In the media today, and also magnificently commented on at Bad Astronomy, is what appeared to some people to be a reflection of a naked woman in Dick Cheney's sunglasses in a photograph on the White House website.
Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy gives a nice close-up and a hilarious commentary to boot. As a psychology graduate it also makes me wonder what kind of Rorschach score you'd get from seeing boobs in Dick Cheney's knuckles?
So yes, Pareidolia is seeing something significant in a vague or random sound or sight - like seeing the sillouette of Jesus in burnt toast, or the Virgin Mary in water stains or wood-knots. Read more at Wikipedia.
There is still disagreement of whether we are specifically hardwired for face recognition, but there is little doubt we are born already able to discern faces very easily, and become so expert through experience, we readily see them everywhere!
This in addition to confirmation bias (basically we see what we want to see) which leads us to believe the image to be a religious figure (confirming our faith, belief) over a clown, a monkey, or Elvis.
In additional to the feelings of being chosen and/or special for being the one to which the religious figure "appeared".
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