Adelbert Ames' Illusion or What we see

Introduction

Lately, I’ve begun to increasingly ask myself the question: “What does our Reality actually represent?”

For a long time now, I’ve been writing stories set in a fictional universe of my own creation. On top of that, I’m quite deeply immersed in such topics as Extraterrestrial Civilizations, Paranormal Phenomena, Parallel Worlds, Magic, Superpowers, and so on. This year, I discovered some amazing YouTube channels dedicated to alternative history — a subject that has interested me since childhood.

Besides of that I’ve long been interested in the issues surrounding the translation of the Bible and other Sacred Scriptures. Or, the possible mistranslation.

Well, all these thoughts I immerse myself in daily have created well‑established neural connections and disparate, various fragments of ideas. But recently, after watching an interesting video from the Veritasium YouTube channel, an intriguing idea began to take shape in my mind — an idea worthy of an entire book, or perhaps even several.

In that video physics teacher demonstrates an interesting illusion created by Adelbert Ames Junior.

The Essence of Adelbert Ames Jr.’s Illusion

The illusion works as follows. We see a cardboard rectangle rotating on a thin rod. It features six openings shaped like rectangular windows, arranged in two rows parallel to the horizontal surface. You’re invited to look at this image of windows and say what you see. The vast majority — an overwhelming majority — perceive that it (let’s call it a window frame) is rotating around its axis. But after half a turn, it stops and begins rotating in the opposite direction. Then it stops again after another half turn and once more starts rotating in reverse. And so it continues, constantly, rotating back and forth.

But in reality, the window frame rotates continuously, completing full revolutions around its axis. It spins non‑stop, turning in only one direction.

Why Don’t We See This?

The reason is that this window frame isn’t actually shaped like a rectangle — it’s a trapezoid. And it’s flat, not three‑dimensional at all. But shadows have been added to it, which compel us to perceive depth in the windows. Adelbert proposed that we see what we’re accustomed to. In the modern world, right angles surround us everywhere. That’s precisely why our brain wants to see the window frame as rectangular.

Secondly, the far side of the frame is shorter in height. But we can’t see that the far side is approaching us. Because if it did, we’d have to admit that the frame isn’t rectangular. And that simply can’t be — at least not from our brain’s perspective.

Proof of the Theory

Adelbert decided to prove his theory and traveled to South Africa. There, he showed the illusion to forty teenagers aged 10 to14. These teenagers lived in a rural community, in round huts. In their world, there were only a few windows with right angles.

Well, 33 out of the 40 children saw the truth — the window frame rotates in only one direction. What does it mean?

It means that we only see what our brain thinks is right. But what is right from our brain perspective isn't necessarily the true picture.

My Conclusion

A conclusion was born naturally in my mind: we see what we’ve been taught to see. Moreover, I think that we don’t just see, but also hear and feel everything around us in a distorted form. From childhood, we’re shaped by certain conditions, certain frameworks, and viewpoints. From childhood onward, we have ready‑made templates for absolutely everything.

What if we exist in a world that’s one continuous illusion? And the way we see this world depends on how we were raised. Sometimes, when pondering such topics, I think that people in psychiatric hospitals have simply looked behind the Curtain. They may have seen something that isn’t meant for us to see.

This idea was partially expressed in a rather concise form in the film Kate & Leopold. Where a researcher managed to travel through time thanks to finding a Time Portal. But he was locked away in a psychiatric hospital.

Now, in that hospital, he explains to a nurse that he’s like a dog that saw a rainbow. Dogs are color‑blind — they can’t distinguish colors. And if one dog manages to see a rainbow, it won’t be able to explain it to the others. For other dogs, rainbows simply don’t exist.

What do you think about this?