Things aren’t always the way they appear. Although our mind is constantly trying to make sense of the world around us it can sometimes get a little out of control and make us start to see things…literally. While, some of the optical illusions on our list are relatively famous, others are a bit more obscure but all of them give us a glimpse into our amazingly complex minds. There is no magic involved, no strings attached, its all in your head. Here we go.
If you stare at the dot in the center and move your head away from the screen the rings will start to rotate. Now gradually get closer again…they change direction!This is a classic illusion named after Ludimar Hermann who discovered it in 1870. At every point where the white lines intersect our eyes perceive a gray, shadowy blob. If you look directly at one of the intersections though, the blob disappears.Stare at the image for about half a minute without moving your eyes and watch as it gradually disappears. This is a variation of Troxler’s effect which essentially says that if you fixate your eyes on a certain point, stimuli near that point will gradually fade.The Kanizsa Triangle was named after the psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa who first described its effect. When you look at the image your brain creates contours (outlines) of a triangle although none exist. In reality it is an illusion created by the the wedges and the angles.This is a rather famous illusion of an impossible object. It has two rectangular prongs at one end that morph into three cylindrical prongs at the other.
Ouuuu, ahhhhh
I stared at the b/w blob, looked at a white background n saw a Smiley face.
#1 is the shadow illusion i believe. saw this on some show . Good info on how r brains n eyes process images.
shut up you dirty slope.
The left arm/right arm thing blows me away… would take a while to wrap my mind around how that could work…
For those saying it’s actually changing direction, why then can I make it change whenever I want to?
Covering up everything (including the reflections) except for the feet and lower legs is what got it working for me… just now had it changing directions several times a second, sorta flickering back and forth — sweet illusion!
the spinning silhouette spins both ways. it changes at random intervals. if u look closely, u can see a little flicker in the animation and that’s when it reverses its spin.
You are incorrect Eddie. It spins both ways the exact same time at all times. It is just how your brain perceives it.
The spinning silhouette goes in the direction your mind wants it to, look at the foot that’s lowest and think its going left or right and it will do it.
If you look at the spinning lady long enough she does a sudden stop and changes direction.
#16, the “Blue vs. Green” really are different colors. In fact, opening them in Photoshop like the author recommended proved they weren’t the same.
she DOES spin
I can get her to change direction by tilting my head 90 degrees, but when I straighten up again she goes back to clock-wise.
Whoah…once you get her spinning in either direction it’s trippy. I took me a while but i got it. It does help if you cover everything except for her legs and only focus on her legs. Then once the legs go the other way look at her as a whole.
The spinning lady changes directions easiest when I look at the foot. You can’t tell for sure what way the lady is leaning in what we believe is a 3D animation so your brain just switches it sometimes. The up and down movement makes us perceive that the hands and feet are moving from a high point to a low point in each spinning cycle, so which way shes spinning really depends on where you think the high point and low point are.
What the hell, she actually does move, it took me like 15 mins to get her to do it but wow!! thats some cool s*** right there.
I have 14 as a tattoo on my chest.
how stupid you people are if you look with your EYES you see she DOES change directions
stop the shittalk about your mind
The dancing girl seems to rotate based on which arm you think she has elevated. If you perceive it as her left arm, she turns counter-clockwise. If you perceive it as her right arm she turns clockwise.
I changed her by covering everything but her legs. I started telling myself that her legs were doing the opposite of what I was seeing (For example, if it looked like the leg sticking out was in the front of the leg she is standing on, I said behind. If it looked like that leg was behind, I would say front.) Suddenly I saw that her legs looked like they were spinning the other way and then I uncovered the rest of her body.
I tried to get the spinning lady to go the other direction (I get how it works) but can’t seem to make it change. And after staring for a while it seemed to just jump to a different position somehow…
I finally got it! Every time I’ve seen that stupid dancing woman, I’ve only been able to see her going clockwise, but pretending you’re a wizard really helps! Thanks!
i can get her to “spin” in the opposite direction if I stare at her knee very hard for a minute or so
The “spinning silhouette” doesn’t move at all for me…actually, half of these didn’t work.
The “spinning silhouette” is not moving no matter how long I stare at it. is that odd or is it supposed to be spinning?
Silhouette – To change the direction, I’ve found that it helps to gesture with my hands. Plus, it makes me feel like a wizard. =3
im getting dizzy by the minute.
ahh i keep seeing jesus every time i blink
16 is wrong.
The green shifts between R: 113 G: 255 B: 255 and R: 114 G: 255 B: 255 while
the blue varies from R: 110 G: 255 B: 255 to R: 121 G: 255 B: 255.
While the principle of the illusion is proven, the image shown in this instance does not have the blue and green as being precisely the same.
Absolutely correct.
Close colors, but not exact
I like your illusion collection, however, in the green and blue illusion the green and the blue ARE different, I did just check in Photoshop.
For the spinning shadow, watch the REFLECTION of the foot briefly. It will help you switch direction almost at will once you understand what you’re doing.
Weird, she was going anti-clkowcise, then I read the text looked back and now clkowcise.In fact I can get her to go in each direction, read the text one way, concentrate only on the reflection and the other way.
Per the spinning lady, nothing I try makes her spin counter clockwise. I tried blinking my eyes rapidly, sang songs in my head, sang songs outloud…started the math with simple addition, moved onto multiplication, shifted to square roots, then Fibonacci sequences….am artistically challenged so didn’t bother trying to figure out how to draw or paint anything.
this shit cray
as to the spinning lady: Just blink your eyes rapidly and she will stop and spin in the other direction.
That worked! I see her clockwise most of the time, but when i started thinking about Starry Night, she went counterclockwise. Switched her back by doing derivatives in my head
Ive never seen her go counterclockwise before now, thank you!
!!!!!! That totally works! When I thought of my favorite song, she turned counter-clockwise and when I added simple numbers, she turned clockwise. SO COOL.
The last one? No way!
HAHA yup! its an ocular/brain relationship…Art and creativity is one side of the brain were as math and science is another.
For the lady moving in a rotation either left or right clock wise or counter clock wise….if u want her to change…think about art work and how you would draw a picture…to make her switch…. start counting numbers and doing math
the spinning silhouette actually DOES change direction. if you watch it long enough, it “glitches” briefly before spinning in the opposing direction. spins longer clockwise than it does counter-clockwise.
Actually, it does not. Your mind makes you think that, I studied this in Psychology at university.
The mind is a wonderful and ridiculous thing.
Steve is correct. You just need to force your mind to stop giving depth to the image and you can actually start to see her leg just wobbling back and forth. After you achieve this, you can make her spin whichever way you want for however long you want.
I agree 100% with Rebecca that the dancer actually changes direction, because you can tell if she is leading with her left arm and leg or her right arm and leg, and you can actually see the switch (maybe the illusion is in the fact that we can actually change her direction) but either way, she is literally moving in 1 direction or the other.
I fully accepted what Rebecca was saying until I actually pulled the gif apart. There’s no hoccus pocus, it’s a 25 frame (or around that amount) image all all 25 are seen ever lap. There’s no hidden trick.
It’s your mind. You hear that? That’s your mind blowing.
It does not stop and change direction because my husband and I were both looking at her at the same time and when he saw her spinning clockwise, I could only see her spinning counter-clockwise. Explain that then.
Clearly a lot of people here are idiots. SHE CHANGES DIRECTIONS. Her arm and leg are DIFFERENT when she spins counterclockwise vs clockwise. People think they’re magical. “Iz did it wiff mai brainzzz, durr.” Just… go lay on the floor and stair at your wall.
So fucking dizzy..