Have you ever turned around because you felt someone staring at you—only to find someone actually looking? This widely shared experience, called scopaesthesia, is the focus of my newly published paper coauthored with Pam Smart in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
In this video, I summarize the key findings from our research, which investigates whether this feeling of being looked at is directional—meaning, do people not only sense they’re being stared at but also intuitively know from where?
Drawing on 960 case histories, we show that most people report directional responses, even when the observer is out of view—such as from an upper window, behind a wall, or through glass. These findings challenge the materialist model of vision that assumes all perception is internal and brain-bound.
In this episode, I explore:
What scopaesthesia tells us about how vision might work
How animals also sense being watched
Why this phenomenon could have evolutionary roots
Examples from police officers, wildlife photographers, and koala spotters
Why projection-based theories of vision may be closer to lived experience
You can also read the full paper for free on my website sheldrake.org in the Research section or here: https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/article/view/2897
This is part of my ongoing Findings series, in which I discuss a wide range of empirical research I’ve carried out over the years.
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