Serious question about ESP (I don't mean psychic or anything silly)

[Festus22]

Who really knows for sure but I'll share an event that happened to me.

After I got my drivers license and being your typical impatient teen, I always went ahead and made a left turn at an intersection if a car was coming from my left with their right turn signal on. One day when I was maybe 18, I was pulling onto a major road and there's a car coming with it's right turn signal on. Prior to this, I don't think I EVER waited to be sure the car was turning before I went but for whatever reason, I waited this time. Lo and behold, the car kept going straight. Had I done what I had always done, I'd have been T-boned. I wish I knew what made me wait that one time - maybe it was some subconscious realization that the car was moving faster than normal to be making a turn - or some kind of 6th sense, I don't know. But that incident so totally freaked me out that I still remember every detail to this day (and quite a few days have elapsed since then!). And now, I ALWAYS wait.

FWIW

[Mike]

No, I was told about it buy an old friend who was with the ATF. He told me it was an easy way of picking out lies when in an informal situation. If I remember what he told me, when you ask someone a question they have to think about or remember, they look to the right when remembering, to the left for a new answer, up when pondering how to say it, and a quick look down and away when lying.

Like anything there are variances, but usually you can pick up on a persons traits with just a questions you know the answers too. Try it out on a child, that's how I remember what right or left is. In adults the look is usually much quicker.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

You must've SENSED this stare, no?

Not necessarily. You may have picked up the stare in your peripheral vision but due to other sensory input the image didn't register in your conscious mind, but did trigger the action to look up.

[Cyrus]

[Jedi Poker]

You are 100% correct. The peripheral vision can pick up a lot more than direct vision. Probably by as much as a few thousand percent. The good news is that it can be developed. Think "Photoreading".

[Hooper]

A deviation from your original topic, I know, but may I suggest you get satellite radio in your car. It has been a life-saver for me -- 2 1/2 hour commute every day in the worst radio market I've ever heard. So nice to bave 100+ music and news channels available 24 hrs a day for only 1BB/month (5/10 game). There's at least 2 providers to choose from & I've heard only positives about both.

- Hooper

[youtalkfunny]

Yeah, I've been kicking that idea around. I think I'll do just what you suggest. Thanks.

[CrisBrown]

Hi Mike,

This is "copaganda," that particular brand of urban legend formulated and spread by cops and their worshippers in the popular media.

This nugget of "copaganda" -- that you can tell if someone is lying by tracking eye movement -- was popularized in the movie THE NEGOTIATOR (Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey), but it had been in circulation within law enforcement for quite a while before that.

It is, in fact, purely urban legend. There is no empirical or physiological evidence sufficient to prove this or that particular eye movement is an indicator of truthfulness or falsity.

The genesis of this legend is obvious and symbiotic. Cops would like ordinary citizens to believe that cops can spot liars, because people are less likely to lie to those whom they believe can detect lies. And ordinary citizens would like to believe that cops do their jobs well, because that makes them feel more secure.

In fact, the empirical studies show that cops' scores are no better than random in distinguishing truth from lies. If this post seems anti-cop, consider that judges, trial lawyers, and clergymen also scored no better than random. Cops were more likely to correctly identify liars as lying, but they were also far more likely to incorrectly identify truth-tellers as lying. (In short, cops think EVERYONE is lying.)

Sorry to burst the bubble, but ... there it is....

Cris

[Al Schoonmaker]

Cris,
Although I am not familiar with the research you cited, I am not at all surprised by it. ESP in all its shapes is nonsense. People believe it because of selective memories and other factors. I identified some, but not all of them in my article.
When people with "ESP" or whatever they choose to call it are forced to produce in carefully conducted research settings, their "gift" disappears.
As one reviewer put it, "ESP means error someplace."
Regards,
Al

[pretender2k]

I have no doubt that most of that is peripheral vision. But I also have to question how much the mind is aware of because I often wake up when some one is staring at me. I wish I could explain that because it freaks me out once in awhile.