Psychic events, premonitions, or "bad vibes"?

[turbonium]

mitrabor said:

If you look lustfully at a woman from behind, she will often spin round and glare at you, despite her apparently having no way of knowing she is being looked at and from what direction. This is "sixth-sense"

I don't know - it may well be a case of the standard five senses being used.....
Have you considered that she may hear your heavy breathing, smell your profuse sweating, and feel the drool that drops on the back of her neck?

[mitrabor]

Errr, actually I am female, so I don't do any of that stuff. I just know when people are.

[PhantomWolf]

No, just sharp hearing for the drip of your drool on the pavement.

[LunarOrbit]

I'm usually pretty good at detecting when someone is behind me too. It's almost like "spidey-sense" although I'm sure it's just my normal five senses telling me someone is there.

I remember being at a table in my high school library once and one of my classmates came up behind me to ask me a question. I knew he was there before he spoke. I think what alerted me was that he was standing between me and my main light source and I subconciously detected his shadow even though it was such a subtle change in lighting that I was barely aware of it.

I think our five senses give us a lot of information that we aren't conciously aware of most of the time. I also believe that "premonition" dreams are just our subconcious thoughts, worries, and problem solving abilities at work.

[Al Johnston]

People don't always detect others behind them: I'm 6'5" and 100kg, yet I often manage to approach people completely unnoticed. Guess I must be just naturally sneaky ;D

[lenbrazil]

I imagine such a sense was developed when our forebearers were living in the wild. Those who had "heightened awareness" of slight changes around them were less likely to be killed by an enemy or predator and thus were more likely to reproduce.

Anybody out there with background in physical anthropology?

As for turbonuim's first story, maybe it was a little more that coincidence, maybe subconsciously (or even consciously) he picked up on the fact that the house was a "bad scene".

Sometimes people give me a sense of being "bad news" nothing I can 'put my finger on' just a sense and this usually turns out to be correct. I don't think it's ESP.

admin said:

I'm usually pretty good at detecting when someone is behind me too. It's almost like "spidey-sense" although I'm sure it's just my normal five senses telling me someone is there.

I remember being at a table in my high school library once and one of my classmates came up behind me to ask me a question. I knew he was there before he spoke. I think what alerted me was that he was standing between me and my main light source and I subconsciously detected his shadow even though it was such a subtle change in lighting that I was barely aware of it.

I think our five senses give us a lot of information that we aren't consciously aware of most of the time. I also believe that "premonition" dreams are just our subconcious thoughts, worries, and problem solving abilities at work.

[iamspartacus]

I, like many others, have detected people creeping up on me but I can also remember saying things like, “you scared the **** out of me!” on the many occasions when I did not detect them. Given the hit rate I think such a sense would not make a very good survival aid.

The problem with premonition, sixth sense, telekinesis, ESP etc. etc. is that as soon as you put someone who claims to have super-powers under laboratory conditions they fail to perform. The reason is that these “powers” are so unreliable and fickle. Science is the study of repeatable phenomena which is why we tend to leave the other stuff to old ladies with head scarfs and cats.

[lenbrazil]

I've read a few books about anthropologists and others who spent time in the jungle with Native Amazonians, nearly all of them recall how the "indians" had much higher degrees of awareness of their surrounding than they did. They (the natives) could see and hear what the explorers couldn't.

I think this fit's with my theory. This "sixth sense" is a product both of nature and nurture. By sixth sense I don't mean anything supernatural but rather a heightened awareness of the 5 know n ones. The brain of the person being followed picks up on subtle clues witout being able to identify exactly what they were.

This would explain why the ability is "fickle", sometimes a person behind you casts a shadow or makes a subtle sound some times they don't.

iamspartacus said:

I, like many others, have detected people creeping up on me but I can also remember saying things like, “you scared the **** out of me!” on the many occasions when I did not detect them. Given the hit rate I think such a sense would not make a very good survival aid.

The problem with premonition, sixth sense, telekinesis, ESP etc. etc. is that as soon as you put someone who claims to have super-powers under laboratory conditions they fail to perform. The reason is that these “powers” are so unreliable and fickle. Science is the study of repeatable phenomena which is why we tend to leave the other stuff to old ladies with head scarfs and cats.

[iamspartacus]

lenbrazil said:

I've read a few books about anthropologists and others who spent time in the jungle with Native Amazonians, nearly all of them recall how the "indians" had much higher degrees of awareness of their surrounding than they did. They (the natives) could see and hear what the explorers couldn't.

I think this fit's with my theory. This "sixth sense" is a product both of nature and nurture. By sixth sense I don't mean anything supernatural but rather a heightened awareness of the 5 know n ones. The brain of the person being followed picks up on subtle clues witout being able to identify exactly what they were.

I agree but would extend this further and say that all humans are very aware of their own particular environments. Do the reverse and take the Native Amazonian out of the rainforest and put them in an urban setting. They would be very unaware of the dangers of traffic, electricity, muggers etc. They would not survive very will if they did not have an expert guide say, a teenage kid or a housewife to show them how.

[gwiz]

alasdhair said:

People don't always detect others behind them: I'm 6'5" and 100kg, yet I often manage to approach people completely unnoticed. Guess I must be just naturally sneaky ;D

Combining that statement with your avatar gives a pretty scary picture.

[Al Johnston]

;D

[LunarOrbit]

Yeah... are you 6'5" with or without the huge top hat?

[Al Johnston]

Without ;D

[turbonium]

As for turbonuim's first story, maybe it was a little more that coincidence, maybe subconsciously (or even consciously) he picked up on the fact that the house was a "bad scene".

Sometimes people give me a sense of being "bad news" nothing I can 'put my finger on' just a sense and this usually turns out to be correct. I don't think it's ESP.

It is something very difficult to explain - that "sense of danger" one feels for no reason one could point out. I think your example is part of what we call "street smarts" - being able to "read" people who are around them. It may be due to subconciously identifying subtle clues certain people exhibit that others may not sense.

On a few business trips, I've veered co-workers away from trouble that they couldn't sense. Some of them may have ended up in a hospital, or penniless wearing a barrel on the return flight, if I hadn't intervened!

[PeterB]

Sounds like you go on interesting business trips!