What do you see? (This is a test)

[Astral Monk]

I dunno whats going on here, but theres some weird writing floating in space over the mist where some guys arms reaching out...looks like some devious summoning ritual

 

[Hannes]

It looks like a map and a planet in the bottom right waving it's hand at it.

 

[silent thunder]

I'm telling you guys n gals... that's Ganesh's trunk... obviously Ganesh's trunk has a prehensile foot/hand on the end of it... that's how he manipulates all the magicks goodiezz n stuffs...

 

 

[SirPalomides]

A spacecraft on fire

 

On second glance I see what it actually is but I won't give it away

Edited August 31, 2020 by SirPalomides

[doc benway]

4 hours ago, SirPalomides said:

On second glance I see what it actually is but I won't give it away

Me too....

[Nungali]

Me three  

 

 

(Its actually my wife leaving with my ex best friend  {bastard !}  the speed boat and our bank account !    

 

 

 

 

 

.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Nungali

[sambista2002]

while trying to shut down 'I need to "win" ', (cross-eyed/upside down): ...cow's (animal?) head (right upper third of frame), looking at camera, emerged

...looked away from pic 'til "that's it!" emerged...

 

 

before: various, people scattered throughout, generally in profile or 3/4 view

first reaction: fairgrounds at a circus/county fair (!!!??!)

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by sambista2002

[Taomeow]

And now the real test begins!!

 

For those who responded earlier:

please tell us (if you can/feel like it) what it is that you found out about yourself when seeing THIS picture YOUR way!

 

  

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Taomeow

[freeform]

Cow

[Taomeow]

1 minute ago, freeform said:

Cow

 

Cow now?..  

Too late

[freeform]

7 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

Tell me if you can/feel like it what it is that you found out about yourself when seeing THIS picture YOUR way!

 

 

Was over-focusing on the details in the lower right (looks like an interior of a rowboat)... Was trying to work out the rest of the scene in reference to that detail.

 

Relised I'm reading too much into it - and looked again at the whole - and BAM there's the cow

[freeform]

2 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

Cow now?..  

Too late

 

I know

 

Saw the reveal when my post appeared on page 2

[freeform]

I'm curious whether if you didn't mention that 'this is a test' it would be easier to see the cow straight away.

 

'This is a test' - therefore it's not obvious, it's tricky, it's something obscure, it's a test of my skills of observation/ pattern recognition etc. That's the gist of the unconscious process that went on for me when reading the title.

[doc benway]

Seems like my attention was drawn to the darker areas rather than the lighter.

Drawn to the activity rather than the open areas that frame and define it. 

I think an image like this feeds our tendency to narrow our focus rather than open it.

Silent thunder recently posted about our attention's tendency to reach out and grab rather than sit back and allow.

[idiot_stimpy]

Bottom - Three people standing in front of a broken house with part of its structure exposed. 

 

Top Left - A flying monster with a skull like face looking towards the top right.

 

Top right - A person on the roof facing towards the left to oppose the monster flying at the top left.

[senseless virtue]

Weirdly tinted color overlay of horizontal stripes. From top to bottom: gray, blue, green, red, gray, blue, green, gray.

 

I suppose the black tones are supposed represent some type of inkblot figures, but to me there are hardly discernible shapes. The black mass in the top left corner is some weirdly shaped tinfoil balloon.

 

The right side is very iffy. It's got a prominent grill shape so I first thought of a fan or a bird cage. Then I realized it could also be prison door with iron bars or a window with thick bars and lights from a town shining inside some apartment. In the front of this door there seems to be a humanoid figure with a right hand extending around the corner. The figure has got shirt on with right sleeve rolled up high. The face of the humanoid seems non-human, the head is tilted quote far backwards and has a tongue sticking high up in the air. Maybe this is one of the fabled reptilians often referred in Gendao's (peace be with him) writings. Parsing it all together, it seems that the humanoid may be holding the balloon by a thread the resolution and noise hides. I imagine it could actually be a child wearing a scary carnival or Halloween mask and trying to give a spooky impression to the person behind the camera.

[Taomeow]

26 minutes ago, freeform said:

I'm curious whether if you didn't mention that 'this is a test' it would be easier to see the cow straight away.

 

'This is a test' - therefore it's not obvious, it's tricky, it's something obscure, it's a test of my skills of observation/ pattern recognition etc. That's the gist of the unconscious process that went on for me when reading the title.

 

No.  This picture is really a test, I didn't make it up, and when it is shown in a more formal setting it is always known to the tested party that it is a test, and this knowledge doesn't affect the outcome.    

[freeform]

2 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

This picture is really a test, I didn't make it up

What's it testing?

[senseless virtue]

21 minutes ago, freeform said:

What's it testing?

 

Latent lactose intolerance.

[idiot_stimpy]

Seeing the cow, I can't believe how I didn't see it in the beginning. 

[Taomeow]

1 minute ago, freeform said:

What's it testing?

 

One's ability to not see the cow and see something else instead -- doesn't matter what.  I can't say more, but for purposes of this test, those who don't see the cow, at least not right away (with the reveal the cow is impossible to unsee of course), have nothing to worry about.  I'm not qualified to tell whether those who only see the cow and nothing else have anything to worry about, but they are definitely unusual. 

 

35 minutes ago, steve said:

Seems like my attention was drawn to the darker areas rather than the lighter.

Drawn to the activity rather than the open areas that frame and define it. 

I think an image like this feeds our tendency to narrow our focus rather than open it.

Silent thunder recently posted about our attention's tendency to reach out and grab rather than sit back and allow.

 

Interesting!  Yes, it's about positive space vs. negative space.  To see the cow, one has to see the negative space.  To not see the cow, one has to focus on any which positive spaces.  The negative space here is yin (hidden, not obvious), and positive is yang (in your face -- that cow is in your face, right? -- but without seeing the negative space one still can't see it!)  Yet it is seeing their interplay -- a story, meaning, context, something that the observer contributes to give the picture its reality -- that is actually seeing reality.  It's not the cow that's reality here.  It's the dependence of reality on the observer's perspective that is reality.  A fixed perspective makes it a cow -- but is it really a cow?..  

 

   

[doc benway]

8 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

One's ability to not see the cow and see something else instead -- doesn't matter what.  I can't say more, but for purposes of this test, those who don't see the cow, at least not right away (with the reveal the cow is impossible to unsee of course), have nothing to worry about.  I'm not qualified to tell whether those who only see the cow and nothing else have anything to worry about, but they are definitely unusual. 

 

 

Interesting!  Yes, it's about positive space vs. negative space.  To see the cow, one has to see the negative space.  To not see the cow, one has to focus on any which positive spaces.  The negative space here is yin (hidden, not obvious), and positive is yang (in your face -- that cow is in your face, right? -- but without seeing the negative space one still can't see it!)  Yet it is seeing their interplay -- a story, meaning, context, something that the observer contributes to give the picture its reality -- that is actually seeing reality.  It's not the cow that's reality here.  It's the dependence of reality on the observer's perspective that is reality.  A fixed perspective makes it a cow -- but is it really a cow?..  

 

   

 

A wonderful illustration of something I recently mentioned in another thread, namely my view that our mind/brain creates our reality. Also comports well with one of my primary practices. Our tendency is to focus on the “positive spaces” as you so aptly describe, the activity, the stuff that fills space, obscuring the yin. My practice uses techniques to bring our focus more to the yin, the “negative space“ that allows; bringing the awareness to a place where the space and what fills it are more in balance. 

[forestofclarity]

On 8/29/2020 at 8:21 AM, Taomeow said:

Please try to respond without reading other people's responses first -- just scroll past them.  

(Please do read other people's responses after you've given yours, to compare pictures.)

 

 

It looks like an old photo, or what I have no idea. No objects jump out. It just looks like dark colors in one corner, some light colors in the middle, and a sort of blur of colors in the lower right. It looks sort of like an abstract painting, or something you'd see in a microscope. 

[liminal_luke]

What do I think now?  That I´m not as smart as I thought I was.  Thanks, Taomeow!  (Just kiddin´)  For the record, I still see my cat plain as day. 

[forestofclarity]

I followed the rules and did not see the image. However, after it was pointed out, I cannot unsee it. It is sort of like those magic eye things, which are always hard for me (I have issues with depth perception.) The image arose out of the muddles colors almost like the image of a dream forming. But unlike those magic eye things, it remains.

 

For me, this is a perfect lesson in reifying perception. At first, you are just presented with a swirl of color. Then, when you are able to "grasp" at a the pattern, the image appears and looks like an object.