Strange Faces

Have you ever looked at a face- either yours in a mirror, or a friend's or family member's- for a long time, only to see something strange? Something unusual, like an unknown face, one of an animal, a strange person, a freakish being? A parent's face, or odd, scary deformations?

The illusion, described here, can easily be triggered. Simply sit in a dimly lit room before a large mirror for at least a minute, and intently watch your reflection. A scenario that works is a dim lamp placed behind you (try a weaker bulb or put a towel over the lamp), while you sit or stand around a foot and a half from the mirror. Keep the lights off in the room. After about a minute, you should be able to see some changes to the reflection.

Creepy? I would love to try this out, but I'm hesitant and quite scared to do it alone. What particularly freaked me out was the comments below the article in the link. Some of them nearly sent shivers down my spine:

"I recall a person recounting an experience he had during a conversation with a friend, when the friend had an impression that another person was in the first person’s seat, at the same time that he had the feeling that his body was being occupied by someone else. "

"I just didn’t have the guts to sit there for more than 3 minutes, tops! My face looked distored, evil, smiling smugly, looking down on me. I couldn’t see my eyes due to the light, but the shadows in my eye sockets created the illusion of huge black abyssal eyes. The form of my face was constantly fluctuating, but always smiling and becoming more and more terrifying as time passed. There was nothing logically scary about the face, apart from a nearly paranoid sensation that I’m looking at myself who is me but not me and is looking back at me, no looking DOWN on me with a terrifying, otherworldly visage. It’s kinda like repeating your name out loud too many times until it sounds weird and alien only worse.

On another note, I’ve enjoyed talking with friends at night on the balcony and one told me not to look him in the eye when I’m talking because my face shifted and became someone he didn’t know. Someone he was afraid of.

Lastly, too many years ago as a very young kid I was looking at my mom sleep in a moonlit room until her face changed too and scared me so much I was seeing that face in my nightmares for a long time, until at an unspecified time years later this stopped once and for all with no apparent reason."

Insane, isn't it? Let me know how it goes if anyone decides to try it out.