25 Incredible Optical Illusions

5

Rotating Squares

rotating squaresAt first this one may be hard to see, but if you begin to scan back and forth across the image you will notice that the squares in your periphery begin to rotate. As soon as your eyes stop moving, however, rotation will cease.
4

Static Motion

static motionNo, this is not an animated GIF. The image really is static. Notice that when you look at any individual point dead on, it will stop moving. This powerful illusion is derived from interacting color contrasts and shape positions within the image.
3

Lilac Chaser

lilac chaserAlso known as the pac-man illusion, if you stare at the center cross for a couple seconds you will begin to perceive a green disco going around the circle of magenta discs. After a few more seconds the magenta discs will gradually begin to fade away until all you see a green disc going in a circle around the cross (if you’re having trouble seeing it move closer to the screen).
2

Cafe Illusion

cafe illusionAnother famous illusion, this one was recently rediscovered in a cafe wall at the bottom of St. Michael’s Hill. Although the lines appear to be diverging from one another they are in fact quite parallel.
1

Checker Shadow Illusion

checker shadowProbably one of the most unbelievable illusions out there, this one was first published by Edward Adelson, a professor at MIT. Although the square labeled “A” appears to be darker than the square labeled “B”, they are actually exactly the same shade of gray. Its okay if you don’t believe it, we didn’t either, but Photoshop proved us wrong.

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David PeggAbout David Pegg

David is the editor-in-chief of List25. He has a Masters degree in International Business from University of Florida. He loves to break dance, do flips, play guitar, and everything else that is fun. Follow him on Twitter @iamdpegg

Comments

  1. Dude says:

    Ouuuu, ahhhhh

  2. jer Davis says:

    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.

  3. Drew says:

    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!

  4. eddie says:

    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.

    • Cameron says:

      You are incorrect Eddie. It spins both ways the exact same time at all times. It is just how your brain perceives it.

  5. trippyshit says:

    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.

  6. Amanda says:

    If you look at the spinning lady long enough she does a sudden stop and changes direction.

  7. Jade says:

    #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.

  8. aimee says:

    she DOES spin

    • FatIgor says:

      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.

  9. olgz says:

    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.

    • Tom Bork says:

      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.

  10. Joe says:

    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.

  11. Birken says:

    I have 14 as a tattoo on my chest.

  12. fside020 says:

    how stupid you people are if you look with your EYES you see she DOES change directions
    stop the shittalk about your mind

  13. SaprolingToken says:

    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.

  14. Sara says:

    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.

  15. justin says:

    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…

  16. Jorja says:

    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!

  17. Nick Stripp says:

    i can get her to “spin” in the opposite direction if I stare at her knee very hard for a minute or so

  18. anon says:

    The “spinning silhouette” doesn’t move at all for me…actually, half of these didn’t work.

  19. Anonymous says:

    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

  20. Vedette says:

    im getting dizzy by the minute.

  21. tom says:

    ahh i keep seeing jesus every time i blink

  22. Kala says:

    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.

  23. Amber says:

    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.

  24. Danny says:

    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.

    • Indrajit says:

      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.

  25. Robigus says:

    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.

  26. John TheShark DeLeon says:

    this shit cray

  27. Bob says:

    as to the spinning lady: Just blink your eyes rapidly and she will stop and spin in the other direction.

    • Tyler says:

      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 :D Ive never seen her go counterclockwise before now, thank you!

      • Phoebe says:

        !!!!!! 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.

  28. Ron says:

    The last one? No way!

    • d_ryan1122 says:

      HAHA yup! its an ocular/brain relationship…Art and creativity is one side of the brain were as math and science is another.

  29. d_ryan1122 says:

    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

  30. Rebecca Ryan says:

    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.

    • Steve Adams says:

      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.

    • Akiero says:

      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.

    • Teresa Breuer Page says:

      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.

    • Frank Reese says:

      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.

    • Nichole77 says:

      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.

      • anon says:

        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.

  31. Mike Godinez says:

    So fucking dizzy..

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