Eye Gazing Parties

As featured in the

Check out the official book on eye contact by Michael Ellsberg!

What the heck is an Eye Gazing Party?
Banal chitchat about employment status, the location of your apartment, or where you’re from is NOT a great way to spark a captivating connection with an alluring new person. Eye contact IS. An even number of singles meet in an attractive space over drinks and world beats. After a fun mini-lesson in the art and psychology of eye contact, the group splits into pairs, and each pair spends up to two minutes looking into each other’s eyes, no talking, with inviting beats in the background. Pairs switch every one to two minutes, for a total of around half an hour. There is mingling, music and drinks afterwards. The eye gazing has an electrifying effect on the party. Two minutes of eye contact is the Cadillac of ice-breakers.

Who goes to Eye Gazing Parties?
Fun, adventurous, attractive, creative, confident and vibrant singles who enjoy quickly establishing amazing connections with each other.

Direct eye contact with a complete stranger. Isn’t that intense?
Yes. And it’s also a lot of fun. In fact, it will be MUCH more fun than answering boring questions like “Where do you work?” and “Where are you from?”. That’s the whole point. So much typical singles chatter is lame and puts people to sleep. Eye Gazing Parties exist to bring something fresh, frisky and risky into the singles scene. And the conversations that you have AFTER gazing will that much juicier. You can find out a lot about a person by the way they gaze.

How many people will I gaze with?
Each gaze lasts for one to two minutes and you will typically gaze with about 10 to 15 new singles in a night.

Why eye contact?
Eye contact is, hands down the single best way to establish a meaningful connection with a new person in a short amount of time. It gets quickly past the surface layer social roles that we often put up in interacting with one another. It’s also a fun way to experience the power eye contact, bring tons of cool people together, help people form meaningful connections and maybe even find their match!

How it all started
Eye Gazing Parties (eyegazingparties.com) were founded by Michael Ellsberg in NYC in 2005, and have been covered by the New York Times, CNN, Good Morning America, and major media around the world. People who attend them report having profound experiences with many new and exciting people at each event.

I’m in! How do I sign up?

Sign up for the email newsletter at the top right of the page and you’ll be kept in the loop when the next eye gazing party will in the Washington, DC area. Questions? Send an email.

Feedback from past gazers

“Loved it! I honestly didn’t want the talking to start afterwards. Would definitely do it again!”
“Totally awesome event! So atypical for D.C.!”
“There definitely is an art to gazing”

*** Check out how CityGirlBlogs switched from an eye gazing skeptic to a raving fan. ***

Eye Gazing in The Press

“New York’s hottest dating trend” – Elle Magazine