'Mind-melting' optical illusion of people hugging leaves the internet baffled

Optical illusions can truly boggle the mind - and this one is no exception.

Optical illusions, akin to brainteasers, riddles, and other puzzles, can genuinely broaden your horizons when you take a moment to scrutinise them - they can even provide insight into how your brain functions.

Our brains are actually operating slightly behind our eyes (by hundreds of milliseconds) - this delay is due to our brains attempting to decipher what's in front of us. Despite working as swiftly as possible, it's always functioning just a tad behind reality. This compels us to depend on a series of assumptions constantly to keep ourselves safe and maintain our body coordination.

READ MORE: Only those with sharp minds find odd object in pile of dice within 10 seconds

READ MORE: Only 'puzzle masters' can solve tricky money brainteaser in just seconds

This is what makes optical illusions so fascinating because they expose that by navigating life using these assumptions, we sometimes overlook crucial details about what we're observing. This specific optical illusion even made internet users rather uneasy, because, through the assumptive process, their brains initially interpreted the image as something downright peculiar.

Shared on Reddit, social media users were startled by the optical illusion below, and couldn't comprehend what they were witnessing - it even reportedly took some of them a bit of time to deduce a plausible explanation for the image of two people embracing.

This "mind-boggling" optical illusion, as featured in news.com.au, shows two people embracing on a beach - appearing perfectly normal at first glance - until you attempt to work out what's happening with their legs.

Theories were suggested such as the woman lifting the man - but both sets of feet were clearly planted on the sand, ruling out that explanation. "I don't like this... it's messing with me too much," wrote one user, with another joking: "I need an adult to help me here".

READ MORE: Only 5 per cent of people can solve 'impossible' farm animal puzzle

Fortunately, an 'adult' was ready to assist in the Reddit thread, explaining precisely what was occurring and why nobody could decipher the image, which was captioned "This hurts my brain" when originally posted back in 2016.

"His shorts are two colours. White in the middle, black on the outside. I'm fun at parties, please invite me," clarified one clever user. The dual-toned shorts confuse your perception of the couple's limbs, making it difficult to distinguish where one person's legs finish and the other's start.

While it's a head-scratcher, this optical illusion also demonstrates the constraints of relying entirely on our subconscious judgements.

What do you think? Let us know down in the comments section below.