Is what we perceive real?

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legs

We all trust our eyes to show us the truth. We don’t typically doubt what we know we’ve seen “with our own eyes”.  Because we saw it–we know it was there! It was true. It was real.  And we often argue about our position because eyes don’t lie, right?

Be careful.

Look at what this Instagramer posted above.  What do you see?

Do you see shiny legs?  Maybe coated in oil or a slippery substance?

What if I told you there was nothing glossing up this woman’s legs at all. Absolutely nothing.

Would you believe me?  [I bet you are going back to look at that photo right now!  You don’t believe me…you trust your eyes, right?]

What if I told you she simply has white paint streaked on her legs?  Would you think I was lying?

Go look again.

Can you see it now?

Oh, wow, right?

How does this happen?

According to psychologist Claus-Christian Carbon, our brain mistakes the visual clues.  It takes the images and tries to process them in a way that makes sense, but every now and again, it fails.  And this is an example.

Which camp did you fall in? Did you see the oily legs or the painted legs?  Were you able to finally see it both ways? Or are you stuck only seeing one.

It’s kind of spooky, isn’t it?  It is that time of year — haha!!!

If you enjoyed that, this one is 10 times worse!  I tell ya. It’s still making me batty.  It’s a dress.

What color do you think the dress is??  Be careful. 

You can’t always trust what you see with your own two eyes!

48 Hours: Frances Hall and Bonnie Contreras

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If you caught 48 Hours this past weekend, what a story they told. You can’t believe the situations people find themselves in, and how they react and handle them until you see it sometimes. Emotions can cause people to do dumb and devastating things. Emotions, if not controlled, will derail you faster than anything else in this world, and that is what appeared to happen in this story.

Frances and Bill Hall were married 32 years. They were high school sweethearts. Bill Hall built a successful trucking company and it appears his success got to his head. He felt entitled to have a very young girlfriend (half his age), and a wife. He kept communications open with both women even after his wife knew about his infidelity. And worse, his mistress, Bonnie Contreras texted his wife horrible things and attacked her on social media.

One day in October, Frances saw her husband and Bonnie driving on the road the opposite direction, and says she did a u-turn to confront Bonnie.  Witness spotted the two women driving fast and erratically, and reported it to police. And the man in the middle, Bill Frances was there too, on his custom blue Harley, and tried to come between the women in some fashion.

In the end, something occurred where Bill’s motorcycle went off the road, and he ultimately ended up dying from his injuries.

The question raised on 48 Hours and in the courtroom was:  Who was telling the truth?

Bonnie Contreras testified that Frances started ramming her vehicle from behind repeatedly. Then she says Bill was between them on his Harley, and that Frances hit Bill sending him flying off his bike. She testifies that she also saw the motorcycle fly off the road, too, and that Frances never stopped.

Frances claims she never hit Bonnie, and that she didn’t hit Bill–that he wasn’t between them. From the accident scene, it appears that Bill possibly grazed the side of Frances vehicle while riding on the shoulder, and lost control. Frances says she has no idea he was there or that she hit him.  Yet the state thinks she intentionally killed him in a rage.

Who do you believe is telling the truth?

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Dateline: “The Accused” Nick Hillary

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If you caught Dateline this past weekend, there was an interesting story presented about an ex-boyfriend, Nick Hillary, who was accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s son, Garrett Phillips, age 12.

Dateline takes you through the story, Hillary’s arrest, and the trial.

In the end, there wasn’t much against Nick Hillary except circumstantial evidence.

Hillary chose to have a bench trial, instead of a trial by jury, and was acquitted.

What did you think of Nick Hillary?

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The Ramsey Family Photo

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Christmas Card Family Portrait — search web for image

With JonBenet Ramsey being a little “beauty queen” competing in pageants and center of her mother’s eye, you can’t help but wonder if Burke felt left out of the family. We can only turn to photos to see if there is any evidence of this.

When you look at this family photo of the Ramseys, it’s startling to me.

It says so much.

Who is the center of this photo?  It’s Patsy.  Not JonBenet or Burke–no, its her!

Worse, look at little Burke. He is literally put in the back–out of the way!  It’s heart-breaking that his mom and dad could do this.  Usually children are the star of family photos–the prize of the family, their pride and joy.  But that’s missing here, sadly.

When I look at Patsy Ramsey, I see a woman who lived in fantasy. She created images in her head that she wanted to be reality and she tried to create reality around these visions.  What reality was, however, was very different. I suspect she pushed reality away for her fantasies.

John Ramsey is pulling JonBenet close. Why didn’t he put his arm around Burke then, too?

Do you notice how JonBenet’s foot is turned awkwardly away?  That’s a sign of discomfort–a pulling away.  You can even see her dress is crinkled because of her pulling-away motion! And her hand is curled slightly, not relaxed.  There is tension there.

When I look at JonBenet in the videos of her, I do not see a child who loves the beauty queen life. I see a girl doing what she’s told–smiling, not because its genuinely felt, but because she was told to.

Of course, it is possible the photographer of this photo made a horrible suggestion to put Burke in the back.  But with all we know, Burke was sidelined when JonBenet became her mother’s “doll”.

Such a sad, sad story.

Burke Ramsey on Dr. Phil

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Burke Ramsey was on Dr. Phil last week, and yet again yesterday. He was quite an interesting person to watch speak. He seemed to have a permanent smile on his face as he talked about his late sister, JonBenet Ramsey, who as every knows, was murdered. It was odd and uncomfortable to watch, wasn’t it?

Dr. Phil attributed Burke’s smile to nerves. I suspect there are several other reasons why Burke smiled that need to be explored before we can conclude it was simply nerves. Burke smiled in interviews with the police and at the funeral of JonBenet, but there are scenes where he is followed by cameras and he is not smiling, which I found revealing.

Dr. Phil’s show seemed to heavily support that the Ramsey’s were cleared and innocent, but on CBS Monday and Tuesday night, top-experts looked at the case piece by piece in a show titled The Case of:  JonBenet Ramsey. I thought they did the best job of any show that looked at the Ramsey case.

The experts on this show clearly identified why the D.A. should have never “cleared” the Ramseys. I was flabbergasted back when I read the Ramseys were cleared by D.A. Mary Lacy in 2009.

Read my thoughts from 2009 here.

The CBS show also gave us many reasons why we need to look more closely at Burke–some of which were discussed and some of it wasn’t but was evident. I wish I could have been on that panel to discuss what I saw! I had many things to say that were never said!  Please know I am working to get myself in a public forum where I can bring my analysis back to you (send some luck, too, please!).

In the end, the CBS show’s experts concluded that it was highly likely that Burke Ramsey was downstairs eating pineapple when JonBenet could have reached into the bowl for a piece to eat it, and Burke lashed out at her and hit her with the flashlight.

There was only one problem with their hypothesis:  the pineapple was already in her small intestine–not her mouth, throat or stomach, which means the pineapple was not eaten at the time of the murder, but likely hours before.

So while I haven’t changed my original opinion about the Ramseys (I don’t trust them and never have), I do have more questions and think Burke did not do himself any favors going into the media like he did.  His interviews past and present were very revealing and eye-opening, and for me, they DO NOT take him off the “whodunnit” list.