The 6th Sense(quality movie)

Based on the core concepts in The Aroma of Righteousness all involving smell for the most part, one would assume that my blog post would be about such. However, I already discussed smell in my last blog post so I need to discuss a different sense. While reading Deborah Green's explanations about the midrash, I developed my own interpretation of what could be a potential 6th sense and I'm going to give it my best shot at arguing it!

When we last discussed the alleged "6th sense" in class we basically classified it as a type of feeling that one gets when they feel the presence of something inhuman or that isn't physical, like a connection with a different entity. We delved into how that type of feeling is associated with the paranormal, being anything that cannot be logically explained by the other senses. So while reading Green's descriptions of what the rabbis were analyzing, I consistently wondered how they were shown that their attempts to connect with God were actually successful. The texts may describe that they ultimately were shown signs that their efforts to connect with God were successful, but if you skip ahead many centuries to now, few signs have been shown the same way. We don't see God, therefore the argument can be made by those who do not believe in Him that He is nonexistent. But what I feel can be a possible 6th sense is that those who feel connected to God and who have a strong belief in Him have that 6th sense. Think about it: someone who doesn't believe in God feels no connection whatsoever to Him because they've seen no concrete and material proof of his existence, but someone who does believe in God doesn't need that kind of proof. They have their belief in Him, which is enough for them to hold true to that belief.

Being religious and devout is much different than clinging to a single notion. Your belief that pineapple would taste horrible on pizza could instantly be changed once you actually try pineapple pizza. But typically someone who is truly devout stays truly devout, and that is because of the connection that they feel to their god (whether it is a god or God) which I believe is that 6th sense that is more ambiguous than the other 5.

The reason I feel that being religious can constitute as a 6th sense in a way is because it is a feeling, but the feeling isn't your sense of touch being activated. It's a kind of feeling that can prompt other feelings, such happiness, fear, and guilt, yet isn't what we would necessarily call normal (because not everybody feels it). There is plenty of history behind religion to offer explanations to anybody who wishes for proof, but not too much has occurred recently that could suffice as strong proof that a deity exists, so the gut feeling that one has that a god exists is the closest thing to proof. Because that feeling is strong enough to convince people that a religion is true and real, I believe that it can be classified as another sense amongst the other 5 that we can possess as human beings.