Everyone who uses social media is familiar with these strange and mysterious illusions, which allegedly contain the answers to our deepest psychological secrets. Most people only glance at these images and forget about them. However, every now and then, there is one that catches our attention. The detailed sculpture below is one of those: an entangled biological mesh creating the shape of a human face.

The rules are easy: Do not cheat. Your first animal will show what your biggest personality flaw is.

Although these types of assessments are generally not based on scientific principles but rather on psychology, they do incorporate an interesting concept known as Pareidolia. In other words, Pareidolia is the human ability to recognize significant figures in a seemingly arbitrary image. What you focus on first tells a lot about the current condition of your mind.

So let’s dive into the menagerie and explore what your first choice might suggest about the “shadow side” of your personality.

1. The Lion (The Crown of the Head)

Should your eyes have instantly been drawn to the magnificent lion seated majestically upon the crown of your head, chances are that you are a person of strength, power, and prestige. But just as with every creature in this image, there is a shadow side to the Lion as well, and that dark side is arrogance and rigid pride.

Being drawn to the image of the lion means that your “biggest flaw” could be a failure to accept when you are mistaken. Being in a position of authority and thinking of yourself as a protector makes you automatically think that admitting fault will undermine your position. Your craving for admiration turns into a hunger for control, which makes it hard for others to give you any negative feedback without you taking it personally.

2. The Eagle (The Cheek/Eye Area)

An eagle symbolizes clarity and accuracy. If this is the creature you picked, then your personal flaw would probably be either detachment or hyper-criticism.

Eagles soar high and observe things from above. This helps you understand situations from afar very well, but at the same time, it may make you seem distant or detached. The problem is in the fact that while observing events from up above, you fail to consider the messy emotional aspect of people’s actions. Perfectionism may be one of your flaws.

3. Snake (Chin and Neck)

In case you were more focused on the two coiling snakes at the bottom of the statue, you are a very intuitive person who likes to keep things close to their chest. In that situation, your flaw would be either manipulation or secretiveness.

Snakes are symbols of transformation and change, but they are also creatures of secrecy. If the snake was the part of the statue you paid attention to first, then it’s possible that you do like to keep secrets for yourself. That’s not to say you have malicious intentions, but there is a sense of secrecy or even manipulation that surrounds you.

4. The Fish (The Nose and Eye Detail)

The fish are placed inside the heart of the face, symbolizing emotions and the subconscious mind. Should the fish be the first thing you see here, your flaw might be escapism or indecisiveness.

Fish flow along with the current. You may discover that when faced with problems, it is your natural tendency to “swim away” instead of dealing with the problem directly. This shows an inability to hold a stance in regards to important matters because you prefer to keep things fluid and prevent others from being displeased. Although this allows you to adapt easily, you run the risk of losing yourself to the surroundings.

5. The Birds/Swallows (The Forehead and Brow)

Most individuals can easily see the nimble swallows flitting around in the area of the forehead and brow. This suggests that your fault could be restlessness or lack of focus.

You are an individual who likes to look into the future. But this is because you never stay still long enough to finish one idea before starting another. While your head is constantly brimming with ideas, you might not have enough of the earth energy necessary to put these ideas into practice. Your flaw would be giving up on anything when the thrill wears off.

6. Otters or Small Animals (The Mouth and Jaw)

In case you have seen the smaller and earthier animals such as the otters at the mouth level or even the cubs at the head level, your weakness will probably be dependency/people-pleasing.

The animals stand for relationships and socializing. You see, if you spotted these animals first, then you place more importance on social harmony than your own happiness. This is what they call the “nice person” weakness; you do not want to risk rejection and therefore keep quiet about your own needs.

The science behind the “first glance”

Why would individuals perceive varying perceptions from the same set of geometric shapes and shadows? In most instances, there would be a reason for this variance. The human brain does not operate like a camera in terms of perception but rather operates like a narrator. In order to make sense of the perceptual mess around us, we rely on top-down processing. Psychologists describe top-down processing as a technique that allows us to apply our prior knowledge and emotions to our perceptual experience.

The “flaw” that shows up as a result of such an analysis isn’t some sort of a scar etched into the very depths of your soul or even something static related to your personality structure. Rather, it is an indication of how you spend your psychological resources at the moment. What is seen is determined by how the person perceives reality at the time – if you are extremely conscious of your vanity recently, then the image of a Lion will be like a flashing neon sign for you.

The purpose of the task you have performed here is not to criticize yourself but, rather, to assign you to a category in order to humiliate you. Quite to the contrary, the purpose of the task is to help you perform Shadow Work. This term denotes the technique used widely by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. This approach suggests that one should identify the elements of their character, which the person tries to hide because they seem “unacceptable.”

Once you become acquainted with your shadow, you become whole. Here is how you can apply the results of your “first glance” to your personal growth:

Acknowledge the flaw without judgement: The next step is to take down your armor. Don’t start blaming the test or saying the test is “off.” If you identified with the Snake and you’re now acutely aware of your proclivity for secrecy and manipulation, just allow that awareness to be. Admitting a weakness doesn’t mean you’re a bad person; it means you’ve become a self-aware individual.

Find the virtue within the vice: One of the most appealing qualities about Jungian psychology is that it suggests there is virtue inherent in every vice. The Lion’s arrogance might simply be untrained leadership skills. The Fish’s escapist tendencies may actually represent the potential for a very creative imagination that still needs to be focused on something meaningful.

Act and integrate: Once you identify that you are dealing with a certain pattern, you empower yourself to make a choice of another kind of reaction. Learning about something is the first step towards change. When next you find yourself having the desire to “swim away” during an emotional discussion, you can remind yourself of the Fish. Having identified the behavior as learned, you can challenge yourself to stay in the discussion room.

Conclusion

In the end, this picture is an absolute demonstration of Gestalt—an aspect of psychology whereby the “whole” becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Your brain will finally solve the puzzle and see the face of the human being. But without the presence of the intricate and sometimes even contradictory “animals,” there would be no such human face.

We are all living manifestations of such instincts. We are never just one entity; we are Lions, Snakes, Fishes, and Birds all in one. Our “greatest flaw” is often merely our “weakest part.” And when looking at a composite picture such as this one, we must journey through a jungle of distinct characteristics before seeing the human nature in the middle.

Through paying close attention to the first thing that we see, we obtain a small but priceless advantage over ourselves. We go from being the subjects of invisible powers to becoming masters of our fate. What was the first thing that you saw? More important, what are you going to do with your discovery for today? All you need is the mirror before you and simply look until you see yourself completely, warts and all.

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