The world is full of optical illusions and things aren’t always the way they appear. Although our mind is constantly trying to make sense of the world around us it can sometimes get a little out of control and make us start to see things…literally. While some of the optical illusions on our list are relatively famous, others are a bit more obscure but all of them give us a glimpse into our amazingly complex minds. There is no magic involved, no strings attached, its all in your head. Here are 25 of the most incredible optical illusions you will find.

Hermann Grid

This is a classic optical illusion named after Ludimar Hermann who discovered it in 1870. At every point where the white lines intersect our eyes perceive a grey, shadowy blob. If you look directly at one of the intersections though, the blob disappears.

Fading Image

Stare at the image for about half a minute without moving your eyes and watch as it gradually disappears. This is a variation of Troxler’s effect which essentially says that if you fixate your eyes on a certain point, stimuli near that point will gradually fade.

Kanizsa Triangle

The Kanizsa Triangle was named after the psychologist Gaetano Kanizsa who first described its effect. When you look at the image your brain creates contours (outlines) of a triangle although none exist. In reality, it is an illusion created by the wedges and the angles.

Blivet

This is one of the most famous optical illusion pictures of an impossible object. It has two rectangular prongs at one end that morph into three cylindrical prongs at the other.

Blue vs Green

There are several variations of this optical illusion but the effect is the same. The “blue” and “green” backgrounds are in fact the same colour (open it in photoshop).