Just stared into a lemurs eyes for half a minute aparently (that felt like an hour) and it freaked me tf out. Since been staring into peoples eyes or animals eyes and its consistently weird and freaky no matter what. Also it feels like my conciousness is behind my eyes and maybe thats why they say eyes are the window to the soul.
Animals often avoid eye contact, it's considered rude. Humans are a very touchy-talky-looky species. So yeah, it's freaky. I used to think I suffer from face-blindness (forgot the fancy name of it), then it occurred to me that I just straight up forget/avoid to look into people's eyes so I never even see their faces. Now I sometimes try to make a conscious effort to look at people's eyes - but how long is even appropriate?
Your story of the lemur reminds of staring into the eyes of a genet for probably about a century during a somewhat substance-enhanced camping trip. Can't say I was freaked out, rather honoured by the animal deciding to hang out with me for a while?
I had no clue this thing existed till I met it - I did think it was a lemur at first but then I looked it up. They probably arrived in the Iberian peninsula as pets so it's not too surprising that they approach people.
I don't normally look people in the eyes, but animals? I have no problem with it. The animals do, most of the time. Dogs, though, are like people and like eye contact. And I like looking into their big puppy eyes 🥺
That whole "eyes are the window to the soul" thing only makes sense to me if you include the rest of the face, though; eyes alone don't show expression. The eye brows and cheeks and mouth do.
That is a bit of co-evolution between humans and dogs. While their nose is still their primary sense, their eyes have grown in importance to aid their communication and bonding with us.
What’ll really bake your noodle later on is that the eyes are not near the top of the head. Artists know this: if you look at someone, the eyes will be halfway between the chin and the top of the head.
Humans are social animals and were group hunters. Being able to judge emotions and intentions of another human just by looking into their eyes (silent communication) was a massive evolutionary advantage for us.
Facial expressions are a powerful form of communication. Faces (especially eyes) are so important to communication in the human brain that we see faces in places (pareidolia).
There is also a theory that we evolved to have the whites of our eyes visible so others can see where you're looking and react appropriately (especially in the case of danger).