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Posted: 10-11-2011 18:44 Post subject:

Out on my travels today, I spied this attractively laid out roundabout, glowing in the November sun, so I took a snap.
(The roundabout is where the A30 meets the A394 and a couple of minor roads, between Penzance and Marazion.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/rynner/Mispercep1.jpg

But what's that, bottom left? Have the gardeners left a hosepipe there?
On closer inspection (next pic) it looks more like a streak of light which curves and disappears into the undergrowth. Tinkerbelle on speed? A miniature UFO?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/rynner/Mispercep2.jpg

Sadly, the truth is more boring. The picture was taken from inside a bus, and the streak is a reflection of a handrail caught in the window! (Top left of the first pic also shows the reflection of the windows opposite.)

But if you prefer conspiracy theories there are a couple of other things to bear in mind: the bus does not normally go near this roundabout, but today the centre of Marazion was closed off (roadworks..?) so the driver had to find an alternative route. But perhaps the MI5 equivalent of Mulder and Scully were investigating something weird there! Shocked

This idea is boosted by the fact that the bus encountered another Road Closed situation in Praa Sands, and had to turn around and leave by the road it came in on, so passing Pengersick Castle twice.
(Pengersick has a spooky reputation that Wiki tries to debunk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pengersick_Castle#Pengersick_Castle

But I know it's evil - it fried my previous camera! Shocked

I made sure my camera was switched off both times today, just in case...)

An interesting day out! Wink

Posted: 10-11-2011 22:00 Post subject:

I forgot to mention that when I got home, a BT van was nearby, and people were working on a BT street cabinet...

But I know it's MI5 tapping my phone and internet connections! Psychout

Posted: 11-11-2011 09:36 Post subject:

It's a good picture, isn't it? The way there is an apparent depression in the grass as well of the streak of light...

Cool.

Very illustrative of the sort of thing that can happen without any deliberate attempt to mislead, which is why I get a bad feeling when people start shouting fraud and deliberate manipulation whenever an apparently strange picture is presented. It doesn't need to be anything deliberate at all.

Posted: 11-11-2011 09:52 Post subject:

Posted: 15-11-2011 01:49 Post subject: A darning needle

I had a real insight (so to speak) into misperceptions this weekend.

I was sitting at my knitting machine and was in need of a darning needle. My current darning needle is a goldish one (like these: http://jimmybeanswool.com/secure-html/productImages/6557Large.jpg).

I saw the needle, gleaming, on the rug in front of my feet; but, when I reached for it, no needle! Yet I had seen it, I knew I had.

I was called away, then, to family business, and didn't return to knitting for several hours. Since I still needed a darning needle, I said the Saint Anthony prayer and immediately turned to the knitting machine where the needle was sitting on a side shelf in plain view (not on the rug).

What I think happened is that as I was using the knitting machine, which requires moving one's body from side-to-side, I caught a glimpse of the needle on the shelf where I later found it, but some form of persistence of vision made me aware of the needle as I looked down at the rug.

That's my theory, anyway.

How many Fortean moments could be explained by persistence of vision, I wonder?
Wink

Posted: 02-12-2011 00:13 Post subject:

This week I've had a filthy cold and a bad throat, which has led to some odd misperceptions.

Out walking, I thought I could hear faint sounds of animals, or perhaps of children crying, and one time of men talking quietly. Eventually I realised that this was in fact my wheezing breath!! (Not helped by the fact that I have only one good ear, so I can't judge directions.)

Later, I thought I heard the faint sound of the foghorn from the lighthouse - but it wasn't foggy! But it was just me wheezing again! Sad

Posted: 02-12-2011 15:16 Post subject:

The last few days I've heard a single clack of my letterbox while upstairs, and assumed it was just an annoying leaflet man until I got downstairs and discovered that there was no leaflet.

Not sure at this stage whether it's a misperception and something else makes a very similar sound, if someone's pranking me or if I'm just hallucinating.

Posted: 02-12-2011 20:57 Post subject:

Here is a recent mispeception I had. For a few moments, it was utterly baffling.

Taking a routine glance out of the rear windows as I was pulling the curtains, I saw a scene of primal creation going on in a neighbour's window. Not that kind of creation! A dog was being created. The process was nothing to do with wombs and things: this was matter organizing itself from chaos. Time after time the dog's face emerged lacking its body then it was plunged back into the whirlpool of the prima materia. Even as I watched it, the nearest thing I could imagine to it was a dog caught in a washing-machine.

I am not usually given to spying in Rear Window fashion but the old opera-glasses had to be brought into play. Eventually the image resolved itself. Someone, mainly out of sight, on a bed that was higher than expected, was playing with a terrier, who was ducking and diving between and behind their legs covered by a sheet.

It was all a bit disappointing. I rather liked the notion that a neighbour was creating life-forms out of chaos. Even if they were just terriers. Sad

Posted: 18-12-2011 19:32 Post subject:

From a comment on a blog I follow:

Posted: 04-04-2012 07:48 Post subject:

'Snake' found in Kingswells loft turned out to be draught excluder

A woman called in the Scottish SPCA after finding what she thought was a 5ft snake in her loft - but it turned out to be a lookalike draught excluder.
Animal rescue officer Karen Hogg arrived at the rented home in Kingswells, near Aberdeen, to find the lady "very distressed".
It turned out to be a large green and black snake-shaped draught excluder with a red felt tongue.

Officer Hogg said: "The poor lady was still very shaken."
She added: "We've rescued hundreds of snakes from properties in all sorts of unusual circumstances, so we had no reason to believe this might not be the real thing.
"I'd brought gloves and a pillow case to enable us to handle and contain the snake safely, but as soon as we spotted it we realised the equipment wouldn't be necessary.
"This call-out really made us smile and given that we deal with cruelty and neglect day in day out, it was refreshing to go to a job where the 'animal' was completely unharmed."

The draught excluder - named Sid - is now at the Scottish SPCA's Aberdeen Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre. Cool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-17596214

Posted: 27-09-2012 20:46 Post subject:

Riding a bus today, I noticed a woman sat ahead of me reading a paper called Nature Times. I'd never heard of it before, but as there are so many publications about nowadays that's hardly surprising.

But as she turned the pages, I noticed very few of the headlines seemed to be about nature. Eventually she turned back to the front page, and I saw the paper was actually called the Mature Times - it's aimed at the over-60s! Embarassed

Posted: 28-09-2012 18:27 Post subject:

Posted: 03-01-2013 22:37 Post subject:

Just now I turned my head and saw brilliant white lights beaming down into my window (the curtains are open), and I wondered if I was about to have a close encounter of the third kind.

But looking from another window I saw the lights were on an Ambulance parked outside. (So presumably one of our aged residents is having an experience of a medical kind. Sad

) But I've never seen external lights like that on an ambulance before.

Earlier today I walked past Lloyds Bank. There was a poster in the window showing a cartoon character in a jet pack, whizzing up into the sky. The text seemed to say something like Reach Your Gods Quicker, which I thought was odd, so I looked more carefully - it actually said Reach your Goals quicker! Rolling Eyes

Lloyds is right next to the Methodist church, and they usually have religious posters up in a Notice board facing the bank, so perhaps that knowledge influenced my perception! Cool

Posted: 04-01-2013 07:49 Post subject:

Perhaps Someone's trying to tell you Something! Smile