How high up do you see the person in this optical illusion - and why it has gone viral on TikTok

At the beginning of the video, which has gained 144.5 million views, many viewers think the person is up to 500ft in the air - before he slips and you see the drop is not as extreme as imagined.

The video has sparked a number of discussions with 122,000 comments being left on the optical illusion.

What is the optical illusion?

A number of people have been left confused as at the beginning of the video it looks as if the person is high up on a cliff.

The person filming the video then slips down the sandbank and your eyes adjust to see that he is not as high up as originally thought.

Who posted the video?

The video was originally posted on TikTok by @raymonsivaiss back in December, 2021.

The video has also been reposted by other creators, including wave.tv.

Wave.tv’s repost, which is captioned ‘Why did I think he was 500ft up?’, also gained 700,000 likes.

What can people see?

In the comments on the wave.tv repost many people said their brain struggled to comprehend how high the man is.

@rhyslyndsey said, “Bruh it looks so high but it’s not.”

@sarah87x added, “My brain is not working with this.”

The original video has been shared more than 189,500 times.

On the wave.tv repost, @vbthebird said, “Bruh my brain lagged.”

@tinasambou also said, “This is so confusing...”

@sharnijayne2021 said, “I got second-hand heart palpitations from this.”

@nesha_h1ll added, “I’m confused.”

Read about these other optical illusions:

What is the spinning horse optical illusion? Why the video has gone viral and left TikTok viewers baffled

Mermaid or fish optical illusion: what do you see in viral image breaking Twitter?

What do you see first? First image you spot in optical illusion reveals your biggest strength