"I always feel like somebody's watching me . . . "

So you're standing around your favorite local shopping or eating establishment when all of the sudden, during one of those extended lulls in the action, you get the strong sensation that someone is watching you. No, they're not just gazing in your general direction; they are looking right at you in particular.

Paranoia? Spider sense? Guilty feelings? Try one or the other of these two ideas on for size.

Apparently the attempt to prevent "loss" (aka theft) in this wacky post-911 world of ours has created a pandemic of surveillance equipment installations almost everywhere. According to this article from BusinessWeek, there are now at least 6,000,000 cameras watching, monitoring, recording and (in some cases) diagnosing behavior through image analysis software. This is in addition to the presence of actual humans tasked with monitoring as well as RFID tags and other electronic measures.

The message from the retail world is clear: "Come, enjoy yourself and spend money. We'll be watching to make sure you do." Thanks, Captain Retail. Now can you lower some of your prices because of all the shoplifters you've nabbed?

In the meantime in the real world, there is a very real chance that you and I have something like a detection mechanism to let us know when unseen eyes are giving us the once-over.

Consider Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and his work indicating that people can detect when an otherwise unknown individual is staring at them. There is even an online experiment section where you can try it out for yourself . . .