Pareidolia: Seeing Patterns in Randomness

Here's why your brain loves to make things up

Tavolara Island in Sardinia resembles a sleeping cat

There’s something quite strange about the way our minds work. A flicker of light, a smudge on a wall, a shifting cloud — and suddenly, a face emerges. Not a real face, of course, but something familiar, something insistent enough to catch our attention and refuse to let go.

This phenomenon has a name:

Pareidolia is our brain’s compelling urge to find meaning where there is none. It is the tendency to perceive patterns, often faces or figures, in random or vague stimuli.

The word itself is Greek in origin. From para, meaning “beside” or “instead of,” and eidōlon, meaning “image” or “form,” pareidolia is a subtle error of perception.

It’s an illusion, yet one that feels utterly real…

But why does this happen?

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Some scientists suggest an evolutionary reason.

Our brains are wired to spot faces quickly — a skill honed by necessity. Whether identifying a friend or foe in a crowd, reading emotion in a glance, or sensing danger from a fleeting expression, this rapid recognition is vital. But such speed can also lead to misperceptions.

However, these “mistakes” are better than missing a real face altogether: from an evolutionary perspective, failing to recognize a threat could have meant death for our ancestors.

But pareidolia isn’t just about survival. It also fuels creativity. Many Renaissance painters often mentioned pareidolia as a source of inspiration, while artists like Giuseppe Arcimboldo literally used it to create imaginative portraits composed entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci wrote:

If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills. You will also be able to see divers combats and figures in quick movement, and strange expressions of faces, and outlandish costumes, and an infinite number of things which you can then reduce into separate and well conceived forms.

Literature, too, has long played with this trick of the mind.

Take Shakespeare’s Hamlet for instance. When Prince Hamlet looks up at the sky and points to a cloud while talking to Polonius, their back-and-forth goes like this:

HAMLET:
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?
POLONIUS:
By th'Mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.
HAMLET:
Methinks it is a weasel.
POLONIUS:
It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET:
Or a whale.
POLONIUS:
Very like a whale.

Religion is also associated with this phenomenon as people often interpret natural shapes as spiritual images. These may appear as faces of religious figures or sacred symbols, either briefly or in lasting forms.

In Christianity, such images often appear as depictions of Jesus or saints. In Islam, natural patterns may resemble Arabic script, like the word “Allah” or verses from the Quran. Believers may see these as miracles, while skeptics view them as pareidolia.

One famous example is the Cone Nebula, sometimes referred to as the Jesus Christ Nebula because of its resemblance to the popular depictions of Jesus with his hands in a prayer position.

But what does it truly mean that our brains impose order on chaos? That we find meaning not simply in what is there, but in what we wish, fear, or hope to see?

Modern neuroscience offers some clues. The fusiform face area, the brain’s face detector, activates not only when actual faces appear but also with face-like patterns. And it happens in milliseconds, before we consciously register the image. We respond emotionally, sensing moods and intentions in patterns that aren’t there. This reveals the strength of our social instincts.

With that in mind, here are some of the most beautiful examples I know of this peculiar and uniquely human phenomenon…

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1. Waterfall of the Bride

Also known as Cascada La Novia, this breathtaking Peruvian waterfall is famous for its striking resemblance to a bride wearing a white dress and veil.

According to legend, long ago on the eve of her wedding, a young bride-to-be lost her beloved. Heartbroken, she begged Pachamama — Mother Earth — to transform her into a waterfall, a symbol of her eternal love.

2. Elephant Rock

This natural basalt formation, located on Heimaey Island in Iceland, has taken on its elephant-like appearance due to erosion and the action of ocean waves.

According to Icelandic folklore, the rock was once a real elephant, enchanted or punished by the gods. After resting at the water’s edge, the great beast drifted into an eternal sleep, its body slowly turning to stone.

3. Dolphin Island

Il Gallo Lungo, the largest of the Li Galli islands off Positano, Italy, is shaped like a dolphin. Following choreographer Leonide Massine’s death, the island was purchased in 1988 by Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who lived here until he passed away.

4. Thinking Tree

Nicknamed The Thinking Tree by locals in Ginosa, in the province of Taranto, this olive tree in Apulia, Italy, is believed to be nearly 2,000 years old.

5. Montaña del Indio

Also known as The Lovers' Rock, this mountain is popularly called Montaña del Indio because it resembles the head of an American Indian when viewed from certain angles. Located near Antequera in Málaga Province, Andalusia, Spain, it’s beautifully captured in this photo by Miguel Morenatti:

American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote an entire short story inspired by the concept of pareidolia, titled The Great Stone Face.

In it, Hawthorne sets the scene in a rural valley in an unnamed U.S. state. A nearby rock formation in a mountain notch appears to many locals and visitors to resemble a human face. This natural feature becomes an object of reverence for the villagers:

The Great Stone Face, then, was a work of Nature in her mood of majestic playfulness, formed on the perpendicular side of a mountain by some immense rocks, which had been thrown together in such a position as, when viewed at a proper distance, to precisely to resemble the features of the human countenance. It seemed as if an enormous giant, or a Titan, had sculptured his own likeness on the precipice. There was the broad arch of the forehead, a hundred feet in height.

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The creative power of the human brain — the unstoppable force that shapes our experience and colors the way we perceive and make sense of the world — will never cease to amaze me...