What we see is not necessarily what is actually there.

Nature and physics beautifully demonstrate this in all sorts of fascinating ways  – but one of the most interesting for me has to be the good old Optical Illusion.  Here are some of my favourites:

 

 

Each of the graphics above is static and yet to all of us viewing them – they move or change in some way as we look at them.

 

 

The guys in the sketch above are staring at 2 different things, right?

Nope – block out the faces and you realize that the eyes are exactly the same in both drawings. 

 

Stare at these weird-coloured fruits for half a minute.  Now look at a blank white piece of paper or wall.

 

And while we’re messing with our perception of colour… the squares marked A and B in the above image are both EXACTLY the same shade of grey.

 No ways, right?

I didn’t believe it either until I  blocked off the other squares with my fingers!

 

 

People or Pillars?

 

Which figure is bigger?   Perspective tells most of us that the one at the back is… but they are exactly the same.

 

Despite what they look like, the horizontal lines in the image below are all parallel.  Go ahead, put your ruler on the screen to check…!  🙂

 

And these are all perfect circles.

 

OK…stare at the cross in the middle for 30 seconds.  You’ll notice that some of the pink dots start disappearing.  And if you’re patient enough, you’ll see a whole new set of dots – in green!

 

And probably my absolute favourite…

Which way is the cat spinning, clockwise or anticlockwise?    Now ask other people – you’ll find some of them will say exactly the opposite to you!  And right there you have a fascinating demonstration of how we all see the same thing with different perspectives.    No wonder humans disagree so often!

 

Finally – a short video clip by a professor who demonstrates powerfully how deceptive our limited perspective can be.  Wow!

 

 

The ‘deeper’ message of this post is simple:  the perspective or point of view from which we perceive something distorts our “truth”. Optical Illusions are a powerful visual reminder to all of us that we always only see in part.   Thankfully, getting to know God  helps us to start to see things – and people –  as He sees them.

We hope you had fun with these, I certainly did.   Share them with your friends…

And please post some more Optical Illusions on our 1Africa Facebook Page for us all to enjoy!