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Home » You Call This Pareidolia?
CoSoThoughts

You Call This Pareidolia?

Elaine Barlow
Last updated: June 22, 2025 6:03 pm
by: Elaine Barlow
Original Publication Date: December 19, 2022
Reading time: 4 minutes
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Summary

Perception is the lens through which we observe and interpret reality. Consensus reality is no longer a thing. It hasn't been for a long time.

Elaine @thewebrecluse

December 19 2022 7:55am

Perception is the lens through which we observe and interpret reality. Perception is both conscious and unconscious, both real and not real, both in our control and out of our control. Perception is not always fact and not always truth … in fact … rarely is it either.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯.
Heraclitus

Consensus reality is no longer a thing. It hasn’t been for a long time.

The breakup of consensus reality is driven by much deeper economic and technological currents but that doesn’t mean that social media isn’t the main driving culprit behind the rise of permanently altered perceptions and the rise of highly individualized realities.

Drs Amy and Arnold Mindell have a great lecture on Consensus Reality, Dreamland, and Essence, the 3 different levels of our experience and perception that form our reality.

All of this came to mind when I was reading about the NYTimes Crossword situation … perceived injustices, Pareidolia, intention, imagination, conceptualization … all of these things (and more) formed the foundation of a lot of arguments regarding it.

The majority rule of consensus reality suggests that something isn’t real if it’s not perceived by the majority … but when reality has been altered at its base, then how do you determine realness?

Individual perception is not reality or fact.

This is where Dreamland and Essence come in.

Dreamland: explore dreams, deep feelings, unspoken truths, “double” or unintentional body signals, “ghosts” (unrepresented figures) and ghost roles in the stories and myths of individuals and organizations. History, visions and transgenerational events.

Essence: Deeper non-dualistic tendencies that can be sentiently felt to move us. Intangible, “dreamlike” tendencies that are not easily expressed in words. Nonlocal, quantum, cosmological states.

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘥𝘰𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘥𝘰𝘮, 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦.
Amy Mindell

So, what do you think? Is it a swastika?

𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘵 …

Yes.

And when the world we live in is dominated by those who see only that which directly benefits or threatens their rule of law and they are rapidly converting many to their consensus reality, then the way something is seen is determined by what suits the consensus best and what strengthens their perceived reality. Not unspoken truths, not transgenerational or historical events, not the intangible, or the emotional realities of others.

TAGGED:consensus realitycosocountersocialcrosswordindividual realityNew York Timespareidoliapersonal realitysocial mediasocial media postswastika

A Note From Elaine

This is my experience, not yours.

I don’t write reviews perse. I write about MY EXPERIENCE with media. If it resembles a review that’s because I’m trying to communicate what media means to ME which has absolutely NOTHING to do with YOU. The existence of my experience doesn’t invalidate yours in any way. If you are triggered by what other people write about art, that is a YOU issue and you should seek help for your emotional dysregulation problem instead of attacking or bullying others for expressing their SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE with art. You are not the center. Yours is not the default experience.

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Why No

Comments?

Because this is my life. Not a conversation.

I use this space to journal, to express myself, to have fun … to be me.
Who I am, how I express myself in my own space, my feelings and my lived reality are not up for debate and don’t need your commentary.
You’re a guest here.
Not everything you see online requires your input or opinion.
In fact, almost NONE of it does.
Learn to just enjoy and accept who people are.

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© 2009-2024 Elaine Barlow / ☰ / The Web Recluse.
All gif animations and drawn art by the amazing Christina Oei
No part of the materials available through the thewebrecluse.blog or thewebrecluse.com websites, their subdomains and any affiliated websites, may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of Elaine Barlow.  Any other reproduction in any form without the permission of Elaine Barlow is prohibited.

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