Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena

Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena include perceptions of religious imagery and themes, especially the faces of religious figures, in ordinary phenomena. Many instances that are reported involve images of Jesus or other Christian figures seen in food, but it has an equivalent in the Muslim world where structures in food and other natural objects are perceived as religious text in Arabic, particularly the word Allah or verses from the Qur'an. Many religious believers view them as real depictions of miraculous origin; the predominant scientific view is that such perceptions are examples of pareidolia.

Perceptions of religious imagery in Christianity

Virgin Mary

Mary in Watermelon

An Arizona family says the Virgin Mary has appeared to them in the fruity flesh. They say the image can be seen in a piece of watermelon.

Chicago underpass

An emergency turnoff area underneath the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago was the host to one depiction in April 2005. An image of the Virgin Mary was reported as appearing on a wall, with investigators explaining its origin as salt staining.^[1]

Mary and Jesus pretzel

In March 2005, Machelle and Crysta Naylor placed a pretzel on the internet auction site eBay claiming that it looked like the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. They found the item in a packet of Rold Gold Honey Mustard Pretzels when they opened it in their home in Nebraska.^[2]

Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich

On November 23, 2004, a grilled cheese sandwich that contained the likeness of the Virgin Mary was sold for $28,000 in an eBay auction by Diana Duyser from Hollywood, Florida. Duyser explained, "I made this sandwich 10 years ago. When I took a bite out of it, I saw a face looking up at me - it was Virgin Mary starring [sic] back at me. I was in total shock." She kept the toast surrounded by cotton wool, in a plastic container on a stand. Duyser claimed that although a decade old, the toast has not shown any sign of mold or crumbling, which she considered as "a miracle". She also believed its mystical properties have brought her blessings, including a $70,000 win in a nearby casino. The sandwich was purchased by the online casino, GoldenPalace.com, which is known for its publicity stunts. The company said that they planned to undertake a world tour with the sandwich and then sell it, with proceeds going to charity. The pan that was used to make the sandwich was sold on eBay.

Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Ghana

A marble rock in the wall of the Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Dansoman, a suburb of Accra, Ghana, was alleged to show Jesus in November 2004. Reverend Father John Straathof was cautious about the find, but said of the thousands of visitors that "[if] it makes them pray, that's okay".^[3]

The NunBun

The face of Mother Teresa was seen in a cinnamon bun at Bongo Java in Nashville, Tennessee.^[4][5] It was first discovered on 15 October 1996 by employee Ryan Finney and was turned into an enterprise by the company, selling T-shirts and mugs. Mother Teresa contacted the company and asked them to stop these sales and they agreed to do so, but the bun remained as an attraction in their shop. On 25 December 2005 the bun was stolen during a break-in at the coffee house.

Patrons of Bongo Java have offered a $5,000 reward for the return of the NunBun. Recently, photographs of the pastry have been sent to the Nashville, TN newspaper The Tennessean from a person identifying themselves as "Hu Dunet." It shows the NunBun near a statue of a woman, a picture showing it being held by two men, their faces obscured by alterations to the photograph, and a picture of a man lying on a beach holding the bun in his left hand.

"Our Lady of Coogee"

In 2003 an apparition of the Virgin Mary was seen in a fence on a headland in Coogee, Australia, which was considered to be an optical illusion. The owner of a laundrette across the road from the headland claimed that shadow created the appearance of a veiled woman in the fence every afternoon. The section of fence that created the image was eventually destroyed by vandals.

Virgin Mary firewood

In March 2006, a Janesville, Wisconsin woman named Faith found the image of the Virgin Mary complete with halo staring back on a chunk of firewood. She was about to burn the firewood in the wood stove when the image in the center of the wood caught her eye. She described that the Virgin Mary image had a halo of lighter colored wood around her head. The firewood was acquired by Goldenpalace.com from an eBay auction for $99.

"The Clearwater Virgin"

In late 1996, the glass façade of a finance building in Clearwater, Florida attracted widespread media attention. The image was composed of flowing lines that suggested the veiled head and shoulders of a faceless woman. The image was believed by the faithful to depict the Virgin Mary. It was iridescent and had "rainbow colors". The image drew an estimated one million visitors over the next several years. The building was purchased by Shepherds of Christ Ministries, an Ohio-based Catholic revivalism group. The building was dubbed the Virgin Mary Building. On March 1, 2004, the three uppermost panes of the window were broken by a vandal. The windows were replaced with a picture of Jesus Christ. A local chemist, Charles Roberts, had examined the original windows and explained that the iridescent stain had been produced by water deposits combined with weathering, yielding a chemical reaction like that often seen on old bottles. Roberts said that it was likely that the water sprinkler was the cause of it. The Building also had a large number of different bible scenes from the nativity on the windows wrapping around the side of it. These images, however, were artificially created.

"The Milton Madonna"

In June 2003, thousands of people were drawn to a hospital at Milton, Massachusetts, where an image appeared on a second-floor window. Most people envisioned it as the Virgin Mary cradling the infant Jesus Christ.

Chocolate Mary

On August 14, 2006, workers at chocolate company, Bodega Chocolates in Fountain Valley, California discovered a 2-inch tall column of chocolate drippings that they believed bore a resemblance to traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary. Since the discovery of the drippings under a vat by kitchen worker Cruz Jacinto, Bodega Chocolate employees have spent time hovering over the tiny figure, praying and placing rose petals and candles around it.

Restaurant wood panel

On August 23, 2006, customers at a Souplantation restaurant in Grantville, California near San Diego reported to NBC 7/39 about an image in a wood panel that resembled the Virgin Mary.

Virgin Stump

In the fall of 2003, a tree in Passaic, New Jersey was felled and the resulting stump bore an alleged image of the Virgin Mary. The tree is a local attraction and was made into a shrine.

Virgin Pizza Pan

On February 21, 2007, Ash Wednesday, a kitchen worker at Pugh Elementary School in Houston, Texas discovered a grease stain on a pizza pan that resembled a silhouette of the Lady of Guadalupe. A shrine was erected in honor of the pizza pan.

Jesus Christ

Chihuahua's ear

In November 2006, Christine Maentz from Spring City, Tennessee tried to auction off a cell phone with an image that she proclaimed to resemble the likeness of Jesus Christ on her Chihuahua's ear on eBay. The four pound Chihuahua, Murphy Brown, disappeared from her home one morning in February 2001. Maentz promised God that if the dog were returned to her, it would have a home until its last breath. The Chihuahua came back that night. Maentz photographed the dog but claimed that the image of Jesus only appeared after someone offered Murphy a permanent home.

Jesus in a floorboard

Stephan Brady found a floorboard in his Ohio home containing the image of Jesus. He and his son were commenting one day about the knot, and how one specific knot looked like Jesus.

Jesus rock and stone

Cathy Zinante from Seabrook, Texas found a rock which she considered as looking like Jesus Christ. She found the walnut-sized stone among muddy cow prints beside a Hallettsville, Texas pond in May 2005. She described the rock as being nearly translucent, with some cloudy spots and dark lines. When held up to the light in the right angle, she said she could see Jesus' face embedded in four different places in the hard surface.

In May 2006, Gregorio Gomez, a Santa Anita (Southern Mexico) man said a voice told him in a dream that he would find an image of Jesus Christ on a rock. He discovered the rock as he was walking near Santa Anita village, on Huitepec Mountain. News of the discovery traveled quickly around the region. Hundreds of people have hiked to see the image and left candles.

In June 2006, a man from Long Island, New York tried to auction off a large stone on eBay which he claimed resembled Jesus Christ's face. He found the large boulder in his backyard while doing some excavations.

Jesus in the pan

In January 2005, Juan Pastrano from Prairie Lea, Texas found etchings on his frying pan which he believed resembled the face of Jesus Christ. He said he noticed the likeness when he was going to cook his mother breakfast.

In December 2005, Jacksonville, Florida restaurant workers at the Stadium Club claimed they saw an image of Jesus Christ in their nacho warming pan. The pan is used to heat water which then heats the nachos. The image came from mineral deposits in the water. One of the restaurant cooks said he went to empty the pan one night and saw Jesus Christ looking back at him. The Stadium Club owner said his restaurant had been blessed just before Christmas. The Stadium Club said the restaurant would not continue to use this pan.

Jesus on a tree

In 2002, Ella Huffin, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin woman said she discovered the image of Jesus Christ on a tree in her backyard. Initially, she thought Jesus appeared sad with his eyes aimed downward. Then it appeared to her that Christ was holding a baby up to his face and looking down at it lovingly. It is reported that the Christ image is clearest in the late afternoon when the sun drops behind her house. Also, an overcast day tended to accentuate it sharper than a sunny one.

Shower Jesus

On June 11, 2005, Jeffrey Rigo, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania man discovered the image of Jesus Christ on a water-stained piece of plaster as he stepped out of the shower. He cut the plaster piece from his wall and put it up for auction on eBay under the name "Shower Jesus". The "Shower Jesus" image was purchased by GoldenPalace.com for $1,999.99.

Jesus in the clouds

In August 1973, a Charleroi, Pennsylvania woman, Frances Pennline and her sister Helen Thompson took a plane trip to Florida to visit another sister. While in flight, a storm arose creating turbulence. The two sisters prayed for divine intervention. When the plane approached a Florida runway to land, Pennline looked out the window and saw a very dark cloud with a bright ray of light coming out from the right. Thompson took a photograph of the cloud. It wasn't until the roll of film was developed at a local pharmacy in the Mon Valley area that she realized what she had captured. The image was described by their nephew, Jules Massey as "God's son standing in the ray of light; an image of Him from the neck down. His face cannot be made out."

Jesus brick

In 2003, a North Carolina man, Ditto Dalcher said he was sitting in his home when he noticed Jesus Christ's face on his fireplace brick. He auctioned the brick off on eBay.

Jesus sheet metal

In February 2006, a couple of Manchester, Connecticut hardware store owners found a piece of sheet metal that they claimed had Jesus Christ's face on it. They tried to sell the sheet metal on eBay.

Jesus in paint on wall

In June 2005, Detroit, Michigan sisters Phyllis and Leona Chester were renovating their childhood home. They had painted their kitchen wall red when two images appeared. They were able to cover one of the images up, but the other remained. The sisters felt that the image resembled Jesus Christ. The sisters were renovating because they had planned to sell their home and move to Arizona. They said they were reconsidering the decision to move.

Jesus on truck

In November 2005, Julio Radillo, a Laredo, Texas man discovered a portrait of Jesus in the dirt on his truck's tailgate. At least 150 people have made a pilgrimage to visit the truck to light candles, to take video or pictures and to pray. Radillo said he wasn't going to drive this truck for a while. And when he did, he would remove the tailgate as a memento. He said the image of Christ appeared as reminder to people to strengthen their faith.

Jesus window

In May 2005, an image of Jesus Christ appeared on the window of a north Fort Worth, Texas apartment complex. A vision impaired woman claimed that her vision was restored because of the image. She said she saw her 9-year-old granddaughter clearly for the first time. A priest performed a Mass before a large crowd at the window. In June 2005, the window was removed because the building's apartment management had become concerned that the window was becoming a liability for both residents and the crowds coming to see it. However, during the removal process, the window's inside pane broke. The Jesus image was still intact as it is on the outside pane. The window is currently housed at the St. Augustine Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

Jesus tortilla

In 1978 at Lake Arthur, New Mexico, when Maria Rubio was making burritos, she noticed the pattern of skillet burns on the tortilla which she felt resembled the face of Jesus Christ. She built a shrine to house the tortilla after a priest reluctantly blessed it. Thousands of people from across the United States came see the Jesus Christ tortilla and prayed for divine assistance in curing ailments.

Jesus pierogi

In November 2005, a Toledo family found a pierogi that they felt had an image of Jesus Christ on Easter. They put the blessed pastry on eBay where it was sold for $1,775 to Golden Palace Casino.

Jesus fish bone

In October 2005, a Luther, Oklahoma couple who owned a sailcat fish bone that had the image of Jesus Christ was selling it on eBay. The Newmans said they received the fish bone from a friend 10 years ago. They claimed they have had good luck ever since they had the bone. There is a legend that a sailcat bone was chosen by Jesus to remind people of what he went through.

Jesus on a shrimp tail dinner

In August 2006, a California man believed he saw Jesus Christ's face on a shrimp tail. He said that when he ate his first shrimp, he had disregarded its tail, but then looked at it again and saw the face of Jesus. The man believed it was a sign, as he was going through a nasty divorce.

Jesus in dental X-ray

In December 2004, a Phoenix, Arizona dentist and his staff claimed that a dental X-ray done at their office contained an image resembling Jesus Christ. The dental X-ray was done for the teeth of a devout Christian. The Jesus image was discovered when the X-ray was developed.

Jesus at St. Bartholomew's

In 1932, Reverend Dr. Robert Norwood of St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan, New York said he saw the figure of Jesus Christ in the marble wall after he had concluded a Lenten sermon, titled "The Mystery of Incarnation." The Christ figure was described as about one and a half feet tall, delineated in the variegations of the sepia marble directly above the door of the sanctuary.

Jesus on a Pizza Hut billboard

In 1991, Joyce Simpson spotted the face of Christ on a Pizza Hut billboard in Atlanta after praying for a divine sign. She had a dilemma—she could not decide whether to continue with the church choir or to leave and sing professionally. Her interpretation: the shadowy image of Jesus' face in strands of spaghetti hanging from a fork meant she should stay with the choir. John Moody, a marketing director for Pizza Hut, said the picture, one of 35 put up in the area, was a standard food photograph that the Wichita headquarters provided its franchises. (Chicago Tribune, May 23, 1991)

Jesus nebula

In April 2004, a sudden rush in interest for images of the Cone Nebula occurred because Christian groups felt they could see Jesus Christ's face embedded in the nebula's pillars. Images of the Jesus Nebula, known by its actual name as the Cone Nebula, was released by the Hubble Space Science Institute on April 30, 2002 to showcase a new extremely high resolution camera. The new camera was installed on Hubble by astronauts during a space shuttle mission in March 2002. The Cone Nebula, located in the constellation Monoceros, is a region that contains cones, pillars, and majestic flowing shapes that abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from nurseries of newborn stars.

Hot chocolate Jesus

In April 2006, in Bogotá, Colombia, Dorely Rojas' son-in-law noticed an overspill of hot chocolate from his mug. The overspill had created an unusual pattern. He showed it to Rojas who believed that the pattern resembled Jesus Christ.

Jesus on a couch

On Christmas Day 2006, a Las Vegas man noticed the face of Jesus on his couch. The website for the couch surfaced on many blogs and forums online, eventually catching the eye of local Fox5 news.

Perceptions of religious imagery in Islam

In the Muslim community, a frequently-reported religious perception is the perception of the word "Allah" in Arabic on natural objects such as fish, vegetables, plants and clouds.

Allah

Allah fish

In February 2006, people flocked to a pet shop named Water Aquatic in Waterfoot, near Bury, (United Kingdom) after it was announced that the markings on the scales of a two-year-old albino fish named Oscar in the shop, mimicked the Arabic script for "Allah". That the other side of the fish appeared to be inscribed with the word, "Muhammad". The fish was originally from Singapore.

In 2006, a Dubai fish market man, Faisal, claimed that he had a Safi, or rabbitfish, with the word "Allah" inscribed on its belly in Arabic.

Allah egg

In 2006, a chicken in a Kazakhstan village laid an egg with the word "Allah" supposedly inscribed on its shell. The local mosque confirmed that the inscription said "Allah" in Arabic. "We'll keep this egg and we don't think it'll go bad," Bites Amantayeva, a farmer from the village of Stepnoi in eastern Kazakhstan, told state news agency Kazinform. Kazinform reported that the egg was laid just after a powerful hail storm hit the village.

Allah beans

In 1997, Mikail Güçlü from the Regent Quarter of The Hague had bought about five kilos of beans, about 500 grams of which according to him, bore the name "Allah". Two days earlier, Güçlü had bought some eggs fresh from a farm and discovered that two of the eggs seemed slightly strange. He felt that the egg shells were a little misshapened. He called in a friend for some translation help and discovered that the egg's 'inscription' read, "There is but one God, Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet."

Allah lamb

In March 2004, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in Hebron, a West Bank town, to see a lamb that was born with what appeared to be the word "Allah" spelled out in Arabic on its coat. Yahya Atrash, the lamb's owner felt that the lamb's writings were a clear evidence of God's existence. He claimed that the lamb had the words "Allah" on one side and "Mohammed" on the other.

Allah tomato

In September 1999, hundreds of Muslims visited a small house in Girlington, West Yorkshire after housewife Shabana Hussain sliced a tomato open, and "bismillah", or "In the name of God", was written in Arabic in the veins. The other half of the vegetable said "la illaha illala", or There is no God but Allah.

In June 2007 Uzma Khalid of Cowley, Oxford, sliced a tomato in half and saw the word "Allah" written in Arabic. The tomato later made an appearance at Stanley Road Mosque in Cowley.

Ali

Ali on moon

It has been noted by Shia Muslims that on the Earth's Moon, the first name of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (Ali) can be seen. Others Shia Muslims, however, say that this is merely a coincidence.

Prayer

Tree in Islamic Prayer position

There is a tree in Australia that resembles a man in Ruku, or the bowing part of the Salah (Islamic Ritual Prayer). The tree has what looks like hands on its knees (as is the correct posture for the prayer position) and it look like it has a traditional Muslim Kufi hat on. It is also facing Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is where Muslims face when they pray.

Explanations

Pareidolia

Pareidolia characterizes such imagery as a form of pareidolia. This is a false perception of imagery due to what is theorized as the human mind's over-sensitivity to perceiving patterns, particularly the pattern of a human face, in otherwise random phenomena.

It is suggested that a tendency of religious imagery in Islam to be perceived as Arabic words is made more likely by the general simplicity of letter forms in the Arabic alphabet (especially in the everyday Riq'a); a tradition of massive typographical flexibility in Islamic calligraphy; and the particular shape of the word Allah (الله). These factors make the word easy to read into many structures with parallel lines or lobes on a common base.

C. S. Lewis

The author C. S. Lewis wrote about the implications of perception of religious imagery in questionable circumstances on issues of religious belief and faith. He argued that people's ready ability to perceive human-like forms around them reflects a religious reality that human existence is immersed in a world containing such beings. The principal reason he believed in religion was because he believed himself as wired to believe it, just as he believed human beings are wired to perceive inference (if..then) and other mental logical phenomena as representing truths about the external world that can be learned from, rather than representing purely internal phenomena to be characterized as error. He chose to believe in his wiring for religious perception in the same way and for the same reasons that he chose to believe in his wiring for logic, choosing to use and rely on both as guides to learning about the world rather than regarding them as purely random in origin and discarding them. People continue to have faith in the phenomenon of logic despite the fact that they sometimes make demonstrably mistaken inferences.

Created depictions

A number of apparent religious images have been deliberately created from natural materials, in some cases as part of an artistic endeavor or investigation into the phenomenon of perceptions of religious imagery.

Icon-caviar

Icon-caviar by Alexander Kosolapov was a representation of the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus Christ and used caviar as its medium. It was taken down from the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow after they received complaints.^[6]

The "Pope Tart"

The "Pope Tart" was a hoax apparition created by Karen Stollznow as part of an investigation into pareidolia for The Skeptic in Australia (Template:PDFlink.

Nike basketball shoes

In 1997, Nike had to recall thousands of pairs of shoes because the flames they had decorated on a series of basketball shoes (such as Air Melt, Air Grill, Air B-Que and Air Bakin' series) when read from right to left, as is customary with Arabic, resembled the word for Allah.

In Popular Culture

In the French-Canadian novella, Le Petit Chouchou Anglais, one student brings a piece of toast to class that he claims contains the image of his hero, Lucien Bouchard.

See also

• Iconography
• Marian apparitions
• Weeping statue
• The Bélmez Faces, a disputed paranormal phenomenon in Bélmez, Spain, where several spots on floors and walls are interpreted as faces.

Notes

1. ^ (21 April 2004). "'Virgin Mary' on US motorway wall" at BBC News. Accessed 27 December 2005.
2. ^ (5 March 2004). "Does Pretzel Look Like Mary And Jesus?" at NBC10.com. Accessed 27 August 2006.
3. ^ (23 November 2004). "'Virgin Mary' toast fetches $28,000" at BBC News. Accessed 27 December 2005.
4. ^ Sakyi-Addo, Kwaku (2 November 2004). "Ghanaians flock to see 'miracle'" at BBC News. Accessed 27 December 2005.
5. ^ Official NunBun description" at the Bongo Java World site. Accessed 27 December 2005.
6. ^ (27 December 2005). "Christmas thief steals 'Nun Bun'" at BBC News. Accessed 27 December 2005.
7. ^ (7 October 2004). "Caviar Virgin Mary art taken down" at BBC News. Accessed 27 December 2005.

External links

• RoadsideAmerica.com's visit to the Shrine of the Miracle Tortilla
• Your Own Personal Jesus Toast
• Template:PDFlink by Karen Stollznow.
• Image of Jesus in South American sand dunes (Google Maps).
• Template:PDFlink
• Pareidolia article on Skeptic Wiki
• Miracle Pictures of Islam
• The Incredible Likeness of Beings: Religious Simulacra and Pareidolia
• Series of Religious Simulacra images from the news