Illusion / Perception

An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may occur with more of the human sense than vision, but visual illusions, optical illusions, are the most well known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses.

The above picture, Waterfall lithograph drawn by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in October, 1961. It shows an apparent paradox where water from the base of a waterfall appears to run downhill before reaching the top of the waterfall. This waterfall is impossible if you analyse by looking at the picture carefully a few more times.

The above Adelson's checker shadow illusion, checker shadow illusion and checker shadow is an optical illusion published by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science at MIT in 1995.

The squares A and B on the illusion are the same color (or shade), although they seem to be different.

I chanced on the above pictures while I was surfing the internet and this reflected on me about a person's illusion and perception. In life, we need take a second and third thought before we can conclude everything upon the first sight. Sometimes, we see things differently and misinterpret the actual meanings.