A year or two I heard a story about a Sheriff's deputy here washing a patrol car at their facility and getting this feeling of being watched. He could not shake the feeling and kept looking around, but couldn't see anyone. Finally he spotted the cause. The facility is next to Out of Africa. The story is amusing because he finally saw the cause, he happened to look up a big and there was a giraffe looking at him over the fences and short trees. I had that happen once decades ago hiking in the Grand Canyon. I stopped fror a bit and just got this intense feeling of being watched. I looked around and looked around. Finally I saw a mountain goat up on a cliff standing there looking intently at me. I happened to mention this last week with some guys. One once was out in the boonies in Alaska. He was plugging away and got that feeling of being watched. He looked around and looked around. Finally spotted mama bear (Sarah Palin?) with two big cubs standing on their hind feet looking at him. When they let down and began moving generally into some cover in his direction, he took the opportunity to skeedaddle on a course 90 degrees to the line of sight.

Which brings up two questions.

These stories are about human-animals. Has anyone ever had or heard of that happening human-human? Where somebody has that intense feeling of being watched and it turns out to be another human?

Anybody have an explanation on how this could happen in a strictly physical world following only the laws of physics? I suppose somebody could say that it was strictly coincidence to get the feeling when there is an animal watching which is not immediately visually obvious. But the odds of that seem to me to be fleetingly small.

Definitely happens human-human. It happens to me all the time. Have you noticed that if you stare at someone, they will look back to you usually after just a second or two? Same phenomenon. You won't get that "intense" feeling you are being watched unless someone keeps staring at you, or is studying, or closely observing you and you don't look back (or can't look back because you can't find them, such as with the animals you described).

The military is well-aware of this phenomenon. They teach Snipers to never take more than a brief glance at the target, until it is time to actually fire. Because if you observe the target, they will feel like they are being watched, and will go inside or otherwise take cover or other precautions.

There is no workable "strictly physical

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:03 am following only the laws of physics

" explanation. The only explanation I've heard that could almost work is electromagnetic fields emanated by the body or mind. The problem with this is those fields are so weak that there's no way they can be detected more than a few feet away -- and that is with extremely sensitive instruments and special antennas in a cancellation chamber (ie: where all electromagnetic fields from the outside are eliminated). In a real-world environment you can only measure these fields within fractions of inches from the skin (that is why EEG and EKG sensors have to be placed directly on your skin in the hospital). The electrical energy inside the body's cells is only millivolts and nanoamps -- do the math yourself, you aren't getting much of an electromagnetic field at those energy levels.

But the world isn't strictly physical, and the laws of physics don't cover everything.

The way this phenomenon is explained gets into the metaphysical a little. Basically, every one of us is like a tuned antenna. Anytime someone looks at and studies us, the mental image created in their mind causes their "antenna" to begin to vibrate at our frequency. It doesn't matter if it is an animal or a human -- any living thing with (even rudimentary) intelligence and awareness is capable of creating these vibrations. The more intently they observe us, the more clearer the mental image and thus the more powerful the vibration. Our "antenna" will pick up any vibration at our frequency. When the vibration becomes powerful enough, we will become aware of it.

Animals tend to create very strong vibrations because they live entirely in the present, single-minded and focused only on what they are doing at that moment. Animals don't have thoughts about 10,000 other things running through their mind like people do. So when an Animal stares at you, that "vibration" gets intense pretty quickly.

Whether you believe in Evolution or a Creator -- either way this phenomenon has helped us survive through the millenia. In the past it helped us know when a potential preditor was watching us. Those of us who were smart enough to heed the warning and get out of there survived. Those who didn't... Helped the preditors survive.

Prudence (imported) wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:37 am Definitely happens human-human. It happens to me all the time. Have you noticed that if you stare at someone, they will look back to you usually after just a second or two? Same phenomenon. You won't get that "intense" feeling you are being watched unless someone keeps staring at you, or is studying, or closely observing you and you don't look back (or can't look back because you can't find them, such as with the animals you described).

The military is well-aware of this phenomenon. They teach Snipers to never take more than a brief glance at the target, until it is time to actually fire. Because if the you observe the target, they will feel like they are being watched, and will go inside or otherwise take cover or other precautions.

Has this been confirmed by experiments? If it has, I would love to read about the experiments.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:03 am A year or two I heard a story about a Sheriff's deputy here washing a patrol car at their facility and getting this feeling of being watched. He could not shake the feeling and kept looking around, but couldn't see anyone. Finally he spotted the cause. The facility is next to Out of Africa. The story is amusing because he finally saw the cause, he happened to look up a big and there was a giraffe looking at him over the fences and short trees. I had that happen once decades ago hiking in the Grand Canyon. I stopped fror a bit and just got this intense feeling of being watched. I looked around and looked around. Finally I saw a mountain goat up on a cliff standing there looking intently at me. I happened to mention this last week with some guys. One once was out in the boonies in Alaska. He was plugging away and got that feeling of being watched. He looked around and looked around. Finally spotted mama bear (Sarah Palin?) with two big cubs standing on their hind feet looking at him. When they let down and began moving generally into some cover in his direction, he took the opportunity to skeedaddle on a course 90 degrees to the line of sight.

Which brings up two questions.

These stories are about human-animals. Has anyone ever had or heard of that happening human-human? Where somebody has that intense feeling of being watched and it turns out to be another human?

Anybody have an explanation on how this could happen in a strictly physical world following only the laws of physics? I suppose somebody could say that it was strictly coincidence to get the feeling when there is an animal watching which is not immediately visually obvious. But the odds of that seem to me to be fleetingly small.

First of all you have to realize that the ability to perceive being watched by potential predators before they can get close enough to kill you, is a huge evolutionary advantage. Absent this skill animals tend to get eaten before they get a chance to reproduce. To this end most prey species (rabbits and such) have evolved eyes with a very wide field of view, and little overlap between eyes, giving them early warning of attact, but little stereoscopic vision and depth perception. Top predators, on the other hand, (owls and lions) tend to have eyes with narrower field of view and considerable overlap, giving much beter depth perception, the better to locate and capture prey.

And I don't think you need to theorize any senses beyond the five we already know of. From the example of muscle reading, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_reading

Muscle reading, also known as "Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading. The performer can determine many things about the mental state of a subject by observing subtle, involuntary responses to speech or any other stimuli. It is closely related to the ideomotor effect, whereby subtle movements made without conscious awareness reflect a physical movement, action or direction which the subject is thinking about. The term "muscle reading" was coined in the 1870s by American neurologist George M. Beard to describe the actions of mentalist J. Randall Brown, an early proponent of the art.[1]

The technique relies on the assertion that the subject will subconsciously reveal their thoughts through very slight involuntary physical reactions, also known as ideomotor responses. The performer can determine what the subject is thinking by recognising and interpreting those responses. Muscle reading may be billed by some entertainers as a psychic phenomenon, where the audience will be told that by creating physical contact with the subject, a better psychic connection can be formed. In fact, the contact allows the performer to read more subtle reactions in the subject's motor functions that may not be apparent without contact, such as muscle control and heart rate. it is clear that there is more information available to our five senses, than we are consciously aware of. In the woods there is a constant chorus of birds, insects and animals that make up the background noise. The presence of a predator like a bear is going to change that chorus, and even a city girl like me is subconsciously aware of it. Plus there are odors. We pick up on threats much more if they are upwind. Plus our eyes pick up shadows, reflections and movements in our peripheral vision that we are not conscious of.

I think it is a highly evolved perception, but not a sixth sense.

Transward

The following is a review of the best and not wordy book on the subject as helped me calm down with my "awakening" as was disturbing. Still is. Other peoples stress transmits <ugh>.

The Tao of Psychology

By Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

one review sez

"Who hasn't experienced that eerie coincidence, that sudden, baffling insight, that occasional flash of extrasensory perception that astonishes? Can these events be dismissed as mere chance, or do they have some deeper significance for us?"

" . . . explores the inter-relationship between these meaningful coincidences and our intuitive sense . . ."

No faith or acknowledgment of such experiences required to "get" what this book is saying.

No One who has read this book on my recommendation was disappointed.

This is the book that was recommended to me by a Bishop of the Catholic Church when Christians told me it was the Devil and Rabbi's just said "Yes".

This book helped me balance these experiences and not be freaked by them. Jungian and short and concise. Not wordy.

Moi

If you live with cats, that feeling of being watched adapts.

Nice thread. Seems logical that this phenomenon would evolve for survival reasons.

From a phyical laws explanation, I would say that there are sounds or lack of sounds that being picked up by your subconscious. Like maybe some birds scattered, or maybe some frogs stopped croaking in the vicinity of the other animal. Possibly even some low level smell being picked up subconsciously.

From a metaphysical explanation, I subscribe to the idea that our recognized senses only pick up a very small subset of the actual physical universe. As we know, we only hear a small range of sound, see a small range of color, etc. However, in reality the universe is sort of an infinite set of matter interconnected through things like electromagnetics, gravity, quantum entanglement, etc. And those are just the ones we know. So it is possible that a part of us senses changes in some field, sort of like how a metal detector detects metal.

You can extend that further and maybe "kookier" with ideas like those of Carlos Castaneda which state that we're part of a field of "awareness", with living beings being bundles of awareness and we're all connected with something like magnetic lines (but of awareness not magnetism). In otherwords, what we perceive as an animal or being is the end points of these field connections. The idea then is that it is possible to influence the awareness of other beings somewhat remotely by being conscious of your own awareness. Kooky yes, but it is a somewhat cohesive explanation for most paranormal experiences. For example, in that system when a person sees a "ghost" or "alien" what they are really doing is suddenly becoming aware of some parts of of our awareness and detecting other bundles of awareness that are normally outside our range (sort of like putting on a pair of night-vision googles).

Anyway, like you said the feeling is weird and fairly valid (i.e. people do seem to know when they're being watched sometimes). Yet all explanations rely on stretches.

Question, does that human still need to be alive? because I keep getting the feeling the ghost that lives in this house keeps watching me, Damn him.

River

Is it the ghost?

Or is it Rupert watching you from his secret hiding place?

Perhaps "living" is too narrow of a definition. If there was a ghost or other "disembodied entity" that was capable of interacting with the physical world (even if only to make some kind of whispy apparition), and it had awareness of you, I suppose it could trigger that "feeling of being watched".

As far as subtle noises or subconscious perceptions go -- it is possible. But I'm definitely more in the "sixth sense" camp. In classrooms, I've had people turn around and notice me staring at them (from several rows back). I purposely did that a couple times in a couple different classes in College. Sit in the back, stare at one person in the front, until they turned around. I can't say it worked every time -- but it did work nearly every time.

Try it sometime if you are in a classroom situation, or even just in a crowd. Just stare at someone. Focus on them, concentrate on them, watch their every move for a bit. See if they turn and look at you or not. Of course be careful who you stare at because this is also a good way to pick a fight or get called names (you can always just say something like: "sorry, I thought you were someone I knew a few years ago, I was mistaken").

As far as experiments -- I don't know of any (but the great Google and its little friend Wikipedia may know). What I've typed above are mainly my own observations. I do remember reading a page or two about that "feeling of being watched" in my College Psychology 101 textbook. Don't remember if there were experiments listed there. I no longer have access to that book so I can' go back and look (I totally would if I still had the book).

The Sniper training thing came from a friend-of-a-friend who was a Sniper (we all got together 6 years after high school -- 3 of my closest friends all went into the military and got out at close to the same time. The Sniper guy was staying with one of them so he came to the party too).