I am able to sense the location of people I've known. How?

[Essere]

I get a feeling somewhere in my brain that this person I've known in the past is at a location that is more than a couple hundred meters away and they end up being there when I go check right away. I also have never spent time with them at this location. Anything in neuroscience that would indicate this being possible?

 

[Raider5678]

Check mental insanities.

 

Just kidding. But seriously, there nothing that explains it. Hence, 6th sense.

 

Those people that you meet, can other people see them too or just you?

Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

[Phi for All]

I get a feeling somewhere in my brain that this person I've known in the past is at a location that is more than a couple hundred meters away and they end up being there when I go check right away. I also have never spent time with them at this location. Anything in neuroscience that would indicate this being possible?

 

 

Not at all. No experiments with precognition or telepathy have yielded any meaningful evidence to support them.

 

How many times has this happened? Have you kept track of the frequency? How accurate is this ability? Are there times you get this feeling, go check right away and the person isn't there? Do you count those attempts?

 

If you could document this, you could give us more information. As it is, there's no reason to suspect your ability isn't within statistical parameters for wishful thinking or guesswork.

[Velocity_Boy]

I get a feeling somewhere in my brain that this person I've known in the past is at a location that is more than a couple hundred meters away and they end up being there when I go check right away. I also have never spent time with them at this location. Anything in neuroscience that would indicate this being possible?

 

 

 

While there is nothing in the present field of neuroscience that would explain your "extra-sensory location" phenomena, I would ask you if you are familiar with the works of the Brit Biologist Rupert Sheldrake. If you are not, I think you would find his primary theory (really a hypothesis) of "morphic resonance" very interesting. Google him--or that idea--and you will get a slew of hits.

 

I myself am a Biologist and Sheldrake was an early hero of mine. IN fact, though I don't admit this too often, due to his very controversial (to say the least) reputation in the science community, he was one of the main guys who made me want to enter the field back in undergrad school, when I switched my major from Information Technology.

 

He would claim, or his theory would, that you and your friend, by dint of your past times together, have become linked within a morphic field that allows communication through nature. That is, communication without the necessity of line-of-sight, or electronic devices, or speech, or any of the common methods.

 

Sheldrake has had a very difficult time proving his ideas. He was once a brilliant cutting-edge microbiologist who did some Pulitzer worthy stuff on increasing crop yields in India. It was while he was there, in fact, that he became enamored in the morphic resonance stuff.

 

Give him a look, and I would be interested in hearing what you think.

 

Thanks.

[Strange]

Are there times you get this feeling, go check right away and the person isn't there? Do you count those attempts?

 

 

This.

 

It is almost certainly an example of confirmation bias.

[DrP]

QUOTE: "Sheldrake had a very difficult time proving his ideas"

 

I wonder why.

[swansont]

 

 

While there is nothing in the present field of neuroscience that would explain your "extra-sensory location" phenomena, I would ask you if you are familiar with the works of the Brit Biologist Rupert Sheldrake. If you are not, I think you would find his primary theory (really a hypothesis) of "morphic resonance" very interesting. Google him--or that idea--and you will get a slew of hits.

 

 

 

 

!

Moderator Note

Mainstream discussion should be answered with mainstream science.

 

(Also, "Pulitzer-worthy" means he did something that he or someone else could write a great story about, but says nothing about his credibility as a scientist.)

[iNow]

I get a feeling somewhere in my brain that this person I've known in the past is at a location that is more than a couple hundred meters away and they end up being there when I go check right away. I also have never spent time with them at this location. Anything in neuroscience that would indicate this being possible?

 

Yes. Olfaction, sense of smell (though confirmation bias is significantly more likely).

[John Cuthber]

 

 

This.

 

It is almost certainly an example of confirmation bias.

Other biases are also available

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias

[Velocity_Boy]

This.

 

It is almost certainly an example of confirmation bias.

But you almost certainly have no evidence that confirmation bias is involved here at all. Since he did not elaborate on how often his intuitions turned out to be true. For all you know the OP could have gotten that feeling in his head about past friends maybe six times and in all six instances they indeed were in the location he thought. You would do well it to dismiss phenomena out of hand just because it seems to run against the grain of conventional wisdom. Science is full of many examples from its past where people who have done that were later proven wrong. Ergo..they were the ones guilty of erroneous bias.

[Strange]

But you almost certainly have no evidence that confirmation bias is involved here at all.

 

 

Statistical probability. But it would be fantastic if he could show that I was wrong.

[Phi for All]

But you almost certainly have no evidence that confirmation bias is involved here at all. Since he did not elaborate on how often his intuitions turned out to be true. For all you know the OP could have gotten that feeling in his head about past friends maybe six times and in all six instances they indeed were in the location he thought. You would do well it to dismiss phenomena out of hand just because it seems to run against the grain of conventional wisdom. Science is full of many examples from its past where people who have done that were later proven wrong. Ergo..they were the ones guilty of erroneous bias.

 

In the absence of evidence, we assume that something other than supernatural telepathy or precognition or "morphic resonance" are at work. The most common cause of such phenomena? Some sort of cognitive bias.

 

And stop strawmanning. Nobody "dismiss[ed} phenomena out of hand", it's only been mentioned that the probability of a natural explanation is higher than a supernatural one.

[Velocity_Boy]

In the absence of evidence, we assume that something other than supernatural telepathy or precognition or "morphic resonance" are at work. The most common cause of such phenomena? Some sort of cognitive bias.

 

And stop strawmanning. Nobody "dismiss[ed} phenomena out of hand", it's only been mentioned that the probability of a natural explanation is higher than a supernatural one.

Morphic fields and sixth sense are thought by many to be natural phenomena. Just because we have been unable to quantify and measure them with manmade science does not render them impossible or even all that unlikely.

 

There is a significant percentage of people in the psychiatric and anthropology arenas who believe homo sapien man once possessed much acute sensory awareness and skills that today they would be thought of as being psychic or supernatural. And that modern society and technology have eroded those once common and useful skills to the point of disappearing.

But maybe not in all people all of the time.

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151013112134.htm

Edited June 23, 2016 by Velocity_Boy

[iNow]

Until it's demonstrated its dismissible.

[Phi for All]

Morphic fields and sixth sense are thought by many to be natural phenomena. Just because we have been unable to quantify and measure them with manmade science does not render them impossible or even all that unlikely.

 

Again, nobody claimed it's impossible.

 

It doesn't matter at all how many people "believe" these extra senses exist if they can't provide evidence (see Religions of Earth). So how can "not even all that unlikely" be a valid conclusion when the evidence in support is zero? This sounds like more cognitive bias, wanting something to be true.

 

Because it would be awesome. Probably.

[Strange]

Morphic fields and sixth sense are thought by many to be natural phenomena.

 

 

People believe all sorts of things. So what? We should accept ideas just because people believe them?

 

Have you missed the fact that this is a science forum?

[John Cuthber]

But you almost certainly have no evidence that confirmation bias is involved here at all. Since he did not elaborate on how often his intuitions turned out to be true. For all you know the OP could have gotten that feeling in his head about past friends maybe six times and in all six instances they indeed were in the location he thought. You would do well it to dismiss phenomena out of hand just because it seems to run against the grain of conventional wisdom. Science is full of many examples from its past where people who have done that were later proven wrong. Ergo..they were the ones guilty of erroneous bias.

Every previous instance of what was though to magic which as been investigated, turned out not to be magic.

So the odds are excellent that this instance of "magic" won't be.

So it's almost certain to be something else.

And the only credible candidate is some sort of perception bias.

[dimreepr]

I get a feeling somewhere in my brain that this person I've known in the past is at a location that is more than a couple hundred meters away and they end up being there when I go check right away. I also have never spent time with them at this location. Anything in neuroscience that would indicate this being possible?

 

 

 

LSD or mushrooms or maybe it's the doob you just smoked.

Edited June 24, 2016 by dimreepr

[Phi for All]

All it takes is having it happen once to make it seem important enough to remember. Future failures are dismissed and forgotten, until that next time it happens successfully (because your mind is actively looking to recreate that pattern). Two times! Two times you thought of someone for whatever reasons (often more direct than you realize) and then found them nearby. Because of the forgotten false positives, this seems like more than coincidence.

 

If it happens a third time, or anything that even comes close to it (you thought of one friend but found another), it doesn't matter how many times you failed and forgot about it, you are now emotionally attached to the absolute fact that you have some sort of precognitive ability to sense when people you know are nearby.

 

There's another possibility for a natural explanation. It could be a form of reverse fulfillment. The odds of someone (anyone) you know being in a certain radius of you is higher than the odds of a specific person being near, and probably higher than you think in many settings. If you spot someone, then think about something you were thinking about earlier that could be tied to them, you could distort that in your mind to mean that you'd thought of this exact person earlier. This would increase the odds of success. This is similar to the Birthday probability, where any group of 57 people has a 99% chance of having two people with the same birthday.

[Strange]

What gives anyone the authority to dismiss anything they are incapable of if we can't even prove the reason behind our own existence?

 

 

The lack of evidence. We know people think things like this because of psychological biases. We have zero evidence that such things can happen for any other reason.

 

The obvious explanation is something like selection and/or confirmation bias. Unless you can provide solid evidence that this happens a statistically significant number of times, no one should believe it. (Although, no doubt there are thousands of gullible people out there who will believe anything. So if you just want to find a forum where people will go "wow, thats so amazing. I had a dog that could ..." I'm sure you can.)

 

You need to write down every single instance of this sensation - when it happens - and then record the subsequent matching events.

 

That should show you that nothing special is happening. If you still think it is, at least you have some evidence to show people. (Although, without a third party witnessing the record, it still won't be very compelling.)

[Phi for All]

 

The sense is like sight or smell. The sense comes to me whenever it does and not the other way.

 

How is that like sight or smell? Does your sight come to you whenever IT chooses to, or do YOU control it? Same with smell, if there are things to smell, does your olfactory sense sometimes choose not to inform you of the fact?

 

That's not how senses work, none of them.

 

 

 

As for the rest, most of it sounds like classical cognitive bias. You want this to be true, so your mind selects only those instances that support it, and forgets all the times you got this "sense" but nothing happened. It's not uncommon, whereas actual confirmed precognition is non-existent. And it's been tested, tested thoroughly because lots of people want it to be true.

 

The bit about saving your bacon crossing the street or driving? All the rest of your senses are more than capable of giving you warnings about environmental anomalies. It's not an extra sense, it's your marvelous brain putting together input from sights and sounds and pressures and smells and balances to give you this out-of-the-blue warning to "Ease up on the gas, be careful", just as a motorcycle speeds past you, cutting into your lane. You might have glimpsed him briefly behind you, unconsciously gauged his speed, possibly later heard his engine, sensed the bass vibrations of his accelerating engine, sensed the time that had passed and again unconsciously realized that big bike was going to be coming up on your right really fast.

 

You have a lot more than five senses, and together they're almost an emergent power all by themselves, no need for supernatural explanations.