What Isn't the 6th Sense?
In our last class, we talked about the sixth sense. Well, in actuality we talked about a lot of things, unusual experiences and types of knowledge, because any experience that doesn't fit neatly into our cultures pre-established categories of understanding and perception can get put under the umbrella of "the sixth sense," even though this would make for more than six senses; each currently unexplainable form of input would really constitute its own sense.
But there is one "sixth sense" that I would like to talk about now, and it was inspired by something that Saul said in class. He was talking about how our lives and our perceptions consist of more than just the five senses we know about, how we do not merely perceive and process empirical data, how there must be "something else" in the human experience. And there is of course. There is in fact a recognized force that we use to interact with the world and with the data we collect with our senses -- consciousness itself. I would argue that consciousness is the sixth sense (or at least the first sixth sense), because cognition and meta-cognition are another way of interacting with the world and (perhaps even more significantly), interacting with the data that our other senses gather about the world.
Consciousness, the sixth sense, allows us to interact with the world by "making sense" of it, turning raw data into relevant information, shaping it into an internalized narrative, for example, to allow for better understanding. In Authors of the Impossible, Cripple deals with the theory that there are many things we are capable of that we cannot accomplish because our internal narrative tells us they are impossible -- basically our consciousness and perception of our potential shape that potential. As a post-modernist, I always like to explore subjectivity and must always question any so-called "truth" as a possible social construct. According to Authors, the "truth" of the limits of the body and mind that we all know were constructed by society and has become a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy. We know we cannot do these things and so we cannot do them.
However, I believe in the power of consciousness, and believe that there are many things we would be capable of if we didn't know for a "fact" that it was impossible. I like the example of swooning, even if it seems a bit silly. There was a time when women reacting to surprise and shock would swoon, or faint. This doesn't happen anymore, though. Does this mean that it was entirely an affectation that every woman pretended was real? I'm sure many women used the construct consciously, but I also doubt that it was always entirely fake. Because it was a part of these women's cultural narrative, and nobody told them that that's not really how the body works, it was how their body worked. Similarly, I believe that glossolalia, stigmata, experiences of demonic perception, and other outward manifestations of the "impossible" are largely the work of the body responding to cultural narratives internalized by the consciousness, that are no longer in play within our own culture.
Now, I realize I'm putting a lot onto "consciousness," but that's because it does a lot. It shapes our thoughts, our perceptions, and possibly even what is possible, all while constantly making connections between the senses, acting as a sort of meta-sense that unifies them into a single experience, perhaps making it the most powerful sense of all.
But there is one "sixth sense" that I would like to talk about now, and it was inspired by something that Saul said in class. He was talking about how our lives and our perceptions consist of more than just the five senses we know about, how we do not merely perceive and process empirical data, how there must be "something else" in the human experience. And there is of course. There is in fact a recognized force that we use to interact with the world and with the data we collect with our senses -- consciousness itself. I would argue that consciousness is the sixth sense (or at least the first sixth sense), because cognition and meta-cognition are another way of interacting with the world and (perhaps even more significantly), interacting with the data that our other senses gather about the world.
Consciousness, the sixth sense, allows us to interact with the world by "making sense" of it, turning raw data into relevant information, shaping it into an internalized narrative, for example, to allow for better understanding. In Authors of the Impossible, Cripple deals with the theory that there are many things we are capable of that we cannot accomplish because our internal narrative tells us they are impossible -- basically our consciousness and perception of our potential shape that potential. As a post-modernist, I always like to explore subjectivity and must always question any so-called "truth" as a possible social construct. According to Authors, the "truth" of the limits of the body and mind that we all know were constructed by society and has become a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy. We know we cannot do these things and so we cannot do them.
However, I believe in the power of consciousness, and believe that there are many things we would be capable of if we didn't know for a "fact" that it was impossible. I like the example of swooning, even if it seems a bit silly. There was a time when women reacting to surprise and shock would swoon, or faint. This doesn't happen anymore, though. Does this mean that it was entirely an affectation that every woman pretended was real? I'm sure many women used the construct consciously, but I also doubt that it was always entirely fake. Because it was a part of these women's cultural narrative, and nobody told them that that's not really how the body works, it was how their body worked. Similarly, I believe that glossolalia, stigmata, experiences of demonic perception, and other outward manifestations of the "impossible" are largely the work of the body responding to cultural narratives internalized by the consciousness, that are no longer in play within our own culture.
Now, I realize I'm putting a lot onto "consciousness," but that's because it does a lot. It shapes our thoughts, our perceptions, and possibly even what is possible, all while constantly making connections between the senses, acting as a sort of meta-sense that unifies them into a single experience, perhaps making it the most powerful sense of all.
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