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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 Relsqui on January 22nd, 2006

    Relsqui

    The occurances of this sensation (real or not) in day-to-day life are so varied and subjective that a definite answer about its reliability requires an objective, scientific test.

    Luckily, there are a lot of those. The loudest proponent of the theory that we can, in fact, sense when we're being stared at, is a fellow by the name of Rupert Sheldrake. He's published a large number of books and papers, as have others who agree with him; there are also many who report no effect whatsoever. There is a tendency among believers in psi to obtain positive results, and a tendency among skeptics to obtain negative results.

    It's a difficult phenomenon to test. Think about it--the experimenters want to observe how the subject is responding, but even looking at him changes the circumstances of the study. That problem, in fact, is the very reason some researchers are so interested: they want to know whether other, unrelated experiments might be skewed merely by their observation.

    In short, we simply don't know. It's been "proved" both ways several times. If you want to really get into it, I recommend using Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) and searching for the keywords "staring effect." Not all the articles have their full text available for free, but you can still find quite a bit. Here's a good pair of opposing views from the same magazine to get you started:

    http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-03/stare.html
    http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-03/stare.html

    Thanks for asking, by the way; this was some really interesting research. I have a strong opinion about which side is correct, but given the amount of dispute over this, I think the only correct answer right now is one that acknowledges both opinions.

    Comments

    • Intriguing stuff, Relsqui. Interesting website. I'd sure like to find that guy staring at me, wouldn't you? Yikes.

      Jodie44

      by Jodie44 on February 18th, 2006

    • Great post.

      Joseph II

      by Joseph II on November 17th, 2008

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