We've all felt it; eyes burning a hole into the back of our head, only to turn around and find that no one is there. Are there really people or spirits creeping on us, watching our every move, or is it yet another trick of the mind?
While it's possible you've got a stalker or a spirit attachment, we know of a few more likely reasons you've been feeling watched.
High EMF
Being exposed to high levels of EMF radiation, especially for prolonged periods of time, can cause a multitude of freaky symptoms, including the indescribable sensation of being watched. It can also cause mild peripheral hallucinations (seeing shadows and figures out of the corner of your eye, for example), chills/goosebumps, paranoia, anxiety, insomnia, etc.
It definitely contains parallels that mirror a haunting, so it's understandable that folks mistake high EMF levels for a spiritual presence when they've also had mysterious phenomenons and symptoms to back that theory. Ironically, it's just the (very mundane) EMF itself.
Infrasound
Similarly, being exposed to certain infrasound frequencies can cause disorientation, goosebumps, hallucination, and fear in extreme cases. All the ingredients for feeling creeped on by a spirit. Infrasound, which are sounds under 20hz (under human hearing), is also known as the fear frequency because of the capability to unsettle people and animals.
Physical Medical Conditions
The feeling of a presence nearby is classified as one of the six autoscopic (seeing one's self) phenomena. These phenomena describe things like out-of-body-experiences and doppelgangers, as well as this feeling of being looked at from an unseen presence. The symptom "is usually accompanied by alterations in the experience of one's own body. It can be reported by healthy persons in conditions of sensory deprivation or social isolation. The feeling of a presence is often confined to one hemispace particularly when associated with a seizure disorder."
"Presence Hallucination"(PH) has been linked with diseases and conditions like Parkinson's, strokes, epilepsy, migraines, tumors, neoplasia, infection, infarction, sensorimotor deficits, overactive amygdala, and temporoparietal junction disruptions, amongst others. There's still a lot of research to be done on this symptom, but it is being safely induced with electrical brain stimulation for MRI observation in robotics studies like this.
Psychiatric Conditions
This experience is largely linked to a number of personality and mental disorders, and their comorbid counterparts. Paranoia or PPD may be responsible for this feeling of surveillance. Those conditions may be part of a larger diagnosis like schizophrenia.
Depression and anxiety are comorbid symptoms of just about every other disease imaginable and can play a part in the isolation, loneliness, and unease possibly associated with the creation of the Presence Hallucination. Dissociative disorders that involve depersonalization could theoretically transport your perception of self to an outer body experience, where you may be the one watching you without even realizing it! Trippy stuff.
Speaking of trippy, drug use and post-drug use, especially with psychoactive and psychedelic substances, may be responsible for both psychosis disorders and direct hallucinations/flashbacks.
Mold/Fungus
A recent study by Jackson University has found that Rye Ergot fungus, a type pf mold found in lots of creepy old houses due to poor air circulation, could be to blame for paranoia and even visual hallucinations/psychosis. It's said to have played a part in the Salem Witch Trials, causing the bewitchment. This mold doesn't sound like such a fun-gi...
Power of Suggestion
The paranoia causing the sensation of being observed may be induced by the expectations set by someone else. Perhaps you've been told this sensation happens to others, or that the place you're in is haunted, so your subconscious is expecting to sense a presence. The mind fills in the gaps of 'absence of presence' with the presence it was expecting as a reflex. The power of suggestion is immense. It's described well in this old article/study by psychologist Edward Titchener, who studied this specific sensation.
Default Assumption
We now know that our brains assume that we're being looked at (by live people) much more than we actually are. We spend so much time subconsciously wondering if we're being looked at and scrutinized, likely for survival and as a result of insecurity. When we can't tell for sure if we are indeed being looked at ( because vision is obscured by something like sunglasses), we automatically assume that we are being watched, according to this study. So if we're already ready to feel watched, even when nothing is directly watching us, it may happen in spookier settings too.
Interestingly, time and time again, it's been proven that our instincts to catch someone watching us from behind are not accurate at all. Our intuition doesn't correctly pick up the times someone does stare at us directly, unless it's within our line of vision (even in far peripherals though). Even blind people could identify when they were being looked at directly, but only within their line of "vision".
Phobia
Scopophobia describes the fear of being watched, exposed, and surveilled, even when alone. It's usually a result of childhood trauma and 'helicopter parenting'.
So, you see, there's a lot of reasons why we feel this creepy sensation. What's important is that you put on a good show, striking a pose or two! You never know when a talent scout is watching in the shadows.
Follow our adventures to see if we can catch any dead people watching us!
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