Smell is something most of us can perceive, however, most of us have a difficult time putting a name to a particular scent. We can all describe, with great detail and accuracy (at least, we feel that we are being accurate), what a scent reminds us of, or what it's like, but finding one definitive label is difficult for us. Diane Ackerman in A Natural History of The Senses observes that the easiest way for us to most accurately describe smell is by relating it to memory. Smells can trigger some of the most visceral feelings and memories we have. And furthermore, those feelings and memories are a crucial part of understanding ourselves within the greater context of reality. Imagine you're walking down a random street in your childhood hometown, you don't go by there often, but today you chose to take the long route to work which passes through the neighborhood. You pass by a bakery, but immediately, not upon sight, but upon smell, you know it is not just any bakery. It...
I’m finding the 6th sense to be very difficult to write about as there isn't a strong definition of what it is. Also, many people view it differently or have different ideas of what it can mean or do. But it’s such an interesting concept as its been defined by people as a sense of intuitive power or knowing what may happen in the future. But I find that definition to be confusing as it doesn’t give us anything real or tangible to connect too. The reading for this week by David Abrams, Jeffrey Kripal, Jon Kabat-Zinn tried to explain it, but I still found it rather difficult to comprehend. Other sense such as the classic five senses are very easy to understand, and we learn what they are at a young age. But there are other senses too such as balance, synesthesia, spatial awareness, temperature awareness and pain which are a bit more complex understanding the basics still isn’t too difficult.
I agree that reading about the 6th sense was very confusing. I think there are multiple definitions for the 6th sense, that trying to explain it coherently so everyone can understand is almost impossible. But we try, because we constantly want to know why something happens the way it does.
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