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Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness". Backmasking (also known incorrectly as backward masking)[1] is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. ... This article is about the theory of reversed messages in normal speech. ... A spectrogram of violin playing with linear frequency on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. ... Look up numerology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Theomatics is a numerological study of the Greek and Hebrew text of the Christian Bible, based upon gematria and isopsephia, that its proponents assert demonstrates the direct intervention of God in the writing of Christian scripture. ... Bible codes, originally known as Torah codes, are information patterns said to exist in encrypted or coded form in the text of the Bible, or, more specifically, in the Hebrew Torah, the first five books of Old Testament. ... The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós hidden, and the verb γράφω gráfo write or λεγειν legein to speak) is the study of message secrecy. ... Look up Fnord in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Paranoiac-critical method is a surrealist technique developed by Salvador Dalí in the early 1930s, often employed in the production of paintings and other artworks. ... The term pareidolia (pronounced ), referenced in 1994 by Steven Goldstein,[1] describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. ... Psychorama (or The Precon Process) is the act of communicating subliminal information through film—flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind, but nonetheless leaving an unconscious imprint on the viewer. ... The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ... This article is about hidden messages. ... For the game, see Anagrams. ... The first easter egg. ... The clustering illusion is the natural human tendency to see patterns where actually none exist. ... The observer-expectancy effect, in science, is a cognitive bias that occurs in science when a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it. ... Look up paradox in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the movie, see Palindromes (film). ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Jan. ...

"While observations of relevant work environments and human behaviors in these environments is a very important first step in coming to understand any new domain, this activity is in and of its self not sufficient to constitute scientific research. It is fraught with problems of subjective bias in the observer. We (like the experts we study) often see what we expect to see, we interpret the world through our own personal lens. Thus we are extraordinarily open to the trap of apophenia."^[1]

In statistics, apophenia would be classed as a Type I error (false positive, false alarm, caused by an excess in sensitivity). Apophenia is often used as an explanation of some paranormal and religious claims, and can also be used to explain the tendency of humans to believe pseudoscience such as Intelligent design[2]. Apophenia may be linked to psychosis and creativity. This article is about the field of statistics. ... Type I errors (or α error, or false positive) and type II errors (β error, or a false negative) are two terms used to describe statistical errors. ... It has been suggested that What-if analysis be merged into this article or section. ... Various Religious symbols, including (first row) Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Bahai, (second row) Islamic, tribal, Taoist, Shinto (third row) Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Jain, (fourth row) Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess, Maltese cross, pre-Christian Slavonic Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual... A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ... For other uses, see Intelligent design (disambiguation). ... For other uses of Creativity, see Creativity (disambiguation). ...

Origins

Conrad originally described this phenomenon in relation to the distortion of reality present in psychosis, but it has become more widely used to describe this tendency in healthy individuals without necessarily implying the presence of neurological or mental illness. For other uses, see Psychosis (disambiguation). ... Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. ... A mental illness or mental disorder refers to one of many mental health conditions characterized by distress, impaired cognitive functioning, atypical behavior, emotional dysregulation, and/or maladaptive behavior. ...

Examples

Pareidolia

Main article: Pareidolia

The identification of a face on the surface of Mars is an example of pareidoliac apophenia.

Pareidolia is a type of apophenia involving the finding of images or sounds in random stimuli. The term pareidolia (pronounced ), referenced in 1994 by Steven Goldstein,[1] describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. ... Image File history File links Martian_face_viking_cropped. ... Image File history File links Martian_face_viking_cropped. ... Adjectives: Martian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 0. ... The term pareidolia (pronounced ), referenced in 1994 by Steven Goldstein,[1] describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. ...

Discordianism

The Principia Discordia refers to the act of seeing order which does not really exist as the Aneristic Illusion, and avoiding this illusion is a major tenet of the Discordian religion. The Principia illustrates this with a drawing of five pebbles, and gives several possibilities for the shape (a pentagon, or a star, or disorder). It goes on to state that "an Illuminated Mind can see all of these, yet he does not insist that any one is really true, or that none at all is true". The Loompanics Yellow Cover combined 4th & 5th Edition Principia Discordia, (1979). ... Discordianism is a modern religion centered on the idea that chaos is as important as order. ...

Dark Side of the Rainbow

Main article: Dark Side of the Rainbow

When the album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd is played simultaneously with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, numerous images from the film appear to synchronise with the music and lyrics. All band members (save Roger Waters), and engineer Alan Parsons, have firmly stated that the phenomenon is a coincidence.^[2] This effect has often been called Dark Side of the Rainbow. Arguably, playing any two media together will produce an impression of a striking amount of coincidence, which is an example of apophenia. Dark Side of the Rainbow logo from The Synchronicity Arkive Dark Side of the Rainbow (also known as Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd) is the name used to refer to the act of listening to the 1973 Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon... This article is about the album by Pink Floyd. ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band that initially earned recognition for their psychedelic or space rock music, and, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. ... The Wizard of Oz (film) redirects here. ... George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English rock musician; singer, bassist, guitarist, songwriter, and composer. ... Alan Parsons (b. ...

Fiction

Postmodern novelists and film-makers have reflected on apophenia-related phenomena, such as paranoid narrativization or fuzzy plotting (e.g., Vladimir Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols", Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and V., Alan Moore's Watchmen, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Club Dumas, The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, and the films Conspiracy Theory, Darren Aronofsky's π, A Beautiful Mind and The Number 23). As narrative is one of our major cognitive instruments for structuring reality, there is some common ground between apophenia and narrative fallacies such as hindsight bias. Since pattern recognition may be related to plans, goals, and ideology, and may be a matter of group ideology rather than a matter of solitary delusion, the interpreter attempting to diagnose or identify apophenia may have to face a conflict of interpretations. Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used to describe the social and cultural implications of postmodernism. ... This page is about the novelist. ... Signs and Symbols is a short story by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in The New Yorker and then in Nabokovs Dozen (1958: Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York). ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a novel by the author Thomas Pynchon. ... book cover V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon published in 1963, concerning the journey of discharged U.S. Navy sailor Benny Profane through a decadent group of artists in 1956, along with the attempt of an aging traveller named Herbert Stencil to locate the mysterious woman he knows... For other persons named Alan Moore, see Alan Moore (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Watchman. ... Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. ... For the feature-length film of the same story, see The Name of the Rose (film). ... Foucaults Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault) is a novel by Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco. ... For other persons named William Gibson, see William Gibson (disambiguation). ... Book cover Pattern Recognition (G. P. Putnams Sons 2003, ISBN 0-425-19293-8) is William Gibsons eighth novel, the first to be set in the contemporary world. ... Spanish stamp (2002) tribute to Captain Alatriste, Pérez-Revertes most famous character. ... Cover of Random House edition The Club Dumas is a 1993 novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. ... “Illuminatus” redirects here. ... Robert Joseph Shea (1933 - March 10, 1994) was the co-author (with Robert Anton Wilson) of The Illuminatus! Trilogy. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. ... Ï€ (or Pi) is a 1998 American psychological thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky. ... A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical film about John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Laureate (Economics) mathematician. ... For the actual number, see 23 (number). ... Look up fallacy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Hindsight bias, sometimes called the I-knew-it-all-along effect, is the inclination to see events that have occurred as more predictable than they in fact were before they took place. ...

The Question, who is portrayed as a conspiracy theorist in the animated television series Justice League Unlimited, was mentioned to have apophenia. He claimed to see connections between the Girl Scouts and the crop circle phenomenon as well as spy satellites and fluoridated toothpaste. The Question is an American comic book superhero. ... A conspiracy theory is a theory that defies common historical or current understanding of events, under the claim that those events are the result of manipulations by two or more individuals or various secretive powers or conspiracies. ... Justice League Unlimited (or JLU) was the name of an American animated television series that was produced by and aired on Cartoon Network. ...

See also

• 23 (numerology)
• Clustering illusion
• Confirmation bias
• Conspiracy theory
• Forer effect
• Synchronicity
• Hindsight bias
• Interpretation
• Religion

The number 23 appears in the practice of numerology. ... The clustering illusion is the natural human tendency to see patterns where actually none exist. ... It has been suggested that Myside bias be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Conspiracy theory (disambiguation). ... Many skeptics believe the popularity of horoscopes (and astrology in general) is due to the Forer Effect. ... Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally inexplicable to the person or persons experiencing them. ... Hindsight bias, sometimes called the I-knew-it-all-along effect, is the inclination to see events that have occurred as more predictable than they in fact were before they took place. ...

Notes and references

• Endslay, Mica R. (2004). in Simon Banbury, Sébastien Tremblay: A Cognitive Approach To Situation Awareness:: Theory and Application, 1st, USA: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. ISBN 0754641988. 
• Klaus Conrad, 1958, Die beginnende Schizophrenie. Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns. Stuttgart: Thieme.
• Sherlock, P. "On roulette wheels and monkies randomly inspired by Shakespeare", truth.gooberbear, April 1, 2008. Accessed April 1, 2008.
• William Gibson, 2003, Pattern Recognition. New York: G. P. Putnam's, 2003.

1. ^ A Cognitive Approach to Situation Awareness:: Theory and Application
2. ^ [1] Accessed 2007-10-11

is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Look up apophenia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Skeptic's Dictionary: Robert Todd Carroll's article on apophenia
• DBSkeptic: Sandra Hubscher's analysis of apophenia