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Why do I do this?

A

Anonymous

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Why is it that whenever I walk past a mirror or window I have a compelling urge to look, even if curtains are closed or it is a blacked out window? I was walking past a window that had been covered in a board as it had been smashed and still looked at it!


:confused: :spinning :blah:
 
Aaaahhh! I'm not alone after all! :)

I've walked into a few lamposts in my time matey! :p
 
Me too!

A few days ago, when staying at the house of some friends, I was getting ready for bed, took out my contact lenses (blind as a bat without them), cleaned teeth, etc, then glanced in the mirror to look at my blurry image – and saw nothing at all!

My immediate, panicky thought of ‘Aargh, I’ve turned into a vampire!’ was allayed when I realised I was trying to view my reflection in a picture on the wall, a pale pencil drawing with a frame the same colour as the wallpaper . . .

Carole
 
I tend to look at most shop windows, even the ones for stuff I'm not even remotely interested in. And I look into houses as well, but only if the lights are on.
As for mirrors, I often look without really seeing what's reflected - and end up finding out 2 hours later that my hair is doing something weird.:eek!!!!:

Maybe it's because you expect to find something there, and you're on the lookout. I suppose when we humans were living right next to big hungry animals, it was a good idea to keep an eye out for any movement.
Since you know that windows and mirrors will reflect an image, you look for it, even if the logical part of your brain tells you there won't be anyhting there.

I think the peeking in houses is just plain old voyeurism, though. And window shopping might be a corruption of your hunter-gatherer instinct.:D
 
longwhitestripe said:
but what about the window thing?

Nosy. ;)

Sorry - it's your innate Fortean curiosity getting the better of you. :D
 
I like those fleeting glimpses that you get of people's front rooms as you pass by in a car/bus/train, especially at night time. A small slice of someone else's life.

Carole
 
carole said:
I like those fleeting glimpses that you get of people's front rooms as you pass by in a car/bus/train, especially at night time. A small slice of someone else's life.

Carole

A bit off-topic, but that reminded me of something that happened to me in my first teaching job, when I moved into a first floor flat above a shop. Overcome by the novelty of having a place to myself for the first time, I had taken to lounging around in my pants, Homer Simpson style :blah:

All well and good, until one Monday, a girl in my tutor group piped up with "I was on the top floor of a bus going past your flat on Saturday, and I saw you walking around in your underpants!"

Once the laughter had died down, the only thing I could think of to say was "Yes, and you're lucky I had my pants on!". The rest of the tutorial was a non-starter after that, as the little dears were far more interested in what sort of pants I had, the exact location of any tattoos I might have had, etc, etc. Needless to say I made sure I had the curtains drawn after that...
 
Could be worse Johnyboy, I have this large picture window on the front of my bungalow, it's fairly pointless as all it looks onto is a huge hedge.

BUT, invariably, if I'm walking through from the bathroom or bedroom in the nuddy, some bugger will climb over the flower bed & look through the window, rather than ring the bell.

Dunno what's wrong with them?????:confused:
 
I have a horror of looking into mirrors in the dark and actually go right out of my way to avoid looking out of the window in the dark also.

When I was a child, a friend and I did the face thing in the mirror at midnight. You know that thing you do when you look in the mirror long enough by candlelight and you are supposed to see the man you will marry appear. Well we both saw all sorts of freaky things and scared ourselves stupid. Product of an overactive teenage mind - quite possibly. On the other hand I know what I saw....

So mirrors, windows etc. in the dark - Nope - avoid them at all costs....

And....no.....I'm not so ugly I can't look at my own face!!
 
What evil lurks out there.

I had probably never screamed so loud in my entire life as a day about 18 months ago. I had just got home late one night around midnight and went into the kitchen to get a drink or whatever.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move so instinctively looked to the curtainless window where I saw a horses head behind the glass in the darkness. I didn't recognise what it was for a few seconds...long enough to let out an ear-bursting scream and turn my insides out. I hadn't known about the horse which was grazing in the back yard...even if I had known, the sight was still scary enough to justify the scream.(!?)
 
Emmy Mallow said:
When I was a child, a friend and I did the face thing in the mirror at midnight. You know that thing you do when you look in the mirror long enough by candlelight and you are supposed to see the man you will marry appear. Well we both saw all sorts of freaky things and scared ourselves stupid. Product of an overactive teenage mind - quite possibly. On the other hand I know what I saw.....

What did you see, then??

Emmy Mallow said:
And....no.....I'm not so ugly I can't look at my own face!!

We know you're not, we've seen the photo:)

Carole
 
Well....hand on heart.....we both saw our faces change, grow older and then sort of change into someone elses face and then back again a few times.

It was really really really scary.

The sceptic in me says that it was imagination, too many horror stories and a fear of the dark coupled with some sort of trick of the candlelight. Plus, have you ever stared at something for a long time and thought that you saw it move?

That has to be it....try it and see what happens.
I'll keep my eyes firmly shut!
 
Re: What evil lurks out there.

There is no dark side of the moon.
As a matter of fact, it's all dark.
The only thing that makes it look alight is the sun.


Completely off subject here but glad to see there's more Pink Floyd fans out there!:D ;) :cool:
 
While we're on the subject...

Why do I feel like singing or humming a tune when I'm scared?
 
singing or humming a tune when scared

because it blocks everything else out of your mind and you're concentrating on something other than being scared
.:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Emmy Mallow said:
Well....hand on heart.....we both saw our faces change, grow older and then sort of change into someone elses face and then back again a few times.

It was really really really scary.

I'd also add that we get fluxctuations in our vision due to vibrations and deformations of the eyeball, especially when our eyes are put under strain (such as staring at a reflection or fixed object). You can have great fun with this effect once you learn how to induce it. Try staring at a large ploughed field, or large peice of paper with parallel lines, and you can make it appear to undulate!
Psychedelics like LSD exaggerate this effect, producing a stronger sense of 'morphing' in the objects you stare at. Try repeating your experiment on acid, then see what you turn into, ha ha! :eek!!!!:
 
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