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panlives Inner circle 2087 Posts |
Our interaction with the world and the Universe at large is based on instruments (senses) that we have or create. These can be natural (sight), augmented with technological enhancements (Telescopes for distance; or various technologies that enable us to see dimensions of light that we do not naturally sense). These can be purely technological, such as barometric pressure sensors (although some people tell me that they can sense barometric pressure “naturally” (which allegedly can cause migraine headaches).
This morning, I was reading the Wikipedia entry about “Magnetoception”: “…a sense which allows an animal to detect a magnetic field to perceive direction, altitude or location. This sense has been proposed to explain the navigational abilities of several animal species and has been postulated as a method for animals to develop regional maps. For the purpose of navigation, magnetoception deals with the detection of the Earth’s magnetic field.” After reading a book by Rupert Sheldrake, “The Sense of Being Stared At,” I wondered…what senses do you think we might possess that are “natural” or accessible without enhanced technology, senses that may open up whole new vistas and change the way we interact with our surroundings?
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." "The dog did nothing in the night-time." "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes. |
Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
I believe in the barometric pressure sense. Even without knowing the weather forecast, my legs feel like they are going to explode a day or so before a storm front comes through.
Regarding being stared at, someone once told me of an experiment that could be done while standing in a grocery store line. Just stare at the back of the head of the person in front of you, and watch them eventually become restless. Surely just anecdotal, but it was fun at the time. I think this is part of the gist of the book? (I have not read it.) Short of full blown lycanthropy, I believe some people can be influenced by the moon phases. The same is probably true for solar events. It is possible that people can be affected by certain natural forces, yet not understand why. Wearing copper or magnets or quartz is at least evidence of people's beliefs. Homeopathic remedies are sometimes born of instinct as much as research and experience. Is it possible the more in-tune we become with technology, the more distant we become from nature?
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
Jim Sparx Inner circle Far Out, Texas 1144 Posts |
One of our favorite exercises in psych graduate school was to sit and look for thirty minutes into someone's eyes.
The purpose of the exercise was too be able to look at people who might make us uncomfortable. This is especially true when looking at homeless veterans, or for that matter, any street person.
Et tu, Spartacus?
https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/chispadeelpaso.html |
critter Inner circle Spokane, WA 2653 Posts |
One of our Prof's does a similar exercise in several of his classes. But with his it's a guided thing where you visualize the other person's entire life from birth-to-death- including their first sexual experiences. I've been told it's all kinds of uncomfortable. Luckily, we didn't get to that one when I took his class.
"The fool is one who doesn't know what you have just found out."
~Will Rogers |
Mary Mowder Inner circle Sacramento / Elk Grove, CA 3662 Posts |
Sharks can detect a magnetic field and are repulsed by really strong magnets. If I were a diver I'd be wearing a PK ring.
I agree with the sense of barometric pressure. There are times when I can practically feel an isobar passing over me. I'd like to see if people who can't see or hear each other in the same room yawn at the same time. I think people sense lower frequency and higher frequency sounds than they can hear. The low sounds can give a real sense of dread. The high ones can hurt your ears even when other people aren't hearing them. I really hate the way many of the new DVD's use a lot of high pitched sounds almost as a special effect in menus and throughout the movies. Tom doesn't hear 'em, I'm up the wall. There are times in card games when I get a very strong intuitive feeling about the next card coming up but it's easy to fool one's self without a real test. If one is close to someone (emotionally or in upbringing) one can often tell what others are thinking (probably some form of empathy or thinking along similar lines) but relying on that can really cause fights when you guess wrong. This works just often enough to be very dangerous, too often to ignore but not reliably enough to use. -Mary Mowder |
MobilityBundle Regular user Las Vegas/Boston 120 Posts |
Two thoughts:
--- First, I'd be surprised that a bunch of magicians would ascribe "the sense of being stared at" to anything but normal psychology. Your spectator has just put the card back in the pack. You're about to do your such-and-such move, but you need to take a little heat off the deck. What's the first thing you do? Look up. You don't even need to say anything. Why? There's an incredible, reflexive urge for your spectators to meet your gaze. Even when it doesn't work, it's because you have one of those certain types of spectators who are actively suppressing their reflexes to do otherwise. So back up one step. *How* does a spectator -- who at the moment is watching his card go into the deck -- know to look up? Your face is only in his peripheral vision, and is not where his attention is currently focused. My answer is only an educated guess, but I'd suspect your brain processes your *entire* field of vision and, among other things, looks for faces that might be looking at you. Certainly, there are dedicated areas of the brain for facial recognition, so this doesn't seen to be too far a leap. Okay, but what if the "starer" isn't in your field of vision at all -- peripheral or otherwise. Well, there are still environmental cues. For example, suppose you walk into a room, blindfolded. The room has a certain degree of background chatter, but shortly after you arrive the background chatter stops. Obviously, this would make you feel self-conscious, as if you're being stared at. There are similar, but less dramatic examples that, where the "silence" or other cue might only be unconsciously noticed, compelling you to look in the direction of the cue. Alright, so suppose you carefully control for environmental cues. You put a subject in a room with a constant environment, and have someone else ("the gazer") selectively stare at them. To be sure, you still have to be a little careful. For example, if the "constant environment" is sometimes more interesting than others (e.g., a football game) that might simultaneously influence when the gazer choses to stare, and when the subject feels he's being stared at. So either have a *really* constant environment, or insulate the gazer from the environment. I wonder whether experiments like this have been done, and have identified a significant "sense of being stared at" that can't be attributed to normal sensory perception. I suspect not, but it would be interesting to see experiments suggesting otherwise. --- Second, short of of careful experiments, there are all the usual pitfalls that we actively try to stamp out by careful experimental design. For example, I suspect confirmation bias plays a pretty big role in cases where people "verify" that this apparently extra-sensory feeling of being stared at exists. "Confirmation bias" refers to the idea that people tend to want to confirm hypotheses. So they'll remember (or more prominently weight) cases where they got a success, and forget (or less prominently weight, or ignore) cases where they got a failure. For example, the experimenter glances at a person across a busy, crowded coffee shop. The person picks his head up from what he was reading and meets the experimenter's gaze. The experimenter counts that a success. Next, the experimenter stares intently at the person in front of him at the grocery store, and the person does not meet the experimenter's gaze. The experimenter rationalizes this away: the guy was too focused on what he was doing, the grocery store was too noisy, the magnetic field of the bananas threw off the mojo, etc. That one doesn't count. |
panlives Inner circle 2087 Posts |
First magnetic cells identified in any animal...
http://bit.ly/NgkP4g "This remarkable feat of navigation likely relies on many senses; the fish have superb eyesight and smell. But the trout also seem to rely on Earth's magnetic fields, which point them in the right direction. Now, for the first time in any animal, scientists have isolated magnetic cells in the fish that respond to these fields."
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." "The dog did nothing in the night-time." "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes. |
Tom Jorgenson Inner circle LOOSE ANGLES, CALIFORNIA 4451 Posts |
Quote:
On 2012-07-09 11:07, Michael Baker wrote: There seems to be a thing I all the Male Moon Phasic Sexual Response. At certain regular times of the moon's phases, the male gets a bit more randy. Kind of like the female's response, only horny.
We dance an invisible dance to music they cannot hear.
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Jeff J. Special user Connecticut 787 Posts |
People are always staring at me. The doctors say I'm paranoid, but I know it's just that everyone is out to get me!
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