Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

(Jul 23, 2025 04:41 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:You can literally see the Spanish moss hanging from most the trees.

No you can't. Only from the trees off camera in the foreground. There are no other branch hanging mosses in the picture. A quick look at the blown up photo I posted shows nothing above the figure that would suggest it is hanging from anything. And then there is the dark color of the figure which none of the moss matches. And then there is the translucent property of the figure which moss isn't. And then there are the straight dark lines making up the figure's legs and his musket, which no moss exhibits. Any other spurious debunks for this? Or are you sticking to some moss that coincidentally fell down a few days later.

Apparently you've never seen Spanish moss.

This is all Spanish moss:

And apparently you don't even understand simple lighting, when frontlit objects are lighter and backlit objects are darker:

I've even circled see-through and dark moss for you. The see-through bits even resemble legs touching the ground.
The legs in your picture are no more straight than the dark moss circled in mine. The supposed "rifle" is just similar pareidolia.

But since this is just a single picture that no one tried to verify, either at the time or soon after, you'll just dismiss all the reasonable answers out of hand. It's just pareidolia.

Quote:Hey maybe it was someone throwing moss up into the air from behind a tombstone!

Oh, we'll get back to this... since this soldier bullshit is you desperately trying to distract.

Quote:Apparently you've never seen Spanish moss.

I grew up in the south. It was everywhere, but it never assumed the shape of a dark wispy soldier figure..

Quote:This is Spanish moss.

Wow..you really are an artist, redlining above the figure a moss extention where there clearly is none. You do see the trees in the background above the figure? The light green dappled foliage illuminated by the distant lamps? Yeah..that's not moss. And no, none of the moss pics you posted shows translucence like we see in the figure. The really interesting thing is if it were moss why doesn't it look like moss at all? Because it is shaped like a wispy dark translucent figure that isn't hanging from anything. No amount of imaginative photo-altering can change that fact. Go to the photo link I provided and click on it twice to see the magnified version. There you will see a cap on the figure as well a clearer view of its translucence and discreteness . No mas moss por favor..

Like I already predicted: "you'll just dismiss all the reasonable answers out of hand. It's just pareidolia."

Pareidolia works both ways. A figure can be mistaken for dangling moss as easily as dangling moss can be mistaken for a figure. The devil ofcourse is in the details.

(Jul 24, 2025 03:00 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]Pareidolia works both ways. A figure can be mistaken for dangling moss as easily as dangling moss can be mistaken for a figure. The devil ofcourse is in the details.

LOL! You obviously don't understand the meaning of pareidolia.

Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. - wiki

There is nothing "meaningful" about moss. There is not detected "object, pattern, or meaning" in moss.

Compare that to seeing the meaningful soldier, complete with rifle object and cap pattern. 9_9

Quote:There is nothing "meaningful" about moss. There is not detected "object, pattern, or meaning" in moss.

Yes there is. Look up the word "moss". It has a very particular meaning and refers to a physical object in the world. Hence you twisting the ghostly figure into something familiar and comforting and mundane. Nobody wants to admit ghost soldiers are walking around cemeteries at night. And yet as we can see they obviously do. I have whole threads posted on the many ghost soldiers photographed at Gettysburg.

And don't even try to deny that moss is an object. I checked the dictionary already:

ob·ject
noun
/ˈäbjək(t)/
1.
a material thing that can be seen and touched.

Slowed down and isolated.

Palm leaf being lifted. Not into the tree, as it stays above the headstone, as demonstrated by the darker leaf blocking part of the lighter tree trunk. The straight left edge of the tree trunk clearly gets obscured and stays so.

Darker leaf is moved in front of lighter tree trunk more, right over the headstone.

The darker leaf blocking more of the lighter tree truck... and then is obviously pulled down behind the headstone.

Palm leaf obviously arcs up from the right, passing in front of the lighter tree trunk, and to the left.

Full arc of the palm leaf, from right to left passing in front of the tree truck, catching air, and falling straight down.


If you can't see the obviously now, you're blind and delusional.

Nope...nobody holding the so called palm leaf, and a toddler would be too small to lift it that high. We're talking the height of the lowest branch of the tree. And why did it take a few seconds for the palm leaf to fall? It just doesn't work.

(Jul 24, 2025 06:04 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:There is nothing "meaningful" about moss. There is not detected "object, pattern, or meaning" in moss.

Yes there is. Look up the word "moss". It has a very particular meaning and refers to a physical object in the world. Hence you twisting the ghostly figure into something familiar and comforting and mundane. Nobody wants to admit ghost soldiers are walking around cemeteries at night. And yet as we can see they obviously do. I have whole threads posted on the many ghost soldiers photographed at Gettysburg.

And don't even try to deny that moss is an object. I checked the dictionary already:

ob·ject
noun
/ˈäbjək(t)/
1.
a material thing that can be seen and touched.

Now you're just so desperate you're playing word games. There is no "meaning" to moss, no matter how much you attempt to take single words out of context.
And you're lying too, as tons of people do want "to admit ghost soldiers are walking around cemeteries at night." Otherwise this story wouldn't have made the rounds.
But that's just because people are naturally predisposed to pareidolia.

(Jul 24, 2025 01:46 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]Nope...nobody holding the so called palm leaf, and a toddler would be too small to lift it that high. We're talking the height of the lowest branch of the tree. And why did it take a few seconds for the palm leaf to fall? It just doesn't work.

You obviously don't comprehend simple things, like forced perspective.
Well, no accounting for dumb.

You can't explain why the leaf obviously arcs in front of the tree, not falling from the tree:

Quote:There is no "meaning" to moss, no matter how much you attempt to take single words out of context.

Ofcourse there is. As opposed to just a meaningless blob or smear on the film? It is an actual physical object that has meaning, just as your definition stated:

"Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none."

Quote:You obviously don't comprehend simple things, like forced perspective.
Well, no accounting for dumb.

Oh so complicated now. If it were just a palm branch, it would look like one all the way thru the video. It doesn't. It is clearly some amorphous shape that rises up into the tree, beyond the reach of a toddler, and falling down moments later. Even as it falls it is changing shape. That means it is no branch.