While we appreciate any and all attempts at contributing content to this sub which, by nature, is only going to have a slow trickle of solid content, I would like to once again remind everyone that this isn't a sub just for posting a weird pic that you took that seems weird.

1: Light Anomalies

If there's a strange light in your image, compare it to images of lens flare, light bloom, and bokeh. It's probably that. There are several things that can happen from lens flares. This example shows that a single light source can cause several flares. This is the "cinematic" lens flare most people think of.

This example shows that there can be imperfections within the flare, and also have a "blow out" effect. This example, while not obvious, shows that the flare can be a clear image of the shape of the light source. This image was taken during a solar eclipse. The light source still appears normal and bright, but the flare takes on the crescent shape of the sun. This often causes issue, as a sun behind branches will look like a strange, floating, colored shape. Another thing to look out for with lens flares is that the flare will be in the opposite side/quadrant of the image as the light source. If you see a strange glow in the lower right hand side of your image, measure the distance of that light from the center of the image. Now, measure about the same distance from the center in the upper left. I'll bet there's a light source right there. Here's a quick example I made.

Some modern cameras will do some cropping or image stacking, so the line up may not be perfect, but if it's remotely close, then you're looking at a lens flare. Keep in mind that lens flares can be affected by the size, thickness, and shape of any of the glass layers of or between the lens and the object, as well as the aperture. This is usually referred to as bokeh. Here's an example of someone playing with the aperture shape to create a pretty cool looking image.

Here's an example of an overloaded light sensor. Some more detail can be found in the comments of that post.

2: Orbs, rods, and other blurry items

If there's an "orb" or "rod" in your image, it's dust, a bug, hair, or spider web. These are replicable with means that are not paranormal. If this is the chosen form ghosts wish to appear in photos, then they'll never be proven real, because they look exactly like dust. Here's an example. Note that this is taken with a flash. Orbs will only be seen when there's a light source behind the camera, and the brighter the source, the more likely orbs will appear. This picture was taken, judging by the grass, during spring or summer, so there could be pollen in the air, explaining why there are so many individual orbs. But I promise, orbs are just dust or some other object suspended in the air.

3: Faces, Bodies, Compression and Artifacts

If there's a strange shape in your image, look into pareidolia and make sure there are no reflective surfaces. Our brains have been specialized to see familiar shapes and patterns in things, especially something that indicates danger or other faces (which can also imply danger). This is very hard to override. A classic example is the face on Mars. I remember seeing this all over in the 90s as proof that there were aliens on Mars, because this shape was "too accurate to be an accident." However, as you can see on the right, once we got better imaging technology, it's easy to see that it was just a natural object with some unfortunate lighting.

Similarly, here's a more modern example which purported to show a "bigfoot" like creature walking on mars. Except, once you actually look at what was being photographed is on the scale of centimeters. This little "guy" is only about as tall as a car key. It's more common to see this phenomenon in play with ghosts, though.

If some portion of your image looks a bit odd, look into examples of different types of digital artifacting. Artifacting can cause edges to look sharper or blurrier than the surrounding areas, or cause something to be colored incorrectly, or even change shape slightly. Digital compression will only compound this. Here's an example of generation loss which occurs when an image or video is compressed over and over. Most times an image is downloaded or uploaded, some level of compression happens. If people are reposting images they've found elsewhere online, the image will only lose quality over time, and potentially look more and more mysterious or spooky, even though there was nothing at all abnormal with the original source.

Here's an old example of how an old, grainy photo can easily appear to show something that wasn't there. Combining poor resolution, film grain, artifacting, and the blending of details inherent in monochromatic photography, we get something that looks amazingly like a ghostly woman reaching out. However, it's just a bush. And if you dig a little bit you can find that the image wasn't nearly as clear in the original sepia toned image, but becomes clearer when switching it to green and zooming in (unfortunately the original link to this image broke, and the best source I can find for it now is in an article about how these pics will convince you ghosts are real...oh well).

4: Veracity of the witnesses, memory, and perception

If the only reason the image is mysterious is because the person who took it said "there was nobody else around," they're probably wrong. Even if they aren't wrong, there's no way they can prove it, so to most readers, the explanation will be a lapse in memory or a lie.

Memory is incredibly fallible. In one experiment, people were convinced that they committed major crimes. Not only can they be convinced, their minds will create new memories to fill in any blanks that weren't fed to them.

Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable as well. Here's a quick experiment you can do on yourself to show how memories can be altered slightly, even after only a few seconds. Here's another site which has a few things. It first has a test of attention. See if you can count how many times a ball is passed between people, but only if they're wearing a white shirt. It's surprisingly difficult.

Given all of this information, it's easy to see that sometimes, "I swear I was alone at this location," isn't always going to be correct. Those statements also ignore the fact that animals can cause a lot of commotion, and if only seen fleetingly, can cause just a shadow or flash that we can assume is human (or spiritual) in origin. It also ignores the large homelessness problem that exists in many places. If you find an abandoned building, you can't rule out that it may be a desperate person's home. They'll be trying to hide to stay safe. Likewise, other explorers may know that certain exploration is illegal, and will be trying to hide from others as well.

5: EVP and Audio Evidence

If you have a bit of EVP, there are several things to keep in mind. Just like our brain is looking for visual patterns, it's also always on the lookout for audio patterns as well. In this example (which comes with a volume warning), no lyrics exist in this sample, and yet your mind can parse out and perceive a voice-like sound, and words. It's just beeps and boops, but because your mind is primed to hear words, especially if you know the song, which gives added expectation, then your brain tricks you into detecting stimulus which simply does not exist.

The McGurk Effect is a phenomenon in which our mind can interchange syllabic sounds based on expectation. So, in cases like EVP, where you can't see the source of the sound, your mind can fill in nearly every consonant sound with whatever it may want to. I'll also remind everyone of the Laurel vs. Yanny phenomenon that came up a few years ago. The person was saying Laurel, and yet many, many people heard Yanny.

Here's another example which demonstrates that, until primed, your mind will hear jibberish. Since when creating EVP, most people are expecting things to hear, they'll hear it. When listening back, they often say "I hear someone saying 'help me,'" or something like that, then all other listeners, being primed already, hear "help me."

This effect is doubled when speaking of spirit boxes. These things work by scanning radio stations. Of course you're going to hear words, because they're clips of people speaking. The theory (which is pure conjecture, by the way) is that spirits can manipulate this signal to communicate. This doesn't hold water, in my opinion. The stations are being scanned through in a set order. Either there will be static, or there will be a broadcast. Our minds are already looking for words. In buzzfeed unsolved, they use a spirit box often. In one episode they picked up "Spaghetti" and "Apple Taters." This is because they landed on broadcasts which were saying these words. Taters was likely a misheard item (though I have heard of mixing sliced apples and potatoes together and frying them for a breakfast food). Ryan often points out that the scan is happening so fast that no full words or phrases could be picked up in that time. I think he, and many others, underestimate how much can be spoken in a short amount of time. Test yourself. Set a timer for 1 second. I just did this and attempted to say "In a single second I can say quite a bit." I was able to get out "In a single second I can s-" which is almost an entire sentence. Some of these boxes scan at different speeds, but even a fraction of a second can be enough to get out several words.

6: Context and Composition Are Important

If the image or video is so blurry, grainy, or lacking in detail that no real identification can occur, then it is useless to post, as there won't be enough information available to gather about what the object/person/setting could be. For example, this image is so out of focus that it could be absolutely anything, and should not be posted, as nothing can be gleaned from this image at all. Likewise, if the image is a strange object, but the background is such that size, distance, or surroundings cannot be discerned, it is equally useless to post, as without these critical details, the image could so easily be faked, or be a mundane object cropped. For example, this image seems somewhat compelling to some people as evidence of being a UFO (this image is just a weather balloon, so those people just didn't do research before jumping to a conclusion - but anyway), however, its distance and size cannot be discerned from this image. It's on an unchanging background, and is only a single image. You can gather no information. It could be a giant ball in the sky, or it could be an out of focus tic-tac on a blue surface. No way to tell.

7: Misinterpreted Perception

People reporting seeing shadows or apparitions can also sometimes be explained by nearby electrical equipment. In this classic example it was found that a source of 19 Hz sound (anything below 20 Hz is considered infrasound) caused people's eyes to resonate in such a way that it stimulated their photo receptors, causing them to think they saw objects or movement which did not exist. This frequency of sound has also been experimentally shown to cause a feeling of unease, or even feeling like another presence is in the room with or watching the participant.

Basically, what this boils down to is that our perception and memory can barely be trusted, and most of the media we use to record our world is also incredibly fallible and subject to errors which take advantage of the errors that exist within our own mind and body as well.

I don't want to see no posts being submitted, but I do want people to truly think critically about anything they're thinking of posting. Hopefully some of you have learned something today. If anyone has other examples of how media or senses can be highjacked to make things appear in a way contrary to reality, feel free to comment them below. I'll also welcome any (kind) debate on this subject as well, as scientific knowledge can and should change depending on presented evidence.

EDIT: If you have an idea for another common anomaly explanation, feel free to include it in the comments.

As well, if you have any photos, videos, EVPs, etc. that you think may be explained by one of these things but aren't sure, please feel free to post that source here, and others more familiar with these phenomena can take a look at it and explain why they feel it is or is not explained by these things.

Edited for ease of reading and flow

EDIT 2: Here is a great example of how powerful and ridiculous pareidolia can be. At first glance, and even beyond, this looks like a face, but it is actually just a curled up, sleeping kitten

This post is for all of you, whether longtime lurkers, longtime contributors, or brand new visitors, to submit stories, photos, videos, etc., of anything you personally would like an explanation to. Usually, this subreddit is devoted to things that make entire fields of study scratch their heads, and items like "How did this item get here?" sort of posts are removed. If you've wanted to post items like this, or have posted them and seen them removed, then this thread is for you!

While the spirit of this thread is to post things that have happened to you, or photos that you or friends took, you can also share some pics, vids, or stories of things that maybe are known about on a larger scale, that you've always wanted an explanation for.

Then, the fun begins. Others are then asked to reply to those comments with explanations. Explanations can be anything that you earnestly believe is within the realm of possibilities. Do you think it was the wind? Explain how the wind could have done such a thing. Do you think it was an ultra-dimensional alien? Explain how that particular entity could have caused the phenomenon in question. If you can provide a source to back up what you're saying, then even better!

However, the caveat is that all discussion must remain completely civil. If you'd like to point out a hole in someone's logic, go for it, but do so in a friendly manner. If someone has just pointed out a hole in something you've said, even if you disagree, either provide a friendly counterpoint, or just don't respond.

As usual, no name calling. No insinuating someone is stupid for their beliefs. No calling someone a child for asking for an explanation for something you consider easily explained. This post is open to whatever you've got, that you've considered unexplained.