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About a week ago, I was sitting in the living room reading while my mother got her daily does of Oprah and I couldn't help but overhear some of the discussion that the panel of guests on the show were having. Reading this post, I was reminded of some of their words (which I will fully admit to being somewhat skeptical, if not cynical, about) and began to wonder what one of the men in particular would say about a reference to our "having just the right amount of senses optimal for survival."

After researching that particular episode of the show, I found one of his quotes that particularly struck me as something we as a class might have something to say about, especially after this week's discussion.

According to her guest, James Arthur Ray, "Science tells us that everything is energy, and so your thoughts are energy, your body, your cash, your car. Everything you think is solid, if you put it under a high-powered microscope, it's just a field of energy and a rate of vibration. And so are we." He went on to talk about the positive energies surrounding us and how finding a way to tap into them can help us manifest the lives we want for ourselves.

If we can get past the "self-help" portion of that, we get to his seeming dismissal of the idea that the five senses of human experience are enough for us to indeed "survive optimally". And I'm sure it would surprise him that the idea of spirituality has not been a larger part of this discussion.

Society as a whole does seem to be constantly searching to be more "in touch" and "in tune" with themselves, their lives, and the world around them and beyond them. And, perhaps even more surprising, is the success and fulfillment that many claim to find when these connections are made, when they find a way to perceive what has previously been beyond their senses.

If we are truly equipped with "nothing more, nothing less" than needed for survival, why do so many strive to perceive what is beyond their own senses? Even beyond the concept of spirituality, people constantly reference a "sixth sense" with pride, whether it be as simple (and common) as motherly instinct or as extraordinary and mistrusted as forms of parapsychology.

So there is a common knowledge (and appreciation) of this other form of imperceptible energy. But are all humans really capable of "tuning in"? Would it enhance our survival if we were? And if it would, why are the receptors of this energy so out of reach for so many?