Do you ever wonder about nonsensical stuff like: Why do we have five senses?
Do you ever wonder if there is a possibility that there are other senses of which we are not aware just because, well, we’re not aware of them?
No one has ever experienced them, so no scientist has known to look for them. No poet has written about them, and neither likenesses nor description exist of them.
People talk about a sixth sense, which is more or less understood to be sensitivity to knowledge garnered some way other than our five known senses. I know there have been studies exploring this concept of a sixth sense. I know there have been papers — scholarly ones at that — written on the subject. But it would appear that no one has really been able to pin it down and quantify it.
It would seem to me that asking a scientist to investigate the paranormal would be tantamount to asking an unsighted person to do a study of stained glass windows, or asking a hearing impaired person to research music being played by an orchestra.
But wait. What if there are even other senses that we have no idea exist? What if some other beings on some other planet have some abilities we humans do not possess?
That thought led me to think about beings other than humans that live right here on Mother Earth. Just how and why do animals migrate? How do they know how and when and where to go? What makes the Arctic tern migrate thousands of miles, and how do salmon remember in what tributary they were spawned?
Is there some other sense at work there? Could instinct be labeled another sense?
And what about inanimate objects, like the leaves of trees that turn color and decamp their tree? Is that a result of some sort of “sense” about which we know nothing? If that’s so, then could inanimate objects have “senses” too?
My mother liked to explain that her concept of heaven was that it would be a place where all the senses worked in concert. You would hear, see, smell, taste and touch everything simultaneously. When I think of that in a fully realized form, it seems like sensory overload . . . and not all that pleasant.
But then, if we’re talking about someone’s concept of heaven, we’re talking about perfect bodies, so there would be no such thing as sensory overload.
I think I remember seeing some offbeat Robin Williams movie a few years ago and as I was watching it I thought, “Well, he seems to have gotten what my mother was talking about.”
I can’t remember the movie, though. Something about his wife dying and he visits, or tries to visit her in the hereafter.
So, in the middle of the night, when I need something to wrap my brain around and I’m tired of counting sheep, I will frequently resort to some nonsensical musings on erudite and ephemeral topics such as I have broached here. When I was a kid, I would put myself to sleep planning a wedding (not necessarily mine) or later I would design a floor plan. But nowadays, as I slog my way through this life span, I find this nonsensical one works best for me.
Hmmm. What sense would I add to our vocabulary of senses if I had the power to do so?
Well, that puts me right to sleep every time. Hey, it’s easier on the body than sleep-inducing drugs, and it costs a lot fewer cents.
You have some better idea?
