Jimmy’s 3D Mars Man post reminded me of those 3D posters that were popular for a while back in the ’80s/’90s. They usually resembled a cross between the white noise on your TV screen and some kind of LSD trip (at least, from what I hear). It was said that if you looked at the posters in just the right way (kind of crossing your eyes) that a 3D image would emerge.
It took me a while to actually make one of these work, but after that it got easier, and eventually I could make out the 3D image within a few seconds. Not that the actual image was anything to write home about… they were really sort of like crude paper cut-outs, but they were there, if you looked hard. It was a moderately interesting effect.
WARNING! ANALOGY ALERT! Barely thought-out spiritual musings ahead…
It occurred to me that in some ways, these posters are like the way we might approach religious faith. I heard from numbers of people I trusted that these posters really worked, and that there was something – some kind of image not immediately visible – "inside" them. There was the apparent image (which could look pretty chaotic), and then there was the image within the image. Thing is, to make out the deeper image took a little work. It did not just leap off the paper. To even give the thing a decent effort required a certain amount of trust. It took me quite a while, looking at a number of different images, before I could see what others already saw. If I hadn’t kept at it, I would never have seen that deeper dimension.
Now, that reminded me of another sorta-related thing which I found very cool;
Akira Inaka creates 3D images of pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. These images work in much the same way as the 3D posters I mentioned above. It might take some experimentation, but they really do work, and the effect on some of the images is pretty striking, giving the viewer a little sense of the spatial depth that is lacking in regular photos of galaxies and nebulae and other neat stuff. Inaka gives instructions on the site on how to make the things work. One note of advice; if you do this for too long, you might run into some serious eye fatigue, and maybe a headache. If you start to notice that happening, just quit and come back to the site later.
I found the site by following a link on the Hubble Heritage website (which I’ve plugged before). The site offers a convenient way to look at some very beautiful images of the cosmos. The captions can be as fascinating to read as the images are to see. The vast distances, mind-boggling dimensions and sheer energy represented by some of these photos can be truly staggering.
Pretty SCARY, eh keeds?! Ooooohh…
is it me, or is the parallel-eye thing a lot harder to do than the cross-eyed one?
I can’t do either one. As soon as my eyes cross, they lose focus and everything becomes a blur. And now I’m having trouble focusing on anything… I think I’d better not try that ever again.
I could never do those 3D posters. They were great at giving me a headache, though.
Unfortunately I’m blind in my left eye, so forget it. My wife enjoyed them though. It took her about a week to get the hang of it.
How coincidental. This weeks homily at my parish included on how God can give us a rug–there was a story involved–that has patterns within patterns. However one can only see the beauty and hidden “messages” with a life time of simple exposure and consistent reflection and growth.
There was an article by Mark Lowery in Envoy magazine that uses a similar analogy to the Magic Eye images: http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/5.2/magiceye.htm
Tim J.,
I love your last two analogies. Keep ’em coming.
If I could, I would like to add just a little piece to this one:
I’ve found that once I’ve “gotten” the image, I can lay it down and when I look at it again (if I don’t wait too long between looks), it just pops right back out at me. I still “see” it.
However, if I’ve put the image away, and don’t come back to it for a while, then I have to struggle all over again to “see” it.
Needless to say, those who “find” religion but don’t practice it very often will have difficulty “seeing” the reasons for it the next time.
I don’t know if this makes any sense outside my head, but Tim’s analogy sure does help me.