It is commonly believed we have a sixth sense, not just the five that are so apparent, that of sight, smell, taste, feeling and hearing. It seems to be true even though the sixth sense is quite different than the others, more mysterious and metaphysical in nature. Generally the sixth sense is known for the ability to sense danger but sometimes it is associated with one’s ‘gut-instinct’ when trying to choose the right course of action. The ability to sense danger is uncanny, that is, to sense something beyond the capacity of the other five senses. Further, the sixth sense doesn’t seem to be associated with any human organs such as eyeballs and eardrums or require any physical apparatus like olfactory nerves or taste buds. The sixth sense seems to operate without any help at all from the body… it seems to be entirely mental.

Even though it is often known as the 'sixth sense', like everything else metaphysical… it is only a concept. Yet, everything about the metaphysical realm are concepts, whether it is the human soul or our subconscious mind. That could even apply to angels, heaven or the devil, and, of course, none seem to have physical properties. Even so, since the dawn of time, man has wanted to give them names. Probably the first to be named was the Creator. Later, when people began to believe things like spirits and heaven must exist, they were also given names. After all, these concepts needed to be referred to in some manner. In the nineteenth century, when it seemed the human brain had two separate functions, it was decided they should be called the conscious and subconscious mind and the idea of a sixth sense debuted around 1837.

Other concepts were named as well, such as the human soul, guardian angels, spirits, the muse, hell and demons. The sixth sense phenomenon was one of the most recent to be labeled and, like the others, needed to be. As for the sixth sense, almost everyone has experienced it so we know it exists. We don’t know how it operates but that doesn’t matter as much that it does and most often when it should. However, we can recall a few times it failed to warn us of danger. Or maybe we didn’t listen. Sometimes, regardless of our fear or anxiety, we went ahead and did something anyway… sometimes we have to. Maybe we felt it was worth the risk. Making a move on some guy’s girlfriend might seem worth the risk or for the thrill of canoeing whitewater rapids, riding a bull. Mostly though, the sixth sense is associated with alerting us to real danger, like a stranger lurking in the shadows. More incredibly, it might be telling us not to go somewhere that day as if, somehow, it can foretell events.

But the sixth sense is not always reliable, the ‘bad feeling’ we sometimes had turned out to be a false alarm. Since it can make mistakes, maybe the sixth sense has a human quality to it. In other words, if it represented divine guidance we would expect perfection. Perhaps then we should consider the sixth sense as ‘human’ even though we’re unsure whether animals have it. Sometimes their keener sense of smell, hearing and eyesight makes it seem so.

Actually, some animals have senses which humans don’t, such as the ability of snakes to sense chemicals through their unique vomeronasal organ. And some, like bats, whales and dolphins have what is termed ‘echolocation’ and sharks have the ability to sense electrical fields generated by other fish. Yet, I don’t think anyone has ever claimed animals have a sixth sense like humans (correction: apparently the belief animals can sense looming earthquakes exists which has heightened due to the conduct of animals during the Asian tsunami of 2004). Since we don’t know what makes the sixth sense function, except that it is mental and not dependent upon a physical support apparatus like a human organ, there should be a great significance in this, as if having a deeper meaning.

Actually, some people consider the sixth sense and extrasensory perception (ESP) as being the same thing, but I've always considered them two separate things because, to me, the sixth sense is more about the ability to sense danger whereas ESP is more about communicating mentally. It's a matter of semantics and preference I suppose. However, while the sixth sense wasn't called 'extrasensory perception' until about 1870 by Sir Richard Burton, then in that regard, one could probably say it was meant to mean the same thing. However, it seems the case whereby he simply recognized more functions of the 'sixth sense' and thought the term 'extrasensory perception' (or ESP) would be more apropos. I would disagree... it is a 'sense'. Even though 'sixth' seems to suggest is is lacking a name, and perhaps an open invitation for someone to name it, 'sixth' is good enough for me. Besides, as even more capabilities of the sixth sense began to be recognized even later during the 1800s, whereby they could be defined as separate processes... and for all that which the sixth sense is capable of, or encompasses, ESP should have been clearly defined as one of those capabilities, but not to be considered a replacement name.

Without citing individual cases of sixth sense experiences… what else can be said? We simply don’t know too much more. If however, some of these cases involved the foretelling of events, then that would add another dimension to it. While I can’t recall experiencing that myself, I have little doubt it has happened to others. Often the reason we cannot fathom these things, anything metaphysical, is how we perceive them. For that matter, I think how most people perceive the spirit world has been wrong for the past 2,500 years. In some detail I explained the reasons in Spirit World and Metaphysics. Mainly we’ve let the various concepts floating around, philosophical and religious, overly influence our perception of the spirit world. Further, if any one of the major concepts isn’t in the ballpark, it has the effect of distancing us from the truth even more.

How would I rationalize the sixth sense then? Well, I try to look at it in a different way but in order to do that… I almost have to forget it has a name. A name has a way of boxing a concept in… in this case; the sixth sense may be a greater phenomenon that merely a ‘sense’. I think we would do a lot better understanding all of nature’s wonders if we didn’t let these names influence us. We must understand that these names, as apropos as they may seem, are only representations of deeds, actions and activities… nothing more. We’d be better off to consider them verbs, that is, except for some concepts, like heaven or hell. We can’t assume names, like ‘angels’, are for a ‘thing’ or ‘entity’ because such distinctions may not really exist, at least not how humans understand distinctions. Such distinctions, as humans make them, assuredly have been throwing us off.

As an example, while each of the senses has a given range of capabilities, like the eardrum can hear different sounds; it’s still called ‘hearing’. In other words, correctly we don’t let any particular musical tone influence our concept of what ‘hearing’ is. Although I think almost everyone perceives the sixth sense correctly… simply the ability to ‘sense’ things and we all know what that means. We just have to keep on guard not to let a name of any phenomenon unduly influence us.

As to how the sixth sense figures in overall would be nearly impossible to explain. The difficulty of course is with semantics, the lack of terms to adequately convey metaphysical concepts. However, I must continue to say a major problem is how we make our distinctions… we’ve allowed these distinctions to affect our overall concept. It is largely religions which have made these distinctions however, and not science. Actually it was ancient man which developed the concepts, religions just tried to explain them... but too much so.

Besides these distinctions failing to paint the right picture if they aren't totally correct, there might be some completely wrong. As an example, since it would be common to consider an angel a spiritual entity and ‘someone else’, we might be, through the power of our mind actually creating them all along, not merely as hallucinatory manifestations, but effectively real events. To further explain... even though manifestations are generally considered hallucinatory, 'real manifestations' could actually exist, and, it seems, human created, making them (in essence), an extension of that human. If that were true, one could then see how faulty our old concept was about the spirit world. Whether my contentions are right or not, I’m mainly just pointing out how the slightest deviation from the truth can affect the whole picture.

At any rate, the sixth sense, the name given in order to reference this phenomenon, is more engrained and part of the human psyche than commonly imagined. So much so, it should be considered the ‘essence of man’ rather than a ‘part’. If we began to consider the sixth sense as us, and not just a tool, everything takes on a whole new meaning. Just like the human soul, it is us and cannot be separated. Science doesn’t know this yet but humans are greater than the sum total of their parts. For more on how the current terms are affecting our concepts, see our webpage on Imagination.

With the truth being held hostage by institutionalism, both academic and religious, we are forced to discover spiritual realities for ourselves. And the simplest things seem to hold the most clues. A tree for example or a bug.

A.O. Kime

Resource Box: © A.O. Kime (2003) A.O. Kime is a retired farmer and author of two books plus 70+ articles on ancient history, spiritual phenomena, political issues, social issues and agriculture which can be seen at http://www.matrixbookstore.biz
email: allen@matrixbookstore.com