In 2004, Diana Duyser of Miami sold a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich for USD 28,000 on eBay. She said it bore the image of Jesus Christ.

Pareidolia was earlier thought to be a symptom of psychosis; however, it is now recognized as a normal human tendency. Carl Sagan, an American astrophysicist and astronomer, put forth a theory which said that hyper facial perception stems from a very evolutionary need to recognize other faces, sometimes, too quickly. Like we mentioned earlier, it is a basic human tendency to want to find meaning in something so that we are able to identify and define it. David Hume, a Scottish historian, philosopher, economist, and essayist, in one of his quotes aptly describes this tendency. Though it may seem like a rather meaningless and tedious exercise, to find faces and objects in things that don't really have them, the fact is that it is not always meaningless. The famous Rorschach inkblot test uses this very premise to gain an insight into the workings of the human mind and is a very crucial test used in psychology.

It is quite probable that many may not have heard of the technical name of the concept, though most will have experienced it at some point in their lives. Some of the more common examples of this phenomenon include finding different objects and shapes in clouds, or tree trunks shaped like human forms or faces. Let us look through some of the other common examples of pareidolia. In what is one of the most common and famous examples of pareidolia, the rabbit on the moon, is a theory that has been passed down from generation to generation. There are stories written and tales told, and one is probably encouraged to see it come nightfall. There are countless examples of sightings of different kinds in space. Some of the famous ones include the Cydonia Mensae sighting, more popularly known as the 'Face on Mars'. When the image was first sighted, it showed the face of a man looking upward. However, higher quality photos taken years later showed that it was merely a mountain which looked like a human face when observed under the right kind of shadowing and illumunation. Another example of pareidolia observed on Mars is that of The Martian Mermaid. The figure has an uncanny resemblance to a mermaid in mid pose. This sighting caused a lot of stir among people, and NASA was even accused of trying to cover evidence that there was life on Mars. When one views the image as a part of the complete rover, however, the 'Mars Mermaid' is only about 6 cm tall. Probably the most hyped examples of pareidolia have been in connection with religious symbols and figures. So, finding Jesus or the Virgin Mary in different foods, or finding the Hindu Lord Ganesh in a vegetable is not a very novel thing we hear of. Given the sentimental value that people have for these religious symbols, it will probably not come as a shock to know that some of these findings have been sold for hundreds of dollars on popular sites.