Trap Detector

Optical Illusions

The images below - while limited to the visual modality - illustrate that perception is an active construction of the mind rather than a valid representation of objective reality.

Escher "figure-ground" illusion

Celestial Bodies

Art by: Octavio Ocampo

Can you find nine figures embedded in the image?

Embedded Dali

There seems to be a white triangle in the center.

Absents of the Mermaid

Art by: Octavio Ocampo

Our Bread

Art by: Octavio Ocampo

Impossible perspectives

Young girl ⁄ Old woman Illusion

Eye Examination chart

Phantom Dots Illusion

Identical Table Tops

Chalk Drawing

Phantom Expansion

Impossible Figures

Necker cubes

Eye Examination chart

M. C. Escher: Day and Night

The red boxes are identical

Man or woman

Face or Vase

Phantom Movement

The diagonal lines are straight

Figures & Backgrounds

The figures are identical

Stare at the image for 30 seconds then look at ground.

M. C. Escher: Waterfall

Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau,

The organizational mechanisms of vision are best demonstrated by illusions. Illusions illustrate that perception is a creative construction that the brain makes in interpreting visual data ....Learning does not prevent us from being taken in by these illusions. -Eric Kandel

We do not see the world as it really is; perception is always biased by the perceiver's motivational state. Individuals with Mood Disorders and Addictive Disorders are continually taken in by this Soul Illusion and so continue to act counter to their interests.

Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau