The pages alone of magazines and optometry textbooks don’t harbor optical illusions; our own surroundings can easily fool our own eyes. Any change in color, shape, perspective, and shadow can boggle our minds to a particular degree and confuse our perceived realities with trippy imagery.
All of the photos below on the list have not been edited or Photoshopped in any way whatsoever—any weird observation your eyes make is a mere result of your mind’s interpretation of the sight before you. Read on for an arch that looks twisted, a man that appears to be levitating, and our world laid on some grass.
The Squiggly Mile
If you take enough mind-altering substances, this mind-boggling corridor could appear normal. The flooring and walls may be accurately aligned and are in no way intentionally constructed to be a casual hazard, but the lines painted onto them make the girl appear as though she is walking down a frightening hallway. The flooring work done on this illusion is incredible.
We can only imagine how many other people who may already have or have not yet passed through this corridor are capable of making their way through it without tripping. This optical illusion is bound to keep you from taking a normal stroll through.
Just Another Wave in the Wall
This mountain range may appear to be situated by a lake, but someone call a lawyer because this “lake” just so happens to be a concrete wall that has been precisely darkened by the shadows cast from the sunlight shining above it, giving its white paint the look of lake water. The sun shining brightly above the wall has shaded it well enough to bear the appearance of a sandy shore.
Let us just wish good luck to any visitors traveling past this spot and wish that they will not feel like they would want to swim in this illusion.
How Many Legs
Elephants are known in real life for having four legs, so the one drawn above should have four legs, right? The problem with the image above is figuring which legs are the original four and which legs have been drawn to trick us. We can’t tell, and we probably never could!
What do you think? Is your mind getting fried just struggling to decipher this delusion like our minds? One clue is that like a refinanced home loan, the elephant has its feet placed elsewhere, deceiving us with legs that seem real but are not at all. Or are they?
How Many Eyes?
What do you perceive when your eyes gaze upon my own? That seems to be the question imposed upon the viewer by the attorney in the picture. For this illusion, you will need to choose one eye to focus on, which sounds much easier said than done.
Which of the two mouths drawn on as well does he seem to converse with? Does one mouth serve to eat while the other is reserved for conversation? We got so much going on in our minds, and we can only wish that the man in the illusion can give us his reply.
Good Grief
For motorists who wish to speed across this crossing lane, Charlie Brown and his gang look like they’re crossing the road themselves. For those on foot who wait to make it to the other side of the street, the aforementioned group appears to have been stretched and illustrated in a two-dimensional style right on top of the lane.
We enjoy the small changes in perspective that can change many things before our own eyes. This illusion is after all a great idea to urge drivers everywhere to slow down and save them from maybe even taking out some unnecessary insurance.
A Classic Partner
This particular wall design, which is sometimes called the “cafe wall design”, showcases a series of square-tiled rows that consist of black and white square tiles that had been placed in parallel conjecture to each other, giving them the wall’s sloping appearance.
Science can explain much of this phenomenon to a certain degree where straight lines appear erratic, but its mention of some parts of the eye like the retina still can’t be comprehended by people with the likes of us. We can at least make sure that looking at this illusion could send all our thinking minds down the drain.
Body Swap
The moment you first come upon this image, it seems that the man’s head is disproportional to his body. You do not need to fret; your eyes are just playing games with you. If you pay closer attention to the photo, you can see that the man is sitting in his seat while his girlfriend has her arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind and her head tucked into that space between his neck and over his right shoulder.
You can believe that, or you can hilariously assume that he missed leg day. We are not attorneys, so it is not our place to say anything.
Like Oil and Water
Can you find the glass rod in the image above? You probably might have trouble doing so. However, you may succeed in spotting it through one of the liquids in the glass, even though they are both transparent.
This trick works because of the different speeds that light passes through the gas oil, the glass, and the water. While light may go through the oil and the glass at the same pace, its velocity through the water is a different story. Science may make sense of the many things that surround us, but this one may just make us want to scratch our heads for a bit.
You’ll Float Too
It looks like the man is nonchalantly floating a small distance above the road, but this is not the case. He has only been standing beside a wet mark on the concrete that appears to be his shadow.
Unlike the isolating and screen-heavy nature of online classes, optical illusions seem to take effect better in pictures than in real life. If we were there in the vicinity of this photo with the “floating” man, we would not be as astounded since we could merely walk around him like the trick is nothing out of the ordinary.
Master of Disguise
A certain San Francisco street artist deserves credit for his efforts in designing this utility box with the intention to camouflage it against the environment of the neighborhood where it has been installed. The life in the artwork painted onto this utility box is just a much bigger improvement than real life. How wonderful the world can be if every crossing lane had its own tiny bridge and stream.
We are only concerned if anyone has ever run or ridden into this box by accident. It just seems to fit into its surroundings quite naturally.
Linear Trickery
Here in this image, we have the so-called Ponzo illusion put to work in the real world. While the two red lines measure the same in size, there are several elements in the background like poor electricity that make one of the lines seem to appear bigger than the other.
If you do not want to believe us, try tipping your head for a different perspective of the lines and observe them better or maybe you can grab a ruler nearby and measure them with it. Have you gone mad yet?
The Ol’ Floating Boat Trick
This boat appears to be levitating in mid-air, but it’s really only doing its job of staying afloat on a body of water, quite like an investment earning over time thanks to good investment planning. This optical illusion works well because of the water’s near-transparency. The water is so clear that you can even find the shadow of the boat at the bottom creeping underneath it.
This see-through quality seems to bring the shadow on top of the water with the vessel right above it. We’re pretty sure they’re not built to fly. Just see the person at the edge dangling his legs over into the water if you still don’t believe us!
Cross-Legged Archway
The Delicate Arch which can be found near Moab, Utah appears sinuous, but the smaller size of the side which is facing closer to the camera compared to the other much farther side only makes the illusion so.
Your mind might perceive the smaller side of the arch to be situated some distance away, which could explain why the archway appears as a pair of crossed legs. This is a manner of a lawyer’s point of view, but we do feel like our own eyes are fooling us!
Hidden Man
Can you find the man camouflaged against the bags? Try focusing your attention to the center of the photo, and you should be able to find his silhouette. Believe us, he has hidden himself pretty well here, well enough to maybe even hide from his own student loans. This illusion has boggled the minds of many since its first release.
If you could focus your attention to the pink bag in the middle of the bottom row, you could make out the man’s feet. From there, you can move your gaze upwards to find the rest of his body. Incredible, right?
Makeup Mayhem
Our eyes can’t seem to rest easy with this photo, but it is just so hard to not look at it. This Vancouver, B.C. makeup artist has her own Instagram account where she takes credit for the other unreal looks she uploads there like the one above.
She has given this particular look the title of “onion girl” since she has managed to paint layers upon layers of her own face onto it. With only makeup in her arsenal, she creates these realistic characteristics beside her own facial features. It seems frighteningly real to us. This woman has nothing on lawyers with briefcases full of evidence.
A Rock in a Hard Place
Can you find it? Try giving it a little more time. Here is a hint: can you find the little rock situated on top of the brick that is a bit tinier than the other bricks around it?
That brick is not any different in size. Someone who may have probably been bummed from his mortgage rates must have popped a cigar into the brick wall through the bricks, so the “rock” is really just the burnt end of the cigar. Now that just seems to quite a thinker.
To See the World in a Blade of Grass
A French artist who goes by the name of Francois Abelanet deserves all the credit for the earthy art installation which he has given the title of Qui Croire?, which means, “who to believe?” when it is translated to English from the original French.
The angle from which the picture was taken makes the artwork seem ordinarily small, but the piece actually covers a huge area of 3,500 square feet of turf, dirt, and straw. This globe-shaped artwork made of grass would seem to be a huge, uneven, and strangely-shaped garden if the photo were taken from another angle.
2D Building?
This building may appear to be a flat slice of cemented structure from this perspective, but it does house several residents inside it. Unlike what many would seem to think, your beloved cartoon characters do not retire here at the end of the day when their shows are done airing on TV for the day or the night.
The building has been built with a triangular base and continues the triangular shape all the way to its roofing and then on top of it, which would probably explain the disappearance of its sides from this particular point of view.
A Dip in the Road
This confusing flooring choice may just control how slowly people should walk down this passageway as they make their way through this particular corridor. Casual passersby might just be able to walk on this floor with more caution if it appears to have a dramatic dip in it. If the picture above were taken from another point of view, no one would be able to notice anything different about it.
We should use optical illusions more if we want to get people to follow the rules more strictly.
Optical Artistry
This mural which can be found painted onto the side of an apartment building found in Sherbrooke, Quebec appears to portray an adjustable wall panel which looks like it is hiding a wide-open space inside it unlike its concrete exterior.
We can only dream that all apartment buildings would appear this welcoming to everyone who even manages to catch a glimpse of it. Canada’s authorities sure know how to permit and create street art on this amazing on various infrastructure. We wish we can have one like this painted onto any one side of our homes, to some degree at least.
The Tall and Short of It
Most bridges tend to be built several feet high up above the roads or grounds they are built over, but the bridge in this photo seems to be an exception to this popular belief. The bridge in this image seems a whole lot shorter on this particular side than it should be from this perspective.
The camera that snapped the photo at this degree took it from someplace that hid the forklift’s arm, giving the sense that the workers did not seem so high up off the ground. Either the bridge is built too short, or the workers are miniature figures of themselves.
It’s a Mirage!
The “Fata Morgana” is an optical illusion that got its name from a mythical Italian witch who conjured fake lands to lure sailors to their deaths, so make sure to get some of that travel insurance. The illusion here makes the boat far away appear to be levitating off the water.
Some people assume this trick helped popularize the legend of “The Flying Dutchman”. This illusion does not only seem to work on water; desert nomads and voyagers throughout history claim to see things during their journeys on the desert as well that can be attributed to this particular optical illusion.
Just Another Brick in the Wall
This tree visual seems to be the result of many bricks in the wall pushed further in, but a highly capable street artist in truth deserves the credit for his skills of darkening the bricks to a certain degree that would fool viewers into thinking that they had been pushed in.
Maybe that mailbox covered in graffiti in the foreground of the photo is writhing with envy at the fact that that artist did not make it look as beautiful as like the brick wall. Maybe it feels like it is the lone eyesore of the image.
A Simple Circle
Optical illusions do not always have to be so complex; simple ones like in the photo above work just as well for the viewers as do complicated street art. The bars in this railing have been expertly arched to the east to mimic the impression of a 3D circle.
This railing does not really bulge at all, like carefully planned money management. The world would become a bit more baffling for everyone but exciting as well if all useful hurdles bore a similar aesthetic to the railing featured in the picture taken above.
Figure Eight
If you even think of including this card in your deck, it could mess you up in the middle of a game of cards. If you pay close attention to this one, you could spot a hidden eight in the middle of the card which appears to have been formed by the diamonds printed on it.
Try to mention this little tidbit to your friends the next time you decide to play any game of cards just so that you can take credit for the ownership of such a unique card. This could be quite the conversation starter.
Follow the Dot
If you just so happen to be scrolling through your feed and see this image, you could think that this is a GIF. If you give this picture the attention of a lawyer, you’ll find that this is just another optical illusion, if not one of the strangest made out there.
You can force your eyes to look at the image as a whole and see no dots, but regardless of how you look at it, you can’t find only one dot at a time; they appear at nearly every crossing, so how is that even possible? I would like to think that it is all thanks to magic.
Give Your Phone a Little Shake
Try shaking your phone or tablet if you are reading this piece on one. Did you notice the effect that your shaking made on the image? The Oreo on top of the cake in the picture appears to jiggle as though it has been placed on some Jell-O. If this were a house shaking in the middle of an earthquake, it would need some serious roof repair.
This honestly seems to have weirded me out since I am not a fan of Jell-O, but I did start to crave for it. Maybe I might even head out to buy some for myself.
See-Through Stone
Typically I do not think that I can ever comprehend the true extent of our ancestors’ talent and skill, but if not for the modern technology we now have at our disposal, I do not think that we could even recreate something this exquisite even at present.
The Italian artist Antonio Corradini was the sculptor responsible for carving this sculpture that depicts a barenaked woman that appears to be covered in a seemingly translucent sheet. For this amazing piece of work that doubles as an optical illusion, this man truly deserves the credit and the acclaim that it already receives.
Underwater Waterfall
From this point of view, this appears to be a waterfall found to be flowing underwater, but the truth is a lot less exciting. This is in fact a sandfall, not a waterfall. The illusion brought about by the Le Morne Brabant peninsula located off the island nation of Mauritius is all thanks to sand runoff found in a profound route.
The sand and silt in this area are constantly being shoved down the plate’s boundary. This underwater event that seems to occur on the ocean’s flooring can easily fool our eyes into thinking that we are seeing a waterfall underwater when it is really a sandfall.
High Above the Clouds
It should not take long to convince anyone that this is the dream summer evening. The ethereal view is simply the stuff that dreams are made of. Nothing can compare to simply lying on the ground to gaze up at the clouds above, and this peacefully calm body of water wonderfully mirrors the sky above it.
The dreamy effect of this optical illusion does seem to convince us that the view is high up off the ground, with the rest of the world going about its own routine down below.
Maybe earning a great credit score can get us to a place like this.
Allan Key Stairway
No home is complete without a trusty toolbox, and no toolbox is complete without a trusty set of wrenches. We call all those different little wrenches plenty of names—hex wrenches, Allan Keys, among others—but it is not that hard to think that anyone who owns at least one piece of IKEA furniture has at least 17 of these scattered throughout their homes.
This guy chose to arrange his own set of wrenches into a staircase, making use of them at last. We would like to think that he could at least use these wrenches some time after for some home repairs like roofing or flooring.
What Conditioner Does He Use?
Growing your beard out is a trend that has actually been a standard for some time now. This grooming practice is quite a popular style investment for men. In fact, it is so popular that it has even lasted longer than other fads like the man bun.
The man in the photo seems to have grown his beard out rather impressively.
Unfortunately this man can only hope to get all the attention that many bearded guys on the Internet get since that is really just his girlfriend standing in front of him with her back to the camera and her hair poised as his “beard”.
Wild, Wild Horses
Fountains are often a work of art in themselves that take us away from the boring reality of city life and into the realm of the scenery they depictbut like an unusual flooring choice, this fountain manages to recreate life in an easy but efficient way. The horses here appear to be dashing through the waterfall, and I admit that this is quite believably realistic.
I am a fan particularly of the tiny horse in the back that seems to be only hurrying into the fountain now. You can do it, little one; just keep running, and it will be pretty alright soon!
Who’s In Front?
I need to ask you a simple question that should not require an attorney or two to answer. Which of the two buildings in the picture is closer to you? What you say will not matter to me at all because we can debate on which between the two is indeed closer.
We can argue about this picture all day long if you feel like it, but I would like to think that the building on the right side is in front because the sunlight shining on it makes it stand out more than its left darker counterpart.
Pool Party
If I ever visit this exhibit, this particular piece would make my mind go in frenzy. They say this pool is not in fact a pool at all, but from the looks of this art installation, I find it difficult to believe them.
I would like to think that there is a layer of glass holding some water right atop it to fool viewers from above into thinking that the people below are walking freely underwater. Just imagine having this sort of glass for your flooring. Now Leo’s death in Titanic almost seems more exciting to me than this could ever.
Has Fashion Gone Too Far?
Fashion has lately taken some incredibly weird risks in recent times, but a certain fad that does not seem to have an expiration date is the trend of camo-printed apparel and our bizarre obsession with it.
What do we not want other people to see here? It does not seem like anyone will be joining the Army soon, and let us hope so too. Maybe we should slow down on any more investments into all-camouflage clothing and come to terms with the fact that it is not and has never been a great look on everyone except on military personnel.
Sneak Level 100
I doubt I will ever let go of my obsession with 3D art. I know the man drawn onto the pages of the sketchpad above is not really thinking of making his way around the edge of this book, but the manner with which he has been drawn is just too realistic to have me convinced otherwise!
I already know that I would not fare so well in a game of Pictionary, but works of art like this will never fail to astound me. This could be a cool decoration to my own walls and flooring, but maybe I could fool myself in my own home if I went through with it.
A Devastating Realization
You can skip this page if you are not a fan of bad news. It looks like the llama on the right is holding up a tiny bell with its hand and jingling it, but this is not true at all. If you think these llamas are about to start an uprising a la Rise of the Planet of the Apes style, then you would be both pleased and a bit disappointed that you would not need an attorney to defend you in such a case.
That is merely another llama sporting a hat back there. It is adorable but nowhere nearly as memorable.
I Don’t Get It, But I Respect It
No matter how I look at this tattoo, it just does not seem real to me. I do not know of the story behind this particular work of body ink, but I sure will be devoting more time to simply studying it for some time.
His arm seems rather hollow here, but I am not sure if the trick was intentional in the first place. Despite all that, I can guarantee that it can catch the attention of anyone who even manages to capture a glimpse of it, and the artist behind this one truly deserves all the credit for creating such an eye-catching piece.
I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying
The advertising agency behind this photo series created this marketing campaign to spread awareness on the good deed that is pet adoption, and I am really holding back on applying for some personal loans myself and calling an Uber to visit the animal shelter and adopt 12 dogs for me alone at this moment.
This is a touching and endearing series of photographs that could make eyes of anyone who even comes upon this by chance shed a tear or two. I do not mean to come off as a preacher about it, but so many homeless pet animals should land in a good home.
A Bit Bigger Than Uranus
I apologize for the childish gag; I am merely a human being, after all, and we are all bound to some form of childish humor no matter how silly or how dark they can get.
While cruising around for a bit of window shopping, this person managed to find a side table that looks just like the largest planet in our solar system. Maybe they just came upon another one of Jupiter’s many moons. I should stop with the science tidbits for now. Someone get me a lawyer if I do not stop making any more science puns from now on, please.
We’ve Come So Far
While we still do hate the frequent OS updates on our computers, we should be glad that we no longer have so many windows open up on our screens like the men in the photo above, unlike our student loans that still do come back to bite us in the butt even long after our own college graduations.
Kids these days have a much easier time now than we did. They simply do not realize that the ‘save’ icon signified a real disk where we would keep our old files. Just to remark, I would like to think that at least four of the men here go by Chad.
Which Do You See First?
The many interpretations brought about by the cloud formation seen in the photo above could be like one of those Rorschach ink blot tests that psychiatrists perform on their patients or on criminals as sometimes required by attorneys in court. I was surprised to have found the cat first since that head appears quite angry like many other cats that I have seen.
Those front paws though seem to convince me otherwise that I am also seeing a dog besides the cat that I have already spotted earlier. I am not sure how this helps me besides the fact that I might need to adopt a new pet.
Same Here Bro
Until now, I am still not sure how hair clips like this are being used by women or even by men who have lusciously thick and long hair, and I am not sure I ever will be.
Maybe it is because my hair does not harbor the same thickness required for this clip to hold it, but that clip could have a whole lot going for it like good plumbing services.What if someone else who saw this holding someone’s hair back thought that this was also a spider and attempted to knock it off your head? That could mean some serious damage and maybe even one hell of a fight!