always carries in her right pocket.
"When I come in, the first thing I do is look at the clock, but this time I didn't look at the clock. My eyes went directly to the chocolate," said Jacinto, wearing a hair net and apron as she paused from her work. "I thought, 'Am I the only one who can see this? I picked it up and I felt emotion just come over me. For me, it was a sign."
The chocolate, on display for most of the week in the front of the company gift shop, now rests in a plastic case in a back room and is brought out only for curious visitors.
The stack of hardened confection has a wide base and tapers gently toward a rounded top, giving the appearance of a female figure with her head tilted slightly to the right. The dark brown melting chocolate hardened into subtle layers that resemble the folds of a gown and a flowing veil.
A tiny white circle, about the size of a pencil eraser, sits in the upper center of the creation, just above a slight ridge that runs across it. Jacinto says the white speck is the head of the Baby Jesus as he is held in Mary's folded arms.
For Jacinto, the discovery came just in time. The single mother said she has struggled with personal problems for months and says she was about to lose her faith.
"I have big problems right now, personally, and lately I've been saying that God doesn't exist," she said, pulling the dog-eared prayer card out of her pocket. "This has given me renewed faith."
Angiano, who co-owns the 10-year-old company with her sister, has rubbed shoulders with plenty of stars in her job.
The gourmet boutique runs booths at all the big awards shows, including the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Oscars, the Country Music Awards and the Latin Grammys. Pictures of Angiano with top celebrities -- and her chocolates -- line the office walls.
But this week's brush with the iconic image has left even Angiano star-struck.
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:29 pm Posts: 6217 Location: Evil Bunny Land
This is not a new phenomenon. People claim to see the virgin Mary in something every day.
Some Latino women at my parish tried to convince our Priest that Mary was showing up in everyone's microwave. Like the crap that builds up on the bottom of the microwave.
He was like...
_________________ “Some things have got to be believed to be seen.”
- Ralph Hodgson
The funniest "jesus/mary seeing crazy person" i've ever seen was on an episode of the Tv show Penn & Teller's Bullshit. A women claimed to see jesus' eyes in the wood of her bathroom door. They were just two random natural wood markings. She would cry every time she looked at it, and had people from all around come and kneel before her bathroom. fuckin losers...
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:53 pm Posts: 20537 Location: The City Of Trees
corduroy11 wrote:
The funniest "jesus/mary seeing crazy person" i've ever seen was on an episode of the Tv show Penn & Teller's Bullshit. A women claimed to see jesus' eyes in the wood of her bathroom door. They were just two random natural wood markings. She would cry every time she looked at it, and had people from all around come and kneel before her bathroom. fuckin losers...
I saw a lion when I saw that door. Not surprisingly, one of the people P&T surveyed said the same thing.
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:29 pm Posts: 6217 Location: Evil Bunny Land
Green Habit wrote:
corduroy11 wrote:
The funniest "jesus/mary seeing crazy person" i've ever seen was on an episode of the Tv show Penn & Teller's Bullshit. A women claimed to see jesus' eyes in the wood of her bathroom door. They were just two random natural wood markings. She would cry every time she looked at it, and had people from all around come and kneel before her bathroom. fuckin losers...
I saw a lion when I saw that door. Not surprisingly, one of the people P&T surveyed said the same thing.
Did you run?
_________________ “Some things have got to be believed to be seen.”
- Ralph Hodgson
i was wondering what that was...it looked vaguely vaginal to me...but i guess to others it looks vaguely virginal?
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
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