Am I seeing things?
As humans we desire connection. In this day and age we are connected by fast wifi (if you don’t live in Australia), insane technological advances over the past decade and yet we still see people struggling to make meaningful connections. Regardless of the fact that the ability to create these connections have been made more accessible and convenient.
How can we as individuals find meaning? Why is there such a discord in human connection and intimacy?
I vividly remember myself as a child lying out in the grass looking at the sky watching clouds pass as I would imagine all sorts of creatures and worlds embedded in a soft cumulus or the hidden bridges disguised in the cirrus clouds. My mind would race with the possibility of what if. Opposed to the present as I watch a child, fixated on a console game, talking trash with friends about their gaming ability.
I’ve always had a fascination with language and its origins. I love my Penguin novels and texts. I recently discovered that one of my childhood memories has a word to describe what I experienced.
Pareidolia, it is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern”. I was cutting fruit up for my lunch one day last year, and as I cut away the core from my apple slice, Hedwig was looking up at me. Seeing the apple core Hedwig brought forth memories I thought long gone. Memories of me talking to my imaginary fairy folk friends where I even could telepathically talk to owls to send messages to my fairies that were busy studying in their wizarding world like schools.
As any sane person would do I quickly snapped a photo of Hedwig to show my partner. I also put it into a container to freeze. A part of me saw life in this apple cutoff. Maybe it was because my memory personified apple Hedwig. Only recently did I let apple Hedwig go into the trash. I must admit a part of me switched off and was disheartened to let him go. But I put on my Maria Kondo pants and let it go.
The experience correlated with pareidolia is known as apophenia. It is defined in Merriam-Webster “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas) What psychologists call apophenia — the human tendency to see connections and patterns that are not really there”. Apophenia for me was connecting memories which created a meaning for me. As a child I created meaning with my imagination.
Observing my immediate world, I have discovered that people find meaningful connections to others they have never seen. Which leads me to question are those who date online experience a subset of apophenia, because they find connection and meaning to something that isn’t physically there?
It could be the experiences of these are just a fraction of the foundation that creates meaning. During this complicated time, I encourage you to indulge in a childhood memory. Put your phone down, step away from the technology, all the seriousness and disconnect from the world wide web. Reconnect to those who are within your home, laugh at old memories, create new ones, share experiences of apophenia and pareidolia and by the time you’re done, you may find yourself standing on a mountain of meaning.
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