Jesus on Toast
The human disposition to
find meaning in random
data is hard-wired in the
brain.The frequency with which religious
imagery is discovered in everyday foods
appears to be on the increase. While it
remains possible that these manifesta-
tions are harbingers of the imminent
apocalypse, neuroscientiic investiga-
tions are converging on a more earthly
explanation involving a combination
of neuropsychological dispositions and
people’s beliefs and expectations.
In recent years, the face of Jesus has
been spotted on various food items around the world, including
pita bread, breakfast tacos, naan bread, potato chips, ish sticks,
pancakes, pizza and ice cream. A Welsh family located his face
on the underside of the lid of a Marmite jar, while his cruciied
form has been observed in bananas, apples, oranges and pretzels.
Perhaps most famously, the face of the Madonna was discovered
by an American woman on a toasted cheese sandwich, a ind
rewarded by a healthy price on eBay.
Religious imagery has also been noticed in natural
phenomena. The Arabic words Allahu Akbarwere reported to
appear on a tree in Maiduguri, Nigeria, followed by discoveries
of inscriptions on two other trees in the region. In Singapore,
the formation of a mahogany tree was perceived to represent the
monkey god of Chinese or Hindu mythology, and two nearby
trees were found to reveal Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, and
the elephant-headed god Ganesh.
The disposition to detect faces or other images in apparently
random data is termed pareidolia, from the Greek words for
“instead of” and “shape”. In a recent study published in Cortex,
a team of Chinese and Canadian researchers performed func-
tional MRI scans on participants who were instructed to look
for either faces or letters in what was actually random visual
“noise”. In each case, increased activity was detected in the
posterior cortical regions associated with face recognition, and
in the right frontal regions associated with higher-level cogni-
tive processes. The authors interpreted these indings as
supporting the theory that face processing is strongly inlu-
enced by “top-down” beliefs and expectations, so even the
vaguest similarity of visual data to a face will trigger activation
of the face recognition system. This hard-wired disposition is
presumed to have evolved as an advantageous “fast and dirty”
way of detecting the presence of other people or animals.
Popular interest in the phenomena of faces in food has been
assisted through the marketing of novelty toasters, with one
company marketing the product with the line: “As Jesus tran-
scended Judaism, Jesus toaster’s appeal transcends Christian
marketing by also bringing Atheists, Agnostics, Dirt Worshipers
and more the joy of our Host on toast.” The human disposition
to expect to observe meaningful objects has also been tapped by
a number of so-called “projective tests” employed by less scien-
tiically-oriented therapists. One example of this is the Rorschach
inkblot test, which was designed to infer the thoughts of respon-
dents from their responses to ambiguous visual stimuli in what
could be labelled “directed pareidolia”.
Of course, pareidolia is not limited to spotting images of the
divine in the mundane, with non-religious images also report-
edly observed in foods, landscapes and manmade objects, from
faces on the surface of the Moon to images of Hitler in build-
ings.
Nor is the phenomenon limited to the visual system. Some
people have perceived messages when recorded music is played
in reverse, with the best-known historical example being the
claim that Paul McCartney’s death was announced in a hidden
message on the Beatles’ White Album. This interest in hidden
messages in songs was subsequently encouraged by numerous
artists who deliberately used backmasking to entertain their
listeners and/or to appease their personal dark lord. It has also
been rumoured that playing Justin Bieber’s songs in reverse
reveals actual musical ability.
Others ind messages in random noise, which they attribute
to supernatural causes. The electronic voice phenomenon move-
ment claims that random sounds detected in audio recordings
are communications from deceased persons or from extrater-
restrials – or possibly from deceased extraterrestrials.JUNE 2016|| 41NEUROPSY Tim HannanA/Prof Tim Hannan is Head of the School of Psychology at Charles Sturt University, and the
Past President of the Australian Psychological Society.Our daily bread can now come with a daily sign from God.