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The Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion is an unexplained phenomenon where after staring at your reflection in a dimly lit room, your face may begin to morph, distort or even turn into a monstrous creature, leaving you unsettled and questioning what you see. Join me, board-certified dermatologist Dr Teo Wan Lin, as I unravel mysterious perceptual phenomena on this brand new season of Dermatologist Talks: Science of Beauty, as part of our quest to understand the science behind perception and how we truly see ourselves.
What are the pathways at work in perception? We take for granted that what we see is in fact reality, but the truth is that perceptual pathways are far more complex—both psychology and philosophy confirm that our consciousness creates a distinct internal reality that can be independent of the externals—the same phenomenon is observed in mental health disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder. In Episode 1 of this brand new season of the podcast, we discuss the strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion described by Italian psychologist Caputo, the same illusion is responsible for the Bloody Mary ritual. In folklore, this ritual, associated with divination, is most commonly practised by adolescents who claim to be able to summon the ghost or a spirit to foretell the future through catoptromancy, or divination using a mirror. Is this a case of science or superstition? Let’s find out.
Some of you may have heard of Bloody Mary, the legend of a ghost or spirit conjured to reveal the future, in a form of ritual divination using a mirror, known as catoptromancy. Participants begin by looking into a mirror in a dimly lit setting and start to chant her name repeatedly, thereby supposedly conjuring the apparition. The ritual is most commonly practised by adolescents and has been regarded by anthropologists and psychologists as a coming-of-age-rite that delves into our subconscious identities.
What is the truth behind this phenomenon? First of all, it is an illusion. The one you see in the mirror is merely an image conjured by your mind, which has been tricked to believe that the apparition you see is real. The Italian psychologist Giovanni B Caputo first describes the “Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion” in the journal, Perception, in 2010. In his experiment, participants are asked to observe their own reflections in a mirror placed in a dimly lit room. Under these specific settings, all of them experienced illusions after a period of prolonged gaze-fixation—essentially staring at their reflections for about 10 minutes. The fascinating thing was that there was a variation in the illusions experienced: (a) huge deformations of one’s own face (66% of participants); (b) a parent’s face with traits changed (18% of participants, of which 10% involved a deceased parent and in 8%, one living); (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%).
Equally fascinating is the emotional response triggered in these otherwise healthy participants. A dissociative identity effect was reported by all fifty participants, highlighted by a specific sense of the strange “other” looking at him/her within or beyond the mirror; with perceived expressions of the “other” accompanied by strong emotional responses such as: an enigmatic expression as “astonishing”; a malignant expression as anxiety-inducing; positive emotions if the face was seen as cheerful/smiling. The apparition of deceased parents or archetypal portraits produced feelings of “silent query”; monstrous beings were fear-inducing and disturbing, while the dynamic deformations of new faces i.e. shrinking, pulsating, smiling or grinding, led to a sense of being out of control.
And that’s not it, while we may now know the truth behind the Bloody Mary Ritual, the Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion remains inexplicable to date—and that might just be the strangest fact of all.