Maybe we watched too many horror movies as kids, or maybe it's just an evolutionary advantage to be wary of danger when it isn't necessarily there, but we can all remember that sudden feeling of terror when the shadow of a tree flashes across a window.
"Who's there!" Is our first reaction. Because we are programmed to see faces and other human features quickly, that innocent branch swaying in the wind can quickly become the sinister hand of an ax murderer. It works for other threats too. Are you afraid of spiders? Then perhaps you might begin to 'see' them everywhere until you get a closer look and realize that it's just a hairclip. Better to be safe than sorry though, am I right?
We here at Bored Panda have compiled a list of times when people got freaked out by everyday things and while some of them are understandably scary, others are just plain hilarious. Scroll down below to check these creepy photos of optical illusions out for yourself, and share your own stories in the comments!
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That Paralyzing Moment When You Forget To Breathe Because You're So Darn Scared... I Forgot I Put My Hair Clip There
Optical illusions challenge our sense of reality; they make us realize that what we see is simply our brains' best interpretation of the visual cues our eyes provide. Our brains have adapted not to see what is actually there, but what we deem as useful to see.
These eye tricks occur when a visual scene unfolds that is different from what our brain has decided is the norm, and it will respond in odd and often confusing ways until finally arriving at a conclusion.
I Thought I Saw A Woman Dressed As A Handmaid About To Jump From A Building. I Called 911
I Left My Boots At The Back Door. When I Was Walking Back Outside I Nearly Had A Heart Attack
According to Exploring optical illusions, there are 3 main types of optical illusion:
Literal illusions create images that are different from the objects that make them, like most of the entries on this list. For example, if 3 birds are flying, 2 above one, it can form the illusion of a smiling face.
Physiological illusions, such as afterimages following bright lights or adapting stimuli of excessively longer alternating patterns (contingent perceptual aftereffect), are presumed to be the effects on the eyes or brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type - brightness, tilt, color, movement, etc. The theory is that stimuli have individual dedicated neural paths in the early stages of visual processing, and that repetitive stimulation of only one or a few channels causes a physiological imbalance that alters perception.
I Need To Find The Lady Who Hanged This Freak. Gave Me A Heart Attack...
Slept Over My Moms House Last Night And This Scared Me More Then I Would Like To Admit
Cognitive illusions are assumed to arise by interaction with assumptions about the world, leading to "unconscious inferences", an idea first suggested in the 19th century by Hermann Helmholtz. Cognitive illusions are commonly divided into ambiguous illusions, distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions.
1. Ambiguous illusions are pictures or objects that elicit a perceptual 'switch' between the alternative interpretations. The Necker cube is a well known example; another instance is the Rubin vase.
2. Distorting illusions are characterized by distortions of size, length, or curvature. A striking example is the Café wall illusion. Another example is the famous Müller-Lyer illusion.
3. Paradox illusions are generated by objects that are paradoxical or impossible, such as the Penrose triangle or impossible staircases seen, for example, in M. C. Escher's Ascending and Descending and Waterfall. The triangle is an illusion dependent on a cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join.
4. Fictional illusions are defined as the perception of objects that are genuinely not there to all but a single observer, such as those induced by schizophrenia or a hallucinogen. These are more properly called hallucinations.
Walked Into My Room And Saw That My Pillows And Blanket Had Tangled Up Like This. I Almost Had A Heart Attack
My Wife Tossed A Comforter On A Chair To Dry, I Nearly Had A Heart Attack
Had A Mini Heart Attack When I Looked Up And Saw This. Trampoline Developed A Hole. She Thought It Was Hilarious
that's creepy just like pennywise dancing that dance/ gross. herobrine naked dancing shaking his butt.
imagine you kid on a trampoline that looked like she didn't have a freaking head!
She must put red dye on the back of her neck and all around the hole
That's a shame. The hole in the trampoline, not the kid being "headless" (which would be a much bigger shame than a hole in a trampoline). Can you repair it and extend the life and enjoyment of the trampoline?
This bothers me as someone who used to have a trampoline as a kid and took pretty good care of it. No shoes allowed or keys or jewelry or sharp objects were allowed on the jumping surface (mat). Even the adults. Though I used to sleep in a pup tent on it in the summer but I was careful. We only ever had one or two small holes (way smaller than a child's head, like smaller than pinky fingernail size) in the mat. I miss having it and setting up a lawn sprinkler and pouring dish soap on the mat and jumping around in the bubbles. Very fun!
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My Friend's Way Of Drying Shoes Scared Me A Bit. I Thought She Was Hanging Out Her 11th Floor Window
This Was On The Side Of My Friends House, Scared The Crap Out Of Me
"Head" On Beach After Sandy
Saw This After My SO Gasped. Scared The Hell Out Of Us. This Is Mannequin
When Your Lamp Gives You A Heart Attack
Early When I Arrived Home, I Saw A Strange Figure Standing In My Window. Terrified, I Called The Police And They Did A Search Of My House. The Culprit? My Hanging Laundry
Every Time I Come Home Late My Neighbor's Burglar-Proofing Cardboard Cutout Gives Me A Minor Heart Attack
Hung My Hip Waders Up In The Basement. Scared The S**t Out Of My Wife When She Went To Go Down There
Came Home Late And Found This Sitting On The Edge Of My Bed. I Now Know What It's Like To Be Too Scared To Move
Scared The Crap Out Of Me This Morning
Was Eating A Packet Of Walnuts When I Happened To Notice This... Almost Had A Heart Attack
My Mom Washed My Snuggie And Hung It Up In My Room, Almost Had A Heart Attack
The Shadow From This Tree Scared Me
Almost Had A Heart Attack
SAme, and the witty comments add to the hilarity!! Bored Panderers are the best. I LOVE this <3
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I found it amusing a lot of people has a fear of finding spiders everywhere. are they usually the dangerous ones? the types that usually found where I'm from are mostly harmless so I don't think spiders are a common phobia.
I don't think people are scared of spiders because they're dangerous, but because there's something about them that repulses the human psyche and causes a fear reaction. I'm scared of all kinds of spiders, including the tiny ones that won't harm me in any way
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A row of t-shirts hanging on a rail... Or is it? shirts-5d0...fd5129.jpg 
I’ve seen that many of times, use to do Visual Merchandising for JCPenneys and had to unload the morning trucks of merchandise.
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I remember going to PEI and swimming in the ocean where I saw a Jellyfish. We moved away from it as who wants to get stung. As we were playing Beach ball it got passed me back over towards the Jellyfish. I saw a shadow in the water and as I grabbed the ball the Shadow raced towards me and I let out a yell before laughing as I was afraid of the Beach Balls Shadow LOL!!
When I was 8-9 years old, I plucked a wild flower from the school playground and simply put it in my pocket..and ofcourse forgot about it. Got back home, changing my uniform,felt something in my shirt's pocket, immediately decided it's a grasshopper,freaked myself out and ran through the hallway..my grandpa came running.. I explained hin what's wrong while screaming,he pulled it out and threw it away. Moments later, I was giggling and grandpa was,well unpleased with my stupidity.
My father told me about the on-the-cheap alarm system he had while he lived in a fleabag apartment. He leaned an ironing board against the back door so it would make a loud sound if somebody tried to get in and tipped it over. One day he realized that, from outside, it looked like a giant cockroach - which would definitely discourage burglars!
Through a VERY strange series of events, I once called 911 and reported an intruder in my house in the dead of night. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest!! Police descended on my property, bright lights, guns drawn - there were about 8 of 'em! Well, it turns out I called 911 on my cats...
Loved it roared with laughter and realized how weird our brain is to make us see things that are not what they are but what we expect them to be.
I think that people's watch to much horror films, and get paranoia from it.
I screamed in terror at a broken lawn-mower starter rope on the ground. It looked identical to a baby rattle snake.
Hmmm... No matter how I look at it, I still think that some of them are staged.
I work at a NYC hotel and many years ago a VERY angry man comes to me asking for a manager.. seems one of our guest called the cops at 4am to report a body lying on the floor. He was a mannequin designer.
I scared the hell out of myself one time by hanging a black shirt over a white robe on the top of my bed post. It looked innocent enough when I went to sleep. Coming back from the bathroom later that night, I saw what I presumed to be Samara standing at the foot of my bed. I believe that was the first time my Hubby had heard such sounds from a human, judging by the look of puzzled concern on his face as he jolted out of bed. At least his first response is to look for a plausible weapon when alarmed, I just stand and scream.
Ten out of the 22 posts mention heart attacks... I wonder how/when that became a way to say how scared you are?
It has been since ever and it's pretty international...? O_o
Load More Replies... SAme, and the witty comments add to the hilarity!! Bored Panderers are the best. I LOVE this <3
Load More Replies... I found it amusing a lot of people has a fear of finding spiders everywhere. are they usually the dangerous ones? the types that usually found where I'm from are mostly harmless so I don't think spiders are a common phobia.
I don't think people are scared of spiders because they're dangerous, but because there's something about them that repulses the human psyche and causes a fear reaction. I'm scared of all kinds of spiders, including the tiny ones that won't harm me in any way
Load More Replies... A row of t-shirts hanging on a rail... Or is it? shirts-5d0...fd5129.jpg
I’ve seen that many of times, use to do Visual Merchandising for JCPenneys and had to unload the morning trucks of merchandise.
Load More Replies... I remember going to PEI and swimming in the ocean where I saw a Jellyfish. We moved away from it as who wants to get stung. As we were playing Beach ball it got passed me back over towards the Jellyfish. I saw a shadow in the water and as I grabbed the ball the Shadow raced towards me and I let out a yell before laughing as I was afraid of the Beach Balls Shadow LOL!!
When I was 8-9 years old, I plucked a wild flower from the school playground and simply put it in my pocket..and ofcourse forgot about it. Got back home, changing my uniform,felt something in my shirt's pocket, immediately decided it's a grasshopper,freaked myself out and ran through the hallway..my grandpa came running.. I explained hin what's wrong while screaming,he pulled it out and threw it away. Moments later, I was giggling and grandpa was,well unpleased with my stupidity.
My father told me about the on-the-cheap alarm system he had while he lived in a fleabag apartment. He leaned an ironing board against the back door so it would make a loud sound if somebody tried to get in and tipped it over. One day he realized that, from outside, it looked like a giant cockroach - which would definitely discourage burglars!
Through a VERY strange series of events, I once called 911 and reported an intruder in my house in the dead of night. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest!! Police descended on my property, bright lights, guns drawn - there were about 8 of 'em! Well, it turns out I called 911 on my cats...
Loved it roared with laughter and realized how weird our brain is to make us see things that are not what they are but what we expect them to be.
I think that people's watch to much horror films, and get paranoia from it.
I screamed in terror at a broken lawn-mower starter rope on the ground. It looked identical to a baby rattle snake.
Hmmm... No matter how I look at it, I still think that some of them are staged.
I work at a NYC hotel and many years ago a VERY angry man comes to me asking for a manager.. seems one of our guest called the cops at 4am to report a body lying on the floor. He was a mannequin designer.
I scared the hell out of myself one time by hanging a black shirt over a white robe on the top of my bed post. It looked innocent enough when I went to sleep. Coming back from the bathroom later that night, I saw what I presumed to be Samara standing at the foot of my bed. I believe that was the first time my Hubby had heard such sounds from a human, judging by the look of puzzled concern on his face as he jolted out of bed. At least his first response is to look for a plausible weapon when alarmed, I just stand and scream.
Ten out of the 22 posts mention heart attacks... I wonder how/when that became a way to say how scared you are?
It has been since ever and it's pretty international...? O_o
Load More Replies...