Take your pick of any of the twentyish senses humans have. (5 tastes, motion vision, color vision, hearing, orientation, acceleration, proprioception, rubbing touch, pushing touch, pinching touch, warmth, cold, who knows how many smells, etc.)
The notion that humans have 5 senses is a vast oversimplification for children… Touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste still leaves out a lot. You have a sense of balance, for example, and your body provides feedback on itself to you (eg: sense of being hungry/thirsty). You can probably think of more.
That said, the “sixth” sense is usually about a supernatural knowing of things… infamously there’s the movie “The sixth sense” where a child can see ghosts walking among us where they’re normally invisible to most humans. But that “sense” that someone’s watching you even though you can’t see if someone is behind you? That would qualify as a “sixth sense”.
Of course such a thing shouldn’t exist, and largely doesn’t, but you might have heard their footsteps or their breathing or such and be aware of someone’s presence, or just suspect it as a result. And every once in a while you think someone might be there and you guessed right, but you didn’t know that until you checked.
The “sixth sense” usually means a kind of perception that goes beyond the usual five senses—like sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. In movies and pop culture, it’s often tied to psychic abilities like reading minds, seeing the future, or sensing things that can’t be seen or heard—though science doesn’t really back those up. On the flip side, in a more scientific sense, it can refer to things like proprioception, which is your sense of where your body is in space, or your sense of balance and internal feelings like hunger or heartbeat. So while the idea of a mystical sixth sense is still up for debate, we definitely have more than just five senses.
It’s a general term for “sensing” something that is not usually detectable…
You could “have a sixth sense” for picking stocks, or knowing when someone is about to call, or seeing “ghosts” (although in reality this would just mean you hallucinate)
It’s not a specific real thing…
There are other senses besides the normal 5, like proprioception or vestibular sensing… But they’re not numbered like that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense
Plus a whole bunch of otherccool ones like how sharks can sense electrical impulses near them, and various fish are highly sensitive to pressure changes in ways we don’t experience, and however cuttlefish and mimic octopus and chameleons sense their surroundings to mimic
You know the classic “five senses” of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell? Well, the idea of a “sixth sense” is that it’s something beyond those normal senses. You may also see it described as ESP, or “extra-sensory perception”. Any kind of supernatural, mystical, or psychic ability to sense things could be described as a “sixth sense”.
It’s worth noting that humans actually have more than the 5 classic senses (such as sense of balance, sense of time, and sense of proprioception), but that’s not what a “sixth sense” is talking about. It’s usually talking about something like telepathy or the ability to “feel” the presence of ghosts or something like that.
Is the ability to know things without seeing them (or hearing, smelling, tasting, touching)
Humans do actually have 6 or more senses, for example we can know what position our limbs are in without using any of the 5 basic senses.
But usually “6 th sense” if used to mean something more spooky. Knowing what the next card to be dealt will be, knowing that a specific person will phone you in the next 5 minutes, etc. in the movie it was the ability to see and talk to ghosts.
Humans have 5 classically recognized senses Touch, Sight, Hearing, Smell, and Taste.
Science recognizes 7 currently, adding balance and proprioception.
Your sense of balance comes from the inner ear and helps you stay upright.
Proprioception is body awareness, knowing where your legs and arms are for example. This is the feeling that lets you walk or climb stairs without having to consciously think about where to place your feet.
To your question:
When people talk about a ‘sixth sense’ they are referring to extra-sensory perception. This can be a variety of things depending on the context.
Some people claim to have a heightened sense of intuition, being able to predict the weather, or stock prices, or knowing when a car will break down.
Some claim to be able to predict events, and by extension having higher than normal reflexes.
The feeling of ‘being watched’.
Being able to talk to supernatural forces, ghosts for example.
Some people claim to be able to read auras, a glowing field around a person that gives you a sense of their emotional state.
Other claim to be able to read minds, or subconsciously sense danger, or that someone you know has been hurt.
Some claim that they know when a particular person is calling them just by the phone ring, or know that someone will call.
None of these ‘sixth senses’ has been proven scientifically and it’s all anecdotal. However it comes up frequently enough that there has been extensive research into it.
It depends on context. Canonically, there are 5 major senses. A 6th sense is any additional sense, real or imagined. On the legit side, there are things like proprioception (the sense of where your body parts are in space) or equilibrioception (the sense of balance). These are real senses based in science that just didn’t make the list of 5 because they’re more about our perception of our own bodies than our perception of the outside world. On the less legit side, you have lots of mystical abilities with no scientific foundation, like the ability to see ghosts, read minds, or predict the future.
Comments
Take your pick of any of the twentyish senses humans have. (5 tastes, motion vision, color vision, hearing, orientation, acceleration, proprioception, rubbing touch, pushing touch, pinching touch, warmth, cold, who knows how many smells, etc.)
The notion that humans have 5 senses is a vast oversimplification for children… Touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste still leaves out a lot. You have a sense of balance, for example, and your body provides feedback on itself to you (eg: sense of being hungry/thirsty). You can probably think of more.
That said, the “sixth” sense is usually about a supernatural knowing of things… infamously there’s the movie “The sixth sense” where a child can see ghosts walking among us where they’re normally invisible to most humans. But that “sense” that someone’s watching you even though you can’t see if someone is behind you? That would qualify as a “sixth sense”.
Of course such a thing shouldn’t exist, and largely doesn’t, but you might have heard their footsteps or their breathing or such and be aware of someone’s presence, or just suspect it as a result. And every once in a while you think someone might be there and you guessed right, but you didn’t know that until you checked.
The “sixth sense” usually means a kind of perception that goes beyond the usual five senses—like sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. In movies and pop culture, it’s often tied to psychic abilities like reading minds, seeing the future, or sensing things that can’t be seen or heard—though science doesn’t really back those up. On the flip side, in a more scientific sense, it can refer to things like proprioception, which is your sense of where your body is in space, or your sense of balance and internal feelings like hunger or heartbeat. So while the idea of a mystical sixth sense is still up for debate, we definitely have more than just five senses.
There are five basic senses – vision, sound, smell, touch, and taste.
“Sixth sense” is the term people use to describe a premonition; that sensation when you “feel” something will happen.
It’s not a real sense and doesn’t really exist
It’s a general term for “sensing” something that is not usually detectable…
You could “have a sixth sense” for picking stocks, or knowing when someone is about to call, or seeing “ghosts” (although in reality this would just mean you hallucinate)
It’s not a specific real thing…
There are other senses besides the normal 5, like proprioception or vestibular sensing… But they’re not numbered like that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense
Plus a whole bunch of otherccool ones like how sharks can sense electrical impulses near them, and various fish are highly sensitive to pressure changes in ways we don’t experience, and however cuttlefish and mimic octopus and chameleons sense their surroundings to mimic
You know the classic “five senses” of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell? Well, the idea of a “sixth sense” is that it’s something beyond those normal senses. You may also see it described as ESP, or “extra-sensory perception”. Any kind of supernatural, mystical, or psychic ability to sense things could be described as a “sixth sense”.
It’s worth noting that humans actually have more than the 5 classic senses (such as sense of balance, sense of time, and sense of proprioception), but that’s not what a “sixth sense” is talking about. It’s usually talking about something like telepathy or the ability to “feel” the presence of ghosts or something like that.
Is the ability to know things without seeing them (or hearing, smelling, tasting, touching)
Humans do actually have 6 or more senses, for example we can know what position our limbs are in without using any of the 5 basic senses.
But usually “6 th sense” if used to mean something more spooky. Knowing what the next card to be dealt will be, knowing that a specific person will phone you in the next 5 minutes, etc. in the movie it was the ability to see and talk to ghosts.
For background:
Humans have 5 classically recognized senses Touch, Sight, Hearing, Smell, and Taste.
Science recognizes 7 currently, adding balance and proprioception.
Your sense of balance comes from the inner ear and helps you stay upright.
Proprioception is body awareness, knowing where your legs and arms are for example. This is the feeling that lets you walk or climb stairs without having to consciously think about where to place your feet.
To your question:
When people talk about a ‘sixth sense’ they are referring to extra-sensory perception. This can be a variety of things depending on the context.
Some people claim to have a heightened sense of intuition, being able to predict the weather, or stock prices, or knowing when a car will break down.
Some claim to be able to predict events, and by extension having higher than normal reflexes.
The feeling of ‘being watched’.
Being able to talk to supernatural forces, ghosts for example.
Some people claim to be able to read auras, a glowing field around a person that gives you a sense of their emotional state.
Other claim to be able to read minds, or subconsciously sense danger, or that someone you know has been hurt.
Some claim that they know when a particular person is calling them just by the phone ring, or know that someone will call.
None of these ‘sixth senses’ has been proven scientifically and it’s all anecdotal. However it comes up frequently enough that there has been extensive research into it.
A movie released in 1999. Stars Bruce Willis. Really good movie! Highly recommend watching it without reading up too much about it.
It depends on context. Canonically, there are 5 major senses. A 6th sense is any additional sense, real or imagined. On the legit side, there are things like proprioception (the sense of where your body parts are in space) or equilibrioception (the sense of balance). These are real senses based in science that just didn’t make the list of 5 because they’re more about our perception of our own bodies than our perception of the outside world. On the less legit side, you have lots of mystical abilities with no scientific foundation, like the ability to see ghosts, read minds, or predict the future.
When you see Bruce Willis everywhere; It isn’t pleasant.