danny sent me this gif.

is she spinning clockwise?
or counterclockwise?

apparently, the way she spins dictates whether the viewer is left brained or right brained

clockwise (right brain)
simultaneous
holistic
imagistic
intuitive
holistical algorithmic processing
mathematics: perception of shapes/moties
present and future
language: intonation/emphasis

counter-clockwise (left brain)
sequential
analytical
verbal
logical
linear algorithmic processing
mathematics: perception of counting/measurement
present and past
language: grammar/words, pattern perception

for the life of me, i couldn’t see the dancer spinning counter-clockwise. then, after looking away for a second, i suddenly see her spinning the opposite direction.

i’m pretty much convinced this is a trick. my left brain tells me i have to figure this out. so, i, of course, have to analyze it.

here’s what i found:
the spinning image is simply a gif file.
i easily split the gif file into separate pictures.
there’s no trick. the picture doesn’t just randomly reverse directions. it just goes through the series of pictures over and over again
it IS an optical illusion.

so, how do you train it?
i figured out how to trick my mind pretty easily for this illusion. i’m assuming that most people should initially see this going clockwise. (more on this later). using firefox in a non-maximized window, you can actually stop the gif by clicking and holding onto the title bar. (ie. for this page, it’d be where it says, “welcome back – mozilla firefox).

stop the dancer’s foot when it’s at the farthest left.

now look away from the dancer, preferably for me, above her, until the foot is barely in peripheral vision. now just imagine the foot going the opposite direction. imagine the foot coming toward you, then unclick.

she should be spinning the opposite direction. if she’s not, try to get her foot to be even further in your peripheral vision.

to reverse her spinning (back to clockwise), just pause her foot at the farthest right and imagine.

after a while it gets a lot easier to do. i can almost make her move back and forth without the need to pause.

the problem with the gif
i think the fundamental problem with this gif is that it needs a starting point. if you look at the first picture on the right side, her foot starts from middle going right.

i believe, and of course i could be wrong, but if the gif actually started with image 15 (her foot in the middle, going left), people would generally be seeing the girl turn counterclockwise.

cool illusion nonetheless

split images can be found here