Scopasesthesia: when we feel that someone is looking at us

Sometimes, almost without knowing how, we feel that someone is watching us behind our backs. This indefinable and strange sensation actually responds to a defense mechanism of the brain with a very specific purpose: to keep us alert.

Scopaesthesia is the label given to the feeling of being watched. We have all experienced it on more than one occasion; It is almost like a mental third eye capable of perceiving beyond our ordinary field of vision to alert us to something. Now, is this some kind of psychic power?

The answer is no. Scopaesthesia is a type of sensation, not an extraordinary ability capable of allowing us to sense that someone is watching us without having to look. Sometimes, it’s true, we get it right. Sometimes, it is enough to turn your face and discover that, indeed, someone is following us or observing us from a distance.

However, we also make mistakes; That feeling becomes real, but still, it is interesting to know one aspect about this phenomenon. In reality, it serves a very specific purpose, and it is none other than to keep us alert.

Our brain is always anticipating risks, and therefore, Scopasesthesia is still another mechanism inherited from our ancestors.. Let’s get more information about it.

People have a point of distrust by nature and scopasesthesia is a reflection of this.

Scopaesthesia, when I feel like they are looking at me

One of the first people to study the phenomenon of scopaesthesia was Edward Titchener. This famous psychologist of the late 20th century was also the founder of structuralist psychology and one of the figures who delved most deeply into the analysis of the mind and also into the phenomenon of introspection.

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It was in 1898 when he decided to publish a study on scopasesthesia, after meeting multiple people who said they felt they were being watched or, even more so, knew when someone was looking at them without having to turn around. Tichener did not believe in extrasensory phenomena, but as a good scientist he had to demonstrate with evidence whether this ability was real or not.

His work was published in the magazine Science, being for many one of the most interesting works in the psychology of perception. The conclusions he reached were the following.

What happens behind our backs worries us

There are those who continue to point out that the phenomenon of scopaesthesia is nothing more than a trait of egocentrism. It is thinking that we are the center of all eyes. Now, assuming this idea is not entirely true nor is it consistent with what scientists tell us. Edward Titchener himself pointed out that this experience is nothing more than another survival mechanism.

Everything that remains behind us can be a danger. Our mind knows this, the brain has visual control of everything in front of us, hence from time to time it makes us feel that we are being watched to put us on alert in case we have to defend ourselves or flee.

Our perception goes beyond sight

People don’t have only 5 senses. The human being perceives beyond his eyes, his hands, his smell, hearing or touch. It is interesting to know that we have about 26 sensessuch as kinesthesia, the ability to perceive movement beyond our body or interoception, that sense that allows us to know what is happening inside us.

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Thus, something interesting that studies such as the one carried out at the University of Illinois by Dr. Steven Buetti have revealed is that many blind people do perceive that they have something in front of them. The amygdala is responsible for this happening.a small brain region linked to our emotions and the detection of external threats, which is also related to scopasesthesia.

Thus, Something that Edward Titchener could see in his 19th century experiments is that people were right that someone was watching them in a significantly higher number than expected by chance.. Therefore, something had to exist in the human brain for this to happen half of the time. Beyond mere chance, this success rate could be explained thanks to the amygdala and those multiple senses that we have and that are capable, in a certain way, of alerting us to a ‘possible’ risk.

The self-fulfilling prophecy

There is a third explanation that could also define the phenomenon of scopaesthesia: we refer to the self-fulfilling prophecy. In this case, a situation that is as curious as it is striking continues to occur and that is that sometimes, we ourselves cause them to end up looking at us.

Sometimes, when we have the feeling that someone is watching us, we can’t help but turn around or look around us. The fact of moving is already a stimulus for people around us to pay attention to us. It is undoubtedly something as logical as it is recurring.

To conclude, that feeling that someone is watching us has more than one explanation. Now, regardless of whether we may sometimes make mistakes or not, It is worth keeping in mind that this sensation serves a purpose, and it is none other than to keep us alert.. It never hurts to pay attention to it.