by Marinus Jan Marijs
The feeling of being stared at is something which is experienced by many people.
The philosopher J.J. Poortman wrote in “Het Tijdschrift voor parapsychology” that the feeling of being stared at, is often alluded to in fiction, as in stories or novels by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Anatole France, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, John Cowper Powys, Thomas Mann, J.B. Priestley and many other writers (Poortman, 1959). Poortman corresponded with several writers such as Aldous Huxley and others who did confirm that they did see the phenomenon as really existing.
Here is an example from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes:
“The man interests me as a psychological study. At breakfast this morning I suddenly had that vague feeling of uneasiness which overcomes some people when closely stared at, and, quickly looking up, I met his eyes bent upon me with an intensity which amounted to ferocity, though their expression instantly softened as he made some conventional remark upon the weather”
(Conan Doyle, 1884).
Rupert Sheldrake mentioned in: The Sense of Being Stared At, Is it Real or Illusory? “Most people have had the experience of turning round feeling that someone is looking at them from behind, and finding that this is the case. Most people have also had the converse experience. They can sometimes make people turn around by staring at them. In surveys in Europe and North America, between 70% and 97% of the people questioned said they had had personal experiences of these kinds” (Braudet al., 1990; Sheldrake, 1994; Cottrellet al., 1996).
A comprehensive study about the subject:
http://www.sheldrake.org/Articles&Papers/papers/staring/index.html
In addition Sheldrake has conducted ‘Sense of Being Stared at’ studies.
The results have been replicated by others. Combined together in the literature there were 60 studies, 33,357 sessions. A meta-analysis has produced odds against chance of 202000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 to 1
(that’s 2 x 1059 to 1)
(Source: Dr Dean Radin’s book Entangled Minds; 2006 page 127)
