Mystery Spot is a tourist attraction located in Santa Cruz, California in the United States. The operators of the small site (which is about 150 feet in diameter) claim that it is a place where the laws of physics and gravity do not apply, and provide a number of interesting demonstrations in support of these claims.
Several of the phenomena demonstrated by the tour guides (and by visitors using levels) could be construed as rather difficult to explain. Two people standing on opposite sides of a level surface appear to change height, and a ball will roll to one direction on the same surface.
The phenomena that visitors to the Mystery Spot may experience result from the effects of forced perspective, optical adaptation, and certain optical illusions in combination with the steep gradient of the site.
As visitors travel through the site they habituate to this gradient. The effects of this adaptation are then exploited, especially within closed structures, so that visitors may feel as though gravity does not operate as it should in the Mystery Spot.
Other similar "attractions"
Such attractions are relatively common, and exist in many U.S. states under names such as Mystery Hill .
A similar such attraction, known by the same name, "Mystery Spot", can be found in Northern Michigan, specifically, in St. Ignace, on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
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