The Strange-face-in-the-mirror Illusion

The old parlor trick of staring at yourself in a mirror until your face starts to change has now been studied scientifically. Giovanni Caputo led a study in which 50 people tried the trick and reported their reactions.

At the end of a 10 min session of mirror gazing, the participant was asked to write what he or she saw in the mirror. The descriptions differed greatly across individuals and included: (a) huge deformations of one’s own face (reported by 66% of the fifty participants); (b) a parent’s face with traits changed (18%), of whom 8% were still alive and 10% were deceased; (c) an unknown person (28%); (d) an archetypal face, such as that of an old woman, a child, or a portrait of an ancestor (28%); (e) an animal face such as that of a cat, pig, or lion (18%); (f ) fantastical and monstrous beings (48%).

Have you ever tried this? The effect can be really creepy, like this video example from Lasse Gjertsen (in Norwegain, but may sound NSFW). The entire article is available as a pdf, or you can read a summary at Mind Hacks. Link -via Metafilter


So I gave this a try

It was strange how quickly the effects started.

Within a minute I lost the ability to recognize my own face. I knew it was a face but I wasn't able to tell whose it was.

Soon after that I started to see the face of my deceased grandmother, but I was not surprise by this at all. We look similar, and to be honest that was the face I thought I was going to see going into this experiment. So most likely it was a self fulfilling prophecy and I projected that face on.

Then I started to see the face of what most people call "The Greys," the archetypal alien. Big dark eyes, narrow jaw, no nose, and a large skull. I think most psychiatrist would tell you this is the face that infants see in their parents and that leads to a lot of alien abduction dreams when people are really dreaming about early childhood experiences.

I stopped after this because my room mate came in and found me staring at myself in the living room mirror mumbling to myself about aliens.
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Never tried the mirror trick, but when I was a kid, at a slumber party, we discovered we could stare at each other in a poorly lit room and all sorts of visual weirdness would ensue.
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I'm still trying to track down the details, but I saw something recently that indicated out-of-body experiences could be reliably triggered with an apparatus consisting of mirrors. I'd love to build me one of THOSE.
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As part of some therapy a few years back, I decided to *literally* take "a long, hard look at myself in the mirror" and spent 60 minutes looking at my own face. Sorry, but nothing weird or out of the ordinary happened during the session. 1 hour of non-stop looking, and I was still just me.
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This sounds like it could be the origin of the "Bloody Mary" game that kids have been playing for generations.

I remember kids playing this at sleepovers and coming out of the bathroom genuinely terrified. To this day I'm a little uneasy when in a dark room with a mirror. Now that I know what that's all about, maybe it'll be less weird ;).

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/bloodymary.asp
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One of the 48%-monsters reporting. Just after 5 seconds staring at myself, in a not too illuminated place. I see my face slowly changing into some sort of black demon, with a rotten face and black eyes. The scariest creature I've ever seen, even in videogames and paintings. And that's me.
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My husband and I used to do something sort of like this when we were dating (WAY back when we were teens). We'd dim the lights and just stare at eachother. Wouldn't take long for our faces to start changing. Then we'd tell eachother what we saw
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I didn't know this was a thing anyone else experienced. I don't get anything too weird, but I've always had a weird disconnect when I look at myself in the mirror too long, like there's another person on the other side of the glass. Interesting.
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Yeah, this is an interesting thing to do to your mind. Did it with a few friends when I was 19, while tripping on acid. Verrry intense, kinda scary, and often hilarious. Give it a shot, I DARE you!!!
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@Rumson You state in the mirror while tripping on acid? Are you trying to give yourself a severe psychotic break?

I couldn't even pass a mirror in that state, things would reach out at me.
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I've done this often. It's an interesting, quick meditation method. You can see al sorts of strange things.

To those who say they can't see anything - stop staring and relax.
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