Email us for help
Loading...
Premium support
Log Out
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have changed. We think you'll like them better this way.
MAGNETIC SIXTH SENSE
The body's own internal magnetic fields are generated by the extraordinary amount of internal electrical activity that keeps our bodies alive. ... Thehuman body produces complex electrical activity in several different types of cells, including neurons, endocrine, and muscle cells – all called “excitable cells”.
We already know that migratory birds use their recognition of magnetic fields to travel south during the winter. Certain species of mice and rats set up their nests along magnetic field lines. And dogs also have an awareness of the earth’s magnetic field, which studies have shown they use, for whatever reason, to relieve themselves along a north-south axis.
But no one has yet been able to prove that that subconscious awareness of magnetic fields exists in humans — until now. Joe Kirschvink of the California Institute of Technology thinks he might be the first person to confirm that humans also have what he calls this “sixth sense.”
It’s called magnetoreception, and it refers to the ability to perceive magnetic fields. Several animals use it to find their way over long distances by aligning themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field. Sea turtles. honeybees, spiny lobsters, dolphins, migratory birds, and more all have a magnetic compass which allows them to use the information that’s coded into magnetic fields. We know little beyond that, however. How they use them, how they sense them, and what information they are getting from them remains up for speculation. For all we know, these magnetic fields could be used for much more than navigation for certain species.
