Changes within and beyond the five senses

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ABSTRACT

I've been working on a neurophysiological model to describe the process of synaesthesia, a condition often associated with altered states of consciousness, but in a small percentage of people a normal process of the waking consciousness. The concepts are further extrapolated using a simple mathematical model to entertain the prospect of a neurophysiological basis for the so called "sixth sense" or extrasensory perception (ESP).

INTRODUCTION

First I would like to introduce a few terms.

1) Transduction - the stimulation of a sensory receptor, such that information about the physical world can be converted into neuronal impulses (a sensation) ie a process of translation

2) Perception - the conscious awareness of a sensation. Each sensory organ has neuronal connections with corresponding areas of the brain which are in place to interpret the incoming information. For example, a sensation originating from the eyes should arrive, perhaps through a somewhat convoluted pathway, at the visual cortex located in the occipital lobes. And so it is with the other four senses.

3) Transmutation - a word I dug up out of the Webster's dictionary and adapted for my own purposes, ie, for want of a better term, the process that occurs during synaesthesia where an incoming sensation is diverted to an area of perceptual processing which is different to its normal destination. Take, for example, the phenomenon of "seeing sound." Something is heard (sound is converted into neuronal impulses (a sensation) through the process of transduction), transmutation then occurs and the impulses are diverted to the visual cortex where the brain processes the incoming information to produce visual images as if you were seeing something.

CALCULATIONS

Getting down to the mathematics of it all, if Homo sapiens has five sensory inputs and a corresponding five perceptual outputs, then the total number of different types of synaesthesia possible is 20. This can be calculated using the equation y = n(n-1) where n is the number of sensory inputs and y is the number of potential "synaesthesii". Therefore if someone had six different senses, then according to the equation that person would have 30 potential types of synaesthesii which they would be capable of experiencing . . . . . . or would they? For this to be true that person would need not only an extra sense, but additional cerebral apparatus to perceive that extra sense. Imagine, for instance, if you had a sixth sensory device for decoding FM radio waves. To be able to make sense out of those signals you would need to hear them, hence a process of synaesthesia would be necessary to convert say 92.1MHz into something relevant to the auditory cortex. So this process of synesthesia would be comparable to a transistor radio - electromagnetic signals are broadcast through a transmitter, the signals are modified by the radio (synaesthesia), and are received by the ear.

Transmit - Decode (synaesthesia) - Receive.

Hence if one were to have a specialist decoding device in place to interpret the sixth sense so that it could be diverted to one of the five established perceptual outputs, this would obviate the need for a specialised sixth perceptual decoding device.

CONCLUSIONS

This new model offers an explanation whereby extra sensory perception (ESP) or a sixth sense can be diverted to one of the existing perceptual outputs (ie olfactory, gustatory, auditory, visual or tactile) through the process of synaesthesia or sensory transmutation as I have come to describe it. I would like to think that this explanation places ESP within everyone's grasp but clearly it doesn't because you need that additional sixth sensory organ - a third eye or whatever it may be. One important point worth contemplating, however, is that of all the information that comes in through our five sensory inputs only a small fragment reaches our level of perception. The rest just gets diverted elsewhere. It is my hypothesis that this information is diverted to the subconscious and in the waking state reaches our level of awareness through emotions. The term "gut feeling" describes this process, whereby someone may receive a large amount of incoming information that is not all processed at the conscious level. An integrated response, "gut impulse" comes from the subconscious which the person may eventually act upon.

[Ed Dunkel]

Isn't the sixth sense the lesser known "proprioception", the sense of the awareness of ones body dimension?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/dancersbody/bod...ioception.shtml

E D

[t st tantra]

in yoga,when you investigate the traditional third eye,you may discover a series of chakras and bindus running from between the eyebrows to the crown chakra.in about the centre of the forehead is the mannas chakra.

this is said to govern the senses.it is described as a five petaled lotus,each petal represents one of the senses,the centre is the sixth sense,described as dreams and hallucinations,or as the ability to see beyond the other five.

when my mannas activated i experienced many different forms of altered senses,visions and controllable hallucinations.later after about a month of use my friend said did you like the zip,it was pcp.i still experience this chakral setup even without pcp,which i see as just a catalyst of the time.the ajna chakra is used to control the mannas.

hope this is some interest to you,maybe some experiments will present them selves.

tasting music in a pool of saliva in my mouth was one of my more unusual synthesias.

t s t .

[nabraxas]

another candidate for the video library would have to be "Davd Suzuki's- The Nature of Things" 'Intuition'- this was an amazing show. i freaked out- all the stuff i'd been reading about since the 80's in a TV show.

they did an experiment where they wired people up to read their skin changes & brain waves. they then showed them a series ov random 'nice' pictures- bunnies, kittens, meadows etc. randomly inserted into this series they inserted a few 'upsetting' images. they found that in most ov the hundreds they surveyed, there was a sharp increase in the biochemical stress indicators, JUST BEFORE they saw the 'upsetting' randomly placed image, ie: they correctly anticipated which image was going to be shocking- before seeing it.

the show used the quantum 'uncertainty principle' to argue a basis for paraphysics.