Optical Illusions can use color, light and patterns to create images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brains. The information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, does not match the true image.

When you look at something, what you’re really seeing is the light that bounced off of it and entered your eye, which converts the light into electrical impulses that your brain can turn into an image you can use. Optical illusions fool our brains by taking advantage of these kinds of shortcuts.

Visual illusions are defined by the dissociation between the physical reality and the subjective perception of an object or event. Because of this disconnect between perception and reality, visual illusions demonstrate the ways in which the brain can fail to re-create the physical world.

This is known as apparent motion. The snake illusion occurs because there’s so much information hitting different parts of our retina at the same time. All this detail is sent to our visual cortex at once, and the resulting confusion tricks the brain into thinking that movement is taking place.

Tricking Your Brain into Believing Something in 7 Simple Steps

1. Research. Get clear on what you want.
2. Set a Day to Start. Set a day to start with your idea.
3. Focus on What You Want.
4. Avoid Conflict Between Your Conscious and Subconscious Mind.
5. Don’t Quit.
6. Take Advantage of Your Relaxing Time.
7. Ask the Right Questions.
8. Wrapping Up.

There are three main types of optical illusions including literal illusions, physiological illusions and cognitive illusions. All three types of illusions have one common thread.

Illusion, a misrepresentation of a “real” sensory stimulus—that is, an interpretation that contradicts objective “reality” as defined by general agreement. An illusion is distinguished from a hallucination, an experience that seems to originate without an external source of stimulation.

Illusion: A perception that occurs when a sensory stimulus is present but is incorrectly perceived and misinterpreted, such as hearing the wind as someone crying. Everyone may occasionally experience an illusion. However, illusions are extraordinarily common in people suffering from schizophrenia.

Optical illusions are cleverly designed to distort reality, but did you know that the same distortions occur frequently in everyday life? Our ability to see involves the brain moulding raw sensory data into a refined form. Some of the refinements are deliberate – they’re designed to help us survive.

It thus seems that to interpret a complex image, your brain has to identify a main figure and relegate the rest of the image to the background. Such illusions clearly demonstrate how your visual system groups and separates the characteristics of a complex image in order to recognize objects within it.

Illusions can offer scientists new insights on how vision and the brain work — and are more than intriguing parlor tricks. “They widen the mental horizons and make it clear that things are a little different than they seem,” Bach said.

They can occur for many reasons, such as the effect of light on an object, insufficient sensory information about an object, or errors in an individual’s processing of sensory details. The refraction of light can cause rainbows and mirages, two illusions that are dependent on the atmosphere.

Illusions are, by definition, mismatches between physical reality and perception. Love, as with all emotions, has no external physical reality: it may be driven by neural events, but it is nonetheless a purely subjective experience.

These drugs include risperidone (Risperdal®), clozapine (Clozaril®), quetiapine (Seroquel®), ziprasidone (Geodon®) and olanzapine (Zyprexa®). Other medications that might be used to treat delusional disorder include tranquilizers and antidepressants.

Most optical illusions are not harmful. They are proven to not harm your vision. However, if you stare at one for too long, it may cause eyestrain, sore/tired/itchy eyes, dry or watery eyes, headaches, and more. To the sensitive, some optical illusions can be dangerous.

According to the Mayo Clinic, viewing optical illusions will not hurt your vision, unless you spend considerable time staring at an image on the computer screen and develop eye strain.

IF you concentrate on this image for long enough an astonishing thing will happen. After about 30 seconds the swirls of colour will disappear entirely. It’s an example of a phenomenon known as Troxler’s fading. And if you combine that with an intense stare, the colours fade from view.

Most optical illusions are not harmful. They are proven to not harm your vision. However, if you stare at one for too long, it may cause eye strain, sore/tired/itchy eyes, dry or watery eyes, headaches, blurred or double vision, sore neck/back, shoulder pain, light sensitivity, or difficulty focusing.

Most Magic Eye problems have to do with the way the eyes work with each other and the brain. To view 3D stereo images, your peepers have to work together as a coordinated team.

By manipulating patterns, shapes, colors, materials and forms, Op Artists strive to create phenomena that fool the eye, confusing viewers into seeing more than what is actually there. And since belief can be as influential as fact, Op Art asks the question of what matters more: perception or truth.

So for those who see it as white, your eyes may be subtracting the wrong background and lighting. Changing a color’s appearance by changing the background or lighting is one of the most common techniques in optical illusions. As the examples below show, colors can change dramatically against different backgrounds.

The eyes can naturally change their color as a response to the iris expanding or contracting in the presence of light or as the iris ages. While eyes changing color is a natural phenomenon, and some cosmetic accessories allow for temporary changes, there is no safe way to permanently change eye color.

Green eyes

Bright Side put together some interesting facts about how and why a person can change the color of their eyes.

1. How mood can affect eye color.
2. Melanin and age.
3. Raw food diet and detoxing.
4. Make-up and clothes can change your eye color.
5. Sunlight and place of residence.
6. Laser lightening of eye color.

Contrary to popular belief, true black eyes do not exist. Some people with a lot of melanin in their eyes might appear to have black eyes depending on the lighting conditions. This is not truly black, however, but simply a very dark brown.

In addition to colored contacts, eye color can be permanently changed using a laser that disrupts the top layer of your eye’s melanin (pigment), the amount of which determines eye color/shade. With this, a brown eye will turn blue permanently.

Diluted honey can be used as drops in the eyes, to gradually lighten the eye color. While eye color doesn’t change completely, say from black to blue, the color does lighten and become brighter and lighter, with daily use of honey to naturally lighten the eyes.

Brown eyes may also have some green in them. However, it is not nearly as noticeable as it is when someone has hazel eyes. With brown and hazel eyes, the other colors may appear as rings or flecks of color.

According to the Eye Doctors of Washington website, gray eyes, unlike blue eyes, often have flecks of gold and brown in them. If you look closely, you may even see gray eyes changing color. Depending on what a person is wearing and what color light they are in, a person’s gray eyes may appear gray, blue, or even green.

Tiny explained that in the procedure, they use a medical-grade silicone implant of the purchased color—she chose ice gray—and introduce it to the eye through a small incision. “They told me that the procedure was going to be quick, five to 10 minutes an eye,” she said. “They woke me up.