I was on Facebook this morning and noticed several friends status that said to be very careful today. Why? Well today happens to be 11/11/11 and some people see great significance in these numbers. In the last few months I have been paying attention to the clock more and have noticed 1:11, 11:11 and 2:22. Those numbers pop up for me now all the time now even off the clock. I posted to my Facebook wall how weird that I was noticing these number combinations. I had several people message me with their theories on what it meant including that they were personal messages from angels.

Some people believe the number 11:11 is about ascension and the beginning of awareness of the code that it represents. Some believe we are in a time of a new beginning with the approaching date of December 21, 2012. I know several people getting married today perhaps because of the significance of the date marking their new beginning. I am going to use today as an opportunity for me to explain apophenia.

Apophenia is the human tendency to find meaning or patterns in randomly occurring data like the date 11/11/11. The condition feeds on itself because the more conscious you are of the pattern of something the more often you’ll notice it and believe that it means something. The patterns can be found in everything we see and hear. We are hard-wired to find meaningful patterns because it helps in our survival. As an example is that the rustle you hear in the grass which could be a dangerous predator where we need to run. There are times however, when the patterns are really meaningless. As an example we can find faces on a textured ceiling, the clouds and anything pixellated like photographs.

People can find great significance in the patterns they find. The thoughts it brings up can range from a mild suspicion to full on paranoia. Speaking of paranoia sometimes there is a thin line between sanity and insanity. Apophenia is a part of psychosis which is a loss of contact with reality. That reality includes delusions which are false beliefs about what is taking place or who one is and hallucinations. However, apophenia has been noted in mentally healthy individuals.

People can be so steadfast in their belief in the pattern they find that it is hard to try to give them a rational explanation. These patterns people believe in can even be a life changing event for them! People have sold their homes, given away most of their possessions and have even committed suicide believing that the world would end on a particular day. There was a cult known as Solar Temples where letters after a mass suicide were found stating that they believed they were moving on to Sirius because of the patterns they found. Heavens Gate cult died in a mass suicide and believed they were exiting their human vessels so that their souls could go on a journey aboard a spaceship they believed to be following comet Hale-Bopp. This is obviously not healthy behavior. These people did not know they were deluded.

Some will understand the photograph is just a series of dots while others see the face on Mars. This formation is most likely the result of erosion, winds and other natural forces. People who believe in UFO’s see it as proof of life in the universe and the explanation is a sign of a cover up by the government. I am not going to alter my life by putting tin foil all over the ceilings because of this photograph nor should you. There are people who belief that tin foil acts to shield the brain from emf fields, mind control and mind reading by alien life forms although there is no proof of this.

Conspiracy theorists believe in chemtrails where the government is deliberately spraying chemicals on us. These chemtrails are really contrails caused by airplanes exhaust systems. When the hot exhaust gases cool the surrounding air it causes a cloud of microscopic water droplets and ice crystals. The people who believe in the conspiracy will not listen to this rational explanation.

You find evidence of people genuinely believing they found religious figures in pieces of toast, the grain of cut wood or on a wall. Ebay has made some of these people famous through the sale of these objects. The Virgin Mary on toast sold for 28,000! Religious related psychosis is quite common but not treated. Who is to say what one is spiritually experiencing is real or not.

It becomes a problem when it crosses the line like it did with the Solar Temples or Heavens Gate cults. You should not blindly believe in someone who wants control of your thinking, personal assets and life like Marshall Applewhite.

Apophenia also is a huge problem in people who gamble which can be debilitating. A person who really believes in their pattern of numbers cannot stop betting and can lose everything. If you are stuck with a pattern and cannot stop unhealthy behavior it is time to seek help from a therapist.