Developing a Sixth Sense.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 August 1914, Page 2

Developing a Sixth Sense.

The most amazing development of | the twentieth century so far has ' been the realisation that a "sixth ' sense"—that is to say, some sense other than taste, sjAell, touch, hearing, and sight—jis beginning to operate powerfully upon our lives. "The influence of mind over matter" has come to be a catch phrase, and people are greatly interested in discussing the several ways in which this curious influence shows itself, but, strangely enough, little j attention is given to the idea why j the human race is developing this j sixth sense. j Without going into biology closely, it may be remembered that touch was the first sense to be developed, then taste, and the other senses in varying order in different organisms. But at the same time it must I not be forgotten that all these senses came in response to a need. Touch, for example, developed with free motion ; taste with the requirements of a diet that had to be selected. So this sixth sense does not spring from nowhere, but is developing steadily in response to a.

need, and is produced by that need

The .one force that is creating this sense is social intercourse. Gestures sulliced in the days of primitive man, for his wants were few and

the matters which his neighbours could communicate to him were necessary because abstract ideas came which gestures could not express. The sense of hearing then became highly acute, so that not only could words which sounded much alike be distinguished, but even the same word in different tones conveyed a different meaning. Xow thought processes are so rapid and the urgency of communication is so great that words seem cumbersome and slow. People who know each other well and are both quick witted can often tell the end of a sentence their companion has just begun.

This is especially true in business life. The good salesman is by no means always the most fluent talker, but is the man who can project into the mind of the man '-to "whom he is trying to sell goods the general idea of his purchasing the same. The big employer, the master of men, is the master not by his oratory, but by his sense of mastery—a thing projected by th« mind. There are men and women who simply cannot help making lova or being made love to, not because of anything they say, ' but because either their charm or their forceful-

neKS operates consciously or unconsciously by the sixth sense.

Each year sees this sense growing stronger, taKSf every year the circle of social intercourse increases. Not long ago it was rare to know people of different nationality than ourselves, and a century ago any person wlio had been on two continents was a wonderful traveller. The literatures of foreign nations then were little translated. Now nil great writers can bo read in the principal tongues, no matter what the language in which their works are written ; now, nearly everyone counts among his or her friends people of different nationalities with different points of view and thought. The world is growing wider, bigger, more engrossing, and it is in order to keep pace with advancing needs of communication that ft new sense route is being opened. Britain has the greatest opportunity and the greatest need, and it is in Britain that this great new mind development should reap its finest fruit.