Through The Wormhole: Is there a Sixth Sense?

Through The Wormhole: Is there a Sixth Sense?

2011, Science  -   157 Comments
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Ratings: 7.35/10 from 62 users.

Through The Wormhole: Is there a Sixth Sense?Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are the tools most of us depend on to perceive the world. But some people say they also can perceive things that are outside the range of the conventional senses, through some other channel for which there is no anatomical or neurological explanation. Scientific researchers who study such abilities call them extrasensory perception (ESP), but lay people often refer to them as the sixth sense.

Either term really is a catch-all for a variety of different purported abilities that vary from person to person. Some people claim the power of telepathy - that is, the ability to perceive others' thoughts, without having them communicated verbally or in writing. Others claim to have the power of clairvoyance, which is the ability to perceive events and objects that are hidden from view because of barriers or distance. Still others claim to be gifted with precognition, which enables them to look into the future and glimpse what hasn't yet occurred.

The belief in ESP or the sixth sense dates back thousands of years. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Croesus, who ruled a kingdom in what is now Turkey in the sixth century B.C., consulted oracles - that is, groups of priests claimed to be able to predict the future -- before he went to war. In ancient India, Hindu holy men were believed to possess the power to see and hear at a distance, and to communicate through telepathy.

In the late 1700s, the Viennese physician Franz Mesmer claimed that he could give people ESP powers by hypnotizing them. Just before his assassination in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln told friends that he'd dreamed of his own body lying in state in the White House. In the 20th century, Edgar Cayce and Jean Dixon attracted wide followings by claiming that they could foresee future events. During the Cold War, U.S. military and intelligence agencies, spurred by reports that the Soviets had psychics at their disposal, even tried to utilize clairvoyants who claimed remote-viewing powers for espionage purposes. List of all episodes here: Through The Wormhole. Available only in United States.

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Erinys
Erinys
8 years ago

Charles B, seems to me that any all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving godhead figure would have to have a strong sadistic streak to wake someone to "Pray for your brother, NOW." What is the benefit to an all-powerful god for you to pray? An all-loving god would simply resolve the situation, it would be too empathetic to do anything else. Any god worth his or her salt is perfectly capable of doing anything he or she wants to, regardless of whether anyone is praying. Your god shouldn't be like Tinkerbell, needing you to clap your hands in order to have the power to continue to exist. Unless, of course, gods are just some 11th dimension string theory force comprised of a bit of everyone, maybe even bits of every animal, vegetable, or mineral, joined together to work as a single force. Since there is no logical reason humans would know when someone is watching them, there HAS to be some interconnection. ButWormhole didn't give us all the relevant facts with that study. We don't know if subjects know how many times they will be watched. it could be anything from 1%-99% of the intervals. if they know what percentage it is, any halfway intelligent human knows if it's anything other than 50-50, it's to their advantage to guess they are being watched more or less often, building in a systemic cheat.

Because of that, until we can confirm that the study was 50% watched and 50% not, I have to find more significance in the random number generator becoming non-random starting BEFORE any terrorist got into even his originating commuter flight on 9/11.

Jason Cline
Jason Cline
9 years ago

The question of extra senses is a joke really. There are untold numbers of ways creatures in nature can gather relevant information. Humans have five naturally and use science and technology to add to our list of abilities at will.

kaleb ragland
kaleb ragland
9 years ago

That makes me think about when I was a kid when my mother an granma met up it a store once we were about to leave I suddenly wouldnt get in my moms car so my grandma took me home we waited for an hour than sombody called an said that my mom got into a wreak wow did my brain look into the future an stop me from being in that wreak

Unfolding Universe
Unfolding Universe
9 years ago

Why do these popular science always teach bad science....

Lori Cammerino
Lori Cammerino
10 years ago

Take into account all humans are connected, some jump their turns and create chaos to rein / rain on others, as they should be noticed as all humans need, but your eyes should never leave all their amazement, with the powers of help, of many others idle.
Are you awake or fall into don't care with time, would be a good question.
Anyone is capable, the powers that be.

Jamie
Jamie
10 years ago

re: Mandy & Mark

1. Are they related or do they know each other well?
2. They are obviously aware of each other being there
3. Did they do this experiment without anyone in the other room?
4. What are their feelings about a "6th sense" - believers, non-believers, neutral ...
5. Has experimental design/results has been peer-reviewed?
and so on.

All of this sounds great, but you really must be rigorous with the experimental method. Maybe they were, or not, but this rigor has to be strict .. so after all of that if there IS an effect than you have more reason to accept the results.

Just sayin' ...

MaryLouWhooo
MaryLouWhooo
11 years ago

No Jacka**, YOU'RE ignorant. Go back and get some grammatical help, "YOUR" pathetic. Oh yeah, and I hope you get out of your mom's basement soon, cause you're obviously (noticed how I used "you're" correctly... make a note of it Einstein and tape it to your computer) a 30 year old who will never get a date.

Eric Gubata
Eric Gubata
11 years ago

Some of this stuff seems to make sense, but there were some segments that either weren't explained well or had some really dubious conjecture. For example, that guy near the end of the episode who was trying to prove that his subjects were anticipating emotionally charged images before they saw them because their brain activity spiked between images has obviously never seen a horror movie before. The anticipation is just as emotional as the event. I suppose if he could measure the difference between that and the reaction though... I do find it difficult to believe that there would be such a glaring oversight in a project he's been doing for 30 years.

LarrytheLayman
LarrytheLayman
11 years ago

Another strange one, morphic fields are the reason birds flock, or animals flock. However we know what causes birds to flock, its simple rules. Taking the example of ants, they have five flags in their brains, which account for a set amount of actions. However when ants group, they exhibit something like 10 flags worth of behaviour. This is due to simple rules, when combined resulting in extra behaviour. Flocking is something like
Rule 1. Dont hit another bird.
Rule 2. Always fly to the left.
Once a few birds get together, they fly in complicated patterns which are born from 2 simple rules. By the way those rules are just examples. The reason I know this is because you can recreate flocking behaviour in a computer program. By giving each element 2-3 simple rules, they flock the sameway a bird does. Unfortunatly I didnt get flocking for my project, but we still had to learn the theory for the A.I module.

LarrytheLayman
LarrytheLayman
11 years ago

The problem with random number generators is that they aren't truly random. The reason is because when you sit down to write the code for randomness, you have to create the random aglorithm, which actually follows a set pattern, because a person has to tell the computer how to be random. Hence, even though the pattern is very comlex, its still a pattern, not random. Think of it like this, you want a computer to pick a number from one to ten, randomly, over and over again. First you store those numbers in a box, each number gets its own box. Then you have a number, which you add to, to select a box. You have to tell it which box will be the first one, then you add your number to the picker. This will then jump that amount to the next box which matches the picker number. If its bigger than ten, you continue from box one and count that amount up the line. You can change the number you add to the picker, every time it selects a box, add five to the number you are going to add to the picker. You can make it more complex by multiplication, division, subtraction, or some combination of all of them. However, as you can see, the pattern may appear random, but actually it will follow a pattern. The ramification of this is that, even though the random numbers are supposed to be random, they in fact will have a pattern, that a scientist looking at the data will pick up and assume it is thought that is causing this pattern.

Yasmin Nissim
Yasmin Nissim
11 years ago

In terms of the logged "reactions" to 9/11 before it happened...I wonder if the fact that others were involved with orchestrating this attack would account for it? Perhaps the perpetrator's anticipation of the event to come registered...?

Joseph Rodriquez
Joseph Rodriquez
11 years ago

the is amazing. Me my best friend can do this all the time... we call it,"eye contact". all we do is look at each other and then some how we know what we are thinking. I always couldn't fifer out why, but this explains why. This is cool. its like super powers... "The Mind Reading Sense" If we know about this sense, then we can use it more often.

...................................-->*YEAH BUDDY*<--....................................

Ste ThaPeacemaker Marshall
Ste ThaPeacemaker Marshall
12 years ago

this video was amazing thank you for the upload :) .... ever since the events of 9/11 i new about cosmic consciousness and how our thoughts effect the world in which we live... people are slowly waking up to this face of how we are all connected via the electromagnetic fields of our world.... this fact is what will change the world and how we view and act towards each other.... we are all one consciousness experiencing the world subjectively... the underlying fabric of the universe IS consciousness.....

welcome to the time of the global awakening.... One Love!!! :)

......................Peace be with all of humankind.........................

pixxiii
pixxiii
12 years ago

I have a weird connection with an ex boyfriend: when I see 7 11 on the clock I ring him and something is wrong in his life. The two weeks before he took his own life I saw it every day- morning and night and days before he left this world the use by date on the orange juice I purchased was 07 11 11 which is the day that he died. What does this mean? Can anyone explain this to me? I haven't seen it since he died except for tonight, if anyone can explain please email me (censored)

Kimberly Parker-Gunter
Kimberly Parker-Gunter
12 years ago

I believe thoughts are things and here they say that thats what the 6th sense is: thoughts reaching out across the globe. Well, i would agree becuz the night my boyfriend died we were miles apart. At 12:15 am I suddenly felt the sudden urge to call him while he was in the hospital. I couldnt find my phone and at 12:30 I gave up. I have his death certificate and he passed away at 12:30 am Aug.5th 2006...did he think about his upcoming passing and thought about me? I believe this is exactly what happened and this documentary hits the mark with me.

Nabil Zaimi
Nabil Zaimi
12 years ago

great doc

Hassan Abd El Fattah
Hassan Abd El Fattah
12 years ago

youtube removed the video :(

Carl Frodge
Carl Frodge
12 years ago

I'm writing this comment before watching the doc.
But...there are 9 commonly known senses...not 5. So the real question would be, is there more than 9?

bluebird207
bluebird207
12 years ago

Interesting documentary. I have often wondered about thought patterns if its a form of energy in itself. From our emotions, thoughts, what we do in our day to day life as well as our dreams.

Especially our dreams. Have you ever wondered why you have dreams that you dont know who the people are in your dream. Where you are, or why you may be hearing music? Or have you ever had a dream come true?

Charlie Benjamin Shread
Charlie Benjamin Shread
12 years ago

This is a truly brilliant episode. Great point for discussion and pondering. The random number generator experiment blew my mind.
Totally makes sense to me that consciousness is an integral part of the fabric of the universe, if not the most integral part. The fact that we've evolved to make use of consciousness is surely good enough evidence on its own?
We are made of bits of the universe, (arguably all symbiotically connected) so essentially, the universe is trying to understand itself.

Perhaps consciousness and evolution are inextricably linked, intertwined, being wrapped ever more tightly together, like a twisting dance, until they become one infinite singularity: the birth of the universe itself, God, the multiverse, whatever you want to call it.

absta1995
absta1995
12 years ago

proprioception

Industrial
Industrial
12 years ago

as much as i like Morgan Freeman, i was very disappointed by this whole Discovery channel series.
i think its only a matter of time until "astral projection" is the topic of the week
or how about Psychic animals?

Charles Christopher Toh
Charles Christopher Toh
12 years ago

6 SENSE
I think there is more evidence that it does exist, then there are that it doesnt exist.
just speak to 10 individuals of their six sense, and they will tell you of an experience that they cant explain.
and if you take the trouble to look for the design of the occurence that you cant explain, slowly but surely you will begain to recognise a pattern, and then begain to predict its occurences.
cheers, "seek and you shall fine it"

Charles Christopher Toh
Charles Christopher Toh
12 years ago

what if every day you wake up and tell yourself that, just for a continuious experiment like a 100 days, at the hour of your birth(lets say 11am), what ever infomation that you receive, from a friend, family or from the news, you would pay special attention to it. see what the results says to help you in your decisions in life.
if the infomation is relavent mark it as a special occurence if not cross out that day, if you get 80% in relevent infomation to help you in your decision in life, that means there must be a design, think positive and see where it leads you.
if the time that you were born is the time that you are sleeping listen to your dreams, and if you wake up after the dream look at the time, and write down the mins before or after you time of birth that the dream ended.
this is just an experiment on yourself, to see the premonition of your life before it happens.

Rachelnico
Rachelnico
12 years ago

I totally believe in a sixth sense

Charles Christopher Toh
Charles Christopher Toh
12 years ago

as i walk through the day, everything falls into place, when i reach the bus stop ,my bus would be there or arriving within 1 min, as i walk towards the traffic light it will turn green for me to cross the road, the same would happen for the lift,etc. i would be able to tell which lift was coming first, sometimes there would be 6 lifts in the lobby(accuracy 8times right, 2 times wrong)
everythings happends more smoothly when im in a positive mood, and when my mine is clear, and "The FLOW" will be very very smooth, its really cool to see trafficlights and lifts coming at the exact time and space as you are there, and all for you.

there is a 'design" in all of this TIME & SPACE.

Maybe i will one day write all of my experiences,
" The design of Time & Space", true experiences, non-scitific non-fiction.

if anyone out there can explain, why im able to meet people that i wanted to meet only in my thoughts, but finally meet them in a day or two and out of the blue.

if anyone out there can explain, why am i able to bet a specific number on a roulette table, on my first bet after a specific no. appeares, i do this once a year and it has happen 3years in a row.and all the time the no. opens.

if anyone out there can explain, why im able to tell people i dont know, except when we meet for the first time, how long they have been in a relationship or out of one, their age , discription their pets, family etc.
and it all turns out to be true.

what are the chances, possibilites or probabilities of it all.
we truely dont know everything there is to know, and thats why we are all searching for the truth, and explination of it all.
anyone knows?

"have you used your MIND lately, i have and it always appears as i think it".

wald0
wald0
12 years ago

@ C_and_N

While I still disagree with you, I would like to thank you for your kind words about my grandfather and your obvious compassion toward me. Your alright Charles, for whats it worth coming from plain old me. I know you catch a lot of grief over some of your beliefs, and I don't pretend to understand or share them, but I have never seen you act superior or self righteous in any way. You seem to be sincere and acting from a place of compassion, just be careful, there are many that would take advantage of such a person via religion. But, I am sure you know more about that me, considering the your level of involvement with religion.

Its not so much that my grandfather died that bothers me, it was the way he died. I don't want to go into to it but suffice to say it wasn't pretty and I think he deserved a lot more if there is a god up there. Not that this is the source f my disbelief, but it did reinforce it quite a bit. Any way, as you often say, I wish you peace regardless of our disagreement.

wald0
wald0
12 years ago

@ DEBRISTHEREOF

Well I tell you what, I'll trust the scientific method, and you use your overly developed pineal gland you have worked so hard on, and lets see how many people trust your air plane over mine. In fact I highly doubt you yourself would fly in such a contraption, I doubt you trust your ju-ju half as far as you like to tell yourself you do. There is a place in this world for spiritualism and abstract thinking, and there is a place in this world for the scientific method and logic, and generally they are not interchangeable. When the truth matters, meaning lives depend on it, we would be a f00l to trust your "third eye" philosophy. Just as it would be f00lish to attempt to create meaningful art that truly reflects the human experience using only the scientific method.

There are different kinds of truth. I used mushrooms, and other hallucinogenics, for years in an attempt to pry into the abstract, to dig through my muscle memory and find out who I am, who I might have been. I learned a lot of subjective truth doing so, but never any objective truth, which is what constitutes the reality we have to operate in. Through science however I managed to learn both. There is a lot of spiritual truth in the fact that an electron can be in two places at one time, that matter may only exist as we define it when it is measured, that matter an energy are basically two forms of the same thing. Don't be so quick to claim some kind of superiority simply because someone seems to disagree with you. We have a lot more in common that you would like to think.

P.S. I guess I mis-spoke in a way. I did learn one objective truth via hallucinogens, that drugs are dangerous and what starts out as mind expansion and an exercise in the abstract can turn into a a drug problem and a criminal record real fast.

Steven Chappel
Steven Chappel
12 years ago

What is it when you UNconsciously make a measurement on whether it is real or not.

Lulu Childs
Lulu Childs
12 years ago

Is it naïve to think that we can describe the universe by using the senses we have acquired through evolution…I ask because it seems short sided to say that if you can’t prove something via the scientific method (based on our senses), then it must be false. I’m not saying the scientific method is useless, but I do think it is limited by our own limits, which can make us ‘blind’.

Beerwulf
Beerwulf
12 years ago

I've often wondered why it is when I think of a memory I can see myself. It's as if I am floating in the air observing what my body was doing from behind or wherever. Is this a sixth sense or is it something else? There is no way I should be able to see myself like I was watching me on television .. how?

*twilight zone music

Jack1952
Jack1952
12 years ago

At best the sixth sense is like owning a car that only starts sporadically. Its nice if it does start but its useless when it doesn't. At least we know how to fix a car. We can't even begin to understand the sixth sense or even if it actually exists at all. If I behaved like a used car salesman and was selling vehicles that were unsafe and unreliable, everyone would call me a crook. I mean everyone would call me a crook. Why is it then that some would defend a psychic? Their readings only seem to come true once in a while. There is no science that truly supports this phenomena. Why would someone spend good money on a something that is unreliable and subject to the whims of the cosmic consciousness? I don't get it.

I'm not afraid of new ideas and I'm not narrow minded. Prove it in a lab and I'm with you all the way. Reproduce results that are uniform and consistent and repeatable. Until then, its just nonsense and useless.

GrittyKat
GrittyKat
12 years ago

Honestly these Wormholes series don't even always have to be that interesting, I could just listen to Morgan Freemans voice all day. :)

thinkingaboutthings
thinkingaboutthings
12 years ago

How arrogant to dismiss new ideas? I agree 'we have to be open to things' or how else do we move forward. How else do we 'grow' our knowledge. Of course new ideas need to be rigorously tested. And yes it is science if the scientific method is employed. Don't be scared people.

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Ola signor @TDF
There used to be 2 and sometimes 3 docs a day. We are now down to 1.
Are we being fed with a small spoon because it is too fastening? lol
Vacation perhaps?
Am i addicted...a little bit!
az

dave.eggermont
dave.eggermont
12 years ago

A lot of pseudo science if you ask me, if there is something like a 6th sense would I be right to dismiss it as a subconscious function? Maybe start examining the sub/unconscious before making assumptions like having a 6th sense. Maybe the "feeling of having a 6th sense" is nothing more than the unconscious influencing the conscious. I wouldn't be surprised.

avd420
avd420
12 years ago

I saw a doc on here the other day that stated we actually have like 3 extra senses. Non of which fit into what's being described in this vid though. It was actual science.

James Sterling
James Sterling
12 years ago

I think your sense of balance should be counted as a sense as well, it does get distorted through alcohol and other influences...also there's the sense of pain, and sense of temperature. Just because they say there's 5 senses doesn't mean there can only be 5 senses

DaveJay
DaveJay
12 years ago

We all must be honest here and forget our differences. Have you ever looked at a person, knowing they were not looking at you and that they did not know that you were looking at them? However you knew that they knew you were looking at them. Then they look at you and you say to yourself "Hmmm I knew they knew I was looking at them!"

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

A unified conciousness....Oh ya!
az

KsDevil
KsDevil
12 years ago

I suspect that in actuality, what is commonly thought of as a 6th sense is in reality the information that is sent to our brains by the second set of optic nerves. A sort of subconscious visualization.
It makes one wonder what other dual pathways our sensory system has and what we may not know on a conscious level.

blaxparx
blaxparx
12 years ago

No, there is not a sixth sense!. There is no soul. None of the stuff in this video has ever had any solid evidence for it. In fact this whole series is just a bunch of conjecture and people letting their imaginations get the best of them.

His Forever
His Forever
12 years ago

Yes, there is a sixth sense! It's a spiritual one as well. A global consciousness? Yes, I think that's reasonable.

The mind is not the tell all know all part of who we are. We also have a soul. The one morning I had a tremendous sense of danger and so did my wife, was the same one and only morning that we were nearly hit by a truck ten minutes later while on a Philippine motercycle taxi ---- well it did hit the mirror, and missed my leg by a fraction of an inch. Chance? Maybe. Or perhaps it was the mind of God watching over us, reminding us to pray, which we sincerely did before the incident happened.

This was one of the more interesting Wormhole series episodes. 9+