Acknowledged senses Vs latent senses

[Clydesdalestu]

Hi. Firstly I should acknowledge that I'm clearly out of my depth on this forum as I am by no means a science sepecialist or professional. However, I have an inquisitive mind and for some time have been considering the issues of our acknowledged human senses against those that may not be currently recognised, or at least accepted. Whilst the 'sixth sense' of proximity or presence is often debated, I'm interested in other senses that our complex, yet conditioned brains may not 'be able' to identify. My (purely fantasist at this point) proposal, is that there could be other entities or beings sharing our space, which very few of us (me included) can see or acknowledge. I wonder if there are levels in our Neuro-sensitivity (I think I've just made that up!) that are not yet unlocked, or are blocked by historic, societal conditioning. I guess, cutting to the chase: can anybody point me to someone that might have done some research into whether what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste is all we are truly able to experience. Please don't 'science shame' me. I'm a marketing director from a sleepy village, not a high-flying scientist. I just have an inkling that I'd like to investigate. Thanks, in advance, for any comments on this topic, Stu.

[Phi for All]

8 minutes ago, Clydesdalestu said:

I guess, cutting to the chase: can anybody point me to someone that might have done some research into whether what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste is all we are truly able to experience.

Every experiment that measures observable phenomena has had an opportunity to detect such qualities as you describe, yet they haven't. Similarly, we've tried to detect measurable amounts of what people call ESP, again with no significant results. Nothing that's repeatable or predictable.

It's a fairly common argument, that there are things we're not evolved to perceive. It certainly seems conceivable, and when we find out there aren't, our incredulity kicks in. There are certainly types of light that we can't see with our eyes (but we can detect through other means), and there are senses other species possess that we don't. But what you're suggesting is fairly super-natural, things outside the natural world that science is able to measure. We observe that fish have an ability to follow close movements in shoals, and we know it can't be their eyesight or any other known sense, so we keep experimenting until we discover they have lateral lines that create a network capable of sensing pressure due to movement and vibrations. Their behavior told us they were perceiving something we weren't.

You're also thinking that our brains are "conditioned", as if they're on a narrow path that won't allow deviations, and nothing is further from the truth. We hold vast amounts of data in our heads, and use our brains to manage that data and form it into useable information, and we do it extremely quickly. We may have some trouble fixating on patterns that please us, but when there's something anomalous in what we observe, science helps us remove as much bias and preconception as possible, and figure out what doesn't fit.

If there are things that exist that we don't have the capability of sensing somehow, then those things ALSO don't do anything else that might impact our existence. Could there be ghosts? Only if we can't sense them and they can't affect us or the world around us in a meaningful way, so does it matter? 

[Strange]

3 hours ago, Clydesdalestu said:

I guess, cutting to the chase: can anybody point me to someone that might have done some research into whether what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste is all we are truly able to experience.

The idea that we only have 5 sense is rather old fashioned.

Quote

Most of those familiar with the matter say there are between 14 and 20, depending on how you define a sense. 

https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/think-you-have-only-5-senses-its-actually-a-lot-more-than-that

 

[MathGeek]

Magnetoreception has been verified with a high degree of confidence in a number of vertebrate animals.  See:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C11&q=magnetoreception+in+vertebrates&btnG=

I participated in studies finding magnetoreception in several species of fishes.

Evidence for magnetoreception in humans is more limited, but it seems to be growing:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C11&q=magnetoreception+in+humans&btnG=