Can We Trust Our Senses to Give Us Truth - Essay Example

 Can We Trust Our Senses to Give Us Truth and Can We Relate Them to Our Inner Secrets? Far beyond the basic senses, those that are measurable through science, are different sensory characteristics that remain in both social and scientific doubt. While a person is able to actively look at an object and declare that they have sight, or stand amidst a field of fragrant poppies and breathe to declare that they have smell, at the same time their unconscious senses continue to pick up on unusual events occurring around them. This is referred to as the sixth sense, or one that gives people a unique opportunity to experience the world in a fashion unlike those involved with smell, taste, vision, hearing, or touch. At the conscious level, while people often display certain behavioral characteristics to others in their social group, internally they have different emotions and motivations that are unseen. These are referred to as the inner secrets that are able to be withheld from others in society through very deliberate acts, however often at the risk of their own emotional stability in the process. In the pursuit of truth, people often rely on these outward, scientifically-measured senses and transparent social behaviors, however they tend to get nowhere with these efforts. The question that should be asked is whether one can actually find personal truth and still be able to relate them to their inner secrets while relying only on that which is most obvious: The five senses. “Scientists around the world have studied the idea of psi perception for over a century, though the term psi often sounds like fodder for an episode of the X-Files” (Radin, 44). Psi represents the psychic experience which is a much more valuable tool for uncovering the truth and getting in touch, both internally and towards others, with what actually drives human motivations. In many different situations during a person’s life, they have experiences that are much more powerful than those provided by taste or smell (as two examples) that cannot be fully explained through scientific measurement. For example, a person senses that their telephone is going to ring with bad news as an outcome and, for reasons unknown, this actually occurs and the individual is left asking themselves questions about their previous perceptions of truth. Some people swear that they have experienced certain events before and receive a sense of déjà vu that is both unnerving or, for some, exhilarating depending on their open-mindedness levels. Some of these sixth sense experiences can be compared to cyborg Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Terminator who, from the future, “arrived in our present—nude, greasy and heralded by what now seems like a very quaint series of lightning strikes” (Pols, 59). This time-travelling scenario that has delighted movie audiences for many years tends to refute the null hypothesis about different sixth sense characteristics, such as psychokinesis, that some authors argue are impossible to prove concretely based on the body of research conducted on this phenomenon (Wilson and Shadish, 524). However, using the example of the bad news telephone line, déjà vu and time-travelling seem to occur from within among many different groups of people all over the world, causing pause to question the accuracy of their pre-conceived truths related to the five senses. In the pursuit of personal truth, using reliance on the basic five senses that are used to justify that people do, indeed, have substance and form, people are far too dismissive of their sixth sense experiences. At the same time, when displaying outward social behaviors and making declarations that they feel one way (when in reality they feel quite differently), they are forgetting that their sixth sense can provide a much better window into themselves and the world which surrounds them. “One thing to remember is that the sixth sense seems to work less the harder a person tries to use it. It seems to work the best when you don’t try” (Kurtus, 1). However, why is this? In society, people are exposed to countless volumes of media sources on a regular basis, usually through visual representations. They can clearly look at videos or listen to volumes of music, each of them reinforcing the importance of their generic five senses. For many, this is satisfying enough for them to continue to hold onto their individual truths and go about their business, showing others that they are happy, when in reality they are internally struggling with recent experiences with the sixth sense that cannot be explained sufficiently. For fear of social rejection, they tend to mull over these experiences without discussion about them in public, though the experiences are just as real as the sniff of the poppies or their latest movie rental. The question has been asked whether we can trust our senses to give us the truth and can they be related to their inner secrets. Based on the notion of the sixth sense, the possibility of phenomenon known as psychokinesis, and many other unexplained situations, if the senses refer to the five generic senses, the answer is clearly no. Reliance on these five senses tends to breed social behavior that is not the actual truth to what is occurring within the individual, therefore people never truly get to know the person because they keep these inner experiences and sensations to themselves. It is very easy to suggest that the sixth sense does not exist simply due to the fact that there is no hard, scientific data that shows it is valid and measurable. Rather than try to fight the status quo about the importance of the sixth sense, they tend to turn to someone that they cannot see (in private) for hope that these experiences can be explained. In this type of situation, the inner secrets are hidden from social view and the individual rarely gets the answers they are looking for when mulling over them in their beds (or other private locations). Truth, and the revelation of the inner secrets, are better combined by seeking the sixth sense and relying less on the other five. Works Cited Kurtus, Ron. “Checking Your 6th Sense”, 2001. Viewed March 24, 2010 from http://www.school-for-champions.com/senses/6thcheck.htm. Pols, Mary. “Sensory Overload”. Time, 2009. Vol. 173, Iss.21, p.59. Radin, Dean. “Is there a sixth sense?”, Psychology Today, 2000. Vol. 33, Iss. 4, pp.44-51. Wilson, D. and W. Shadish. “On Blowing Trumpets to the Tulips: To Prove or Not to Prove the Null Hypothesis – Comment on Bosch, Steinkamp, and Boller”. Psychological Bulletin, 2006. Vol. 132, Iss. 4, p.524. Read More