83. Beyond the Five Senses

We’ve been taught that we have five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. We must rely on however many of them we still possess to find our way. Miraculously, if you are missing one or two, the others double up their powers. To me, though, that’s kind of a narrow explanation of human sensory abilities, and makes it sound like we really only need our heads and hands. What about those other senses and where do they reside?

For some reason, other senses show up differently in people. Common Sense is obviously not something you learn in school. You just have it and maybe picked it up from your family experiences. It can be acquired later, but if you don’t, you tend to gravitate to those who have it. A Sense of Humor, Sense of Fairness, Artistry, Business Sense, Sense of Rhythm… we think of all these as coming from somewhere in the gut, the aura, or the DNA; it’s knowing what’s right without relying totally on data your brain has analyzed. They're often sort of defiant little buggers, even contradicting what the Big 5 senses are telling.  We've all heard that advice, “go with your gut, not your head.” Poor old Noah—he knew what I'm talking about.

The Sense of Intuition resembles Common Sense in that way of being contradictory to conventional knowledge.  A hunch is definitely coming from somewhere other than our eyes and ears, and it is not necessarily just guessing or wishful thinking. Faith and ESP could be seen as higher levels of Intuition. Some people are born with it, many strive to sharpen it. People who live fully at peace with their extra senses are often regarded as geniuses, saints, seers, madmen, witches, psychics or prophets. Why are these people revered so highly one day, then vilified the next?  It's because we’re uncomfortable with the unpredictability they represent, echoing the call of the wild from our native past. The Big 5 run a monopoly and want to hold onto the reins of human evolution.  

A Sense of Direction is a real treat to possess. Aren’t some people like geese? (well, of course they are…)  I mean, is there an internal magnetic sensitivity or inner-ear thing that gives one person a special knack to navigate?  The Sense of Direction must be akin to the special ability some have for detecting or tracking. I like reading about those people who can find missing a person, not only by following bent twigs and footprints, but also getting into the head of the missing one and listening to their thought processes. In other words, it may be a psychic skill augmented by keen observation of human nature, rather than the other way around.

Having a Sense of Direction and being good with math gives you an edge in certain kinds of spatial-relations problem solving, like piloting a plane through clouds with only basic instruments, keeping track of your flute music part in the midst of a Mozart symphony, or finding your way out of an underground parking garage. If you add in a Sense of Rhythm, you have a good tango dancer. When we are interviewing applicants for the job of guiding our jungle expedition, we should ask if they can dance, and take a pass on anyone who admits they have two left feet.    

My belief is that our earliest ancestors, rather than being mumbling thuds, were every bit keyed into a higher level of perceiving their world. Sure, they had all the human advantages like thumbs, tools, and language. But like all species, they must have had well-developed extra senses and instincts, and were connected to nature and unseen forces. Can you imagine a band of hungry hunters guided by the vision of a seeress to a good hunting ground, and starting to salivate when they smell the dung of a pod of seals hauled up on an ice floe? Yeah, me neither, but that’s what a sense of smell was invented for.  Which way to sail to find the next inhabitable island, Ancient Polynesian mariner? You feel the waves, you watch the birds and fish, and just as important, you listen to your hunch and mind the omens and messages from the gods.

Our brain, a magnificent gadget that has tight control of our Big 5 Senses, has been so good at analyzing the world that we tend to let it squelch some of our extra senses. We’ve come up with all sorts of aids for the Big 5 to keep them dominant. I think it began when we invited the first dogs to become members of our families. Then people looked up and noticed stars and seasons, so they made calendars. They invented North and South and drew maps. All those little aids to help them plan their lives and find their way. I guess you could say that while mankind was sharpening its ability to navigate and invent, it was at the cost of diminishing the other senses.