Sentient Beings Everywhere

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About Sentient Beings Everywhere

From the Paleolithic age unto today, from childhood to old age, from east to west, north to south, people from cultures all over the world have been seeing, depicting and collecting these 'beings' in their daily environment. From a small piece of rock that looks like a bird, a tree resembling a pregnant woman, a cloudformation sharing a likeness with a rabit, to the giant face seen on the surface on the planet Mars (as Nasa pictures recently showed us), our imagination never ceases to find hidden beings in our universe.

The Native Americans call it Fetishism: "Zuni Fetishes were stones that naturally formed into the shape of a human or animal. Often the Ahlashiwe were thought to be a human or animal that had been turned into stone by the twin sons of the Sun Father. Since the spirit of their life force was believed to be in the stone, they were treated as a source of power not only for an individual possessing one but for the welfare of the entire tribe."

[from: indiansun]

In the roman mythology as well as in the old-celtic world gods turned human beings into trees, flowers or standing stones when they were displeased with them.

[see a.o.: wikipedia]

And to this day animistic and pagan religions from all over the world (incl. the modern western world) consider natural objects to be infused by souls and spirits or the so called life force.

Not all of us attribute spiritual value to these objects, but nonetheless we are struck
often enough by the similarity of some objects to actual living beings: "Look at that tree. See the smiling face? And there, an elephant!". All that is required is an almost childlike imagination and a willingness to look.

This Group is dedicated to bringing to life this world of disguised 'beings' or 'spirits' from all over the planet. We hope to make the largest collection possible. Be sure to leave your name, contact information and owner of copyright, as we are planning to see if at some point we can make a publication with the most beautiful, intriguing photographs. We will most certainly contact you if we decide to use your contribution.

SHARE THE IMAGINATION
Please share with us what you see in the objects you've added to the collection. You never know what other people might have discovered in looking at your photograph! We hope to get a lively and enthousiastic community going as we are thrilled to build this unique worldwide collection of " Sentient Beings".

Sentient Beings has been initiated by photographer Hanneke van Velzen and graphic designer Bruno Setola on may 23rd, 2007 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.