Everyone is familiar with the five senses that humans have: taste, touch, scent, smell and hearing, but some researchers think that there might be another sense that people use in order to stay alive. This would be a sense that you wouldn’t exactly notice, like you notice the other five. This sixth sense would be used to spot danger that us, as humans, would want to avoid.
Since the days of cavemen, the biggest survival instinct is that of survival. Even now, in a world that is civilized, people will still rely on their animalistic instinct in order to survive. As humans, we are always on the lookout for danger. We want to know what is around the corner before we take that step.
The University of British Columbia did a study to find out if people were more prone than others to notice the bad, or the danger in an area. During the study it was found that people had the genetic coding called “ADRA2b deletion variant”, according to The Globe and Mail. This genetic code is stronger in some people, which makes them more aware of their surroundings and potential dangers.
For a small example, if someone is walking down the street, he or she might notice a small, sharp piece of glass in the path he or she is taking. The people with a heightened sense of things would notice this and step to the side of the glass. If they didn’t have as strong of the ADRA2b deletion variant, they could possibly just walk right into it.
Some people might chalk this up as common sense, but I feel as though the two are different. If you have to walk home at night, and you are all alone, are you going to take the brightly lit path, with a lot of people? Or are you going to choose the path that no one is on, and is completely blacked out? Odds are you’re going to go with the safer option. That is your common sense, telling you that potential danger is up ahead, and as humans, we don’t like danger much.
It’s nice to think that something is working inside our brains, trying to keep us safe even when we don’t notice it is doing it. This is the sixth sense that people feel they have, and I can say that I’ve noticed many times in my life that I side-stepped danger without really thinking about it; it was just instinct. We may not be superheroes, but least we’ve all got a little bit of Spiderman’s senses in us.
Adam Wondrely is a junior studying creative writing and journalism. Do you think humans have a sixth sense? Email him at aw922910@ohiou.edu.
