January/February 2007 Alternative Health
What are You Looking At?
Ever had the feeling of being watched, and then turned around to catch someone staring you?
Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, author of The Sense of Being Stared At, found that 90 percent of survey respondents experienced the sensation of staring. This experience occurred most commonly with strangers in public places, such as streets and bars, Sheldrake reported in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.
Why do people stare at others? Curiosity was the most frequent reason, followed by a desire to attract the other person's attention. Less frequently, the motives were sexual attraction or anger. Some people found that staring at someone with distress, affection or good wishes could cause a person to turn around.
Through extensive interviews, Sheldrake found that the sense of being stared at is well known to many police officers, surveillance personnel and soldiers. When detectives are trained to follow people, they are told not to stare at the back of suspects any more than necessary because the person might turn around, catch their eye and blow their cover.
Test it out yourself by participating in an online staring test, which is one of Sheldrake's many simple experiments at www.sheldrake.org.
-- Vicky Thompson
Did you like this article? Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
