SfC Home > Communication > Senses >
Scientific Possibility of 6th Sense
by Ron Kurtus (updated 18 May 2023)
What we call the 6th sense is the ability to sense or foresee future events. Since so many people seem to have had such experiences, there is a high probability that such a sense exists. Critics claim that there is no scientific proof of such a sense and that the 6th sense is hokum.
Our philosophy is to keep an open mind about such things. Since there are many scientific theories that cannot be experimentally proved, the possibility of people and animals being able to foresee future events should also be considered.
Questions you may have include:
- How many people have experienced the 6th sense?
- What is the criticism of the existence of the 6th sense?
- What is the possibility of such a sense?
This lesson will answer those questions.
People have experienced future events
It is surprising the number of people that have had dreams or gotten the feeling about some event that will happen in the future. I would guess that just about everyone has had an experience where they had a feeling that something would happen that came true. This is much different that trying to guess the outcome of a ball game. Instead, it is often a thought that seems to come out from nowhere.
For some reason, many of these future events that are sensed involve accidents or something bad happening to another person. Perhaps it is because they are so shocking that such an event is sensed.
Although critics claim that these are just coincidences, the apparent sensing of future events simply seems too strange to be a random thought that is true by chance. Since so many people have had occasion to see future events, that capability must have some validity.
Scientific criticism
Many in the scientific community scoff at the idea of there being such a thing as the 6th sense and being able to foresee future events. The argument they have is that you cannot set up a repeatable experiment to measure and verify such a sense. Scientists have set up controlled experiments to see if subjects can predict future events. They have found that people have not been able to predict some future event—such as what whether the next card in a deck will be black or red—better than random chance.
It is very true that being able to predict the future cannot be verified in a controlled experiment. One explanation may be that since thoughts are fleeting, you cannot force a prediction of the future and thus you cannot measure and verify it. Those that often use their 6th sense to predict future events say that the thoughts must just flow and any effort will stifle the ability. This relates to applications of the philosophy of Zen to activities where actions become effortless. The concept of Flow is similar.
A possible reason for scientific criticism of something like the 6th sense is that it disrupts major theories about time and the mechanicalistic model of human beings. They believe there is no physical mechanism that can move ahead or backwards in time. Everything is in the here-and-now.
Rebuttal of scientific criticism
Although the criteria that the results of an experiment must be measurable and repeatable is important to in verifying many scientific concepts, there are exceptions to the rule.
One major scientific theory that cannot be proved is the Big Bang Theory for the creation of the Universe. Although there are indications that an explosion was the beginning of the Universe, there is no scientific proof. There are no repeatable measurements that can be made to prove this theory. Yet it is accepted.
There are indications that String Theory is a way to describe subatomic particles, but there is no way to scientifically verify such a theory. String Theory cannot be proven or even disproven.
Many scientists believe in God. But there is no scientific proof of the existence of any form of spiritual beings.
The 6th sense is based on a notion of sensing time. Can you look into the future? Perhaps time is not such a fixed dimension as traditionalists believe.
Summary
The 6th sense is the ability to sense or foresee future events. Many people seem to have had experiences foreseeing the future, so it is high possible such a sense exists. Critics claim that there is no scientific proof of such a sense, since it cannot be verified experimentally. Keeping an open mind about such things, and since there are scientific theories that cannot be experimentally proved, the possibility of people and animals being able to foresee future events should also be considered.
Many things are possible
Resources and references
Web sites
Books
(Notice: The School for Champions may earn commissions from book purchases)
Top-rated books on Precognition
Students and researchers
The Web address of this page is:
www.school-for-champions.com/senses/
6th_science.htm
Please include it as a link on your website or as a reference in your report, document, or thesis.
Where are you now?
Scientific Possibility of 6th Sense