We don’t usually look into someone’s eyes very often. In fact, from time to time, if our gaze meets a stranger’s, we may feel a little uncomfortable and quickly look away. However, our eyes are truly the mirror of the soul, and we convey many messages through our gaze. However, if we dared to look someone directly in the eye for 10 minutes, we would feel truly awkward.
These were the conclusions of a study conducted at the University of Urbino, Italy. These researchers recruited 40 people, who worked in pairs. They were simply told to sit facing each other in a dimly lit room, staring into each other’s eyes for 10 minutes. Other people sat in a similar room, except instead of looking someone in the eye, they had to stare at a wall.
Next, everyone filled out a questionnaire reflecting on their experiences during the task. Those who looked into the eyes of a stranger reported very strange sensations: the colors around them became more intense, sounds became louder or virtually disappeared, and time seemed to pass more slowly.
Furthermore, many reported that the face of the person they were looking at began to change. Ninety percent of participants said the other person’s face had become deformed, and 75% indicated that the change had been so radical that they practically resembled a monster. Fifty percent of participants reported seeing their own features in the other person’s face, and 15% reported recognizing features of a loved one.
What happens when we stare at ourselves in the mirror?
These researchers conducted a similar experiment, asking 50 other people to stare at their own reflection in a mirror. In this case, the people also reported strange experiences, consistent with altered states of consciousness.
66% of people reported major deformations in their own face, 18% saw the face of one of their parents, 28% saw a complete stranger, 48% saw fantastic monsters, 18% saw faces with animal features, and 28% also saw archetypal images such as those of an old woman or a child.
The most curious thing is that, being their own image, these people also reported a profound sense of alienation. They all suffered from a dissociative identity effect and reported feeling like someone else was looking at them from the mirror, to the point that many began to show signs of anxiety, fear, and restlessness. They also reported a feeling of lack of control and great unease.
Why do we have these strange visions?
There are different hypotheses. Researchers believe that these strange visions may be the result of consciousness returning to reality. In practice, during such an exercise, our mind begins to wander, so when it must return to the present after a period of dissociation, it needs a little time to adjust and for all perceptions to return to normal.
In fact, this phenomenon wasn’t observed in the people who stared at the wall because they weren’t given a focal point to fix their gaze on for 10 minutes, so their eyes moved the entire time, preventing them from reaching that dissociative state of consciousness. We mustn’t forget that focusing one’s gaze on an object, without blinking, is one of the strategies for getting people into a hypnotic state.
A similar phenomenon has been known since the late 18th century, when Erasmus Darwin discovered that after staring at an object for a while, its color can disappear from our sight. In practice, if you take a blank sheet of paper and place a one-inch diameter red circle on top of it and stare at it, the red color will become increasingly fainter until it disappears completely. This is known as the Troxler bleaching effect.
At the root of this phenomenon lies neuronal adaptation. When neurons stop receiving stimuli, their activity decreases, and a change in our perception occurs. In practice, since the stimulus doesn’t change, our brain becomes bored and begins to “disconnect” from reality. We therefore stop perceiving the face in front of us as a whole, and a kind of random “montage” of features occurs, generating a grotesque image.
This montage is nothing more than our brain’s attempt to “fill in” the gaps that our eyes don’t see. To do so, it draws on our experiences, expectations, and assumptions, which is why not everyone experiences the same distortions or sees the same things.
Finally, if you decide to try this experiment at home, keep in mind that it’s more effective if you do it in a dimly lit room and if you get closer to the other person’s eyes or the mirror. Also, try not to blink.
References:
Caputo, G. B. (2015) Dissociation and hallucinations in dyads engaged through interpersonal gazing. Psychiatry Research; 228(3): 659-663.
Caputo, G. B. (2010) Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion. Perception; 39(7): 1007 – 1008.
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