Clockwise or anti-clockwise

[Mrs Redboots]

I have been being fascinated by this (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html). Is she spinning clockwise or anti-clockwise? I see her going clockwise, most of the time (if I just look at her out of the corner of my eye, she goes anti-clockwise, but default is clockwise), some people see her anti-clockwise, and for the Husband, she keeps changing from one to the other!

I spin clockwise, for choice (I can spin the other way, but clockwise feels more natural). I was wondering what other people see the illusion doing, and whether it correlates with their own preferred spin direction.

[momsk8er]

Wow this is strange! Both my daughter and I saw her changing, but we thought she was changing at different times.

[fsk8r]

I'm another southpaw, and she's definitely turning clockwise. I've tried staring at it, and I can't make her go the other way round. Does this mean I'm actually spinning the right way for me? I keep wondering whether I was pushed into being a clockwise spinner because i'm left handed and in reality I should go the normal way, as in a lot of other things in skating I prefer to do things like the counter-clockwise people.
The bit I don't get is why my 3-turns are weaker going clockwise round a circle on the outsides and stronger on the insides as I would think the turning would dominate over the foot.

[Kim to the Max]

I see counter-clockwise...can't make her go the other way...I am also a lefty, however I skate counter-clockwise....interesting....

[Skittl1321]

I'm seeing counter-clockwise, but I can't get her to change. DH also saw counter clockwise, but was able to try and get her to go clockwise.

[jenlyon60]

Clearly clockwise for me.

And the few times I've messed with freestyle, I was spinning/jumping counter-clockwise/anti-clockwise.

[frbskate63]

I see her going clockwise, and I can't make her change. I spin (mostly) anti-clockwise, but when I first started spinning, I went clockwise - current coach makes me work on both.

I don't fit their profile of a right-brained person, though.

Fiona

[Award]

I'm another southpaw, and she's definitely turning clockwise. I've tried staring at it, and I can't make her go the other way round.

I see her spinning clockwise too, and don't seem to be able to trick myself into making her spin counter-clockwise. But, I trust my own judgement hehehe.....just by looking at her right leg...which is the free leg, and her right arm, they are clearly going clockwise hehe

[Award]

I also forgot to say, I can spin clockwise and anti-clockwise no problem at all. I jump counter-clockwise (my natural and preferred jumping direction). But I see this clip going clockwise.

[mintypoppet]

Initially CCW, but keeps changing when I focus on something else (eg reading the text!). I'm CCW, but more left foot dominant than CCW dominant!

[Scarlett]

I see her going clockwise. I can't make her counter-clockwise no matter how hard I try. I am a clockwise spinning lefty who is actually very science-minded.

[peanutskates]

I'm right handed, but spin/jump clockwise

when I first looked at it, I thought "obviously anti clockwise". then I looked away for a second, looked back, and it was definitely clockwise!!

but you know, I looked at her leg, and I remembered: right, she is definitely spinning on her right foot. and now she's in her left??? and my dad looked, said "clockwise" and 5 seconds later said "anti clockwise". but I didn't see her change.

this is so weird!

P.S i keep looking at it now, and it's still going clockwise... so maybe my natural instincts are overpowering it..

[doubletoe]

I see her going clockwise, and I can't make her change. I spin (mostly) anti-clockwise, but when I first started spinning, I went clockwise - current coach makes me work on both.

I don't fit their profile of a right-brained person, though.

Fiona

Me exactly! I see her going clockwise (left forward inside edge, to be exact) and there is no way I can find a way to see her going counter-clockwise. But I spin counter-clockwise and I have always considered myself left-brained. How unexpected!

[Morgail]

Definitely counter-clockwise for me. I can't see her going clockwise at all. It looks like she's doing a wonky backspin on her right foot (like mine used to look!).

I'm right-handed and spin/jump counter-clockwise.

[Sessy]

No matter what I do, I see her going counterclockwise - can't see it any other way no matter how I try. But mom sees her going clockwise. Weiiird.
I spin ccw by the way, but can do cw too - I think I'd rather spin cw if they'd let me (and jump ccw).

[Helen88]

Definitely clockwise for me - I couldn't make her go the other way at all. Yet I spin anti-clockwise - is that weird? I'm right handed... :??

[BuggieMom]

Whoa! That is FREAKY!

At first, there was no doubt that she was going clockwise. I am a ccw skater but I may be influenced by watching my dd spin...she goes cw (and she is right handed). To me, that looks normal. I also consider myself much more left brained than right. After some effort, I could see her going ccw, if I squinted and kinda looked out of the corner of my eye. Then she would switch back and forth....cw, ccw, cw....yipes!

Now I have a headache...:giveup:

[renatele]

Definitely counter-clockwise for me. I can't see her going clockwise at all. It looks like she's doing a wonky backspin on her right foot (like mine used to look!).

I'm right-handed and spin/jump counter-clockwise.

Mhm... now that's weird... I see her doing a wonky backspin on her left foot, going CW ;) (I'm a right-handed ccw skater)

[Rusty Blades]

If I think CW, she's going CW, if I think CCW, she's going CCW. I guess that's 'cause I am ambidextrous!

[kayskate]

Very strange. At first, I only saw CCW and was convinced she was rotating CCW. Then I scrolled down so I could only see the legs. The were rotating CW. I scrolled back to the whole body. CW definitely. Now I can see her hesitate and want to turn CCW, but I really cannot see CCW anymore. This gives me a headache!

I spin CW. I am ambidextrous.

Kay

[Skittl1321]

Okay- I went back to it, and scrolled to just her feet, and then watched then scrolled up, like kay said, and now she is definetly going clockwise and I can't make her go CCW.

So apparently- my brain can't decide which way is dominant, and I have no control over making it use the other side :(

[dooobedooo]

When the page first loaded, she appeared to be CCW for a short while.

Then she suddenly reversed, and ever since I can't see anything but clockwise !

I am CCW spinner and right-handed; very spatially aware and "get things" but also logical and love facts. So a mix of right and left brain, but am better on spatial things (R) than words (L).

[LilJen]

Absolutely cannot see anything but clockwise. I *think* I'm a CW spinner/jumper but not really sure. May not have a strong preference either way; it's just that we always did CW turns in ballet : ) But I'm really more left-brained according to their description, with a little of their right-brained "personality" thrown in. Ambibraintrous?

[doubletoe]

OK, now HERE'S a cool take on it! M husband just tried an experiment on my stepson and his cousin. They both looked at the image for awhile and saw her only rotating clockwise. Then he made the boys do math problems for a few minutes and had them look at the image again. After doing math, they both saw her rotating counter-clockwise!

[renatele]

After doing math, they both saw her rotating counter-clockwise!

LOL! I've just spent 2 hours doing numerical analysis (math...) problems, and she still goes CW for me :lol:

[Scarlett]

I just balanced my checkbook and then played spider solitaire on my computer. I went back to the image and it is now rotating counter-clockwise. Very interesting!

[CaraSkates]

I saw this a couple days ago, then looked again today. No matter what I do I can not make her go CCW. I only see CW. For what it's worth, I'm VERY right brained, right handed and I skate CCW but can do some turns better CW and half jumps and a one foot spin CW (no whole jumps, no fancy spins though).

[cecealias]

When the page first loaded all I saw was the whole image going clockwise several times. I had to focus a lot to get it going CCW but noticed that it went CCW especially after reading and typing!! Also noticed it going CCW when part of the image was covered up and i was typing in another window.

[Award]

yeah..... it's weird. She only has 1 right shoulder and 1 right leg. The right leg is the free leg. And her head is tilted toward her right shoulder. Even when I set this gif to slow motion, the picture .... slow frame by slow frame is indicating that she is rotating clockwise.

[SkatingOnClouds]

I am CCW left handed person, well I do almost everything right handed except writing.

At first I could only see CCW, then she flipped to CW and back again. I discovered focussing on her standing leg heel as it went up and down makes it possible to change her direction. After a couple of minutes, I can now make her change direction at will - though the change doesn't happen instantaneously. Weird, but watching the heel makes a difference.

[Award]

oh gee...... ok, I finally managed to trick myself into seeing her spin counter-clockwise!! This is a freaky kind of gif file. And I tested it on the original gif file that I saved earlier....the one where I was absolutely certain that she spins clockwise.

But even for that original saved file, she appears to be spinning anti-clockwise with her free leg being the left leg and her head is tilted toward her left shoulder.

Originally, I was only seeing her spin clockwise, but I then decided to try something. I set up the web page so that I could see the gif picture, with the girl spinning around. And then I focused my eyes on the text on the web page that says

"Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it." etc....

not reading the text at all, but just focusing on it, while still being able to see the spinning girl out the corner of my eyes. And then I kept blinking my eyes repeatedly and rapidly, at various rates. But don't do soft blinks.....do HARD blinks where you shut your eyes really tightly before opening them.......and keep doing this......repeatedly, like at rates of every half a second. Make sure to do hard blinks. If nothing is happening for a long time, then just vary the rate a bit, eg....blink a bit faster (still using hard blinks), or blink a bit slower - always focusing on the text and the gif picture at the same time.

And to my surprise, I started seeing a tiny bit of anti-clockwise rotation. It was a start. So I kept doing the same thing and then, eventually to my huge surprise I could only see her spinning anti-clockwise without needing to blink anymore, even when I was only focusing on the gif picture itself. I kept looking at different things and then looking back at the gif picture, and still spinning anti-clockwise. But now, after a long time of not looking at the picture, she's gone back to spinning clockwise again.

This brain illusion thing is very cool indeed.

[dooobedooo]

I'd look below. Where it changes for me is the sweep of the leg.
I would have liked an explaination in the article of the different perceptions. I can only think that as a right brainer, I looked at the whole picture first (very right brain) and saw clockwise. When I was reading the text, I saw a specific motion (very left brain) - the leg sweep and from there followed it to CCW.

I just read flo's post on the other thread about this. And wow, it worked for me, too! Looking at the whole picture, she turns CW; but if I read the text and only see the picture out of the corner of my eye, she turns CCW.

[Paulie86]

Wow this is trippy! But it was counter clockwise for me. Which is also the way i spin and jump. My coach and i have experimented with spinning clockwise and I could actually do a scratch spin better than CCW but had difficulty going into it because my right side does not open up as much as my left. Plus it felt wierd to spin that direction. I refused to try jumping clockwise because I was afraid it would throw off my CCW jumps, because they are tempremental!

[Sessy]

Okay I've got something to add more as well, I've got this proggy: Animation Shop (by Jasc software) on my computer and I opened the .gif file in it... Now, if I look frame by frame at the images, I see her moving clockwise too. But if I look at the animation again, she's still going counter-clockwise.

Take a look at the list of frames.

Focus here on her standing on the RIGHT leg, and she's spinning ccw:
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6027/animation3ui6.gif (http://imageshack.us)
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6027/animation3ui6.2edf9121eb.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=518&i=animation3ui6.gif)

Focus here on her standing on the LEFT leg, and she's spinning cw:
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4167/animation2di1.gif (http://imageshack.us)
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4167/animation2di1.64c23baec3.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=518&i=animation2di1.gif)

The trick is that when CW-seeing people see her as-if with the back to them, to CCW-seeing people she's front faced to them, and vice versa. This would never work with a colored to nature image.

[coskater64]

Late to the game but I see her spinning counter clockwise, I however spin clockwise. Hmmmmmmm:oops:

[Award]

I just came up with a way that works for me to make the girl spin in whichever way I choose. I sit with one ear 'almost' facing the computer screen, so that the spinning skater is 'just' visible through the corner of ONE of my eyes only. So basically, sit almost side-on to the computer monitor.

I then set up a vague mental picture (in my mind) of a rotating thing that spins in the same plane as the girl's feet in the gif picture, and my mental spinning thing spins in whichever direction I choose, and interestingly, once I get the imaginary mental picture in my mind, the real picture that I just have visible through the corner of my eye will eventually spin in the same direction too. It looks like the illusion thing really is related to brain function. Very amazing stuff.

[dooobedooo]

So how does it work, then?

(I have yet to attempt to take the gif to pieces to have a look ... )

[peanutskates]

Focus here on her standing on the RIGHT leg, and she's spinning ccw:
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6027/animation3ui6.gif (http://imageshack.us/)

umm isn't she standing on her LEFT leg here? and in the pic below.

EDIT: OMG!!! i got it. yup. i see what you mean...

[fsk8r]

having just looked at the pictures, i've just sussed how it's working.
look at the first two images Sessy posted and you'll see she starts on one leg in one frame and is then on the other leg in the next frame. So basically we're all either tuning into the clockwise frames or the anti-clockwise frames and it's just tricking our brains to tune into the other half of the information.
I've not gone back to see if i can actually get my brain to do that, but at least I understand what it's doing.
Very clever.

[patatty]

That is so cool. No matter how hard I look at it, I only see clockwise. My kids looked at it and first saw clockwise, but then both saw it change to anti-clockwise at the same time. I always thought of myself as a left-brained person (I work in a scientifice field), but according to this, I am solidly right-brained. I am right-handed but a CW skater.

[Sessy]

umm isn't she standing on her LEFT leg here? and in the pic below.

I don't get how some people think sh'es facing them, and some think she's not facing them. because she has a ponytail - it's obvious that first she is looking at you, then she turns, and you see the back of her head. and so on.

No, you think you see it, but it's just your brain.

There's two points in the gif image at which it doesn't add up, but you only see 1 depending on whether you're right-brained or left-brained, and your brain just ignores it. It's where you see the image kind of slow down.

Here's a GIF picture in inverted colors, in which I tried to show what a left-brained and right-brained person sees in the same image, at the very same time index! I drew in both arms and tried to give her a front and back. I hope you see it now.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1874/39793428rj9.gif (http://imageshack.us)


Everything else you see, is what your brain fills in for you. Our brain is specifically tailored to recognize faces and humans and animals - that's how come shapeless clouds look like something to you, which another person might not see at all until you tell them what it's supposed to look like.

For the record: even knowing how this works I still can't see her rotating clockwise in the animation, only in the pictures and only focussing hard on it. Neither did it work to take a look at it after some social activity, or from the corner of the eye.

N.B. 2: It's impossible to spin the way she does on ice.

[peanutskates]

oh wow, I see

thanks for explaining!

[black]

OMG!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/temp/cw.gifhttp://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/temp/ccw.gif

[frbskate63]

That's even weirder. If I look at both images, the one on the left is going clockwise, and the one on the right is going anti-clockwise. If I cover the one on the right with my hand, the left one continues going clockwise (and only clockwise). If I cover the one on the left, the one on the right still goes anti-clockwise, but periodically turns clockwise for half a rev or so.

Fiona

[black]

I reversed the animation; the one on the left is the orginal.

Now you can use both sides of your brain!! ;)

[flippet]

I reversed the animation; the one on the left is the orginal.

Now you can use both sides of your brain!! ;)

Oh, wow, is that bizarre. Because, for the first time, the one on the left (the original) went CCW for me. On first look, it was quite obviously still CW, and the right, reverse image was CCW, but then the left image started going CCW too.


Holy cow.



Sessy, thanks for drawing that out--that makes perfect sense. In your first row, though--the arm you've drawn in (what would be her left arm)...from frame one to frame two, wouldn't the arm actually have to change position to make the position in the second frame? I think that's why I couldn't see it go the other direction--my brain said "no, the arm doesn't move, therefore it's not her left arm I can't see, it's her right"...yadda yadda yadda.

[Award]

I reversed the animation; the one on the left is the orginal. Now you can use both sides of your brain!! ;)

hahahaha!! Nice !! That'll teach our brains! hehe

Originally, in your double pic, with one picture reversed, I saw both spinning clockwise, except that they were out of phase ...by maybe 180 degrees. But both spun clockwise.

But later, I tried to trick my brain to make them spin in different direction, and then I saw 1 spin clockwise while the other spinning anticlockwise hehe

[climacus]

Focus on her shadow to switch rotation, works for me everytime.

[Award]

For the record: even knowing how this works I still can't see her rotating clockwise in the animation, only in the pictures and only focussing hard on it.

You might be able to trick your brain by leaving the spinning gif image on your computer. Then fire up another movie picture ....eg get a movie of yourself or somebody from the internet doing a clockwise spin....and keep looking at the clip of the real person doing a clockwise spin for some time.....then look at the illusion gif picture again. Not sure if that will work.

Otherwise, you have to look away from the illusion picture, and actually try to 'imagine' the picture in your mind of the skater spinning clockwise, like visualizing the legs in particular rotating clockwise. That will help conditioning the brain ....to set it up. Then look at the illusion.

[Award]

Also, as you're trying to form a visual image in your mind of the skater spinning in a clockwise direction, you can even try to help coax your brain along by very very slowly rolling your head (just slightly only) in clockwise direction....and at the same time trying to imagine the skater going clockwise...a visual image in the mind. Then try to look at the illusion picture once you're ready.

Or....just have the illusion picture in the corner of your eye so that you can 'only' just see it ...just. And then try to form a image in your mind of the skater with her legs/feet going in a clockwise direction. Keep trying to imagine that for a fair bit of time. Then once you're ready, view the illusion picture again. It might not work at first, but after a few tries you might be able to get it.

[Mrs Redboots]

We were discussing this at home today (we went down to my parents' to celebrate my father's birthday), and my father (who has not, as far as I know, seen the image) enquired, fairly seriously, whether skaters in the Northern hemisphere spun the opposite way to those in the Southern hemisphere, like water running out of the bath the other way (allegedly)! I don't think so, but it's a nice idea!

[Award]

like water running out of the bath the other way (allegedly)! I don't think so, but it's a nice idea!

hahahaha! True! Actually, for a really long time (many years) I thought that water running down toilets etc spiraled in different direction for northern and southern hemisphere....related to coriolis effect etc. But interestingly, it turns out that the forces are so weak that it doesn't really cause water to flush down sinks and drains in the same direction (in one earth hemisphere). I found out that the direction of the spiral just depends mainly on factors like geometry of the flushing system...like pipes and how the water runs down to go into the pipes....which of course also depends on geometry of the system. So basically, in one hemisphere, water can spiral either direction.......depending on the system geometry.

[Award]

For those that are really having a hard time trying to get the girl to spin in the 'other' direction.....

what you can do is to get a pen or a pencil, and dangle the pencil downwards right in front of the girl spinning on the screen. And then make the axis of the pencil or pen rotate in the direction that you want ....eg clockwise ....then just focus your eyes on the dangling pencil as you're rotating the pencil in a clockwise direction ..... eventually, you will notice that the girl will rotate in the same direction as the rotating pencil. Or, at the very least, you will see that the girl will rotate slightly in the other direction. But I think you'll be able to get the girl rotating in the opposite direction using this method. It will work for you. Just remember that as you're rotating the pencil, try to keep the pencil vertical all the time. So the axis of the pencil will just go around in a circular path while the pencil remains vertical....and you just focus your eyes on the pencil.

[Sonic]

Definitely clockwise....but I'm sure I'm not right-brained lol!

S xxx

[SkatingOnClouds]

Seeing the two images sides by side freaked my brain even more!

At first they were going opposite directions, then I focussed on one to change her, so for a while they were going the same way, then the other one flipped to make them opposite again.

Cool, weird, absorbing, and somehow annoying at the same time.

[chowskates]

OMG!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:


Ok, I think i'm going out of my mind... For the original, I can only see it going clockwise... seriously, I cannot make it go anticlockwise at all!

Then when I first saw the two images, I thought the left (original) was going clockwise and the right was going anticlockwise. After reading the rest of hte posts, I now cannot make either of them go anticlockwise at all!!

[mintypoppet]

Definitely clockwise....but I'm sure I'm not right-brained lol!

But you have a degree in art! :lol:

I can convince it to change direction by looking at the shadow under her foot and telling myself that it's either in front or behind her. This has had the disturbing side-effect that instead of spinning, she now wobbles from side to side inelegantly :giveup:

[Award]

After reading the rest of hte posts, I now cannot make either of them go anticlockwise at all!!

Pretty sure that you can manually get your brain to see the picture spinning in the direction that you want. Just get your finger and hold it upright (vertically) in front of the picture....and keep it upright all the time. Then make your finger go away from you and towards you in a circular pattern.....eg make it rotate in a anti-clockwise direction. Then focus your eyes on your finger as the axis of your finger is going around and around in a anti-clockwise direction. And you will also see the picture in the background too...but focus mainly only your finger as it moves around in a circular path (keeping you finger vertical all the time).

Eventually you will see spinning of the dancer do a flip in the other direction....and if you keep using this method for long enough, you'll even be able to see the dancer continue to spin in the counter clockwise direction.

The other thing is, I don't think that this illusion has anything to do with left or right half of the brain. It is just a illusion that takes advantage of the brain having a tendency to fill in missing information ..... like fudging visual information...or compensating for lack of visual information.

[Sessy]

Sessy, thanks for drawing that out--that makes perfect sense. In your first row, though--the arm you've drawn in (what would be her left arm)...from frame one to frame two, wouldn't the arm actually have to change position to make the position in the second frame? I think that's why I couldn't see it go the other direction--my brain said "no, the arm doesn't move, therefore it's not her left arm I can't see, it's her right"...yadda yadda yadda.

Well the arm is bent, so technically it wouldn't have to change the position by much, but it's difficult to draw that way. However, for the direction you do see it go in, the arm also has to change positon, except in the first 12 frames somewhere instead of frame 24 and onward.
That's why I'm saying it's impossible to spin this way. She has too much wobble and too much change of arm position (at least once per revolution) to spin on ice.


The flipped animation is spooky, technically, if you'd be REALLY one brainsided, you'd have to see them both going cw or ccw, since both animations can be seen in cw and ccw... So why the brain sees them as spinning in opposite direction is a curious thing all together.

[vesperholly]

Pretty sure that you can manually get your brain to see the picture spinning in the direction that you want. Just get your finger and hold it upright (vertically) in front of the picture....and keep it upright all the time. Then make your finger go away from you and towards you in a circular pattern.....eg make it rotate in a anti-clockwise direction. Then focus your eyes on your finger as the axis of your finger is going around and around in a anti-clockwise direction. And you will also see the picture in the background too...but focus mainly only your finger as it moves around in a circular path (keeping you finger vertical all the time).
They flipped for me when I stared at the center line where the two pictures touch. First the left one started going CCW, then they both did. Weird!

[Award]

So why the brain sees them as spinning in opposite direction is a curious thing all together.

That's because the news report is probably inaccurate or they're lying hehe. I don't think it has anything to do with which hemisphere of the brain is preferred. It is probably just due to a usual preference our processing has in interpreting this type of display.

[Award]

They flipped for me when I stared at the center line where the two pictures touch. First the left one started going CCW, then they both did. Weird!

hehe! yeah! That really flipped too when I focused mostly on the center line, after trying that out with your method. When focusing on there, the brain processing can get a bit fuzzy on which way to interpret this illusion of spinning, and can change its way of interpreting the spin directions hehe...very weird.

Also, with black's "double image", my twirling-the-axis-of-a-finger-in-front-of-the-spinning-picture method doesn't work so well......possibly because of light/dark shades from the second picture interfering with the first picture. My twirl the finger method works really well when there is a single picture by itself. For black's double picture, I covered 1 of the two dancers completely with one hand, and the finger twirling method doesn't work well at all. The shading at the edges of the covered dancer might be interfering with the illusion of the uncovered dancer.

[becky_girl]

Definitely clockwise for me - I couldn't make her go the other way at all. Yet I spin anti-clockwise - is that weird? I'm right handed... :??

Ditto.
I cannot see any other way, for the life of me.
She is on her L foot, inside edge, doing a back spin. Clockwise.

The text of Right Brain applies to me, for the most part.

Thanks for sharing this with us!! Fun.
:lol:

[kateskate]

She only spins clockwise for me. I am left handed and I spin clockwise on the ice.

I have some right brain aspects but not all. I'm not a true lefty (I play racket sports with my right hand and use scissors with my right hand - go figure!)

I cannot get her to spin anti-clockwise at all.

[chowskates]

Pretty sure that you can manually get your brain to see the picture spinning in the direction that you want.

YAY, I got the right picture to go anti-clockwise. But goodness, that took quite some effort, and if I blink again, they both go back to clockwise.

The other thing is, I don't think that this illusion has anything to do with left or right half of the brain.

I'm starting to think that too, but it is a really fascinating illusion nonetheless!

[Award]

YAY, I got the right picture to go anti-clockwise. But goodness, that took quite some effort, and if I blink again, they both go back to clockwise.

hehehe....nice work! It's great that you could see opposite rotation like that. Yeah..... the latest trick I use now is to point the index finger downwards (toward the ground)...just in front of the spinning picture (the single spinning picture...not the double one that black posted). And then I just make the index finger do a precession in the direction that I want.... and have the eyes focus on the precession of the finger (eg anticlockwise). And eventually, the spinning dancer will go the same way as the precessing index finger. But looks like you know how to get the rotation now already, so that's really great!

I agree... one of the best and amazing illusions I've seen. The chess-board illusion with the same coloured gray squares caught me by surprise too.

[tidesong]

She keeps going clockwise for me...
edit: with the mirrored ones, I saw clockwise on the left side, and anti on the right, i scrolled down the page, scrolled up and then boom they were both going clockwise, then i scrolled down and up and it was clockwise on left and anti on the right again. This is fun :)

[dooobedooo]

She keeps going clockwise for me...
edit: with the mirrored ones, I saw clockwise on the left side, and anti on the right, i scrolled down the page, scrolled up and then boom they were both going clockwise, then i scrolled down and up and it was clockwise on left and anti on the right again. This is fun :)

With the mirrored ones, I had similar experience to Tidesong.
Left one (original) goes clockwise.
Right one (reversed sequence of gif frames) goes anti-clockwise.
Whereas, for a "rightbrained" person, you might expect them both to go clockwise.
So perhaps there is something with the angle of the body? or shading? that makes one direction slightly preferential?

Occasionally, spontaneously, the left one changes to anti-clockwise for a minute or two, then reverts. But the right one always stays anti-clockwise.

I'd love to see a really technical explanation from whoever created the illusion!!

[dooobedooo]

I just put a mirror up to my computer screen and watched the original ("clockwise") image in the mirror. It went anticlockwise. I then looked back at the original image - it went anticlockwise for a couple of revolutions, then reverted to clockwise ...

Also, my brain seems to be learning something-or-other from watching both directions, as it is now flicking directions more frequently.

Am getting giddy, better stop!

[ibreakhearts66]

i see her going CW. i have absolutely NO idea HOW you could see it going CCW! I'm trying SO hard and i can't see it any other way, even looking at it out of the corner of my eye and stuff :frus:

[ibreakhearts66]

ahh I got it to spin the other way! yay! i had to blur my eyes and try to make the blurred figure go the other way, then i got it.

oh and btw, i spin CCW. and i seem to be VERY right brained...

[cherryliphoto]

this is nuts!!!!!!!!
if I weren't asked, it wouldn't have ever occurred to me that she might be spinning CCW! everything says CW no matter how I look! but then, as I read the text to the left (not focusing on her) I see CCW, and as soon as I look at her, she's CW again. I did this lots of times and could never keep the CCW as soon as I look at her!

[cherryliphoto]

OMG i GOT IT I GOT IT~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got to look at her and see CCW!!!
ok here's the solution (as if it were a problem to begin with!):

CW: when she's facing you, she's swinging her foot lower, closer to the ground, and then up when she's away from you.

CCW: she swings her foot higher when facing you and almost touching the ground with away from you.

the height difference between the facing you and facing away seems more dramatic going CCW.

now I can see both ways at will yay!!!