Mysterious Torbay: Can you see anything unusual?

Why is it that we sometimes see things that aren’t there?
Faces in clouds are sometimes seen and mists that look like the shape of a human or animal.

This is called pareidolia and I think the easiest way to describe it is, that your brain is trying to make sense out of chaos.

Our brains like to compartmentalise things and will try to make the most random shapes into something that it recognises.

This can sometimes happen when we are tired which may be why so many anomalies are seen on waking or during disturbed sleep.

There are, of course, exceptions and these should always be explored. It may well be that you really have seen something strange and if more than one person has seen the same as you then what you have seen may be real.

In 2002, a family came over from Canada on holiday and visited many of the usual tourist sites, Cockington village being one of them. They took many photographs around the village and also of the church.

On returning home to Canada they checked their treasured holiday snaps and were surprised to see something strange on one which was taken outside the church.

Here is a copy of the photograph which they kindly sent to me. Can you see anything in the photograph that looks unusual?

Many people have looked at this photograph and are agreed on what they can see in it. If you can see something I would be interested to hear from you. My email address is ghostwriter979@gmail.com