Strange Marking on Tree

I have been a lurking member here at ATS for some time, and this is my first post so bare with me. Also, I honestly did not know where else to start this thread, so please excuse me if it is in the wrong forum. Anyway, onto the post.

< br />

This September I will have lived in my current house for 2 years. When we moved in, I noticed a strange marking on one of the trees that is closer to the street. Until recently, I didn't care much about the marking, but the reports of the flying humanoids and whatnot sparked my interest.

As you can see in the picture above, most of the bark that is visible is not the same colour as the surrounding bark. In the lighter bark, if you look at the top you can see what appears to be a head, and if you look even closer you can see "horns" or something very similar. Although you can not see the entire marking, if you look below the head you can see 2 "arches" on either side. As they go down, they rest at the side of what looks like it could be a robe. Then the robe-looking mark "puffs" out a little bit near the ground as if it was on the ground, but it doesn't meet the base of the trunk.

Now, I understand that the marking may be a litttle difficult to see in this picture, and if you need it, I will provide another picture with it outlined. I do plan on taking better pictures sometime in the very near future.

Now I am not claiming that this is some "stamp" left by the Mothman or some flying humanoid, although it has crossed my mind many times. However, I do think there is something strange about it...the shape it has,why it's lighter than the surrounding bark, etc. etc. I have shown other people so that I would know I wasn't crazy and that I wasn't seeing things. 2 people saw that it had a human-like shape, and I had to point it out to some others, but they ended up seeing exactly what we saw.

Now, the reason why Mothmen and flying humanoids crossed my mind is not only because of the marking's shape or because the bark is lighter, but also because of it's height. My guess is 8-10 feet. I'm also interested in the fact that it does not meet the base of the tree trunk, but hovers a few inches off of the ground.

So...I am asking everyone who may be interested to respond and tell me what you think this could be, or if you can tell me, what it really is. Any information at all is greatly appreciated.

[edit on 8/28/2005 by Sesmo]

Welcome to Paranormal.

I took a look at the full sized picture of what you posted and I sorta see what you are talking about but it is not very clear. All sorts of things can cause trees to have different colors of bark and sometimes they do seem to make patterns.

What you suggest is of course possible too but it is just hard to tell from that picture. If you could post a few others that might make it easier.

One techique I use might be helpful to you. Lock your eyes in the center of the formation and allow them to blur. You have to relax to do this because any attempt to focus your attention will bring you back to normal. When the image blurs out completely allow your mind to create whatever image it wishes. I find that doing this sometimes brings hidden things into sharp relief.

When a person looks at something like this normally mostly what they see is based on logical images, but when you let your eyes blur you give your Intuition a blank slate to work with. Might not yield anything, but you might see a new pattern.


A.T
(-)

Congrats on your first post here on ATS Sesmo.

While I personally think that the image is just mold on a tree or some other form of growth, I still can't explain why it is growing in such a peculiar shape and leaving big blank patches, and some places are drastically more dense/less dense growth than others.

I don't really know what to make of it, and it is hard to judge from the picture, but I will just add a picture that I drew for Sesmo based on his interpretation of the tree formation. If it is caused by a creature like he suggests is possible, it would follow the outline on the tree and look something like this:



To me it just looks like the people that lived in the house previously might have had a rope or something tied to the tree for a long period of time, though.

[edit on 28-8-2005 by Yarcofin]

put a black light on the tree at night see what u might find? just a hunch

I see a complete side view of a "devil" face, sort of what the thread creator is talking about, and the figure Yarcofin drew.

I don't really think there's anything paranormal.

[edit on 8/29/2005 by Logical_Psycho]

Congrads, a thread debunked with sensible reasoning.

I couldnt ask for more.

I have come to the conclusion that if you look at something with the intent of finding a hidden picture in it, the possibilities are endless.

Taking another look at that tree, I was able to roughly outline an octopus, an alien skateboarding, a moose, etc etc. I can highlight them all if people want to see. An interesting and disturbing look into how well the human mind works at joining unrelated lines and different shades.

So basically if you look at any surface that isn't perfectly shaped, you will eventually be able to find a contour in the image that "sort-of" looks like what you describe. I like to do this with lined paper/recycled paper actually... if you look really close at the paper you can see the fiberous material that it is composed of, and can give you crazy creative ideas.

If there isn't already a "The [Blank] Effect" for this occuring, they should make one.

Edit: And I was looking through some old pictures in hopes of finding some weird looking mold on stuff in some of my own pictures, and I can say that mold does grow un-evenly and weird like that sometimes, at least on a lot of rocks in my pictures from camping.

[edit on 29-8-2005 by Yarcofin]

I'll add myself to those welcoming you on your first post...

After looking at the pic for a couple of hours and playing around with it in some graphic programs I think we're matrixing the face/shapes..

I can't find anything that would lead me to believe there's anything unusual about the bark on the tree, but I do agree that when you look at it the right way you can make out some pretty interesting figures.

Just look at it as seeing a face in fire or smoke...same thing...the brain wants to make recognizable patterns out of nonsense in order to categorize it easy..I don't think it's much more than that.

Looked like a face before I read anyone's post. Then I looked at the large version and...

Its an OWL!

Like Bohemian Grove, or Washington, DC!

It just looks like bark in my opinion. its reeeaaally one of those "what you see is what you think you see" images.

I usually can instantly see an image of a face or a figure in an object but I have looked at the tree up and down and I cant see a thing.

Probably some kids done it for a prank to see if anyone would fall for it. Hard luck kids!