1. About.com
  2. News & Issues
  3. Paranormal Phenomena

Station Hotel "Demon"

Station Hotel Demon

The face of something weird... or an illusion?

from Sarah Reeves

"Please take a look at this shot that was caught on cctv," says Sarah. "The picture quality might not be brilliant, but this is because I took a picture off my mobile phone from the computer screen while watching the cctv footage as it was happening."

Sarah's team, Ultimate Paranormal Experience, also recently sent in this video, taken in the same hotel, for readers to analyze.

Regarding this picture, I can definitely pick out what looks like a "face" that appears somewhat "demonic", but I'm rather doubtful that's what it is. When we have a photo that is of such low resolution as this one, we're bound to see all kinds of pareidolia -- optical illusions -- some of which will resemble faces, even evil ones.

In this case, the photo is several generations away from the actual scene: a cctv monitor to a cell phone camera to the web.

To be able to analyze what we see in a picture with any degree of certainty, it must be of good quality, adequate resolution, adequate light, and in focus. So many of the pictures I receive from readers are fuzzy (because they've been taken without a flash and hand movement has blurred them) and so are apt to show all kinds of anomalies. I don't want to discourage readers from sending in photos, but blurry, out of focus pictures are virtually useless to analyze for possible paranormal elements.

What do you think?

©2012 About.com. All rights reserved. 

A part of The New York Times Company.