Pareidolia Mondays: Woman With a Sense of Humor Finds Mary on a Grape

I'm sorry for the lateness of this edition of Pareidolia Mondays. There have been a number of recent thunderstorms in my hometown which, for safety's sake, have not allowed me to turn on my computer until recently (I'm also blaming the paltry length of this post on its lateness).

An NBC affiliate in Dallas, TX reported last Wednesday on a woman with a refreshing attitude toward her particular example of pareidolia. Becky Ginn, 24, of Arlington has apparently found an image of the Virgin Mary on a grape. See the above link for the picture.

Ginn posted a photo of her discovery on her LiveJournal account, and was subsequently beseeched by friends to contact the local news media. The Dallas NBC affiliate was proud to report that Ginn contacted them first. From the article:

"'I haven't made a shrine to it, nor prayed to it, nor done much of anything except e-mail the picture to a few friends and roll it around in the bowl in the fridge,' Ginn said."

A bowl in the fridge?! Blasphemy! Ah wait, Ginn provided an explanation for her cavalier attitude toward the grape earlier in the brief article:

"'I thought this stuff just happened to Catholics?' she said. 'Mom and I had a laugh about it at first, seeing as how we're Baptists and all and we generally don't expect to see holy people popping up in our foodstuffs.'"

Now it all makes sense. Of course a Baptist wouldn't know how to treat such a holy sign from God. All kidding aside, this is the kind of attitude I would like to see more often portrayed in pareidolia-related stories. All this article really needs is a proper explanation of the phenomenon, and it would be completely acceptable; to me anyway.

Pareidolia Mondays: Holy Mary, Mother of Log

For my first post after my two-week hiatus, I was delighted to find a relatively recent pareidolia-related story from Britain's Telegraph. The article, posted on the Telegraph's website last Thursday, tells of a likeness of the Virgin Mary appearing on a tree in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. Christopher Moreau, 47, first spotted the tree's feminine features as he was sitting down to enjoy a freshly opened beer in his backyard. From the Toronto Sun article, to which the Telegraph story linked:

"'I don't know why it's there, but I think it's a blessing,' said Christopher Moreau, 47, who discovered the tree-bound Mary last week. 'It raises the hair on your neck, it gives you chills.' 'I'm not a wacko,' Moreau said yesterday, adding he was stone-cold sober. "

Moreau claimed at first he wasn't sure what he was seeing. He went inside his house to fetch his mother-in-law in order to find out if she also saw the likeness of the Virgin Mary invitingly holding her arms open.

"'At first I thought I was seeing things,' Moreau said. 'Then I went and got my mother-in-law to tell her. She was overwhelmed by it. She was crying.'"

Moreau believes this miraculous image may have cured his 70-year-old mother-in-law of her lymph node cancer. But, since neither articles offers any context at all for the woman's condition, no solid conclusions can be made about this claim. The Sun article reports that the unnamed mother-in-law received test results a week prior to Moreau's discovery showing that her cancer appears to have cleared. Would Moreau have attributed the cancer's remission to the tree sans alleged sacred image? I think not.

Moreau has generously offered the tree to others seeking salvation, or perhaps a cure for whatever may ail them. He is quoted as saying that Mary is not there just for him, but that she's there to share.

"Moreau said he doesn't want a lineup of thousands of gawkers coming to visit the tree. However, he said he hoped the tree could possibly help those who are ill or in need of a potential miracle."

While Moreau's invitation does seem rather charitable, he really has no right to make such an offer since it is not his tree, but his neighbor's. Fortunately, the Telegraph found the legal owner of the tree who provided a slightly more sensible response to the arboreal Virgin:

"Laughing off suggestions that it was a sign from God, Eulalee Hamilton, Mr Moreau’s neighbor and the owner of the tree,said that the Virgin Mary image was just the scarring from a limb that was cut off the tree a year ago."

Hamilton said she doesn't care how many people come to Moreau's back deck to see the holy tree scar, as long as no one crosses onto her property and damages her garden.

While Hamilton appears to remain agnostic on the subject of tree-born religious icons, Moreau said the sighting has only strengthened his Catholic faith. But, not even the Virgin Mary waving at him from the trunk of a tree can make him attend mass for often.

"'Why do I need to go to church?' Moreau added. 'I feel that God has come to me.'"

I think the aspect of this story that stuck out to me the most was the attitude of Ms. Hamilton, the neighbor and owner of the tree. In a nutshell, her reaction to the alleged Virgin Mary sighting encapsulates my feelings toward religion in general. I don't believe in any gods, but I'm not forcing it on anyone. People should be allowed to believe whatever they want, as long as it does not seriously affect my life or the lives of my friends and family. So to any believer who may be reading this, don't trample on my garden, and I won't trample on yours.

Jeremy the Skeptic Presents: Pareidolia Mondays!

In order to get my readers (however few there may be) through the seemingly endless feeling Mondays at work can often produce, I present to you the first ever installment of Pareidolia Mondays. From now on, at least one post Monday will present a news story that features a case of pareidolia, since there is usually one per week (if you search news websites hard enough). So, without further gilding the lily and no more ado, I present this week's story.

A Fox News affiliate (most of the pareidolia stories I've come across are from Fox News, coincidence?) reported recently that a family in Houston, Texas is in possession of a pancake with the likeness(es) of Jesus and/or the Virgin Mary.

The mother of the family, who was not named, was making breakfast for her son when she flipped the pancake in question. Once it came to rest in the griddle, she and another family member "James" noticed the allegedly holy image. James claims to see the images of Jesus and Mary Magdalene with *gasp* their baby. Doesn't he know that's a sacrilege? An image of Jesus and his mother I could understand, but why would God choose to portray his son in such a non-traditional light?

James alerted his friend (or family member, the article is not clear) Joe about the miraculous occurrence, and Joe maintains that the image depicts Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Despite the disagreement between the two men, they can agree that the pancake is a good omen. The family's not quite sure what they're going to do with the pancake, except that they're going to hang onto it. James said he thought it wouldn't be right to profit from it.

The video to go along with the story is worth a watch, if you want to see a local news anchor talk to the family and perform her own "test" of the image's authenticity. In order to "make sure it wasn't a fluke," the reporter made two of her own fairly misshapen pancakes on the same exact pan. What was the outcome? Neither creation offered an image similar to that of the holy pancake! That's proof enough for me! Where do I sign up to become one of those Christians you hear so much about?

My first reaction to the pancake? I think it looks like Ronald McDonald holding a sack of hamburgers while comforting his big, purple friend Grimace. But, I'll leave the decision up to my readers. Here is the picture that went along with the article: