1. At the start of the tour, there are two horizontal concrete blocks (shown by a carpenter's level). Two volunteers from the crowd stand on the blocks. We note their heights and then they switch positions. Now one of them looks much shorter than before.
2. Walking uphill towards the central cabin doesn't require any more effort than walking on a horizontal plane. Walking downhill I did not feel gravity accelerating me. There was also supposed to be something about the angle at which people stood on the road, which I did not quite get.
3. A plank which seems inclined to the eyes is shown to be actually level by the carpenter's level. But a ball placed on it moves towards one side of the plank and it is not the side that seems lower! For skeptics who thought that there was something in the ball, it was also demonstrated by a bottle that one of the visitors bought from outside the place.
4. The equilibrium of a pendulum hanging from the ceiling of the central cabin seems to be at an angle from the vertical. Same thing for someone hanging from a bar in the cabin.
5. Just outside the central cabin is a plank which is higher on one side and lower on another. Volunteers are arranged in order of heights - tallest on the lower side and shortest on the higher side. Then they are asked to switch the order - shortest on the lower side and the tallest on the higher side. We expect the height difference to be even more evident now. However, now everyone seems to be of roughly the same height.
6. There's a T shaped platform which was horizontal prior to the earthquake of 1989 but is now off by only quarter of an inch (again demonstrated by a carpenter's level). I stood on the T joint and another guy who was a little taller than me stood on one end of the T. After he switches position to the other end of the T and I turn back to see him, he seems to be quite shorter than me - much more than the meager quarter of an inch.
Photographs and some articles can be seen at the official website of Mystery Spot [1]. The guide narrated a colorful story about the history of place (which is not true at all [2]) to enhance the feeling of something abnormal. We were told that people have measured change in compass direction at some regions in the Mystery Spot. However, one article said that the author did not see any abnormal compass behavior. There are theories of alien space craft buried at the location, presence of weird gravity vortex, abnormal refraction of light due to the unusually high CO2 content in the region. Some researchers [3-6] have explained the phenomenon as the illusion created due to the cabin at the center of the spot, which is tilted. Such illusion, it has been demonstrated, is magnified when the body is tilted at an angle.
That eyes deceive is not new information. But the extent to which they can deceive is astonishing. Our first reaction to the experience was that its all somehow due to the surroundings. The central house was tilted. The floor was tilted. How would we know what is horizontal and what is vertical if everything is skewed? We were told that the house was built straight but is started tilting due to the weird gravity at the place and finally settled at the current orientation 3 months after its construction. But that begs the question that if it really were not an illusion, how much does it cost to remove that house and replace it with an adjustable construction that is easy to maintain in a horizontal position. That would have answered a lot of questions.
One study [6] demonstrated that the force required to move an object may be larger than the actual force needed depending on what the mind perceives as the required force. The mind takes its cues of horizontal and vertical from the surroundings. When pilots are not able to see the horizon, they loose their sense of horizontal and vertical and sometimes hit their plane on ground thinking that they are flying level. However, it is not easy to dismiss the experience as a mere illusion. The fascination lies in understanding how the human mind behaves.
After returning from the mystery spot, we ventured several ideas to explain the illusions and rejected them. With two architects on our team, we also gave adobe photo shop a try. But we could not separate a clear source of illusions. Of course, the photos that were carelessly taken and that left a lot of room for error. We hoped we had not been rushed through the tour and that we had enough time to analyze the effects. I even wondered if we could sue the proprietors (for mental trauma!) into telling the truth!
But I still find it difficult to explain why it didn't seem to require any extra effort to move uphill or get accelerated downhill. That to me, was more a matter of concern than the differences in perceived heights or angles. But after a couple of days I considered the possibility that the climb was not steep enough to require noticeably extra effort. Another thing that I do not understand is the ball going up the plank. If the incline of plank was just an illusion while actually it was horizontal (since the carpenter's level showed it to be), why did the ball roll in the seemingly upward direction (or any direction at all). It should have stayed at the same spot.
I hope I had more time to understand it. I also did some google on Bermuda Triangle mystery. It turns out that there is nothing mysterious about Bermuda Triangle as well. The stories that are used to prove that there is something paranormal going on usually omit most of the information [7, 8]. Examples of optical illusions can be found on the web easily [9].
PS: I read that there are other places in US where such experiences are observed. The Mystery Spot of Santa Cruz is, however, out in the open giving a natural feel to the phenomenon. The experiences are also probably more complex than all other such places in US.
PS: A friend who visited the Mystery Spot recently told me that the incline on which the ball was rolled was shown to be inclined (and not horizontal, as I recalled) opposite of what it seemed visually. If he's right, then there is less of mystery to the place!
References:
1. http://www.mysteryspot.com
2. http://www.dafe.org/attractions/related/santacruzmystery/santacruzmystery.htm
3. http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1998/0909/spot.html
4. http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/p_myster.htm
5. http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/unusual/mystery.shtml
6. Bruce Bridgeman, Influence of visually induced expectation on perceived motor effect: A visual proprioceptive interaction at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2005, 12(3), 549-52.
7. http://www.unmuseum.org/triangle.htm
8. http://scientium.com/diagon_alley/commentary/editorial_concourse/mcnamara/bermyth.htm
9. http://www.scientificpsychic.com/graphics/
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Mystery Spot
The last day of my California trip, I went to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz Santa Cruz
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment