A childhood belief about special powers

When I was little I thought certain people could 'hear' what I was thinking about. I got the idea from one of my teachers who just happened to have huge ears. Actually he was a very nice bloke but he just had really unfortunate ears. I think I was sitting in his class thinking to myself about how big his ears were… and then suddenly he turned and glared at me. (Probably because I was sitting looking dopey while I was supposed to be working.)
It seemed to me that the only logical conclusion was his colossal ears had allowed him to ‘hear’ what I was thinking about.
From there my belief expanded - I figured that in certain circumstances maybe anyone could 'hear' what I was thinking about - so whenever I mentally poured scorn upon anyone (unfortunately I was a very judgmental child) I would suddenly be struck with fear and dread in case the person had 'heard' what I'd been thinking.
After a while I began to suspect I was simply imaging things but this really just made things worse… for example... I'd see some guy on the street, and it might strike me that that person was abnormal in some way, so I'd think to myself - jeez how is it that individual come to be so fat, tall, skinny, ugly, stupid looking... whatever and then I'd suddenly think - Oh crap! I shouldn’t have thought that… he probably heard…. And then I'd think Nah don't be ridiculous people can't really hear your thoughts. But another part of my brain wouldn’t be convinced so easily. So I’d end up having this really stupid mental argument with myself about whether the guy would know what I was thinking or not – Finally I would have to tell myself to shut up in case the guy thought I was nuts arguing with myself.