At 03:57 PM 11/3/99 -0800, you wrote:
>��� Ask the class if they have ever felt the stares of others they can't
>see.� Ask next, if they felt there might be some kind of energy wave or rays
>coming from the starer's eyes.� This should lead to some good discussion
>when you talk about what people think they know about their own psychology,
>intuitive beliefs, and actual knowledge of the visual system.� It might also
>be fun to see if this correlates, not so much with general belief in the
>paranormal, but with specific ideas regarding ESP and particularly,
>telepathy.�
As I was reading your post I remembered being aware of actual parapsychological
research that has attempted to investigate this alleged phenomenon. I searched
Psyc Lit and here's what I found:
Braud, W., Shafer, D., Andrews, S. (1993). Reactions to an unseen gaze (remote
attention): A review, with new data on autonomic staring detection.
Journal-of-Parapsychology. Vol 57(4): 373-390.
ABSTRACT
Used unconscious, autonomic reactions (electrodermal activities) to provide
physiological, rather than conscious and verbal, indications of accurate remote
staring detection. A closed-circuit video system was used in a randomized, 2-phase
experiment in which an individual (the starer) in 1 room gazed intently at 1 of 32
volunteers (starees) in another room. The staree was to determine when the starer
was gazing at their image. Accurate and significant effects were obtained, with
moderately large effect sizes. The unconscious, physiological (autonomic nervous
system) measure appeared to yield stronger effects than did more conscious,
cognitive guessing measures. Additionally, qualitatively different reaction
patterns occurred for untrained starees vs starees who had experienced extensive
training in becoming more sensitive to others and in dealing with their own
psychological resistance to being connected with other people. ((c) 1999
APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved)
Braud, W., Shafer, D., Andrews, S. (1993). Further studies of autonomic
detection
of remote staring: Replication, new control procedures, and personality
correlates.
Journal-of-Parapsychology. Vol 57(4): 391-409.
ABSTRACT
Conducted 2 replications of a previous study by W. Braud et al (see record
1995-08366-001) regarding the use of the unconscious autonomic nervous system
as an
indicator of remote staring detection (RSD). The 1st replication involved 3
"starers" and 30 volunteers participating as "starees," and the 2nd involved 1
starer and 16 volunteer starees. In both replications, starers and starees were
placed in separate rooms, and the starer watched a video image of the staree to
try
to gain the staree's attention. Starees were monitored for unconscious
physiological reactions to remote staring and completed personality assessments. A
control condition involving sham staring periods was added to Replication 2. In
both replications, remote staring was associated with a remote autonomic calming
effect. Magnitude of the autonomic RSD effect was significantly related to
starees'
degrees of introversion, social avoidance, and distress. ((c) 1999 APA/PsycINFO,
all rights reserved)
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Miguel Roig, Ph.D. Voice: (718) 390-4513
Assoc. Prof. of Psychology Fax: (718) 442-3612
Dept. of Psychology [EMAIL PROTECTED]
St. John's University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
300 Howard Avenue http://area51.stjohns.edu/~roig����
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