Smells and Bells

When I hear the term "sixth sense", the first thing that comes to mind (beyond the film, of course) is intuition. To me, that is what a sixth sense typically is- some manifestation of foresight or a strong feeling. The group that presented on sixth sense made me rethink this fairly rigid definition in my mind, however. What does constitute a sixth sense? Can it be coincidence or deja vu, or in order to call one of these a sixth sense, does a person have to experience them often? What happens if someone experiences both of these often- is one a sixth sense and one a seventh sense? As Emily suggested, do we all have the potential to unleash our own special ability if we only believe that we can? So, backing up- what constitutes a sixth sense? A lot of our classmates shared their own "grandparent stories" and I'm sorry to do the same, but I've been thinking about this since class on Thursday. In 1985, my aunt was killed in a plane crash on November 25th. Flas...

An interesting topic we ran into in the “Shulhan Shel Arba: The Fourth Gate” a Jewish text by Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher, is the idea of the afterlife. Taking the class, Perspectives on Death and Dying, maybe has made me more aware of this theme in world religions, but nevertheless I find it to be fascinating. So many different religions believe in an afterlife, and a common thing to see within an afterlife is the common idea still indulging in food. In “Shulhan Shel Arba: The Fourth Gate” we discussed how the body in the afterlife becomes limitless, so that one can eat without boundaries and growth. You can indulge in two feasts, one for the body, and the one for the soul and the mind. You will eat manna, which is described as being, “like wafers in honey”, Behemoth, bird, and fish. This is all while being served to you by Moses, who is probably the most important and celebrated prophets in Judaism. As we see from holidays such as Purim and hamantaschen and Shabbat and it’s focus on the...