This article explores the idea of sixth senses viewed through the lens of science, psychology and spirituality. You’ll learn what it truly means, how it works and whether your sixth sense is already active, or waiting to be developed.

The idea of a ‘sixth sense’ has fascinated humanity for centuries, some describe it as intuition, others call it psychic ability and many dismiss it as imagination. Sixth senses are neither fantasy or superstition, they are an advanced form of perception. By the end of this article you will understand extra sensory perception and how to recognise this gift within your own life.

What are The Five Traditional Senses?

The five senses are sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. We use these to operate safely and experience the material world. They help us navigate space, avoid danger, communicate and experience pleasure. Together these anchor us into material reality. However, our senses are limited. The human eye can only detect a tiny fraction of the light spectrum. Our ears cannot hear frequencies above 20’000 HZ. This means there is far more happening around us than we are biologically equipped to perceive through the five senses alone. Psychic ability is what allows us to extend beyond those limits.

What is the Sixth Sense?

The sixth sense refers to extra-sensory perception, awareness that goes beyond the traditional five senses. It could appear as :

• A gut feeling you cant explain

• Feeling the energy within a room

• Sensing someones mood instantly

• Thinking of someone before they call

• Knowing something before it happens

Unlike the five senses, the sixth operates through subtle perception. From a spiritual perspective, the sixth sense becomes accessible when we create space internally. If your mind is constantly stimulated, scrolling, consuming and reacting then subtle impressions are drowned out, you cannot hear a whisper from spirit in a loud room.

This is why stillness was emphasised in spiritual teachings. Silence sharpens perception, many meditators and people who practice yoga report developing psychic abilities early in their practices. Jesus Christ taught going within was key in connecting with the divine. The prophets, mystics, oracles, sages and guides we look up to in religious history were psychics. Moses spoke with god through the burning bush. Staring at a burning flame increases our extra sensory perception as it shifts the mind into a deepened state of awareness.

What is the Scientific View of Sixth Sense

Science doesn’t see’s the sixth sense in the mystical way. It’s often referred to as heightened awareness to internal and external stimuli, pattern recognition and subconscious processing.

Proprioception is the awareness of your body’s position in space. Even with closed eyes, you know where your limbs are. This awareness is not sight, its internal sensory feedback.

Interoception is the ability to sense the bodies internal states, such as noticing hunger or a racing heart.

Pattern recognition is the nervous system detecting information before the conscious mind is aware. It can notice patterns, micro-expressions, tone shifts and environmental cues faster than conscious thought. These are expressed through the limbic system which we cannot control – when someone fidgets with their hands we recognise the pattern as someone expressing discomfort through their body. Through many years of trial and error we learn to detect threats this way which are often picked up by rapid subconscious processing.

Spiritual View Of Psychic Senses

In esoteric mysticism, psychic senses activate when the third eye becomes energetically charged, turning it into a radio like beacon that can receive information from non-physical realms.

Psychic perception is traditionally divided into categories known as the “Clairs”.

Clairvoyance – Clear Seeing

Receiving information visually in the minds eye, these may appear as mental images, symbols, colours or other visual impressions during meditation. These can feel like clips from movie trailers or scenes.

Clairsentience – Clear Feeling

Sensing emotional or energetic information through the body. Empaths experience this strongly, even absorbing someone’s emotional state when they send you a text messages.

Clairaudience – Clear Hearing

Hearing intuitive impressions internally. This is not an external voice, more so like a thought that feels like it was received than generated by yourself.

Claircognizance – Clear Knowing

Sudden insight without logical reasoning. You simply “know” something without understanding how you know.

These are not supernatural superpowers, they are refined forms of perception. Some interpret them psychologically, others spiritually. Although the experience is real, the interpretation differs.

Are sixth senses real?

From an evolutionary perspective, heightened awareness increased survival. Early humans who sensed subtle danger cues – changes in animal behaviour, shifts in atmosphere, unusual silence – were more likely to survive. Storytelling around campfires reinforced pattern recognition, the memories of threats were encoded into our instincts.

Women relied heavily on these instincts, while the men were off at a hunt, women developed  subtle senses to keep – them, the camp and children safe from predators. What they lacked in combat readiness they gained in extra sensory perception. These are still needed today as women have to read subtle signs to keep them safe from men who may be able to overpower them.

It’s known that we inherit a lot from our caveman ancestors. Another example would be the evolutionary differences in men and women. Men having longer visions to spot predators or prey at afar, whereas women have a larger perceptional awareness of their surroundings as they would look for nuts, berries and dangers in camp.

How do sixth senses activate?

Our sixth senses can activate in many ways, there isn’t one specific way.

Astrology – I’ve found often my clients psychic abilities come online when Jupiter is in their 8th or 12th house.

Stress – The heightened awareness a lot of us experience today may have developed due to stress and nervous system sensitivity. It’s widely known some people’s psychic abilities awaken through periods of intense stress or trauma, such as feeling unsafe at home.

Stimulants – Some consume too much caffeine leaving the body in a fight or flight state where the subconscious mind is scanning for the threat due to consuming a mild neurological toxin. Eventually leading to sensing an invisible visitor.

Chakra Development – Following energy healing and chakra development, mastering the lower chakras allows us to work with the higher mind chakras in a grounded state. Having an active third eye with an imbalanced root chakra can create psychotic like symptoms.

Plant Medicine – Some try to force a quick awakening using plant medicines such as mushrooms, DMT, or Ayahuasca as these force the body to awaken. The problem with these is they are incredibly unsafe after being used. If you have not handled your trauma and baggage before awakening, you not only have to deal with it again but also everything that it now starts to attract. You will have a heightened state of awareness but you will not operate safely within the spiritual dimensions.

Sacred Texts – Reading a book like the holy bible can also help you awaken as within it contains esoteric symbolism and truths as to how to awaken psychic abilities and operate safely within the spirit world.

Reiki Healing – Energy healing with the hands can clear energy blockages and help the body to awaken by allowing energy to flow clearly again. Similar to a baptism, instead of placing blessed water onto the forehead, a hand is held directing source energy through the energy centre of the body.

Awareness – Mindfulness, meditation, yoga all slow the mind and allow more space for psychic impressions to come in.

All humans have sixth senses, it’s just a matter of understanding how these appear in our day to day life. I realised at 30 that I was psychic when I was 5 years old, I just had no idea what I was experiencing was psychic phenomena. I always thought I was shy – I wasn’t I was just picking up on data that other people weren’t even aware of.

Signs you have a Strong Sixth Sense

You sense mood shifts instantly, someone may not like what you said and you feel it within your own body, you feel their rejection that may appear as a flood of anxiety, a beating heart and a lump in the throat.

You may get physical gut reactions, “maybe you shouldn’t walk down the alleyway this one time”,  which may save you from a threat.

You think of someone the moment they call, maybe even finishing each others sentences or doing something just before they ask. Often In the studio someone will want to show me a song and as I’m typing it out they’ll freak out “I was just about to tell you to search that no way!”

Outcomes become easy to predict, you may know the answer to someone’s problem, it may seem simple and common sense to you because that insight was passed to you from the spirit world.

Can you develop your sixth sense?

Psychic senses can be developed through meditation, energy work, and regulating your nervous system. Increasing the awareness of your body and your environment can help you become aware of energies that aren’t always present. Knowing what your own energy feels like is foundational for noticing when energy that isn’t yours enters your space.

Is it safe to develop psychic senses?

Psychic development is easy but not always safe. The holy bible teaches the 10 commandments and the seven sins which become guidelines to operate within the state of higher conscious. This is because if a psychic falls prey to the seven sins it magnetically attracts similar energies back to you.

Operating with good morals is essential for a psychic, having a bad intention is enough to make a demonic entity aware of your presence. If you are lustful or greedy, then you will attract those energies, maybe even entities that are fed from those desires. Often these will influence you into more of the sin so they can feed again.

A psychic must learn discernment to understand if a thought is theirs or was it impressed upon them by someone or something else. True psychic development requires emotional maturity, ethical grounding and an understand of the energetic laws that govern our reality. You can start to develop psychic abilities safely through awareness.

If your an aspiring psychic and want 1-2-1 support, check out my services and books.