"blinking" and the butterfly effect
ok here's what i think goes on. i'm prepared to be lampooned for writing this, and i don't even know if i believe it myself. but for conversation's sake...
i think that all esp phenomena, including premonition, simply results from subconscious interpretation of subtle sensory information. i think the 6th sense is just our ability to hyper-process the 5 others. i believe we are highly sensitive instruments, capable of powerfully interpreting massive amounts of data incredibly quickly and accurately.
pheromones. spectacular feats of human echolocation. perfumery. wine-tasting. braille. a master in any field can make observations and predictions with certainty that seem impossible to outsiders. anybody that has worked with people for a long time, for instance, knows that massive amounts of sensory data (scene analysis, body language, voice, etc.) is crunched and put to use instantly to invoke the right tone of voice, choice of words, etc. to arc toward desired outcomes.
i have an old friend who practiced sensory awareness fairly intensely while in law school to be a trial lawyer (it wasn't part of the curriculum). he noticed after a while that he could do things like smell waves of sweat odor produced when people in the courtroom experienced acute stress. it makes sense to me that an experienced and talented trial lawyer would eventually come to pick up on cues like this subconsciously. you know the responses you get from people being interviewed about being in the zone, whether in sports or whatever - "i don't know, i was just going with the flow..." "i just knew i had to..."
anybody ever read that book blink*?
so to extend this further...
you know the "butterfly effect?" the butterfly wing flap causing a hurricane?
anybody that's been tracking for a long time feels at home with the idea that everything is a doorway to everything. the way a twig is nibbled, when taken in context, can reveal so much. the color of a leaf, the sound of a bird, the movement of insects. if we studied these carefully we would eventually be able to explain our rational behind the predictions they supported. hypothetically, we might learn about what happened to cause soil chemistry changes in the area, exactly where that bear is and what mood it's in, or what the weather is going to do 3 days in the future, respectively.
so this seems like a stretch, but considering the alternative explanations, i think it's at least worth considering.
any ideas?