These images are called simulacra, meaning "likeness." They are nothing more than the brain's ability to interpret random patterns as recognizable images.

As seen in a Rorschach test, humans tend to try and make sense out of random shapes. In everything we see, we try to understand, even unconsciously. Borne of the will to survive, and see predators camouflaging themselves, the human brain is constantly searching for meaningful visual patterns.  Unfortunately, such capacity can persuade us to create significant images from random objects. The pattern-recognition machinery in our brains is skilled at extracting faces from haphazard clutter or detail.

The brain can easily rearrange random material into coherent images. This means that we sometimes see faces where there are none. In fact, the brain can do this with the bare minimum of information. this is because we try to make sense of the world around us, even to the point of inventing things. This is what makes it so easy to create emoticons. If we type a colon and a parenthesis, we instantly have a smiley.

If we look around, there are literally hundreds of examples, some that even make the news.

"Celebrity soon surrounds sacred symbols seen in a stain or a sandwich."











In his book "Demon Haunted World," Carl Sagan looks at the brain's mechanism, which explains this phenomenon.



"As soon as the infant can see, it recognizes faces and we know that this skill is hardwired in our brains."

     Carl Sagan



So many of us want a concrete religious experience, and we interpret simulacra as religious images. As a result, reality yields to a simulacrum, and a female face instantly becomes the Virgin Mary. Most often, this is seen in people who adhere to religions that emphasize sacred images.

The impulse to see something personal, something miraculous, leads us to believe that we see a face in the clouds, or an celebrity in a clump of rocks. Others might see the image of Satan.

Knowing this, the next time we see Tom Cruise in the grain of wood, we will know that Tom is not trying to send us a message.