Uncanny moments.
In no particular order.
Déjà vu. I’ve done this before. I’ve seen this before. Maybe once before, or perhaps it is a feeling of continued repetition. One of the best examples to describe the uncanny.
Seeing your reflection when you don’t realise it is you, you are looking at. Catching sight of a person in a mirror or shop window but then before you look away, realising it is yourself. I have done this a few times and it is always an odd experience. Your face you know so well is suddenly unknown.
Did I dream that? At one point I often got little parts of my dreams mixed up into my real life. Small things like something I have said or done. It is weird when you realise that what you thought you did was actually just in a dream. When real and imaginary collide the uncanny is produced.
Shadows of objects making strange shapes in the dark. In a half lit room, lamps and ornaments make human or animal shapes that dance across the walls. For a child this is scary but for an adult it can be very creepy.
Mistaking a stranger for someone you know well. From the side or back or far away the stranger looks just like a friend or family member. And you imagine it is them. And then at the last moment as you see the stranger properly they aren’t that person you imagined they were. It is so obviously not them. The clash between the stranger seeming familiar but then so completely unfamiliar is jarring.
Robots. I saw a documentary on the pioneering research and development of robots. It was unnervingly uncanny when the robots spoke and mimicked human speech and movements. The more human the robots were the creepier and stranger they became.
This video is one of many, take a look at some others too.
