While some people might have problems finding the image of their new baby in a sonogram, a San Diego woman sees not just her future baby, but someone else too.
The shape of her late father appears to be kissing her soon-to-be daughter.
Shantel Carrillo shared her ultrasound online, with comments about her father coming after.
Pregnant Woman Sees Late Father Kissing Her Unborn Baby In Ultrasound Photowww.youtube.com
Carrillo recently went in for a medical exam and had an ultrasound. She shared the image to Facebook, to update her family.
It was there, that people started pointing out the top left of the image.
Carrillo said:
"Everyone's like: 'Look! It looks like someone is kissing your baby'."
She then found a photo of her father, who passed away in 2016, with her first daughter and the profile resemblance is uncanny.
While many online are amazed, others are more skeptical.
Pareidolia is the tendency to see familiar objects or faces in abstract patterns. If you've ever seen a specific animal made of clouds, you've experienced this as well.
The human mind naturally recognizes faces in places where there are none. This process is what some people online are saying is happening here.
Additionally, while Carrillo claimed she didn't expect the photograph to go viral, she shared it on Reddit before a local news station picked up the story.
Maybe the outline in the picture is her father or maybe it just looks like it.
For Carrillo, comments of doubt about her situation don't bother her.
To her, this is exactly what her father would have done.
"I think my dad would just be over the moon about it, so I feel like, you know, he's including himself in this someway, somehow."
Carrillo and her family have taken this as a sign that her late father is looking over them. The fact she is due in April, just a few days before her father's birthday, adds to the feeling.
So everyone else can debate, while she enjoys the memory of her father.
Carrillo's story encouraged others to share their own experiences with deceased relatives as a child or around pregnancies.
On Reddit, Ghostofamermaid said:
"That's amazing. It reminds me of something someone related yet unrelated, but when I was around 1 or 2 I kept giggling and talking to nothing."
"When my mom asked who it was, I kept saying 'Bernice!' Eventually later she asked who Bernice was, and I said 'Grandma'. My moms grandma Bernice died a long time before I was born."
The compilation from the TV program Strange Encounters, Best of Celebrity Ghost Stories: Strange Encounters is available here.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram