Have you ever been in your car and suddenly felt that someone was looking at you, even he you had no reason to think so (they weren’t in your peripheral vision and you weren’t paying attention to them). Or, has the opposite ever happened; for any reason you were looking at someone and they turn and look back at you. What’s going on here?
The Sixth Sense? Who knows… how about when the phone rings, and you ‘know’ who it is–and your right.
It’s probably coincidence.
As there is no scientific reason why this would happen (I don’t acknowledge the efficacy of ESP), I am going to guess this is a perceptual illusion of sorts.
You may get that feeling of being watched 20 or 30 times. Each time you turn around, no one is there. However, if you turn around even once and there IS someone staring at you, you conclude that you “sensed” them staring at you.
This is just a WAG, and I am interested to hear what other people have to say about this.
Heembo
Well, CSICOP couldn’t find a basis for it, according to their recent article.
Yes! That happens all the time! And I spin around and stare them down, until they look at me funny and run away. They’re following me, I tell you!!
I notice that when I’m sitting somewhere and continuously watching a person pass by, they will often glance over to me, whereas if I just take a couple quick looks at them but still keep tabs on where they are, they almost never even notice me. That’s a long way from proving anything, but I’ve noticed another thing. When I’m hiding from someone looking for me (fooling around at work or something) they find me more often if I’m watching them track me down. If I for example sit in the bushes and stare at the ground, they’ll often pass right by but if I watch them approach, they’ll usually spot me. Maybe it’s just that they can see me face and white eyes instead of the top of my brown head in the leaves.
I think that someone who hunts, or has done undercover/surveillance work may have some better insights on this which may be untainted with the “do you beleive or not” bug - you know, practical experience as opposed to a researcher trying to either prove or disprove the theory.
Let’s apply a little critical thinking here: Think about how many people you looked at today. I mean just looked at, for no specific reason whatsoever. Walking to work today, I passed perhaps a couple hundred people. I looked at each & every one of them. Not to stare them down or creep them out, it was just my nature to take a survey of the people around me so that my body could properly plan its trajectory on the old shoeleather express. I find it amazing that people don’t catch me looking at them more often. If one or two people just happen to glance at me at the same time that I happen to be already looking at them, it’s just a matter of coincidence, and a not so amazing one at that (no matter how creepy it makes you feel).
Thought Experiment:
I ate lunch in a crowded cafeteria, there were perhaps 200-300
people seated at tables all around the building. Having nothing
better to do, I started taking a visual census of the immediate
population. That lady over there sure has a funny hat on. And
over there, that bald guy- does he really think his comb-over
improves his appearance? Wow, look at the wart on that man's nose!
I can't seem to take my eyes off it.
Now imagine all of the other 300 people doing the same thing I’m doing. Is it really so incredible that any given set of eyes will meet? Hardly. The feeling that you somehow sensed it before the fact is probably just ordinary paranoia, or some other minor neurosis.
We’re always looking at each other & taking in visual information about people around us, why is it so amazing that we occasionally find ourselves in the sights of others? The fantastic conclusion of ESP is not necessary to explain away matters of unremarkable coincidence.
…because it made me think of an instance several years ago when I came home for lunch, sat down on the sofa and started reading the day’s mail. Suddenly I got this feeling of being watched. When I looked up there were two people on the tv screen looking right at me!.
As I sometimes did in those days, I had the tv on with the sound turned off and at that particular time the program which was on was one of those “Noonday” news programs where the hosts take calls from the viewers. While the viewer is talking, the camera stays on the hosts and of course that is what generated that creepy feeling as they were listening and staring at the camera (and me!)
Quasi
They damn well better be looking at me.
I didn’t dress this way for my health… 
Of the sensory stimuli to which your mind is subject, only a small portion is selected for conscious consideration. Your eyes don’t merely see what you’re “looking at”, for example, but instead receive visual input from a very wide field of vision. The back of your mind decides that the front of your mind might wanna know that yonder person seems to be looking at you.
Yeah, I know, “what about when it is someone behind you?” etc…it is hard to know exactly what cues we are able to piece together in the back of our minds. Shadows? Reflections in our glasses? Who knows?
But ESP seems an unnecessary explanatory device.
I’m guessing that what is going on with the “someone’s loking at me” feeling has something to do with human perception. I’m by no means well-versed in this area, but I understand that humans are attuned to faces. People can recognize thousands of individuals just by glancing at their face, this despite the fact that human faces are pretty much all alike. In addition, people recognize faces from minimal visual cues: just a circle with eyes and a mouth (like a smilie) is clearly recognized as a face, even though it’s simplified considerably from a real human face. Seems like I read that this perception is likely the result of proto-humans living in relatively complex societies where immediate identification of other people (and knowing their social status) was of paramount importance.
Anyway, my hypothesis is that:
- Humans are attuned to recognizing faces from minimal visual cues.
- If someone is looking at you, you see the full frontal eyes-in-a-head face.
- As you drive, or sit in a cafeteria, your eyes are constantly wandering, if only just a little.
- When someone’s face enters your peripheral vision, you don’t consciously recognize it (your peripheral vision is too indistinct).
- However, your subconscious picks up on the minimal visual cues right away, and WHAM! you get the someone’s-looking-at-me feeling.
Seems logical to me, but I’d be interested if anyone has a better theory, or some actual facts…