scopaesthesia
noun

- the purported ability to detect when someone is looking at you, even without visual cues; the feeling that someone is watching you from behind, and that often leads to turning around to find someone looking

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WORD ORIGIN

"Scopaesthesia" comes from the Greek roots: Skopein (σκοπεῖν) - meaning "to look at" or "to observe”, and Aisthesis (αἴσθησις) - meaning "sensation" or "perception”.

The term was coined to describe the purported ability to sense when you're being stared at or observed by someone else. It literally translates to "stare perception" or "observation sensation."

The word follows the typical pattern of scientific terminology that combines Greek roots to create precise descriptive terms. While scopaesthesia describes a phenomenon many people report experiencing (that feeling of being watched).

The term appears to have emerged in parapsychological literature in the 20th century as researchers attempted to study and categorize various alleged extrasensory phenomena.

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ARE YOU BEING WATCHED?  

Imagine this: you’re sipping coffee in your favourite café, scrolling through your phone, when—suddenly—a familiar tingle crawls up your neck. You look up. And there they are: someone staring at you from across the room.

Welcome to scopaesthesia, the spooky-but-surprisingly-common phenomenon of feeling watched. This experience has been reported by many people across all cultures and age groups. Many adults, especially scientists, dismiss it as coincidence.

But evidence keeps popping up,… In experiments involving blindfolded subjects and CCTV surveillance, people consistently detect when they’re being stared at. Some can even pinpoint the direction of the stare, turning around to meet eyes behind them, across streets, or even from upper floors.

Is it telepathy? subtle peripheral cues? or something else? We don’t know. What we do know is that shoplifters abort missions when they feel watched, martial artists train to notice it, and wildlife photographers swear their prey can “sense the lens.”

Scopaesthesia may be forcing us to confront a humbling truth: our senses perceive more than we consciously realize. That tingle on our neck isn’t simply anxiety—it’s over 200,000 years of evolution whispering, “Turn around!”  

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

awareness of gaze, back-of-the-neck tingle, being eyeballed (looked at, scanned), being watched sensation, creeping sensation, death stare detection, evil eye (awareness), eyes boring into you, feeling followed (observed, someone's gaze, watched), felt gaze, gaze detection (perception), ghost glance, having eyes on you, hunter’s sense, intuitive surveillance awareness, invisible stare, itch between the shoulders, knowing you're being watched, no one’s there but someone is, over-the-shoulder feeling, prickle on the neck, psychic gaze (staring effect), SCOPAESTHESIA, seen without seeing, sensation of being observed, sense of surveillance, sixth sense for stares, skin-prickling gaze, someone’s watching me, stare awareness, staring sensitivity, the feeling of being followed, the sensation of invisible eyes, unseen watcher, watchful presence

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation today, say something like:

“Have you ever experienced SCOPAESTHESIA,… the weird feeling that you’re being watched by someone?”