By on March 12, 2006, with 127 Comments

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color – pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating if you’re lucky! It’s amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don’t disappear. This should be proof enough, we don’t always see what we think we see.

Comments

127 Responses
  1. Amir says:

    Its good, but the reason is very clear, that’s because humans eyes tries to balance the colors by combining the opposite color to the color you stare at, for example when you stare at a white lamp a black dot appears in your sight (when you look around) if you stare at a pink color the opposite color (green) appears in your sight, it’s easy to try.

  2. If you stare at it long enough, the purple dots appear to completely vanish. (I’d give a long scientific explanation for this, but I don’t feel like it.)

  3. heather says:

    really neat

  4. nora says:

    this was published on my birthday

  5. Sara says:

    OMG. seriously you guys. It’s not an illution. It’s animated. If you click on the picture you’ll see that it’s a GIF-file. GIF=ANIMATED

  6. unknown says:

    actually all the lilac spots disappear, leaving only the lil flashing green dot
    this is originally just a picture without any flashing, and in that pic if u stare long enuf all the spots will disappear too

  7. Mitch says:

    AND, if you start in close, and move out as it circles you see a weird green pattern… try it

  8. Anonymous says:

    It’s caused by over-stimulating of the eyes. Because the lilac is so intense, your eyes even it out by projecting the colour opposite to lilac in the colour spectrum, which is green. If the lilac dissappears the eyes still project the green, causing you to see green. If you stare at the cross long enough, then blink and look away, you will see a circle of green dots, caused by the same phenomenon

  9. Damoriël says:

    Ok, for the people who say that it’s not an illusion because it’s a GIF-file; it’s not about the circulating vanishing dot. It’s about the fact that all the dots disappear when you look at it for a while

    Big fan of the site, this illusion is my favorite one =)

  10. anonymous says:

    when I pressed “Next Random Illusion” the green dot stopped moving and wasn’t green anymore: in fact, it was invisible!

  11. Shubo says:

    one more thing about this illusion

    if u move your head towards it u will find that yello dots are shrinking from blue ones towards centre and if u move your head outwards then vice versa

  12. Rufus says:

    How the hell can people say this is fake? If it were fake the they would disappear even without focusing on the cross.
    Plus, anyone else notice a string of green circles imprinted onto your vision after looking away?

  13. Nyssa says:

    ….i managed to see both pink dots and a green dot … am i just insane?? lol
    I focused on the blakc +, and saw a moving green dot as well as the pink ones. eh i like it all the same, even if i can’t get it to work right. i’ve always managed to get these things wrong lol

  14. Matt says:

    If you stare for a bit and get your eyes adjusted, scroll down a bit. For a second your eyes will see green dots still going in circles where the pink circles should have been.

  15. Kelechi Iwuchukwu says:

    The green color appears only on the left side, every one minute.

  16. Lena says:

    This IS bogus! Its an animated gif.

    If you open it in a program that can edit it (irfanView or similar) the properties shows it is actually 12 images, and it is possible to stop it from playing.

    • urmom says:

      ofcourse its an animated gif the trick is not about that, you are suppossed to stare at the cross until the pink dot fade, people are fucking stupid

  17. greendot says:

    Yes, it is fake.

    • Ben Yang says:

      It’s NOT FAKE. The animation is just so that the disappearing dots going in a circle is to CAUSE the optical illusion when you stare at the + for a while.

  18. mirza says:

    OMG MY ETES IT’s BURNS!!! nice optical illusion the klipping thing’s turn’s to blue and it gone.

    • lol says:

      O__O the moving part=grey when i loko at it then it looks green once i sort of look at it without moving and rolling my eyes

  19. Joe says:

    Well, that was interesting, but would be nice to see an explanation too.

  20. Harry says:

    Its fake,
    now… copy the image and paste it into a word document. The illusion does not show up!
    Its A FAKE
    Its actually a video…

    • dan says:

      stfu u moron

    • michael says:

      Henry u liar it does work i copied then pasted it and sure theres no green dot but the orignal version is just so the pink dots could disappear

    • hello says:

      um, i think harry knows it’s fake and he’s just being a loser for attention. nobody’s is stupid enough to think that this is fake

    • galaxy says:

      harry must be a schizophrenic then i see the illusion when i paste it on word document

    • screeching weasel says:

      It’s not a video; it’s a GIF.

      You’re like that annoying kid in class who wasn’t paying attention and asks the teacher a stupid question.

      Wasn’t it pretty apparent that it was moving?

  21. ice says:

    Harry,
    I don’t understand why you’re calling it “fake”. Of course (duh!) it is a video (animated gif). The disappearing effect still shows up in a frame viewed in Word.
    The pink dots seem to disappear because the green afterimage that you perceive (not actually there) blends with the pink to negate it. If you move your eyes from the +, you can see the green afterimage.
    There is no moving dot. One of the dots disappears in each frame to reveal the green afterimage from the pink dot that used to be at that spot.

  22. whuuuuuut!?!?!?! i got them to dissapear but every time it turned it came back then dissapeared then came back so on so fourth

  23. michael says:

    if u close ur left eye it gets easier

  24. Own says:

    Isn’t this the first illusion ever posted here?

  25. A Snail says:

    hi waz up i do not like my shell
    ouch somebody stepped on me ouch ouch ouch
    help me im dyin help me oh please help me ahhhhhh
    wat am i gonna do
    chow world but remember im too old to die

  26. galaxy says:

    again when i copy it in ms paint one of the dots is missing???

  27. Ovi says:

    Superb!!!!!!!!

  28. Hanis says:

    Wow!..How You can scan our Eyes?..Hahaha..

  29. mrscorcher1 says:

    lolololololol
    I saw the dots dissapear then reapear (check that spelling) with the green dot

  30. pokemon boy1 says:

    IT’S GREEN!!!!

  31. BJ says:

    ITS A GIF!!! its a series of photos in a continous loop, nice illusion.

  32. Daniel says:

    This illusion’s effect is wonderful!

    When I copy and paste it onto Microsoft Word, it is not animated. If I could embed the image, it might show up like it does on the website.

  33. josephine says:

    It’s fun, once you’ve gotten it to work, to blink once, let the green go around and ‘erase’ the pink, blink again, etc…or I’m just bored :)

  34. Ventriloquism in God and science. Ventriloquism is illusion when the brain of the audience and as well, the actor, alters its focus to believe in what is not there, thus making what is not there take actual form within the imagination process…thus invention creates what did not formerly exist. What of imagining ourselves well when we are not? Can we change the structure of illness to wellness in ourselves by altering our focus as in this case? What of helping others? Can we learn to strengthen this ability? Can we learn to visualize what is normally invisible, say for instance, the God Particle? In the opinion of this ventriloquist illusion with green dots and red dots a simple experiment with profound implications. I Tried it enjoyed it, and was moved by what it may imply. Thank you so much for this.

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