Trusting the Senses, Part 1

We rely heavily upon our five senses — sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell — and for the most part we trust them without question. Some count intuition as a sixth sense. Others refer to internal senses including a mental sense and such things as sexual arousal as additional senses. There are also things that might be considered a sense such as humor, fear, or anxiety. Religious Recovery encourages us to feel. And the ability to feel in the emotional definition of the word could also be considered a sense. Eyes do not have emotional reactions. We see images, but the mental and sometimes spiritual makeup of our being interpret those images and make “sense” of them. The same can be said of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and physical touch.

Emotions become a mental and spiritual process conditioned by past experiences. The spiritual nature of our being could also be considered an additional sense that is most compatible with intuition and our mental capabilities working in unison — or at times in opposition. Not all feelings have to be spiritual in nature, but most can be useful to us in developing our connection to a Higher Power. In trying to change our lives to be more at peace with ourselves and with our brothers and sisters, we find it helps to remember that our five core senses are neutral. What I touch, see, hear, smell, or taste is a neutral experience. How my mind working with my Spirit interprets those encounters determines my contentment — or lack of contentment — at any given moment.