As if the images of conflagration and death that hijacked our TV screens and dominated our newspapers in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 weren't monstrous and unfathomable enough, some who examined those images frame-by-frame said they saw literal evidence of Satan's presence in the smoke billowing up from the Twin Towers. Albeit for only a split second, they claimed, the face of the Devil himself emerged from the fiery chaos to reveal his hand in the devastation.
Skeptics objected that it was merely an example of pareidolia — the human tendency to perceive recognizable patterns in random sensori stimuli. A pair of computer scientists in Texas analyzed the images and concluded the phenomena were completely explicable in terms of natural physical processes.
Whether one believes they were natural in origin or supernatural, the haunting, iconic images remain part of the legacy of 9/11, in particular our struggle to understand and cope with the enormity of this seminal event in world history.
Read more about it:
• The Face in the Smoke on 9/11
More 9/11 folklore:
• Did Nostradamus Predict 9/11?
• The 'Accidental Tourist' of 9/11
• Budweiser vs. 'the Arabs Who Laughed' on 9/11
• Qur'an Verse 9:11 - 'The Wrath of the Eagle'
• 9/11 Depicted in a Folded $20 Bill
• The Wingdings Prophecies
Comments