Little Happier: What a Set of 3D “Magic Eye” Postcards Taught Me About Myself

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project

Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.7 • 13K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2021

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Just because something isn’t often used doesn’t mean that it’s useless. My 3D “Magic Eye” postcards are fun to look at, and they also tie me to my own past. Get in touch: @gretchenrubin; [email protected] Get in touch on Instagram: @GretchenRubin Get the podcast show notes by email every week here: http://gretchenrubin.com/#newsletter Order a copy of Gretchen’s new book OUTER ORDER, INNER CALM here: http://outerorderinnercalmbook.com Leave a voicemail message on: 774-277-9336 For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to happiercast.com/sponsors. Happier with Gretchen Rubin is part of ‘The Onward Project,’ a family of podcasts brought together by Gretchen Rubin—all about how to make your life better. Check out the other Onward Project podcasts—Do The Thing, Side Hustle School, Happier in Hollywood and Everything Happens with Kate Bowler. If you liked this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and tell your friends! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.
0:03.8	I'm working on a book about the five senses,
0:06.4	and as part of my investigations into my sense of sight,
0:09.7	I dug out my old stack of magic eye postcards.
0:14.2	I bought this set sometime in the 1990s
0:17.0	when the 3D magic eye auto stereograms were a fad
0:21.5	and on display everywhere.
0:23.7	An auto stereogram shows an image with a horizontally
0:27.1	repeating pattern that changes slightly with each repetition,
0:30.6	and a hidden image pops out when viewed from eyes positioned
0:34.5	at a certain angle.
0:36.0	At first glance, my postcards appeared to show nothing more
0:38.8	than a pattern blurred collection of dots.
0:41.8	The trick was that when I unfocused my eyes in just the right way
0:45.7	and moved a card to the correct distance,
0:47.9	I could suddenly see a three-dimensional image jump off the flat page.
0:53.1	Over the years, each time I picked up these cards again,
0:56.7	it took me several minutes to regain the knack,
0:59.4	and I always felt the same thrill of triumph
1:01.9	when I finally saw the hidden image.
1:04.8	I could feel my eyes doing their subtle work of focusing
1:08.2	and perceiving in a way that I never noticed in ordinary life.
	...

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