by Rin Yeo
Ah…Mirrors – they reflect everything that stands before them. However, have you ever wondered, is it really all there is to it? After all, can you trust the face that you see before you even?
Scientifically, there’s been an experiment that has been conducted to show that there’s more to just your reflection being shown, because even you yourself cannot be certain about it. Known as the strange-face-illusion, this can be triggered if your room is lit by a dim lamp placed behind a sitter who is facing a large mirror 40cm in front.
In less than a minute, the person will start to experience a distortion – or at least in their minds. Most will start seeing deformations to their face, while others will see otherworldly beings, amongst others. Interestingly too, the changes evoke strong emotional reactions as well, with the majority of these being negative ones, such as fear and anxiety.
Now here’s a twist to the entire thing – apparently the mirror and whether it reflects your reflection or otherwise, has not gone unnoticed by non-scientists either.
In some supernatural tales, it has been said that if you are in-between 2 mirrors, at 3.45am in the morning (one only wonders what you are doing then…), and you happen to see the 13th mirror which is reflected within, chances are, something bad will happen to you soon enough, for the 13th mirror would reflect your face then. There are the local versions of horror tales such as peeling an apple in front of the mirror by candlelight, although the most freaky one that we know of would have to be the following:
A Japanese television programme attempted to see if a rumour was true – that by facing a mirror and saying 10x “Who are you?” daily for 30 days will cause the person to disappear on the 30th day. While the authenticity of the above video is highly disputable, the change of the person doing the experiment seems to be undeniable.
We leave you to watch the video then – but only if you dare. Perhaps the next time you look at the mirror, you might want to check it again to make sure that it really is you…or is it?
