Every now and then, I run into an interesting problem: I don’t see people as they appear to everyone else.
Or, perhaps more specifically, I don’t perceive them the same way and that perception difference manifests in my mind processing the visual data differently.
This becomes most apparent when going through photos. I’ll see someone, recognize them and then get a solid *whack* of dissonance in my head as the mental image doesn’t at all match the picture I’m looking at. In face-to-face situations, the dissonance can be even more unnerving as my mind flips back and forth between the actual visual data and the interpreted appearance.
Thankfully, it doesn’t happen all that often… nor does it happen consistently with certain people. It seems to mostly be situational or related to the mood of the person or myself. It’s more prone to come up with those I’ve met in metaphysical situations, which, really, isn’t that surprising. Sometimes it’s infinitely more intense than others.
Yes, there have been people I have not at all recognized in person after meeting them numerous times in various situations.
So what, exactly is going on with that?
Physiologically, I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation–we all know there are numerous things that go on in the process of memory creation and visual interpretation that can get fouled up by any number of different things. It may just all be in my head… as is the case with most things that fall under the purview of this blog.
Metaphysically speaking, it seems that these secondary images–these Second Looks that people have–are connected to a few different things.
The first and most easily acceptable for me is some sort of past life connection. The most intense (and confusing) time I had this happen was with a young woman I met at a pagan workshop. We clicked pretty quickly and ended up going on a cross country trip together. The problem was, whenever I looked at her or thought about her she didn’ t look at all like the person that showed up in the pictures I had. It wasn’t until some things played out in a dream–where I recognized the setting as the location of one of my past lives–that things fell into place. I was seeing her as she had been in that life, not in the current one the camera was able to a capture.
A second explanation is connected to the masks we wear in our interactions and the different energies we project when playing those parts. This is a very context-oriented thing for most people. “When I’m out at the club, this is who I am. When I’m at the office, this is who I am.” We all do this to one extent or another and we’ve all seen what it’s like to run into that person from a specific venue when they’re “out of costume”–no makeup, no fancy clothes, in a hurry to get somewhere else. We all have trouble recognizing them. What I’m talking about is one step beyond that–the projection takes on a metaphysical aspect that can leave it looking like a double-exposure at times. Not as vague as an aura, almost as real as good special effects makeup.
Of those two explanations, I’ve run into the past life one the most. The second is (thankfully) rare in most normal social situations (and can be downright creepy if you don’t know what it is). Both speak volumes to me about the inner workings of the person and my interaction with them.
Both explanations leave me wondering if I have some Second Look that others see.
Do you see people differently from as they are? Are you aware when you are working with an altered visual reference? What cause to you normally attribute these Second Looks to?
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