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[Dr Sketch]

I'm going to put these in here as they are health related.  An optical illusion either tricks the eye (usually by fatiguing the color sensitive cones), or trick the brain.  Feel free to post links to your favorites.  As an aside, please DON'T put up screamers in here (an image that appears to be static but, after a set amount of time, morphs into something else & makes a sound, to try to scare you).  Maybe we could start a separate topic for those, if they are popular enough?

Here's my new favorite:

http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.html

Stare at the dot in the center for 30 seconds or so, then (without moving your eyes) put your mouse somewhere in the image.  As long as you don't move your eyes, your worn out cones will inject the correct colors into the black and white photo.  And no, there is no "trick" to it, and to test it, try rolling your mouse onto the image BEFORE staring at it.  It really IS a black and white photo, it is your eyes that are putting the correct colors there... Trippy, eh?

[Navi]

I've seen those before, but that was a really good one!

http://www.rense.com/general67/street.htm

[GrimAngel]

here's one I found and don't know the sourse so i re-hosted it
http://www.grimangel.com/images/optical.png

[Kadee]

Great links guys Optical illusions are so fun, and Navi that link you put up was mind blowing- great stuff

[Navi]

Kadee - here's the website of another artist who does similar work.

http://www.kurtwenner.com/

And there's always MC Escher's work (some of it, at least).

http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg

[Ectoplasmic Terrier]

Google images for "op art," see what you come up with.  Op art (not to be confused with "pop art") was big on optical illusions. It got big in the 1960s with the rise of marijuana smoking among the general public.  Coincidence or not?
 :roll:
http://www.ursispaltenstein.ch/cgi-bin/EE/images/uploads_1/op_art.jpg

One from Wiki, this is the famous U.S. flag illusion.  The colors are supposed to correct themselves if you stare at the image, and then avert your eyes to a blank sheet of paper.  The correction was only partial for me.

When I was a kid, I used to stare at the sunlit snow in order to create afterimages.

Don't forget about auditory illusions, such as the Shepard tone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_scale

I don't know if I can find an audio linke, but the purest use of the Shepard tone is James Tenney's piece "For Ann (Rising)," which is on Tenney's "Selected Works 1961-1969" (New World Records)