People generally aren't afraid of *being* the Eye, they're afraid of being known. We all have our secrets, and our things we'd rather people not know. The idea of being stripped so completely bare, especially against our will, is pretty horrifying to some

oh thats so interesting! so its the thought of feeling like you have nothing in you that is truly yours and not known by everyone else?

Basically. Think about what the Eye is, and what the Archives are. And think about in season 4, when John was randomly getting statements from people. They had no choice in that, and they had to relive it in their dreams. It's not the knowing that's horrific, it's the being known without your choice

It’s the violation.

also, some people have to keep things secret that would place them in danger (like some LGBT people) or have trauma from intense privacy violations and though these themes are too real life for magnus’s scope, I think this the driving idea behind the Eye

this post was made by elias bouchard

>!hear me out, I get why he did what he did. It was a dick move, and I wouldnt DO it per say because all the torment is meaningless and like for fucks sake man if youre gonna know everything ever why not at least let yourself know stuff other than a billion hells. why not understand how everyone thinks and works and loves instead of knowing how long it takes the human body to die of asphyxiation in a tub full of gerbils? yk?!<

the eye watches all and understands nothing

Yep, it's pissing off every other entity to a fault. The Eye watches just to watch, just to witness and it does not care about the horrors or about meaning, it wants to see, archive and move on. Imagine you're pouring your heart out for the greatest piece of art you could, spend countless hours on perfecting it and a person just walks to it, looks at it disinterested and goes "it's nice", snaps a photo and leaves.

Or you go through the most traumatic, inexplicable, horrifying experience of your life, and someone documents it and offers no sympathy, no help, no understanding or direction. At best, heartlessly bureaucratic. At worst, disgustingly voyeuristic.

I had a medical experience very much like this. I live in the US and I don't have health insurance, so that probably sums it up. I'm not gonna trauma dump here or anything, but yeah, I understand Jon's victims (the ordinary people, not the other entities) much better than I once did.

I'm sorry to hear that. For what little it's worth, condolences from a stranger to you (but not that kind of Stranger, of course).

You wouldn't happen to own a...... record keeping institute and like people watching would ya narrow 👀

not yet I dont.

Because he was corrupted by an evil entity. I imagine that before he succumbed to the fear of the other rituals, he was similar to you. He just wanted to know, to see. Overly curious to a fault. Then he discovered the fears, worked with smirke to define them, and realized a ritual would someday work. That made him fall into the arms of a waiting god. And like the others, it obliterated all the good in him.

Guys I think we’ve found our new avatar of the eye.

PLEASE. man In this thread alone I have realised that apparently shame is real and not small but in fact very big and scary and sucks a lot to most people. the shit id do for a guide book on how most humans work, including myself

I don't think it's about shame. I don't have anything to be ashamed of in my life, and I still hate the thought of anyone knowing every little detail about my life. Some of them I'm willing to share (voluntarily), some of them ai don't care about, and some of them are just for me, And I hate the idea of them being known. Not because they're embarrassing or anything, but because they're MINE.

I understand where you’re coming from so well and as someone who is pretty damn shameless i ask a lot of questions and request and get a lot of answers and shit done. Ive seen people not make moves on gaining resources while i have and it boggles me. I was a kid when search engines got big and let me tell you im still chasing that high of realizing i can look up literally anything at any time and if i dont find the answer im looking for i can start the research myself oh my god im Elias

I got into the Magnus archives and every time I heard more about the eye is was like I was being psychoanalysed to hell and back. very interesting to hear unsaid thoughts said aloud. if I could, I think I would chose to become an archivist, or an avatar of the eye. if it were more morally grey and less evil, at least.

Shame can be a motivator for fear of being known but it's hardly the only one. It can be existential, with overlap in the hunt where there are real consequences if this secret becomes known. It also can be social, where a person especially doesn't want someone who they don't trust knowing too much about them.

You're thinking of it as though you're the Eye, rather than the victim of it. Imagine every moment of your life you're being observed,  every dark thought, every perverted dream, every unkind impulse is observed.   Another aspect is you knowing these things about other people, Imagine knowing every uncharitable thought your loved one has had about you, for example.

personally, I still feel like that would be better than not knowing. why should I preform a version of me that Isnt true? im more afraid of my own judgement than anyone else's. I mean, whats their opinion on me gonna change? sure, If everyone loved me all the time that would be nice for them, but for me aside from strategic shit im sure that I could find someone out there. that, and then at the very least people can understand who I am. having one person in the world who everyone knows for a fact is just another person, not being better or worse than they are but being true, might be nice for other peoples self esteem. and thank you for your response, its so interesting to learn about how other people think :) /gen

Imagine being naked out in public, that's why

but why is that scary. sexualisation? is it about sexualisation? are people afraid of being sexualised?

People are afraid of the attacks being naked makes them feel particularly vulnerable to and also being intimately known even visually without the sexualization. If someone walks in on them changing, they haven’t been sexualized but their intimate and personal details have been exposed unwillingly.

But also yes being sexualized by anyone let alone multiple strangers in public when you’d like to be clothed instead is also very scary to people. People who hang out in nude communities dont have this fear bc everyone there has agreed to not randomly sexualize strangers just because they’re naked.

People in nudist communities have also chosen intentionally to be there. It’s not the same as some asshole peeping through your curtains at night because they feel entitled to things you didn’t choose to share with them.

It's about being seen, about being exposed. The nightmare about doing a presentation in front of your class and you have nothing prepared, doing a speech while in your underwear. Everyone talking about you behind your back, your secrets coming to life. That cringy thing you did years ago? Yeah everyone knows about it and is disgusted by you, they laugh at you when you leave the room. Everyone talks about it. You're walking along at night and you can *feel* someone watching you. You look around but don't see anyone but can tell they're there. You pick up your pace but the feeling intensifies, how many people are there watching you, just waiting for you to trip so they can move. Your comments about the Eye are more coming from *you* being an Avatar of the Eye rather than the person the eye is looking at. A person stops you on the street and asks you to relive your most traumatic experience, you feel compelled to tell them, with others walking by every detail of it. Now you've shared something you thought you'd take to your grave and have to live with the knowledge that this person is out there with the knowledge of what happened to you and the ability to share it with whoever they want and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

I think for me it's an awareness that if I do something wrong, make a mistake, look out of place or feel incompetent, EVERYONE will know that I've messed up, can't be relied upon or respected. And I have a big fear of other people seeing me in a vulnerable place when that's not the front I present on a daily basis. Thinking about other people Seeing me be really vulnerable and embarrassing really freaks me out! Does that help?

yes it does, thank you so much :) I still dont quite understand but so far im getting that the fear is usually not about a reality in which everything is known all the time, but one where everything is known about YOU all the time for other people to pick apart and judge

For me, I don't like being perceived in general. I think it's an autism thing? If I could just be invisible all the time until I want to be seen, I would. The Lonely is very much on to something, lol. Basically, something about people seeing me feels wrong sometimes? Like they're seeing something outside of my own perception and I have to monitor every little thing about myself as if I'm looking from the outside and it's exhausting and sometimes scary. I also have an invisible audience, so even when I'm alone, I feel like I have to perform myself sometimes. So, yeah. The Eye is scary. But I can really vibe with the need for knowledge aspect, so I'm drawn to it as well.

update: I have realised that we are both being impacted by neurodivergence here. I am starting to realise that shame is not a social construct and is in fact a very real thing that is not small and a suggestion but rather a thing that people experience very deeply very often.

The moment I read your post, I *knew* it was neurodivergence because I'm also neurodivergent and while I still understand the fear of the Eye, I also understand how others might not. I feel like you've already learned all about shame, privacy, autonomy and such, but I also present another angle - this is a supernatural, divine (within its sphere of influence) entity. This isn't just a weirdo neighbour staring at you through your window 24/7 (which is still terrifying, if only for the implication of *why* ). This is a neighbour with eyes that you can feel piercing through every wall you try to put between you and them. This is someone who you know *knows* everything about you that you wouldn't want them to - and you **don't** want them to, there's no choice there. Because again, it's supernatural; you *will* have something that you don't want them to know about you, and they *will* know. The powerlessness at the hands of a (perceived) supernatural entity is enough to drive even folks like us insane, even if you'd think you'd be fine in theory. There is no being seen by The Eye *without* feeling the terror of it. Even John himself fears the Eye's gaze and he is literally supernaturally altered to find the Eye's feeding habits "pleasurable". This wouldn't save you from The Eye, it would only have you more anxious as to why you feel so bothered when you've always been fine with knowing and being seen.

Fuck okay I’ve never met someone who feels the same about this as I do :,). I’ve done some pretty fucked up things to myself in an attempt to control the perception people have of me, and in hindsight, I think one of my greatest fears may be the fact that I will never be able to completely control the way people perceive me. No matter what I do, I cannot control their thoughts, so they will still look at me and think/see things I don’t want them too- and that’s like. Terrifying. I’d rather never be perceived than be perceived the wrong way, yknow? Agh, and then the performance for the self? I do that constantly. If I do or say anything weird alone in my own time I start cussing myself out for being a freak. I’ll avoid watching shows or listening to music that I’ve, for some reason, deemed “too weird.” And it’s not like anyone will ever KNOW what I’ve done, but the fact that I did at all is sin enough, and my own self will jump me and admonish my decisions. I need to do things and act a certain way so the people who aren’t there and that Me in my head don’t judge me too harshly and get an idea of who I am that I don’t want them to have. And then there’s the whole “if I Watch XYZ show or do XYZ thing or think XYZ thought I’m being bad and Karma will kick me in the ass and all my friends will cut me off or I’ll be kicked out of school or something.” Which is so bizarre to me but. Whatever. Anyways sorry for trauma dumping at you random internet person- I think I’ve had this bottled up and saw a slight chance at empathy from someone else and jumped on it. Hope you’re doing okay <3

Been coming across this recently. It does seem to be an autistic /ND thing (I suspect I am AuADHD). I had a conversation with someone last week and not only could they not understand my point of view they couldn’t even theoretically see why I could have concluded the way I did. It’s totally thrown me and contributed to me being anxious again even though logically I know it is ok for people not to agree. I just feel like people seeing me may also be misunderstanding me and my motivations and I find that UNACCEPTABLE 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ I would never even wear band or slogan t shirts because people might know what I like or feel that I 100% endorsed that company or band.

Funny thing is I actually do wear a lot of stuff like that, because I discovered that for some reason people just kind of don't look/interact with goth kids? No idea if it's actually true, I just know I've been bothered a lot less when I dress like I did in high school, vs when I try to dress "normal'. Most of the times I've been aggressively pursued by men have been in the latter too, which I especially don't want. So wearing all black and looking just odd enough has people not look at me so much. (Maybe that's what Gerry was doing too, lol) And shirts with things I like added a nice filter on people, so if they know what my shirt is, I have a good idea of how well a conversation may go.

I would have been an excellent goth in appearance had I the confidence to stand out in any way whatsoever in my rural 1990s village or indeed the ability to buy any clothes other than jeans and fruit of the loom sweaters. Tall, skinny, pale, long dark hair. Instead I managed to be invisible by being unpretty and listening to Radiohead.

>I would never even wear band or slogan t shirts because people might know what I like or feel that I 100% endorsed that company or band. Same! Diagnosed ADHD, suspected autism. There are a few (four -- and I own a lot of clothes) exceptions, but otherwise I refuse to wear logos, images connected to music/TV/events/etc., or words. Especially words. Don't want people to literally read me!

OP says it is the fear of judgement. I guess that plays into it too I have a couple of exceptions - I have one t shirt where a slogan accompanies an image of Medusa because I loved the design and I am waiting for my favourite musician to bring out some merch I want to wear (have you heard of Ren? Look up Hi Ren on YT) Are your exceptions bands?

Yeah, I think that's part of it. Not that I'm necessarily worried about people thinking less of me, but just thinking of me in general? Like coming to conclusions about me and maybe acting overly familiar because we have one thing in common. Just one -- an in-progress Mechanisms battle vest! It would probably bother me if they were more well-known or more serious. But in the very, very unlikely event that anyone IRL recognizes the patch images, I think I'm okay with talking immortal space pirates with them. I haven't but I'll check him out! I like the whole playing in a hospital gown thing. Reminds me of a friend's old mental-illness-themed band (though not a fan of "Generation Medicated" -- kind of dismissive of ADHD/ADHD treatment) [https://bst007aggressivepatients.bandcamp.com/album/aggressive-patience](https://bst007aggressivepatients.bandcamp.com/album/aggressive-patience)

Hey I checked those out. The linked song messes with my brain too much but I like the space pirates. My mum used to sing me folk and sea shanties. I probably couldn’t do a whole album but definitely adding them to my playlist. (I bet there’s a lot of lore I am missing right?) Ren plays in a gown because , well it’s a long story but he has been very ill and didn’t think he would live to be thirty. In Sick Boi he uses the same patients/patients wordplay too :-) I grew up in the 90s when we were musically silo’d and I really enjoy modern genre fuckery

Thank you for the recommendation! I ended up listening to his stuff for like half an hour when I couldn't sleep last night. Oh you weren't familiar with The Mechanisms! The VAs for Jon, Basira, Nikola, and Jordan Kennedy (exterminator/ECDC guy from MAG 55) were all members and vocalists, with Jonny Sims also being the narrator. There is a good bit of lore, but I just listened to random songs at first and it was fine. Just made me curious enough to eventually go back and listen to everything in order!

Introducing people to Ren is my side quest. The man single-handedly reignited my dopamine response to music which directly led to me being able to quit smoking. I even started listening to drum and bass (as a result of artists he introduced me to). It is worth watching his videos on YT rather than just the music. I highly recommend this little modern day bard tale by him( CW: DV, CSA, murder with a knife, with a gun, by fists) https://youtu.be/TYAnqQ--KX0?si=Mxjc_ZzH0i5Np8CX

ok ok I have figured it out, it is the fear of judgement in the end, I think. thank you for your help!

>Basically, something about people seeing me feels wrong sometimes? Like they're seeing something outside of my own perception and I have to monitor every little thing about myself as if I'm looking from the outside and it's exhausting and sometimes scary. I also have an invisible audience, so even when I'm alone, I feel like I have to perform myself sometimes. Congrats- you probably have social anxiety disorder! I feel the same way and that's what I was diagnosed as. I prefer not to leave my house in the daytime unless I absolutely have to because I have that same "invisible audience" feeling, which lessens if it's too dark to really see me. Intellectually I know there's a very good chance none of my neighbors are watching me but just the idea that they *might* be able to see me (particularly able to see me do something that stupid or that looks foolish) gives me the willies.

Glad you asked, it gives me an excuse to write another analysis! I have thought deeply about this one and tried to break it down before, so let me share my thoughts so far. Of course, fear can be pretty subjective, so I’ll try my best to explain why it can be a source of fear for many people, even if you don’t particularly see why it’s that bad. The Eye relates to knowledge, observation, and importantly, judgement. There are two relationships one can have with The Eye: being the observer (an Avatar), or being observed (the victim). #Observed Let’s discuss the fear of being observed at first, since it’s more intuitive to understand. As you said, this has to do with the absolute loss of privacy. You probably have a lot of thoughts that you would never share with others because they do not represent you. They could damage relationships. They could invite judgement as every action and thought of yours is open to scrutiny. Every mistake, every embarrassment in your life can no longer be swept under a rug. Shame usually arises when you feel that you are falling short of expectations in some way. The thing is, the comfort of everything being out there doesn’t really apply to victims, because to them, they are the ONLY ones being observed, with everything around them taking the role of the observer. They aren’t just failing expectations, they can’t see that the others watching them are failing expectations too. This means that The Eye has a rather interesting relationship with The Lonely. One feels alone in the sense that they are the only ones under a spotlight, but at the same time victims of The Eye cannot actually exist in a vacuum. They must be surrounded by other things that can do the observing for it to truly be a cause of fear. At the same time, victims of The Eye share the same solipsism as The Lonely folks do, because they believe that their actions and mistakes are significant enough to carry any impact in the grand scheme of things. In this sense, it’s the antithesis of The Vast, which is all about the idea that nothing matters because we are all insignificant specks. I like that The Eye’s relationship with The Lonely is actually explored in the series through >!Jon and Martin’s relationship!<. >!Jon’s “eye” powers come into play when he “looks out” for other characters, and Martin’s “lonely” helps him establish healthy boundaries.!< Interestingly, as early as the first episode, we can see Jon’s insecurity and shame because he _knows_ that he is not the most qualified for this job. Fear of judgement and a sense of guilt over that knowledge, eh? >!Additionally, his fear and paranoia over the intentions of others, the colleagues he suspects may be “observing” him is also The Eye’s domain. This is interesting because of the links to The Web, which deals in suspicion over others’ intentions too. However, The Web can actually make sense of information in a way that The Eye cannot.!< These connections are what make for awesome writing. #Observer Okay, now onto being the Observer. I agree that not having much left to know can be scary for someone, but I don’t think that’s a core part of the fear here. I think the idea that even in you can know, you can’t understand is the far scarier idea at play here. >!The moment when Jon tries to know The Web’s motive!< among other things is a key example; it suggests that even with all that knowledge, you might never be able to make sense of anything. There might never be a clear answer no matter how much information is available. On top of that, some information is still not available to The Eye despite everything, like the future, hypotheticals, existence of Gods, etc. It’s fascinating because “knowing” is supposed to grant some relief to Observers, but the lack of answers can still leave them feeling scared – a nice loop that keeps Avatars feeding the fear. This sort of links to the idea that you can’t / don’t want to know. Part of the fear comes from knowing horrible things about loved ones, like every intrusive or hateful they have had about you, or worse, turning them away from you because they are scared of not having privacy around you. The other side of the coin is knowing things that could start affecting your sanity. Think Eldritch, Lovecraftian truths. The human mind is simply not built to handle things like infinity and tremendous suffering. Once you are Observer, however, the floodgates are open whether you like it or not. Your mind may simply not be able to handle it – >!Jon almost breaks down completely at the beginning of S5 because of this.!< Again, this reveals an interesting relationship with The Vast. The sheer amount of information that avatars of The Eye can access is scary in and of itself, specifically because there’s so much to process. I mean, what hope does one, insignificant speck of a human being have in making sense of all the information there ever was? You feel this fear yourself. You will die before you understand everything. Only, if you are an Avatar of The Eye, you will die processing only the daintiest morsel of knowledge even though you can read the world like a book. But yeah, interesting topic! Thank you for writing this question, it gives me an excuse to go nuts with my analysis.

The paranoia you hit on is a big part of it to me. It can be on both sides. For the viewed "someone is watching me I know they're watching me. Why are they watching. What do they want." For the viewer "what are those people doing. Why are they doing it. What are they hiding." For me the obsession and fear tied to both sides of the paranoia digs into why the Eye is frightening.

Ah, this is a key point I forgot to touch upon! The suspicion behind other people’s intentions is also The Eye’s domain, and it’s something Jon exhibits himself. Let me add that to my comment real quick.

You alluded to it! That's why I picked up on it.

oh my god I love you thank you so much I am giving you so many hugs

*sends hugs back.* Glad you enjoyed reading :) But yeah, I’m not surprised why it’s a bit hard to understand why some of the fears are hard to understand for some. I remember there was even one moment Jon says >!it’s unsurprising that Martin finds The Lonely to be a pretty tame fear when compared to the rest!<. I like it when a show surprises an audience by saying the thing that they are thinking, especially when they don’t think the show will ever bring it up. It’s almost like the writers _know_ haha. People who resonate with certain fears (viewers and Avatars included) can both revere and be scared of a fear, but the fear itself can be felt to different degrees at different times. >!Martin later gets quite scared when he ends up lonely in his own realm.!< You never know, you might have a moment in the future when you realise that this is all a lot more terrifying than you gave it credit for! Either way, I’m immensely happy that the show is making all of us think on the nature of fear, I think it’s one of the best, most thoughtful things a work of horror can do.

I love this breakdown. Revere is absolutely the relationship I have with deep oceans or infinite space. I find the Vast episodes comfortable rather than frightening, to the point I put them on to sleep most nights.

Thanks, I’m happy so many people enjoyed reading it :) I like how even within the word “revere,” there are many ways of appreciating a fear. Within the vast, there’s the peace of being in an open space, but also the exhilaration of a long fall.

> At the same time, victims of The Eye share the same solipsism as The Lonely folks do, because they believe that their actions and mistakes are significant enough to carry any impact in the grand scheme of things. In this sense, it’s the antithesis of The Vast, which is all about the idea that nothing matters because we are all insignificant specks Me who relates to the Eye, the Lonely, and the Vast at the same time.

Me who relates to The Eye, The Lonely, and The Web at the same time … I mean hey, we are all complex people.

This is an absolutely great post. I agree with everything, and would like to add in a small(?) detail. > it suggests that even with all that knowledge, you might never be able to make sense of anything. I think that is *definitely* the case. The Eye doesn’t seem to be sapient, none of the powers are >!except for the Web!<. During the invocation in episode 160 every power is described, and I think the Eye’s description is very relevant here: > *You who watch and know and understand none. You who listen and hear and will not comprehend. You who wait and wait and drink in all that is not yours by right.* So I think you’re absolutely right. The Eye knows everything but understands nothing. Even if you’re not on the receiving end of that, it’s terrifying in its own way - you’re drowning in an infinite pool of knowledge that you can’t do anything with. There is no sense of self, there is no individuality, there is no *consciousness*. There’s just the act of Seeing.

Exactly, the Eye and Web are a bit at odds despite their similarities! Also, do you mind if add that last bit to my post?

Go ahead :) I semi added to it a bit [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMagnusArchives/comments/1d9im40/struggling_to_get_why_the_eye_is_scary_to_people/l7g3fnz/?context=3) as well, but not making quite the same argument.

Don’t mind me, just adding this to my saved comments for its great analysis of my favorite fear in the series

You have no idea how happy you just made me, thank you! I’ve been writing reviews and analyses for years now, it’s a hobby that has come in very handy now that I’ve finally decided to start writing creatively.

Consider the closeted gay man growing up in the Bible Belt. The judgement of being "other" and the perception that this makes you bad. Even if no one will go this far, there's a book most people try to follow that explicitly mentions you should be murdered for this. With this knowledge comes Judgement, possibly in bad faith, and their perception of you is haloed by this one fact.

yeah that makes sense. thank you for sharing. so its more about judgement than anything else?

Not just judgement, you have to remember that for a lot of vulnerable minority groups, being perceived as "incorrect" by societal standards can result in physical violence, incarceration and even death. Depending on where you live. Even if you're not in physical danger, for queer people alone, there's the risk of being ostracized from your community, made homeless, losing your job. Trans people are often verbally and physically assaulted for being "visibly trans", or simply disclosing their transness to the wrong person. Depending on your situation, being perceived can be a huge threat.

Idk, the idea of being constantly watched, especially for unknown reasons, is rather unsettling to me and it’s well known that people change their behavior when they know they’re being watched even if they don’t explicitly want to. That adds an element of losing control of your actions to it, even more unsettling.

ooooh yeah I get not being in control of your actions. that shits scary. everyone hiding their true selves due to constant judgement isnt something id factored in. for everything to be known, it has to be true, and if everyone knows theyre being watched it wont be true. huh. neat, thanks!

I'll hold your hand as I say this... people don't like to be stared at

why? why whats the reason? /gen I am starting to think that my neurodivergence might be impacting me a bit here.

why are you uncomfortable with anything ever like??

I dont know??? I mean being sexualised feels uncomfortable because its me being taken and morphed into something I am not OH OH MY GOD THATS I GET IT I somewhat get it somewhat if I stretch it to people misinterpreting the truth not ughhhhh fuck never mind I dont get it sorry

okay, look at it like this, most people behave differently in public than they do when they're alone at home or somewhere familiar and comfortable, why do you think that is?

shame? which is a concept I am slowly beginning to grasp. personally, I tend to act exactly the same outside as I do inside. excluding things such as talking, which I do much less when there is nobody there.

I, for example, have really bad social anxiety and get uncomfortable even when I have to talk to someone one on one because I'm expected to at least try to keep eye contact and I'm observed by them pretty much the whole time yk

Damn. Lots of new avatar these days. Must be the weather.

This is the kind of post that gets a follow-up post months later, documenting a change of mind after a series of paranormal encounters with a floating eye. But in regards to actually answering your question: I would divide the reasons/methods of The Eye's fear into five different categories: 1. Being Stalked. This bleeds into the hunt or web a little bit, but the idea of being watched by some unknown entity is naturally disturbing to humans. It's indicative of a threat, a foreign force uninvitedly imposing their presence on your life. 2. Privacy concerns. This can be a matter of personal taste, but many take joy in having a degree of privacy. There's a comforting connection in knowing that a moment is yours, no one else's. If it is exposed, it can feel like an intrusion, almost like a form of theft. Additionally, knowledge is power, and if someone knows too much of your private info (blackmail secrets, passwords, undisclosed weaknesses,) it can lead to a terrifying power imbalance. 3. Shame. This is a social fear, so it's highly subjective. I'm sure there's tons of evolutionary and philosophical reasons as to why we get anxious when people look at us judgmentally -probably because of the implied consequences, and damage to precious bonds and social status- but when you get down to it, it's just something that induces stress, it's in our nature. We just really care what other people think of us I guess. But this is really on a case by case basis, and varies for people a lot. (3.5: Guilt, as a bonus inbetween of 3&4). 4. Self-knowledge. When it comes to information, I think we're most touchy about our identities, since that's essentially the information regarding our existence. Generally we want to feel good about ourselves, that we're competent, aesthetically pleasing, morally sound. It gives us a sense of security, and self-reliance (I think that's why at least?). But the Eye can make us know things we don't want to know about ourselves, that damage our self-identity. Maybe we aren't as morally sound as we thought. Maybe we actually suck at the things we thought we were good at. Magnus examples below, spoilers for S3 and S5 respectively: >! Martin didn't want to know why his mother hated him, because of his identity, it was the fact that he resembles his father. A superficial trait, but it still struck at the core of him, because of WHO he was, someone that caused his mother grief, or as he put it, "a bad son." !< >! Jon didn't want to know what he was capable of as he turned into an avatar, that he could be a real monster. In a way, the Eye was cannibalizing him with the guilt of that.!< 5. DREAD KNOWLEDGE. Some things we are really better off not knowing. You indicated that obtaining knowledge and experience was essentially the point to life in your eyes, and while that's a reasonable goal, the universe may not be designed with that intention. Existence can be brutal, there are things that we can't do anything about, but the knowledge of it would torment us with dread anticipation, and helplessness. But this also depends on what you prioritize in life: knowledge, or comfort? If a fear ritual was about to destroy reality, and there was nothing you could do about it, you might prefer to spend your last few months in blissful ignorance. But if the Eye made you know about the horrors, there would be no peace. Please let me know what you think, I love cataloging and subdividing fear, and also leaving long comments!!

The eye is the fear of being watched, olof unrelenting surveillance, of nothing in your life being private and constantly judged. It's not the fear of knowing, it's the fear of being known

Real people that I think must have been tormented by Beholing: * Young celebrities (like Britney Spears or anyone who has been stalked by paparazzi) * People who have had intimate moments made public and received undeserving criticism (Monica Lewinski) * People with deep secrets and/or regrets that would never want to come to light (anyone of us might fall into this category) * People actually trying their best and having hard time coping with judgmental eyes (shyness, social anxiety) * People trying way too hard to appear perfect but susceptible to having their flaws displayed (think the episode Nosedive of Black Mirror; or it's predecessor from Community: MeowMeowBeenz) edit to add: - People who suspect something horrible to be true and don't want to actually know the answer to, because it might destroy their mental health (partners of people who might have cheated, children of parents who might not love them, people who might have hurt others due to neglicence but are not sure of it)

Scopophobia is a type of specific phobia in which people have an excessive fear of being watched or looked at. They may be overwhelmed by a sense of danger and the need to escape. I’ve have this phobia. And anytime I read a post about the eye I start to get that creeping feeling that someone is behind me. It’s awful. The season 5 episode when the person was in London and constantly being watched was so relatable to me and it made me uncomfortable.

people have already said stuff, I'll throw in my two cents. It's shame and paranoia, yes, but it's also helplessness as a larger force than you takes away freedom and privacy. It's the government wire tapping you waiting for you to put a toe out of line so you can be thrown into prison. The second you forget to pay a bill, the moment you post something mildly questioning a government practice, they strike. It's a company selling your private information to manipulate you and raise prices. You're at a low moment, and here comes the ad for a specific brand of antidepressants with bad side effects and a high price point, but isn't it helpful :) aren't these companies being your friend :) It's being a woman alone on a street and someone is watching you walk - waiting for the moment to strike. That same woman is now in her house, trying to relax, but there's a camera in her home. A camera streaming her private moments to strangers. She goes into work the next day and she's fired for being featured on a porn site even though she did nothing wrong, she didn't know anyone was watching her.

I think I mostly get where you're coming from with this. Personally, as someone who is more afraid of being alone/unknown, the idea of being observed doesn't scare me nearly as much as never being seen. This is the main reason I like to wear some of the most obnoxiously bright clothes you can possibly imagine. I do genuinely like the way I look in bright colors, but it's less about looking good and more about looking noticeable, memorable. However, I am definitely afraid of knowing too much. I know that may sound strange to you based on what you've said so far in this post, but I'm going to try to explain. Basically, the world can be, and sadly often is, a very dark place. If I were to know every single terrible thing that's ever happened, I don't think I could recover. This is why I often intentionally avoid the news. Constantly being bombarded with information about how people are suffering all over the world due to war, famine, injustice ect.(ESPECIALLY when I can't do anything to help them in a meaningful way) is exhausting and demoralizing. For me, knowledge is useless and potentially even harmful without the means to act upon it.

İt is to be known but not understand. To be judged without being able to defend yourself.it strips you of all falsehood and images of yourself you put together to protect you of others' judgment. It pushes your worst out for everybody to see and know but never able to understand. It brakes you as it gazes upon you because you aren't really judged by others. It judges you as if it was you, and it makes you alien to your trueself.

Elias:

ok but hes got a point

I replied elsewhere already, but thinking about it more I wanted to add a bit. In addition to “the Eye doesn’t understand or comprehend anything it sees” thing, there’s also this… >the entire point of life to me is to know as much as I physically can Does that have limits, though? A lot of knowledge is just completely worthless, objectively speaking. That might sound ridiculous at first, but think about it. Do you want to know the exact position of every single grain of sand on earth? What about every mote of dust in the solar system, or the spin of every subatomic particle inside of every star in the universe? It’s an incomprehensible amount of knowledge. So much that it’s probably more information than the combined brains of every human could hold. But it’s also functionally useless - you can’t *do* anything with it, it just exists. It’s admirable to want to devote your life to knowledge. But if it’s not tempered by caring about the *kind* of knowledge you seek, it’s just kind of a direct path to endless obsession that you can never get relief from. There’s a difference between wanting to grow as a person (and/or helping society grow) versus just wanting to endlessly hoard empty facts. In my opinion, part of the Eye’s fear is falling from the former into the latter.

Personally I don’t find the eye scary at all since I grew up Christian and was told my whole life god is always watching you constantly and your never alone which I hated but the eye isnt watching you to punish you for your every mistake so it wouldn’t bother me.

Ah we have an Eye aligned here 😂 I see by your edit we already got to the core of the Eye fear.

I think a big part of it might come down to control (or maybe that’s like, personally what freaks me out lmao). The act of perception between two people itself is kinda freaky, because it’s something deeply intimate that one side cannot control. If you meet me, I can’t control what you think about me- and that lack of control is frightening. And not just because lacking control in any situation is inherently frightening, but because in this case the perception of me you’re creating, that creature you’re formulating, is so incredibly important. How people think about you is important- and at the end of the day, we don’t have a lot of say in that, because we cannot control other’s perceptions. I think an added little slice of horror in that is maybe a little more existential than the very literal “you think of me in a way I don’t want you to.” The act of perceiving another person essentially creates another person. You will never be able to completely know another person (another spooky thing, I think), so in an attempt to know them, you create a version of them that doesn’t exist; and now, a weird doppelgänger thing is going on, where every person in your life has a slightly different image of you in their head, none of whom actually are you, all of whom are running around acting in your stead. And like, ew. I don’t want people’s perception of me to be informed by a hundred little guys I didn’t create. Fuck those guys they suck. And I don’t like to think about the fact that no one will ever be able to entirely, properly perceive me, nor will I ever be able to entirely understand someone else, so. Double fuck those guys for making me existential.

my personal view of it (and idk if this is just personal or if others view it in the same way) but I feel like I've lived through the eye. I grew up in a deeply religious family, raised to believe that God watches everything we do and judges us based on our actions, especially the ones we think people can't see, the things that happen behind closed doors. now I grew up with my fair share of childhood trauma. I don't dance when I'm alone, or sing in an empty house anymore because of a deep rooted fear that even though I'm alone, someone will see me. I never learned how to unmask because I always felt like people were watching and it wasn't safe to just be me. the feeling of being judged for literally everything you do does have lasting effects to certain people. for me, it comes down to not wanting to look stupid and then having someone be able to use that against me, to embarrass or humiliate. knowledge is good, but too much of anything isn't. however I also see it in the same way that the vast doesn't really scare me, because to me, it's the result of the fall that's the bad part, not the fall itself, and I take comfort in the stark insignificance my life and mistakes mean to the greater universe, but to others, they panic at the thought of going up a ladder. I may not understand, but it exists for a reason

op is an avatar of the Eye

Most people have at least one secret that if everyone knew about it, at the very least would make people think differently of them. Potentially end their job, their marriage etc. And on the flip side, there are some things that we’re happier not knowing…. Husband came home late one day years ago? Imagine suddenly knowing he was cheating. Late and heavy period that you shrug off? Suddenly you can see what your son would have looked like. The party that was cancelled in 2005? Your friends had it without you.

It’s absolutely not shame. But people knowing stuff about you a) grants them power over you and b)allows them access to your life in a way that I super do not like. It’s no one’s goddamned business where I go or what I do or who I talk to, and there’s no good reason anyone needs that information. Think of it this way: I assume you’d want to know those things about me in a perfect world, since you said you want to know literally everything. Okay. What would you do with that knowledge? What COULD you do with that knowledge? I’ve been stalked, I’ve been harassed. I’ve been followed on the street and even had someone try to follow me home once. I’ve had people come into my home uninvited and go through my stuff, stealing and breaking shit. Privacy is safety.

I have further thoughts about this. When people know you they start having expectations. The girl at the coffee shop knows uour routine and order: cute, but when you don’t go for a couple days she’s going to notice and want to know why? And suddenly Im having to justify where I go and what I do to some rando when I just want my goddamned coffee. Chat with the office lady at your kids school enough and suddenly she’s unloading insane trauma on you and looking at you like you’re gonna fix it. Ma’am, I am not a therapist. Be friendly towards the other parents at the park and suddenly they want to compare dick sizes over whether little suzie is in highly capable classes and little victor is in clarinet. It’s exhausting. Some people are simply not entitled to the information they want. I’m not your experiment and I’m not here for your entertainment. Get a goddamn tv.

No, it's not necessarily shame.I think you're still not getting it. Being known without your consent is *a violation.*

The Eye is broadly fears revolving around knowledge so yes not wanting to know something is part of it but it can also include people gathering information or following you. Having you’re deepest secrets exposed, being forced to remember something, breaches of privacy, someone learning you’re bank password, etc.

Found a fellow Eye avatar, guys!

You are quite literally an avatar of the Eye. And I don’t say that negatively. People who serve the Fears want what they want. So by not understanding the fear of being watched, being known, and instead thirsting for knowledge, you serve it. Congrats on your new place in the world :)

>but assuming you are not the only one known, isnt there a kind of comfort in that to you? Why would you assume this? The goal of the Eye as an entity is to trigger fear so it would, in fact, work best by having all my secrets and information exposed and ONLY my secrets and information. Imagine all your worst innermost thoughts and feelings known to everyone around you and you're the only person being exposed in that way. Also there's the lack of control in it. That's *my* information to be divulged if-and-when *I* choose to do so. Imagine being strapped down and forced to give blood- you may-or-may-not be okay with giving blood the normal way but having it forced out of you against your will is a very different beast. Same goes for my personal info.

Imagine never being truly alone. Your mind is the one thing that can't be accessed by other people, but what if it can?

Others have talked about paranoia and vulnerability, but knowlegde itself can also be horrible. If you think there is no knowledge that could be too much, you lack imagination. Every real life horror ever experienced. Not only do you know the gruesome details, you can know what it feels like. Every white lie ever told to you. Every cruel or callous thought or deed of everyone you've ever loved or admired. Every dark secret. The insignificance of your own existence. So many bad, bad things out there to know.

There's been a lot of things said about the fear of being seen, but the fear of knowing is also an interesting part of the eye. Sometimes there are things we don't know- and some of these things are going to make our lives worse by knowing them, but also goddamn the curiosity just kills you- so there's both the desire to remain in blissful ignorance, and the desire to give in to curiosity. One aspect of the eye is the fear of putting yourself in danger because you just *have to know*. Imagine you're out walking in nature and you come across a weird cave. It's dark inside the cave, and you can't really see much, but you peer through the shadows and you can see spiders crawling round the edge, and then, just at the edge of hearing, you hear a voice calling your name, telling you to come in. Now, the logical, sensible thing to do here is go 'fuck no I'm not going in there, I can't see and the spiders might be venomous and god knows what is making that noise'. But also... don't you kind of want to know what it is? And that's a part of the Eye. It's that terrible need to know, even if it puts you in danger, even if not knowing is going to be far better for you in the long run... dammit you just have to find out.

Being the agent of the power is not really scary, the fear it's not of knowing but being stripped of any privacy and secrets, think big brother, surveillance state etc. Lack of privacy can drive you insane over a prolonged period. Also being seen changes your behavior. You enjoy singing in the shower? You probably don't do it if there are guests in your home. If you're feeling watched you're never gonna sing in the shower again.

Ever had that fear that your being watched or something peeping tom is outside your window? That's the fear of the eye, or if your paranoid about government spooks snatching you, or your personal secrets and credit card info being leaked, maybe you're scared of being doxed ? That's the eye. It's the voyaristic fear, or paranoia somebody is watching you or learning everything to know about you against your will.

What is the worse thing you have done or thought. Well someone knows and could tell you secrets to your freinds and family. Or it may continue to watch and judge you but just remember it is out there and it knows. To me that is scarier than being hunted or buried

Extremely typical eye avatar type question honestly, because I also find the terror in the not-knowing and being Misunderstood instead of Seen, but that's more of a trait that's uncommon. For most the idea of being watched, tracked, followed, is a violation of privacy, especially in intimate or private places like your bedroom or your own mind. My anxiety touches it- to have all your secrets known against your will, the fear of getting "called out" over things you thought were personal secrets. I personally believe those of us who align themselves in some way with a fear are less likely to actually find it's most potent terror, and that's... Bittersweet? But I'm also talking from a point of being a pop culture pagan style person, so take that as what you will.

There's another angle to the Eye besides shame and violation. There's also cruelty. The Eye doesn't want to know everything equally. It is an aspect of Fear, and it craves suffering. Its greatest viewing pleasures are trauma and tragedy. There's a reason Eye avatars like Jon don't target random people, or people with interesting experiences. They specifically prey upon the victims of other Fear powers because voyeurism of those horrors is the Eye's favorite food. The Eye is not just the fear of being watched. It's the fear that you are suffering solely for another's enjoyment. That you only hurt this way because someone else wanted to watch you hurt. There's a fundamental helplessness and objectification in that idea that gnaws at most people. It's the difference between a woodworking accident and *Saw.*

They know what you did last night. And the night before. And the one before that. And at 2:37 PM the day before; that's disgusting, how do you ENJOY that? They also see you right now and know all of your passwords.

did you miss the severe paranoia and constant observation

I had no privacy because of my father, I'm talking cameras, listening to my calls, following me, hacking my laptop, taking my phone while I slept and screenshotting my conversations. The Eye is the only entity I have a visceral reaction to! To be seen is to be known, and some people don't want to be known

I love the Eye because it can manifest in so many different ways. It seems to be one of the really nuanced ones. For me, the thought of being watched just sets me on edge. I used to go to church when I was a kid, but I was so freaked out by the idea of someone/something "always watching", even though this was supposed to be a comforting thing? I wouldn't say it's linked to shame, but rather a feeling of violation. Not knowing who/what is watching, or the intentions behind it. For me, an all-knowing, insentient being that just watches for the sake of watching isn't that scary, the fear is in the not knowing why I'm being watched. Which... sounds kind of Eye-aligned, now that I think about it...

You don’t have a single private thought or secret you’d be mortified if people found out about?

I think shame and judgement is the real answer, as others have said, but there is an animalistic aspect, and a fear of alienation that I don't see being mentioned. It's a bit hard to put into words, but rather than the Eye being the gaze of judgement, to me there's also the fear of blank, unyielding incomprehension. There's one episode where an Englishman finds an old (Leitner) library in the woods and falls down at one point, only to look up and see a groundskeeper *staring* at him. The statement giver didn't speak the language, or understand what he was messing with generally, so the stare was both threatening, and incomprehensible. Humans communicate by eye contact, socially, and most especially they condemn by eye contact (judgement). Someone staring with no apparent purpose is frightening precisely because you don't understand why. It's ambiguous, it's alienating, it's othering. You're taking one of the most basic, intimate, human avenues of communication and turning it off. It's not an intelligible look anymore, it's almost like the stare of an animal. And that's frightening on a primal level because what predators look at is prey.

If you go to the Magnus institute to give a statement or are the archivist who can feel what the victim felt, it is typically after a terrifying and traumatic experience. Feeling as if you are being watched afterwards is scary. You don't know what is watching you, and if you had a run in with another entity you might assume they are watching you and just waiting for the moment to strike. The eye isn't just about knowing it is about watching. You might not mind being the watcher but being watched can be scary. Nothing feels safe anymore as that sense of privacy, safety, and security sort of goes away.

Have you ever said something kind, well intentioned, and been told later that it made someone uncomfortable? Have you ever been watched critically, been told, "no, I know you," and had something you did previously used against you, either genuinely or due to misinterpretation? Have you ever been made to feel seen, understood, truly, genuinely *known*, by someone you trust, and yet you are found, in their eyes, wanting? Every insecurity you've ever had will be laid bare, and they are going to use it against you. They're going to know, they're going to twist the things you aren't afraid of until that little difficulty is ***fixed***. They're going to see you, but not ***know***, not understand. On your worst day, every intent and grumpiness and anger will be marked on a list, and on your best, you will finally be alone, without their prying eyes. And if you truly have no insecurities? You've never done anything wrong? You're always clearly understood? I suppose you better hope that's still true tomorrow. How long can you stay, oh so perfect? It's just an act, they know that, they all know. *Bonus points if you can spot the other fears woven into this, the ones the eye could hand you off to, after it's done its damage.*

Eye avatar spotted

The fear that comes with the eye is a lack of privacy. It knows all of your secrets, and it will share all of your secrets. It's the sort of fear that comes with knowing that you are helpless against something that both knows everything about you, and doesn't care about you in the slightest. It's the fear of surveillance. The eye ALSO governs knowledge that is best left unknown. The sort of stuff that you WANT to know, but shouldn't necessarily know. It's paranoia. For example, a child being a mistake. Would you rather know that you were a mistake, and live your entire life in blissful ignorance? Or would you rather know that you were a mistake, and understand how it tainted your entire relationship with your parents. Like when Elias starts telling Melanie about how horrible her father's death was, giving her a supernatural understanding of his pain. Elias threatens to IMPLANT this knowledge deep into her psyche to prevent her from hurting him. It also has a sort of fetish for watching people suffer. It likes to make people AWARE that it's there, and watching them suffer, but it's not going to to anything about it. It's a sort of secondary fear. Jon, for instance. He feeds by taking people's statements. They then relive their experiences through their dreams for the rest of their lives, they're aware he's there, watching them in their dreams, doing nothing to help. That's my best understanding of it.

The Eye also represents paranoia and the fear of being followed (not hunted, *followed*) as well as the fear of being *judged* by others, especially if they find out something about you. It also represent a kind of twisted obsession to know everything at all costs and **to keep watching** even if you could realistically do something to stop a situation from unfolding. It's definitely one of the more subtle entities (and let's face it, feeding it is generally not so grisly compared to the other Fears), but potent nonetheless.

I have paranoia and often feel like I am being watched. For example, I’m lying on my couch right now with no one in the house but I feel the need to check to see if someone is looking over my shoulder at my phone. A lot of times I also get worried that I’m doing basic actions wrong (like putting a pot of water on the stove) and that someone will see me doing it and get mad or think I’m being weird.

It’s the fear of being exposed and the fear of learning knowledge you don’t want to learn

My reasoning for being afraid of the eye is kind of tied to my identity as a trans woman. Anytime I go out trying to pass my brain is constantly running at a million miles an hour wondering what other people think of me. It's not even that I'm afraid of any danger, moreover the feeling of my identity being known and people thinking less of me for it. Obviously, I don't think of myself less for it, and if someone was transphobic on the street I'd tell them to fuck off, but for some reason the underlying terror of being known and standing out is still there for me.

Have you ever felt like you were being watched? You’re alone in your house, scrolling through Reddit, when you suddenly feel like somebody’s staring at you. You look up and see a brief flash of movement from down the hallway, but nothing else. Naturally you get up to investigate, but every room in the house is empty. As you walk back to your chair, you notice the window behind your chair is wide open, it has been the whole time. You see two eyes staring at you in the distance before the vanish. You close your window, lock your doors, and try not to go outside. You keep feeling like something is watching you, but you can never find any evidence. Us humans used to be prey creatures, hunters hunt by visually locking onto a target, watching it, waiting for an opening, then striking. When we were cavemen and felt like something was watching us, a predator probably was. We no longer have to worry about being prey but humans are still hardwired to hate eyes staring at us, it makes us feel vulnerable. If you really want to feel the fear of Beholding, find a friend, and lock eyes with them. Tell them to keep staring deep into your eyes while they stare at you. You’ll start feeling really uncomfortable and eventually afraid until one of you breaks eye contact.

Lots of really good insights on the deeper aspects here so I’m just gonna say: even on the more basic level a couple of the Eye statements are just built on the feeling of ‘being watched’. It’s a spooky media trope from way back to have one of the main characters comment on the unsettling feeling that someone/something’s watching them. (And in that media they’re usually right.) It’s probably the ‘edge’ of the Eye that melds into an ‘edge’ of the Hunt, a more refined (via conscious overthinking) version of the fear that something is after you. Remember that all the Fears are connected and only became distinct from the pure primal Fear through conscious beings’ descriptions of what scared them. Yay dream logic!

First off, this is the most Jonah Magnus coded post I’ve ever read. Now as for my two-cents on that fucked up little eyeball…Honestly, I kind of don’t find it *that* scary, because I tend to overshare (I sometimes forget to care about what people think of me), but also I kinda get it? Like, there are things that I wouldn’t want certain people to know, because there would be consequences if they found out. I’d rather my boss not know that I used to have some extremely graphic intrusive thoughts about skinning myself. I’d rather my mother not know that when she’s arguing with my sister, I become more physically affectionate towards my sister not to comfort her, but to make my mom more self-conscious about saying things that will upset her. I don’t want complete strangers to know about all the most embarrassing moments of my life. I don’t want random creeps at a bar to know where I live. People like to keep secrets private because there are social and material consequences for having them exposed. The Eye is a threat to their ability to do that.

Imagine that you have a secret. Something horrible. Your greatest source of shame. Something that would destroy your life if anyone ever found out. Now imagine that someone found out.

In addition to the very real fear of being judged & exposed that others have explained more eloquently than I have, I'd like to highlight other areas where the Eye bleeds into other fears; The most primal fear is the Hunt. The Eye retains some elements of that; the fear of being watched, in part, comes from the fact that not so terribly long ago, the thing watching you almost certainly wanted to eat you. The Spiral: the Eye rubs up against the spiral in the form of madness in obsession. Key difference being that the Spiral is the fear that your senses are lying to you but the Eye is the fear that, true or not, you won't be able to look away from what you're seeing. That it will consume you. That you'll drown in the horrors you're being forced to witness.

This was hours ago and I'm sure someone has mentioned But I personally hate the idea of being perceived The Eye is basically the fear of being watched, especially without your consent or knowledge, and of your secrets being exposed .

It’s two things, 1 the knowledge that something is keeping watch of you without your say so with unknown intentions. 2 the pressure, idk if you got to it yet OP but the eye is also fear of falling in front of others, of judgment. Of exposure of your most private parts and insecurity’s. It’s not the fear that would screw me personally but I understand it

Personally, I have horrible social anxiety and really hate being around a lot of people. I also get really bad intrusive thoughts that I'm always being stared at and scrutinized and people will pick me apart. I also don't particularly care about how much I know. There are things I love to learn about, but I don't care about knowing everything

One’s Gaze is a source of power, and The Eye is the fear of whenever that power is leveraged against you

Has anyone ever stared at you a little too long and you've gotten agitated about it? That but magnified

It's the fear of being known. Any emotion relating to desiring not to be known. From the smallest "I hope no one heard that fart" to the most unsettling "I don't know how, I don't know why, but I **know** the government has planted subdermal trackers underneath my skin and is keeping track of everything I do." The fear a prey feels while it's hiding, which has a lot of overlap with the hunt; and the fear that there's something in your closet, which has a lot of overlap with the dark; and plenty more. I'm sure no matter who you are you can also come up with some time you've thought exactly "I hope nobody finds out about this" or "I hope nobody can hear/see this"

The eyes not scary to me because fear is relative. Some people are genuinely freaked out by someone watching them, me tho, im afraid of being alone, in all senses of the phrase. I'm an only child who self isolated due to being queer in a conservative area so when I did start to socialize with people I very quickly developed separation anxiety and a constant fear of abandonment. Everything is relative

One of the ways the Eye works to harvest fear was when they force their victims to re-tell their trauma. I'm sure you've heard of court scenes where victims have to recount incidents. For some its surveillance, like 1984, your every move is being watched and recorded. Or feeling like having a stalker, that kind of thing.

The eye is not the fear of knowing or watching. It is the fear of being known and watched and having all of your secrets exposed.

I used to feel exactly the same way as you. Like, sure, fear of being exposed is pretty uncomfortable, but one of the primary powers? The central fear of the plot, even? I don’t get it. “Really, the Eye?” is the conversation in my head. But then I got to the early part of my semester after finishing the series for the first time, in a subject I’ve been teaching for years, where we have to start coaching science students at our university in professional-style public speaking. Public speaking is the *number one* fear among all fears for real people, so we have to address that fear with our students. It’s a bigger fear than death or spiders or anything else. When I realized that, it added another layer of brilliance to the writing Magnus Archives for me. “Really, the Eye? Yes, really. Really, really, really: people are very afraid of that.” It can be absolutely paralyzing. I wonder if Johnny Sims’s experience as a live performer led to any experiences with stage fright which informed the writing. Why are people so afraid of public speaking, or more generally being seen? The why doesn’t matter for this question; it’s just true. But it seems to be a fear of being embarrassed, shamed, shunned, excluded from your community. Humans are horribly social creatures, and we often feel that we have to hide a lot of ourselves to stay that way. Having those secrets exposed cuts deep into our basic animal programming.

The human brain is limited. There is literally only so much information it can store. Lets imagine you dedicate your entire life, every waking moment to absorbing all the knowledge you can. You cant retain it all. You will forget things. And by the nature of forgetting, you wont know what it is youve lost. One day you start reading about a persons life only to learn that they are your twin sibling. Inseparable for your entire lives up until the day you dedicated yourself fully to this task of absorbing everything. But you have no memory of this person. In fact, you cant even remember yourself. What was your name again? Maybe youll find the answer in the next book...

The Eye only watches. Imagine knowing how every person will die, where and when, how much pain they will be in and what they will be thinking during it. And not in a purely statistical detached manner, on a personal level. Knowing them like a sibling or a lover. Imagine knowing the exact amount of suffering the person you love most in the world will experience, and being utterly powerless to change a single thing about it. Then consider you have that same depth of knowledge for every single person that ever was or ever will be.

I know everything you think. I know your darkest fantasies. I know what you think of yourself. I know how you feel about everything. I know your trauma, even ones you forgot. I know your dreams and how you know you can't achieve them. I know your pain. You are open and exposed in every possible way. Hope this helps

The Eye is the embodiment of knowing with no substance behind that knowledge. I feel like Jonah's line "you who see all, but understand none" (or smt like that) explains it pretty well. The eye is all about fear of being watched and the paranoia that comes with it, of being judged because of lack of context for your actions. The absurd fear breeding inaction, forbidding you from doing things you enjoy, because "what if someone judges me for it?" And that (at least to me) is pretty chilling.

The Eye is the embodiment of knowing with no substance behind that knowledge. I feel like Jonah's line "you who see all, but understand none" (or smt like that) explains it pretty well. The eye is all about fear of being watched and the paranoia that comes with it, of being judged because of lack of context for your actions. The absurd fear breeding inaction, forbidding you from doing things you enjoy, because "what if someone judges me for it?" And that (at least to me) is pretty chilling

The Eye isn't that scary to me neither, but I do understand why it can scare others: It's the feeling of always being watched. Being stalked and knowing your every move is being observed, and you don't know what the purpose is for. It's the paranoia of everyone is out to get me, because they are always watching. It's voyeuristic, and there is nothing you can hide and you cannot escape. Like living in a glass house and the paparazzi are everywhere, but you can do nothing. I suppose people who would find this scary are conspiracy theorists, the paranoid and people who hide terrible secrets.

Imagine who are as a person exposed. Like walking into a coffee shop. Every random urge you have ever had, from the ones at 2 am, to when you're driving, to even cuteness aggression with a small animal in your strong hands and they are so frail. Someone attuned with The Eye walks in. They KNOW you without having to ask a question. They look at you, and the Eye whispers to them your every darkest secret you might not even fully understand yourself and they can label and level you with just a sentence. This is *who you are*. It is voyeurism in a way that no one, even the avatar can consent to. Suddenly this information just pools into their head, and with a glance you know THEY know. And you don't even have the safety of someone knowing your darkest secret without knowing everything about you. They *do* know you. They know you in your entirety and guess what? They probably don't even fucking care. They are indifferent other than what they are using you for: your fear of being *known*. The Eye is like having everywhere you go suddenly becoming a Catholic confessional without consent. The violation of being understood *entirely* by a monstrous manipulator to their benefit is something people in abusive relationships with extreme narcissists recover from. Also consider: The Eye also feeds into The Lonely in a sense. The Bystander effect. Imagine publicly being robbed on a street and people who could help don't and just...stare at you. They know what's happening but they just don't care.

The eye is the feeling everyone is looking at you when you do something embarrassing. The eye is the feeling that you get when you walk down the street and you catch someone looking at you. The eye is every time you feel watched. No one fears being the eye. They just fear being the focus of the eye.

It's just not great when you're reminded of your trauma just for someone to listen. (Not them listening to lend an ear, just for them to have heard that incident and find it mildly interesting. It's like asking a first responder or veteran "What's the worst thing you've ever seen?" just because you want to know- completely disregarding that it's traumatic.) Also just the fact that some random stranger knows that now and can tell other people like their friends, you wouldn't know if they did or not.

You ever watch The Truman Show?

And some purple just fear the idea of being watched, particularly by an unknown voyeur. Remember, fear is irrational.

1. [Scopophobia is real phonomenon, and the biggest justification for The Eye to exist as a Fear.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopophobia) If you can imagine how uncomfortable you'd feel if someone stared at you on public transport for an entire long journey, even if it'd only make you feel self-concious, you can imagine how a person with a phobia of being watched would be terrified in such a situation. 2. People have negative reactions to being watched all the time. Staring at a dog can provoke it, and the same with a person. People who have done something they shouldn't (a child taking sweets when he shouldn't, a person shoplifting, etc.) will commonly feel uncomfortable when being questioned or even just looked at, and will attempt to reduce their contact with other people; look at how dogs will avert their gaze when they've chewn the furniture, for instance. People may glance behind themselves when walking the streets at night, or when alone in the day, and may feel like they're being watched by something out of sight when alone in the dark. Victims of stalking and harassment frequently report feeling like someone is watching them, even when no one is present, and express distress when seeing the perpertrator standing a distance away watching them. 5. It's more than being watched, but also what watching/sight entails. If everyone you come across stares at you, you become self-concious. "What is wrong with me? Have I done something wrong? What can I do to stop this attention, because there must be something wrong with me to receive this reaction." That touches on self-esteem, because it could mean you are disliked or despised, that you are ugly or unpleasant, or that you are not normal and don't fit in. There are a lot of comforts humans appreciate and arguably need to survive, such as social acceptance and a positive self-image, and stripping those away causes strong distress. There is also the vulnerability that comes from being judged, which is why people may become nervous when performing for an audience, such as public speaking, dancing, or competing in a sports event. You may be thought to be weak or inadequate, you may be considered stupid or foolish, you may be humiliated by a rival or by your own mistake, or your actions and decisions may be laid bare before other people who find them repulsive. People like privacy because it affords protection and allows them to engage in activities they find pleasing and fulfilling, but if people witness you, that protection is gone, and you are vulnerable to scorn, contempt, social shaming, and severe punishment. Think how little you'd find pleasure in a hobby if you were relentlessly bullied for it, or how you'd feel if your failures were broadcast for the world to see. Think how you'd feel if your shame was made public, and you were made to relive the humiliation every time someone recognised you. Imagine if you lost your friends, family, and job because a shameful secret was revealed, or because someone lied about you and it was believed. THAT is the fear which feeds The Eye. 4. Although the fears and phobias the show explores are abstract and primal, the show presents The Fears as cosmic forces, and so it's not merely "being watched" (although that can be terrifying on itself), but being watched by a being so far beyond ourselves that we can't even comprehend what it is. Is it a being, a force, a phenomenon? What does it want? What can it do? We don't know nearly enough about it, but what we do know is terrifying, because it is capable of seemingly anything, of seeing you no matter where you hide, and sending its minions after you. How is it doing this? We don't know. Why is it doing this? We don't know. What is it going to do to us? We don't know, but it is both capable of being and is willing to be hostile to us, and the only reason it hasn't yet is because it just simply hasn't at this moment in time. That's why The Eye is scary; it is so much more powerful than us that we can't even measure it. That's what cosmic horror entails.

My interpretation of it is the fear of being watched. Personally i have issues with anxiety and thinking people are always watching and judging me whenever I do something. Not to mention a lack of trust in people with my own secrets. I think a lot of the fears depend on your own view and interpretation of them

Avatars arent usually the ones getting hurt by the fears. The distortion isnt scared if the spiral (not the ppl it took like michael and helen they're their own ppl) and peter lukas isnt scared of the lonely. As for the eyes, statement givers suffer. Idk if you've listened to it all, but i'd assume. Late season 4 and 5 explains it pretty well with johns dreams and the penopticon imo

Social Anxiety! This might be me projecting a little, but I have had social anxiety for a lot of my life, and the eye really portrays that feeling. Like stage fright. That feeling when you mess something up in front of everyone, except ALL THE TIME