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by lilbballfrk on January 21st, 2006

lilbballfrk

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Can you really sense when someone is looking at you? If so, how?

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  • by RedJohn on January 22nd, 2006

    RedJohn

    I must admit that I have never felt this sensation in the way that other posters have alluded. I think that people experience a certain sense of 'creepiness' when they notice someone looking at them. This is more akin to an invasion of privacy, rather than a 'sense' that someone is watching you. Unless one is paranoid, in which case everyone *is* watching you.

    A person picks up certain cues from their environment to help them monitor people and events in their immediate vicinity: smells, sounds, lack of sounds, peripheral vision, vibrations, reflections, and so on. Much of this operates at an unconscious level, so a person is not necessarily aware they are performing these 'perimeter checks' intentionally.

    The only times that I have been acutely aware of people watching me are when I have taken part in demonstrations. The police watch individuals closely in such circumstances and one is aware of the focus, particularly when they intentionally keep you aware of their presence. In my experience, this is usually done by moving their riot control personnel and vehicles around in a very visible way - a tactic intended to intimidate.

    But a 'sixth sense'? No.

    Comments

    • The pattern I've noticed so far on the skeptic vs. validator stance is that those who haven't experienced the phenomenon dismiss it as something people must "induce" to some degree.

      (That's classic narcissistic behavior, btw...just because it doesn't happen to you, this and other events/experiences in the world couldn't possibly have occurred!? Please get over yourself. There's a chance that I'm being presumptuous, but if I had a chance to talk to you or the other skeptics, I'm likely to see a pattern in your thoughts about which phenomenon you validate, particularly if it's anecdotal.)

      I've also experienced this sense that someone BEHIND ME is looking at me (and there are no reflective surfaces around to lead me to this insight). When I turn around, I do find someone staring, and that person could be at any range of distances or angles, but none of these people were w/i the range of my peripheral vision...and I do not walk around in life thinking that I'm being watched.

      When this phenomenon occurs, it does so at random intervals, sometimes years apart, and at least w/ me, I haven't noticed any patterns as to when or where they occur, or if I'm in any particularly notable mood/stage (I'd say "no").

      Masako.MO.Okamoto

      by Masako.MO.Okamoto on February 24th, 2011

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