The Living Jesus Statue - Jesus is watching

Location: Bethalto Illinois, Roselawn Cemetery Bethalto Illinois. File Under: Roadside Attraction, Madison County, Illinois, Cemetery, Religion

When I was a kid growing up in the Midwest I had more than one friend who's parents would fall under that category of what we referred to as, "religious freaks". Lets just say that I've been to more than a one religious bonfires in my time. You know when the holy rollers get together and start burning books and rock albums in the name of God. I even remember one parent that decided that all "creatures of the night" were a sign of satan - snake, bats, field mice, a possums. We stood in the backyard and watched as she burned sweatshirts with owls, books about reptiles and even a t-shirt with a snake that read, "Don't tread on me. With all of this said, the following story won't be much of a shock.

Around the age of ten I started having sleepovers. One night while at a friends, I can't remember what we were doing at the time, but my friends mother got really upset with us. After making us kneel down and pray with her she began to explain how we had disappointed not only her, but Jesus. I remember replying something stupid like, "What he doesn't see won't hurt him". This enraged my friends mother, she glowed red. Grabbed me and Ross by our shirt collars and drug us to the car. She drove about 10 minutes to a town known as Bethalto (in Illinois) and stopped off at Roselawn Cemetery. She stopped the car just after dusk in front of the following statue. She yelled at us to get out of the car and to apologize to Jesus. "He can't hear you!", she yelled at a glass shattering volume. We both began to tear up as we got out a quick heartfelt, "Sorry baby Jesus". She then had us walk around the statue so that we could see that Jesus was watching us no matter where we were standing.

It's true, the eyes would follow you no matter which angle you were at. So, Jesus was watching after all. Later in my teens and after getting my driver's license I remember I would drive friends through the cemetery late at night to show them what I learned on that day. Jesus is watching...

The living Sculpture effect is an unusual feature makes the eyes and entire head appear to turn and look directly at the beholder at all times.

This illusion is created by an ingenious method of sculpturing, which fulfills the Biblical quotation, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch, upon the evil and the good." (Proverbs 15:3)

The uncanny effect of this sculpture is that the eyes and whole face of Jesus follow you as you move right and left in front of the sculpture. From the left side, Jesus looks leftward toward you:

This is an instance of the pretty well known "Hollow Face Illusion." The eye is fooled into interpreting the concave face as a convex face. But even more strangely, the perspective is such that the face follows you. The diagram below shows how this works:

This is an instance of the pretty well known "Hollow Face Illusion." The eye is fooled into interpreting the concave face as a convex face. But even more strangely, the perspective is such that the face follows you. The diagram below shows how this works:

How to find the Living Jesus Statue