The Bizarre Case Of The Haunted Scrotum

Nothing too serious today, though perhaps it might have been for the gentleman concerned. It's the case of the haunted scrotum! And it's a true story.

A 45 year old man was being investigated for an undescended right testis. A CT scan was carried out and no right testis was to be found. What was seen on the scan was the photo on the right - the haunted face of an ... well you decide.

There was an amusing remark made by the doctor concerned, J.R. Harding. To quote his words: "If you were a right testis would you want to share a scrotum with that?" Source.

Of course pictures of faces have been seen in all sorts of places from Jesus on a slice of toast to the face on the planet Mars. Generally this is known by our 'expert' friends as pareidolia.

The meaning I have for the word pareidolia is: 'The erroneous or fanciful perception of a pattern or meaning in something that is actually ambiguous or random.' So this is a handy word that will answer many questions for paranormal skeptics: ghosts, faces, UFOs and so on are all brought about by random events - maybe the light in a certain direction causing shadows etc. etc. But is this really always the answer? Most likely not.