Unbelievable.
Below are examples of some of the more outrageous examples of religious pareidolia. Some are in bizarre places (like in nacho pans or on grilled cheese sandwiches) and others are pretty much unrecognizable as anything, much less a religious. Please browse through the page by scrolling down or by clicking on the links directly below.
| Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese |
| Virgin Mary Car Lot Balloon | Doggy Door Jesus |
| The Nun Bun |
Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese
Unknown Location, Florida
Diane Duyser, a casino worker in Florida, sat down one day to enjoy a delicious grilled cheese sandwich. She took a bite, looked down, and saw a face. A woman's face. And not just any woman's face, mind you! Ms. Duyser saw the face of the Virgin Mary staring back at her.
Personally, I think the face on this grilled cheese looks more like Jane Harlow (pictured at right), but that's neither
here nor there.
After nearly devouring this relic, Ms. Duyser decided it needed to preserved safely, so she placed it in a small plastic box with cotton balls and kept it. For ten whole years. Over this time the sandwich miraculously remained in perfectly good shape. And after a decade of ownership, Ms. Duyser decided it was time to share her gift with the world.
And this is where the story gets unbelievable. Mrs. Duyser sold the sandwich on eBay where it was purchased by the online casino company Golden Palace. For $28,000!!!(*) I can take a sandwich with a woman's face on it. But a sandwich with a woman's face on it for $28,000?! At least there's no denying that this was a miraculous event for the Duyser family.
(*) " 'Virgin Mary' toast fetches $28,000", BBC News Online, 23 November, 2004.
All photographs owned by the Associated Foreign Press.
Virgin Mary Car Lot Balloon
Payne Weslaco Motors, Harlingen, Texas
Early one morning, while blowing up some balloons at the car lot where he worked, Javier Fuentes noticed one of the balloons carried a defect. He rubbed at it, spit on it and tried to wipe it clean to no avail. Then he realized something else. It was no ordinary defect: it was an apparition of the Virgin Mary. (*)
While I understand that Javier comes from an area of Texas in which the Virgin and appearances of the Virgin are taken very seriously, I really just cannot see the Virgin Mary at all in this balloon. I see a shape, I see a defect, but I do not see the Virgin Mary, much less any other figure, in this marking. If I absolutely HAD to say it looked like something, I'd actually have to say it looks more like a certain part of the female anatomy. And while that fits into the whole virgin theme, I really don't think that's what Mr. Fuentes was going for.
(*) Pedraza, R. "Virgin Mary Appears on Balloon at Car Lot." August 31, 2004. http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=2242527&nav=0w0vQRHe (accessed February 18, 2007).
All photos © Copyright 2001-2003 WorldNow, except as to content supplied by this Station (KGBT4) which is Copyright 2001-2003 this Station. All Rights Reserved.
Doggy Door Jesus
Yucaipa, Southern California
Overwhelmed with two huge, wild dogs, Roger Bowman and Debbie Vasquez were ready to give them up to the pound. The dogs were all set to go to a shelter in two days when suddenly an image appeared on the flap of their doggy door. Bowman and Vasquez were convin
ced that it was a miraculous image of Jesus sent to tell them not to give the dogs up. (*)
Now, I'm not trying to be mean here, but look at the windows next to the doggy door in the photograph above. Those windows are FILTHY. This image of Jesus did not magically appear out of nowhere. I'm sure it's been building up for months, if not years. Furthermore, when the door is looked-at straight on, the "face" just looks like two streaky marks of a distinctly doggy nature. Therefore, I think this "miracle" has more of a doggy origin than a heavenly one.
While I remain unconvinced over the miraculous nature of this phenomena, I am thrilled that the dogs were saved from the shelter. I guess the fact that they were rescued makes this a bit of a miracle after all.
(*) McGavin, Gregor. "Holy sight saves dogs from pound." January 16, 2007. http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_jesus17.38774df.html (accessed February 18, 2007).
All photographs owned by Greg Vojtko and the Press-Enterprise
The Nun Bun
Bongo Java, Nashville, Tennessee
This instance of religious pareidolia has a very warm spot in my heart, because it is the first instance I ever heard of. Not only that, but it's also hysterical. The Nun Bun is a cinnamon bun that bears a striking resemblance to Mother Teresa.
Very refreshingly, no one at Bongo Java, where the amazing bun was discovered, has claimed that this is a miracle of any sort. It's simple pareidolia at work: under the power of suggestion, our brains start recognizing certain patterns and angles of a very famous face, and bang! You've got the Nun Bun.
Interestingly, Mother Teresa's lawyers did contact the Bongo Java when the story became a worldwide sensation. Nothing major came of it, because the lawyers claimed that the coffee house couldn't display or use Mother Teresa's image without permission. The coffee house protested that declaring the bun to be her image would make this a miracle. The lawyers rested their case and the Nun Bun is displayed at Bongo to this day. (*)
(*) Bernstein, B. "The NunBun?" http://www.bongojava.com/nunbun.html (accessed February 18, 2007).
Morphing image of the Nun Bun used with kind permission from Bongo Cafe / Bob Bernstein.
