WEBVTT - Fata Morgana 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:14.520 My Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.080 your Mind. My name is Robert Land, and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.000 And you know, we just came off of doing a 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.959 couple of episodes about the artistic convention of the halo 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.160 and how that comes through in in various different religious concepts, 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.400 and how it might be related to optical phenomena that 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.840 are sometimes observed in the sky, like like solar halos 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.320 or sun dogs, and jumping off of that, we wanted 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.240 to hop over to explore another theme today that the 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.720 sort of in the same wheelhouse, not quite halos, but 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.080 an optical phenomenon that has some connection to legendary accounts 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.320 and myths. And so I thought a great place to 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.720 start today to get us in the mood would be 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.800 a reading from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner by 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.760 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Now, I think this is going to 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.600 be probably what would you guess, Rob, like the seventh 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.720 time we've quoted this poem on the show, always introducing 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.000 a different type of subject matter. It seems to go 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.160 off in a lot of great directions. Well, you know, 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.800 it's a it's a long work, and it it has 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:14.880 a lot of cool things happening in It has a 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.399 great story and just an infectious cadence. You know, it 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.360 just gets gets into your brain. Right. So in this poem, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.679 the narrator here, I guess this is a narration within 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.240 a narration. So this guy gets accosted by an ancient 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.119 gray beard. He says, like, unhand me, gray beard loon. 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.679 But then the gray beard loon starts telling his story, 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.720 and and his story is of course one of terror 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.520 and tragedy in the high seas. He he tells that 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:41.600 he was once out on a ship and I think 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.720 they've been sailing around in the south seas and uh, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.880 he somehow brings a curse upon his ship and its 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.960 crew by shooting an albatross out of the sky with 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.480 an arrow. And after this, their ship falls into unnatural 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.640 duld RUMs in the equatorial regions. There are no winds 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.200 for it to sail, so it's just sitting there in 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.440 the water, and and the mariner and the rest of 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.360 the crew are dying of thirst without fresh water. Yeah, 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.800 and it's one thing that I guess worth noting about this. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.079 You know, we've been talking about the ships at sea 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.400 in these days and superstition among the um among the 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:19.480 crew is that on one hand, absolutely the best science 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.639 and navigation of the day was utilized to get where 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.360 you're going and to survive on the open seas. But 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.120 the crew was often held together by by also this 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.480 this tenuous web of superstitions, and you read about some 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.480 of them, and at times it seems like it would 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.200 not take much to shift things into the realm of 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.520 of of you know, dire omens. Well sailing vessels really 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.120 are at the at the mercy of forces beyond your control. Yeah, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:47.960 I mean, there's a lot you can do to design 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.520 a ship well and work hard to you know, do 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.280 everything you can to get where you're going, but you're 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.200 still at the mercy of the seas and the weather, 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.680 and that can make it feel very much like you 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.480 are a sinner in the hands of an angry god. Yeah, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.320 saying beneath this uncertain sky and uh a top this 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.400 just dark, unfathomable ocean. Right, So, in the context of 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.000 the part of the poem we're about to read, so 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.760 the curse has already come upon them. They're out there diet. 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:13.960 You know, you get to the part about water, water everywhere, 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.600 and not a drop to drink. They're all parched and thirsty, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.160 and the boat is just floating around in the dull drums. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.600 And then the mariners see something horrible. So I'm gonna 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.000 read this first bit here, and then rob. I. I 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:25.760 don't think I can do a sailor voice, but I 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:27.800 hope you can do the sailor voice for your part. 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:36.480 I'll try, Okay, So the mariner says, there past a 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.720 weary time. Each throat was parched and glazed, each eye 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.320 a weary time, A weary time, how glazed each weary eye? 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.960 When looking westward, I beheld something in the sky. At 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.680 first it seemed a little speck, and then it seemed 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.200 a missed. It moved and moved, and took at last 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.480 a certain shape. I whist A speck, a mist shape. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.720 I whisked, And still it neared and neared, as if 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.880 it dodged a water sprite. It plunged and tacked and veered, 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.960 with throats unslaked, with black lips baked. We could not 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.960 laugh nor wail through utter drought. All dumb we stood. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.200 I bit my arm, I sucked the blood and cried 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:23.919 a sail a sail. The western wave was all aflame, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.200 The day was well nigh done. Almost upon the western 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.200 wave rested the broad bright sun. When that strange shape 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.159 stove suddenly betwixt us and the sun, and straight the 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.720 sun was flecked with bars. Heaven's mother send us grace, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.560 as if through a dungeon grade. He peered with broad 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:48.120 and burning face. Alas thought I and my heart beat loud. 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.680 How fast she nears and nears? Are those her sails 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:59.760 that glance in the sun like restless Gossimir's rob I 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:05.120 give that four urs? Why thank you? Uh so? Yeah, 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:09.320 So he sees something approaching. They see a weird spectral 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.760 type of ship coming close. And when this phantom ship 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.400 gets up close to them, they see the figures of 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.680 death and life in death I think represented as like 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.400 a skeleton and then like a pale naked body casting 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.200 lots to claim the fate of the sailors. That's creepy stuff. Yeah. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.240 Also a great couple's halloween cost him to keep in mind, right, 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.160 death and life and death I call life and death. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.919 Uh So these passages from the rhyme of the ancient mariner. 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.279 Uh It's not known for sure, but they may well 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.880 have been influenced by the legend of the Flying Dutchman, 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.320 a set of related folk tales shared by the seafaring 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:52.760 people of Europe at least as far back as the 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.599 eighteenth century, probably earlier. And usually the way this legend 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.359 goes is that there is some kind of spectral ship, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.320 a ghost vessel. It's a doomed to sail the globe 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.200 in a terrible limbo, forever circling the seas and never 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.320 allowed to come into port. Often it's regarded as an 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.279 omen of disaster. If a sailor sees the flying Dutchman, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.320 he knows he's going to die in a shipwreck. Yeah, 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.640 like this is one of the big ones, uh, you know, 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.280 as opposed to you know, things like killing I mean, 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:27.120 I mean, certainly killing an albatross clearly can be a 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.640 big deal, you know, not touching the horseshoe nailed to 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.480 the mast, you know, things like that. But to see 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.160 the flying Dutchman like all is lost. In some versions, 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.000 even worse than seeing it is that sometimes the ship 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.880 will come up next to you and the doomed crew 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.240 will try to hand off letters for you to give 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.360 to their loved ones. Because you know, they can't call 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:49.880 the port to send the letters themselves, and you are 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.880 not supposed to accept these letters. You you say, sorry, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.480 I I can't. I can't do it. Oh man, that's 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.000 so creepy that that totally holds up. Now, there are 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.640 a number of popular story is explaining the origin of 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.479 the flying Dutchman. I think the belief itself goes back 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.000 farther than any of these, like written versions of the stories. 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:12.360 But in one version, there's a captain named Vanderdecken or 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.240 sometimes just the Dutchman, who's on a sea voyage home 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.560 from Batavia, which is in present day Indonesia around the 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.320 area of Jakarta, but at the time would have been 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:27.240 in the Duchyst Indies. And he's traveling from Batavia trying 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.160 to go back around the southern tip of Africa to 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.280 a place called Table Bay, and so he's trying to 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.000 round the Cape of Good Hope, but his ship falls 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.960 under a terrible squall, and in defiance of God, he 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.280 swears a brazen oath that he will round the Cape 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.320 of Good Hope despite the storm, even if it takes 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.800 him until Armageddon to do it. And as this oath 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.760 leaves his lips. The ship sinks, but before it does, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.800 the devil hears Vanderdecken's promise and he holds him to it, 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.920 and this turns the Dutchman and the ghost of his 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.760 vessel into a kind of wraith of the seas, and 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.800 they sail forever between life and death without rest until 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.200 he can reach his destination. Uh. This version is the 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.680 subject of an opera by Wagner, and I think in 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.960 that version actually can go to land once every seven 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.800 years so that he can try to find the true 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:27.280 love that will break the curse, presumably stop at White 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:31.200 Castle or something that this sounds this sounds like a 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.000 great setup for like a modern horror film, or maybe 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:35.679 not a morrow of modern one, but at least like 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.080 a nineteen seventies film, you know, or like it could 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.000 have been a hammer horror film. You could have a 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:44.560 Vanderdecken as your sort of Dracula s ghostly sailor chap 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.440 that has come on shore to seduce a hapless woman 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.959 that that has no idea that this attractive man is 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.400 actually the captain of a damn ship. Oh. I mean, 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.080 that's a great sort of variation on Dracula, right, The 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.199 more seductive versions of Dracula where where you know he 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.160 he falls in love with a woman and he's like, 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.240 you can be with me, you can we can live forever, 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.440 but she doesn't realize that that involves being damned along 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.959 with him. Should have been Christopher Lee, Yeah, he would have. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:12.400 He would have. He would have made a good vanderdeck 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.120 and for sure, but the story that this version of 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.559 the story was I think very strong around the area 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.120 of the South Seas and the southern tip of Africa. 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.760 But there's another common version that takes place in the 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.680 North Sea, and this is a captain named Hair von 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.080 Falconberg who sails without rest around the North Sea while 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.040 playing dice with Satan for the possession of his soul. 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.320 And the part about playing dice with the devil for 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.360 for his soul that recalls very much what happens in 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.280 the rhyme of the ancient mariner right after the part 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.760 we read because remember death and life and death or 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.640 gambling for the souls of the crew. Yeah, but there 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.679 are a lot of other variations on this story with 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.480 a good deal of elasticity. It is not known for 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.840 sure exactly where the legend comes from. Originally. I think 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.480 I've read some speculation that it could have to do 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.400 with the Norse legend about a sailor who encounters a 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.520 kind of damned limbo fate, but records of this story 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.640 go at least as far back as the late seventeen hundreds. 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.719 I found one early reference to it from the memoirs 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.240 of a Scottish man named John McDonald who lived seventeen 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.600 forty one to seventeen ninety six, and in writing about 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.559 one of his sea voyages, he writes, quote, the weather 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.360 was so stormy that the sailors said they saw the 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:28.400 flying Dutchman. The common story is that this Dutchman came 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.040 to the cape in distress of weather and wanted to 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.320 get into harbor, but could not get a pilot to 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.480 conduct her and was lost, and that ever since, in 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.640 very bad weather her vision appears. Now in some versions 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.319 of the story, I think the ship is even more spectral, 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.840 even more of just a clear apparition, something that is 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.400 on the horizon and with a kind of like ghostly silhouette, 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.360 or even appears over the horizon. I think it's not 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.800 exactly clear in the version of the Rhyme of the 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.320 Ancient Mariner whether the ship is said to be approaching 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.679 on the water, or when they first see it it's 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.600 above the water. He he does say that he looked 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.240 and he beheld something in the sky that it first 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:11.360 looked like it looks like a speck, and then later 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.480 he realizes it's a ship coming toward them. Uh. And 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:15.960 I guess there are a couple of ways you could 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.800 read that. I know, I've always read that as he 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.680 originally saw the ship flying in the sky. I guess 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.120 you could also read it as they see the ship 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.760 on the water and what he's seeing is the sails 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.079 poking up over the horizon and the sky. But either way, 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.160 I think there are some versions where there's a kind 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.280 of ghost ship that isn't necessarily even confined to the 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.120 water like it flies. Yeah. Yeah, that a true flying 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.360 flying Dutchman. Yeah. And of course this is gonna lead 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.480 us into what we're really talking about here today, a 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.839 very particular type of of optical phenomena, uh that may 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.200 be responsible at least in part for legends like this, 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.240 though of course is always worth remembering that you know, 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.800 anything like this, like the flying Dutchman, for example, in 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.000 all likelihood, we're dealing with a story that has multiple 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.520 converging origins to what extent they are based on things 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.920 that people really saw. They were likely different things, you know, 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.800 like somebody staring into a dark night on a ship, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.160 somebody seeing an optical phenomenon on the horizon, or somebody 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.520 you know, looking into the chaos of a storm and 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:23.080 momentarily making out some shape in the flash of lightning. Right, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.640 But there are some well known optical phenomenon that fit 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.640 with some of these accounts so closely that you have 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.559 to assume at least some of these accounts probably are 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.160 based on the thing we're gonna be talking about today, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.079 which is known as the Superior Mirage or a variation 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:44.160 of Superior Mirrage known as the Fatim Morgana. Um. Now, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.320 the one thing that will tie into this before we 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.080 explain the Superior Mirage and the Fatim Organa. Something I 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.079 noticed that was kind of interesting about the Flying Dutchman accounts. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.880 A lot of these accounts seemed concentrated towards the polar 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.880 regions rather than the equatorial ones. The go ship usually 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.120 seems to be sailing either the North Seas or the 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:08.800 South Seas more so than anywhere in between. Yeah, quite interesting, 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.400 So keep keep that in mind as we proceed here. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.440 So yeah, basically from here we're gonna talk about the 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.719 mirage itself and mirages in general, but then we'll get 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.320 back into some more examples of various folk tales and 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:26.400 myths that seem to be or perhaps are inspired by 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.360 Fatmorgana sightings. So let's start by talking about the mirage itself. 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.120 A mirage in general is an optical effect that is 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.959 sometimes seen at sea or in the desert or over 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.400 hot pavement, and in some cases these may take on 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.040 the appearance of, say a pool of water or a 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:48.480 mirror surface, and this can cause distant objects to appear inverted. Uh. Now, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.280 to be clear on the language here, you do find 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.400 the word mirage sometimes used interchangeably with the notion all 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.640 an illusion, right, and the louse is something that you're 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.959 seeing but is not there. So in common language it's 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.040 sometimes conflated with even like the idea of a hallucination. 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.679 You know, somebody's just seeing something like it's real in 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.880 their perception, but there is not an external reality to it. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.880 And that's not the case with the technical meaning of 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:18.439 a mirage, right, and I feel like this is also uh, 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.040 this is also complicated because a lot of us grew 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:25.440 up watching, especially cartoons that would occasionally have a mirage scene, 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.040 and those would be a bit confusing because a lot 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:29.480 of times I feel like they would play it up 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.680 like just something magical that you're you only saw because 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.040 you were you were thirsty and dying and you were 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.080 also a cartoon dog. Right. Well, in cartoons, I feel 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.000 like the mirage is always shown in the desert rather 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.200 than say, over an ice sheet or on the seas. 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.560 Uh and and that over the desert you were probably 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.720 looking at a particular type of mirage, the inferior mirage. 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.160 Will get into more of the distinctions there in just 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.600 a minute. But yeah, in the cartoons, it's always like, 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.960 I don't know that you know, Daffy Duck is seeing 0:14:57.960 --> 0:14:59.720 a mirage in the desert, and it's like an ice 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.400 cream stand or something some variation of the oasis in 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.000 the desert. Yet, right, it's something very specific that gives 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:12.560 the suggestion that you're seeing like a complicated, detailed hallucination. Right, 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.680 But in reality, the sort of mirage, the specific mirrage 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.560 that we're talking about here, this is an optical effect 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.440 that is visible to all, Like if there is a mirage. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:24.880 If you're in a party of say, you know, five 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.680 people in the desert or on a ship wherever, if 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.880 you see a mirage in the distance, everyone with you, 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.680 you know, assuming they have the same site capacity that 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.120 you have, they will be able to see the mirage 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.400 as well, and assuming they're looking from the same place also, 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:41.720 right right, Yeah, you gotta have the same vantage point 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.440 for sure. Um, but you know, now that's not also 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:47.320 not to say that you know, this could not be 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.440 further distorted by the individual, either visually or in memory. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.560 But it is a thing that you could and be 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.840 people can and do capture photographically or on you know, 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.440 or with a like a video camera. So is it 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.960 is not something you're seeing that isn't there. It is 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.600 an actual optical phenomena, right, Uh. You you are seeing 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.680 something that is really light coming into your eyes looking 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.120 that way. It's not in your head though, what you're 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.600 seeing is very distorted, so you're probably wandering. Okay, mirage. 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.160 How does the mirage happen? It's you know, not caused 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.840 by you know, um, you know, weird spirits in the 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.040 you know, in the desert or on the seas well. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:28.240 Mirages in general occur when light passes through air of 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:32.440 differing temperatures and the light is reflected or refracted a 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.000 ka bent. And there are two types of mirages. We 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:41.320 can divide them up generally into inferior mirages and superior mirages. 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.520 This is not about their quality. It's not like you know, 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.960 discount mirages and bespoke mirrages. It has to do with 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.720 where they fall in relation to the horizon. Right. So 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.920 the inferior mirrage is the kind that is being lampooned 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.280 in the cartoons where a character isn't you know, Daffy 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.160 Ducks in the death sert and he thinks he sees 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.160 an oasis. This is a very real thing that people 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:08.160 often experience in desert climates. And this is the inferior mirage. Yes, 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.440 so the inferior mirage again is your stereotypical oasis mirage. 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.840 It looks like a pool of blue water sometimes you know, 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.760 appears when you also look out across the desert or 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.480 down a highway. You've probably seen one of these on 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.480 your own drives or in movies, especially in movies that 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.359 have a desert highway. This is this is like cat 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.560 Net two directors, they they got to have it you know, 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.360 so they'll they'll get a little bit of that mirage 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.520 in their in their shot. Right. And it's not only 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.280 because the desert is hot and you're thirsty that it 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.520 looks like there's water on the desert. There is a 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.440 specific climate related reason that you're likely to see a 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.720 mirage in the desert that looks like a pool of water. Yeah. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.600 These occur when a dense layer of cold air sits 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.399 on or above line of sight with a layer of 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.840 less dense, warmer air below line of sight. Now, um, 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.600 an example to to pull from here is consider the 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.439 desert highway. Okay, the unbeats down, heats the asphalt, and 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.000 the hot asphalt heats up the bottom portion of the air. 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.560 Rays of light from above are refracted when they hit 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:14.879 that refracted toward your eyes, resulting in the mirage. So 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.480 the light of the blue sky above is bent back 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.040 towards you from below the horizon, and thus you have this, 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.240 you know, it's it's like a pool of water, but 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.760 essentially like what seems like a pool of sky. Yeah, 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.320 you're essentially seeing the blue light of the sky that 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.080 is refracted as it changes from the cooler air above 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.520 to this pocket of warmer air below, and it bends 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.000 down and makes it look like part of the sky 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.200 is just sitting on the ground. And when you see that, 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.840 that blue sky looks a lot like water. Yeah. Now 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.960 the superior mirage works the opposite way. Warm air sits 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:53.240 above line of side, cool layer beneath it, light bends down. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.080 The light is not traveling straight at us, but our 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.399 visual process assumes that it is, so it makes appear 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.840 as if it is. Uh, it is above its actual positions, 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.359 such as above the horizon, hanging in the sky, and so. 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.119 Of course, in some cases this can cause objects that 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:14.000 are actually past where you can see on the horizon, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.359 so they're you know, beyond the curve of the earth 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.640 from your vision, to appear as if they are popping 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.760 up over the horizon. Yeah. They can make something that's 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.920 that's actually just beyond the optical horizons, such as mountain tops, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.160 appear ahead of schedule. You can imagine how this would 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:32.840 play into some of your expectations whilst whilst out on 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.280 the open seas. Uh. It can also make objects appear 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:41.440 closer or further away, larger or smaller than they actually are. Um, 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:45.120 it's quite interesting. Uh. And and and for another example 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.480 of this. Apparently, the most common example of a superior mirage, 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.840 according to Christine Plam in two thousand eight speaking to 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.720 Robert Siegel of NPR, is a sunrise or a sunset. Quote, 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.040 the same phenomenon occurs to the sun every day and 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.360 makes it appear to be above the horizon when it's 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.240 actually slightly below it. Oh, I think I've read that 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.040 this is even more common, like in polar regions. This 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.200 might be related to what's known as the Novaya Zimilea effect. 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.399 Oh yeah, yeah, it's of course. The thing with the 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.560 sunrise and sunset is since it happens every day, and 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.199 and you know, generally it's the kind of thing you 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.240 see every day, it doesn't seem out of place. But 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.199 where we get into these, you know, remarkable stories and 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:30.600 legends arising from from sightings of of superior mirages, it's 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.200 because they occur. They don't occur every day. It's something 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.159 you would see maybe some frequency, depending on what part 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.520 of the world and what the exactive environmental settings happen 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.200 to be. But they have more mystery to them. They're 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.120 not part of just the everyday movements of the sun 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:48.840 or everyday atmospheric behavior. Yeah, the conditions have to be right, 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.600 So superior mirages they require there to be a certain 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.320 kind of pocket of warmer air sitting above a pocket 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:01.000 of cooler air, which is not normally how the sphere works. Right, 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:03.520 Usually the air up higher is going to be cooler, 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.360 even though heat rises. Usually it's just farther away from 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:08.479 the Earth and it's going to be cooler. Now, if 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:10.879 you're completely lost at this point, which I will, I 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.440 will forgive you for for being so um, I will 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:15.840 say a couple of resources you can turn to how 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.280 stuff works dot Com has an article about mirages, but 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.040 also the University of British Columbia's Department of Earth, Ocean 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.679 and Atmospheric Sciences. They have a great page that I 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.560 was looking at earlier with very helpful illustrations. Included one 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.439 of these for you to see here, Joe. But uh, 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.720 just very well presented information about like light bending downward, 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.880 that's your superior mirrage, light bending upward, that's your inferior mirage. 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:47.040 Thank thank now. The superior mirrage can actually get even 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:51.399 more complicated than just making something appear above where it 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.760