Impressions of being under observation.

I was talking to a friend the other day as we put some wine to good use and we found that we had a shared concept that we did not know any one else experienced.This concept (maybe not the right word) was that occaisionally we get the impression that we are being watched.Now, thats not to say spied on, more like by a 'live studio audience' or a panel of reveiwers. We both felt some urge to impress this 'audience' by doing whatever task was at hand as competantly as we could.We even agreed that when we were concentrating on impressing this imaginary audience we could focus of the task very well and time would fly by.I'm finding that I get the impression as I write this message....weird....I have always had these types of experiences.Any way, is this common? Does anyone else get this typ of feeling?I'm interested because, I can't help wondering that if I interepreted this feeling different I might conclude it is god.Coffee House?Edited by Larni, : New title.

Um...any one going to look at this?

As I was pondering the replies to my OP I was reading Weird Science in the Guardian. It had an article about home made kits that generate EM fields around ones head that can induce the feelings I mentioned.It's in 17th June (sorry got no link).Does this mean that when we feel the presence of gods we are merely reacting to an EM field or is the EM field an indicator of a god nosing around in your head?Made me think.

Or the EM is what it uses to collect information on us, to check up whether we have been good boys and girls.It could be SpyWare.Btw I'm still pondering your last post in Gods and Demons....

Sorry Iano, you have lost me.

Yeah I reckon thats pretty close.We must have evolved to pay extreme attention to what other people in our group think of us.I would not find it suprising that we evolved a 'program' running in our brains to constantly model other peoples posible reaction (based on our knowledge of our culture) and compare and contrast our actions for posible societal conflict.

Really, you mean posession and the like? Who has been posessed? It's George W. Bush is'nt it?

You can't mean that.ABE: I see several people beat me to it.Edited by Larni, : Theatrical Trailer....Are'nt you just so glad that came on the DVD!

Do you know that for a fact?What leads you to believe this si so?

No. It never entered my head they were real.....untill now!Seriously though, it has just occured to me that I watched a lot of TV when I was little.It seems quite posible that I could have watched other people on telly and extroplated from that.

Yeah, thats what it was like for me too. My dreams used to run like movies. Not any more though, no free films for me

Hi kakariki and Welcome to EvC! Interesting you say this. I am naturally very selfish and have to make an effort not to be. I wonder whether this trait of mine conflicts with my perception of what is appropriate in society?

No worries Kakariki, (what colour are you, yellow red or orange?)I've always thought of conscience as a sub conscious perception of risk to self and subsequent rumination about said risk and self consciousness as basically performance anxiety so I reckon you could have it right there.It certainly seems more reasonable than a supernatural entity.

That got me thinking, OCD has a 'need for imposed order' component, does religious ritual have it too? I think the comfort comes from the increased sense of control from doing 'insert task here' to the standard that oneself sets (OCD?), or of ones god's standards (religious observations) and that this can get translated (after the event) into spiritual fulfilment (religious orientation) to anxiety reduction (secular orientation).I wonder if the propensity of having feelings of observation (whether the observer is a god or non-god) is correlated with obsessional/compulsive behaviour?I smell a PNT.

I should hope I'm close, it's my job PNT = Proposed New Topic