“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”- Albert Einstein

An amazing animated optical illusion in the silhouette of a spinning dancer See a link to a spinning dancer animation that could appear to be rotating clockwise by a person but could also be observed rotating counter-clockwise by another person looking at a same animation. Web sites as such listed the functions of left and right brain, and claimed that this is a personality test to tell if the observer uses more of his left or right brain by observing the rotating direction of the spinning dancer animation.

However, the rotating direction of the dancer can be absolutely controlled by anyone with a simple technique; and after mastering this technique, it will always work. Begin by practicing it with a slightly slower spinning dancer animation , after perfected the skill, it would also work quite easily on the original faster rotating animation. At a usual observing distance, when the dancer has appeared to be rotating clockwise, focus on the pointed leg until it reaches the left most, then blink your eyes normally and then look at the whole image, it should then change direction and rotate in counter-clockwise direction. When it is rotating in counter-clockwise direction, focus on the pointed leg until it reaches the right most, then blink your eyes normally and then look at the whole image, it should then change direction and rotate in clockwise direction. These are the two places to focus that would change the direction of the rotating dancer at the blink of your eyes, they are optical clues that the motion from these starting positions would set the direction of rotation for anyone focusing there. Take note this method could work well only with a non lagging animation. To lock into prevailing direction of the rotation, look at the animation focusing on the upper half image following the ponytail, whatever the rotating direction it would be persistence. For spontaneous change of rotating direction, look at the animation focusing on the bottom half image following the pointed leg, the rotating direction would then always flip within a short period of time. An unaware observer can always trigger a change in rotating direction of the animation unintentionally in many ways, or get locked in a certain rotating direction in a stereotype manner.

Focus here to lock rotation direction Focus here to flip rotating direction

The direction the dancer would appear to be rotating depends on initial optical interception with the animated image, after a first impression the direction of rotation is established in the mind and this direction would usually prevails in a stereotype manner especially when the observer is staring hard on the upper half image.

There are many other ways without blinking your eyes that can control the the rotating direction of this dancer animation, and also make it appeared to be swinging from side to side instead of rotating by focus on the pointed leg when it reaches the extreme end and then quickly focus on the head; this requires some practice playing with peripheral vision. There is also a visualization technique that could work with high success rate in controlling the direction of the spinning image; close your eyes and visualize a specific rotating direction of the spinning dancer in your mind, then open your eyes and look at the stretched out hand, the image would then rotate in the direction you have selected in your mind. This visualization method might not work when the pointed leg is at right end and you have visualized it to rotate in counter-clockwise direction, and also not work when the pointed leg is at the left end and you have visualized it to rotate in clockwise direction.

The standard spinning dancer animation would always start to rotate with the pointed leg at the right most as illustrated on right image, therefore people looking at the animation from this starting point would always see it rotating in clockwise direction with reference to top view when focusing on upper body of the spinning dancer, unless the image has lagged on loading when it starts to rotate that causes the observer to lock on the rotating direction with the pointed leg starting to spin from the left most, or for other reasons, such as referencing to the pointed leg therefore assumed bottom view instead of the standing leg that assumes top view, then it could be seen as rotating counter-clockwise persistently. Other factors could also contribute to invalid data, such as merely reported the direction incorrectly, or reported a spinning direction referred to his personality although he has seen it spin in both directions; such thing does happen. Without validating the inputs, the collected test results are not qualified for making any deductive reasoning.

They are ways to qualify these inputs by meticulously weeding out the invalid inputs, for example, first show the observer a modified animation with depth information that could only be observed to spinning in clockwise direction, and then follow by another that could only be observed to be spinning in counter-clockwise direction, this could identify a few categories of invalid inputs. Do not let the observer know that the particular spinning dancer animations shown are modified versions with fixed rotating directions would help if scrutinizing is required. After the first round, then use the standard spinning dancer animation in a second round for further testing, make it clear to the observer that they have to see it at the moment when the image has just appeared and the perception is from a top view of the dancer, and the animation is not too lagging, thereby eliminating the known ambiguities. For those who have reported persistence counter-clockwise rotating direction, use a modified animation that spin with a starting position facing left, refresh the animation would always make it start to spin from a fixed position. If odds are still reported, scrutinized these inputs further by making checks and also make sure that the observer have not somehow subconsciously preset the rotating direction in their mind by specifying them to look at the pointed leg at the moment the animation appears. If there is a substantial odd category at all based on validated inputs then it might be a significant finding that would then be worthy for further analysis.

The size of animations below were reduced to minimize lagging effect, If they still appeared to be lagging, click on the individual animation to view them one at a time.

Modified to rotate clockwise only

Rotating counter-clockwise only

Standard animation starts on facing right

Animation starts on facing left

Meticulously using the two modified animations from the left pair above with fixed rotating directions could help to qualify an input that an observer:

• has not made directional reference from bottom view of the dancer that is opposite from top view the majority would have assumed.
• has not reported a direction incorrectly.
• might be reporting a direction based on the listed personalities he thought he belongs to.
• could just be trying to demonstrate a special ability he does not have, can mostly be proven otherwise on a case by case basis in further scrutinizing.
• could just be fooling around.

* In one interesting test an observer pointed forward his five fingers on the animation from below the image, showing the direction of the spin he has observed as spinning counter-clockwise through rotating his fingers with a animation that only rotates in clockwise direction, it was then realized that he has made the directional reference from a bottom view.

This part of the tests might not work properly if the observer is looking at this smaller size modified animation from more than two feet away from a standard 15" LCD screen or if he has some kind of visual clarity problems, in such ways that the depth information is lost. However, these tests were conducted meticulously on a small group of people with careful monitoring and after validated the inputs there were no odd at all; that this animation is an optical illusion caused by ambiguities is as a result of lack of depth information and proper definitions. This is clearly illustrated by the modified animations with depth clues. From the understanding so far about this spinning dancer illusion, even by collecting validated data on broader base, it is in doubt that the findings would be able to ascertain rotating direction observed by a person is linked to personalities at all affected by his right or left brain functions. Image on far right is a modified version with depth clues so the dancer would only appear to be standing on her left leg with her front facing the observer. The smaller image have no depth clues and therefore could be made out in an ambiguous visual effect as her front or back is facing the observer, and standing on left or right leg respectively.

The spinning dancer animation has several issues on ambiguity that the suggested test in a simple manner cannot conclude a link to functions of left or right brain with the said observation.

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.” - Albert Einstein

Without knowing the triggering mechanism and the causes for ambiguities of an illusion, we could be misled and therefore derive or follow sophisticated theories that were developed based on misconception. In a delusion with faith established on illusion of knowing, and egoism brewing from illusion of having control, in a state of serenity embracing the delusion as an unshakable belief in a stubborn manner swearing by it, we can perpetually fool ourselves.

See complexly inversed illusions of natural phenomena, significant discoveries and overviews of Universal Vortical Singularity.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Richard Feynman

Ref:
Optical illusion animations - www.ScientificPsychic.com
Original spinning dancer animation - by Nobuyuki Kayahara
Peripheral vision - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* An enlightened Wee-Foo on top the eighth peak in a third cave of a national flower park in a tiny red dot.