“Don’t let it irk you if you don’t see a particular phenomenon, says vision scientist Michael Bach. For many illusions, there’s a percentage of people with perfectly normal vision who just don’t get it, Bach explains, often for reasons currently unknown.
Look again at the image. It’s the overlapping of the circular lines that creates this Stereokinetic Effect, or SKE, Bach teaches. Doesn’t it look as if the ball is hollow? SKE is causing you to perceive depth in this one-dimensional image. Our visual system is set up to experience standard viewing situations.
In fact, knowing there’s much we don’t know – maybe even can’t know – is what puts much of the fun into “tripping out” with psychological illusions.
Often, members of our Mind Tripping show audiences arrive expecting a “performance” consisting of onstage “tricks”. They very soon realize that illusions are part and parcel of our everyday human existence. We may be “perfectly normal people”, yet still miss many of the “perfectly abnormal” aspects of living that surround us.
Science, of course, isn’t meant to be funny, but it plays a large part when you’re looking for fun things to do in Indianapolis. Here at the Mind Tripping show, we aim for comedy with a psychological twist.
Come see us, but don’t be surprised if you don’t “see” every one of the phenomena we have planned……
By O.P. of the Mind Tripping blog team