Heightened Senses After Loss of One Sense

[Cycledelic]

I've been thinking about those who have lost one of the 5 primary senses, whom then appear to have heightened awareness in other senses; ie. a person who loses thier sense of sight, and in turn gains a heightened awareness of hearing or smell. Perhaps one even gains new insight into a sixth sense, and increases intuition or future prophetic visions.

Any insight into the reasons behind this or experience with it?

[Dominik]

I don't think it will increase any other sense if you lose one.

If you lose your hearing it's not like your going to see better or

touch something and it's going to feel more intense.

It's complete nonsense. (No Pun Intended)

[Oderint]

they may not increase, but you will pay more attention to them since your brain have one less sense to recognize and process. This will naturaly give more "resources" to the remaining senses

[aquatus1]

I agree. It's not really that the other sense suddenly and mysteriously heighten. They simply get more of a workout, and gain more experience.

[Cycledelic]

Excellent points. I notice even with myself for example, when trying to fall asleep, with eye closed, I can definetly pick up more sounds - and this is at all times of the day, not just at night.

I agree with yours posts that nothing would happen instantaneously, but perhaps individuals whom are extremely aware could possibly gain more awareness after some time without one sense. I have heard of this happening to people before, so just wanted to see if anyone had heard the same.

[Raptor]

Actually it's been proven (to my knowledge) that one sense can increase after the loss of another, for example someone who has lost their vision will have a greater sense of sound. It's just simply that when one sense is lost, some parts of your brain which than have nothing to do are able to process other senses. It isn't anything significant, you probably wouldn't even notice it in many cases, but it's there.

[/unprofessional opinion]

Edited March 20, 2006 by T-Nemesis

[ValpoSeeker]

Heightened awareness due to the loss of one of the senses is certainly not nonsense. The human brain is amazing in its ability to overcome losses of certain areas of stumui. For example by the book if you lost your hearing you should not be able to walk anymore because balance is tied in with audible input. Sometimes people who lose there hearing are off balance for a bit but eventually they will adapt to their new circumstances.

[Hans Dolbrook]

it makes perfect sense in mother nature's ongoing process that when you lose one sense,the other ones make up for that loss!

[Jim The Lycan]

Its to do with the will to live, let me explain,

If some one becomes blind, for example, the mind realizes that they will not servive for as long, so the mind hightens a few sences by concentrating more brainpower onto these sences, it can do this because it is not concentrating on the eyes. Also every animal has a sixth sence, that sence is usualy being able to sence a nother being near it, humans have lost this by bypassing all the natural instincts, (what do you think the feeling of being watched is?) when a person goes blind, again for e.g, the mind hightens this sence aswell, this is only my opinion, belive what you want, but i belive this is the truth.

[ShadowDancer]

the body's natural way of compensating?

[theGhost_and_theDarkness]

the body's natural way of compensating?

That's what I've always learned. In biology, my teacher was really gung ho on that subject. The brain makes up for the loss of one sense by sending it's resources to the others. I want to do an experiment and wear an eye mask for a couple weeks and see if anything happens. hehe. Maybe I'll learn echo-location. . . I saw a blind man on that old show "Sightings" that learned echo-location. It was awesome. he'd click his tongue and he could tell you what was around him. Not like specifically, but he could tell what it was and what size it was.