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Comment by heavenlyblue | Hacker News Reader

You know, I've once had a encounter with a good friend of mine, whom I considered to be relatively wise (she was a nice person to speak to). So I was telling her this story, where me and my friend got into an argument, after he could not walk through the town without us using a GPS navigator (him getting nervous due to not knowing where we were going); she simply replied that "he probably can't sense the magnetic field of our planet".

Now I have to admit, that without any scientific knowledge this could sound quite plausible - but even if I, being a software engineer can't for sure reason why this is relatively impossible; I can definitely tell you that when I try to orient myself in a foreign town - I mainly pay attention to the sun, buildings and my memory, rather than general intuition (although that works too).

Before you go on an another Indian retreat - you should definitely watch "Wild Wild Country".

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Likewise I don't know if we all have the potential for sense of direction based on magnetic fields or that only some of us that could tap into consciously it, or if it's there subconsciously. Homing pigeons use magnetoreception (just Googled for proper term - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoreception) - so it's possible it's somewhere in our DNA; it seems dolphins too have the ability to sense magnetic fields.

Because the brain works as "use it or lose it" - most of us in modern societies will never need to tap into this sense nor would it be reenforced by its use, if it is a thing for humans.

To me, it sounds like that friend didn't trust himself or his memory for whatever reason, so learned a dependance on a GPS navigator as a coping mechanism.

Re: General intuition - It could be that general intuition is simply trusting yourself, trusting that you're already paying attention to your surroundings (and being relaxed enough to take it all in), fully in the present moment - so in the case you reference, you subconsciously are aware of the sun's location, buildings, memory, etc.

I've never been to India - all yoga has been practiced locally, and ceremonies I've attended were within a few hours drive - sounds like an interesting documentary.

Thanks for sharing.

There are potential mechanisms;

> Human cryptochrome exhibits light-dependent magnetosensitivity

> "Humans are not believed to have a magnetic sense, even though many animals use the Earth's magnetic field for orientation and navigation. One model of magnetosensing in animals proposes that geomagnetic fields are perceived by light-sensitive chemical reactions involving the flavoprotein cryptochrome (CRY). Here we show using a transgenic approach that human CRY2, which is heavily expressed in the retina, can function as a magnetosensor in the magnetoreception system of Drosophila and that it does so in a light-dependent manner. The results show that human CRY2 has the molecular capability to function as a light-sensitive magnetosensor and reopen an area of sensory biology that is ready for further exploration in humans."

> https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1364

And I have heard of studies getting some effect by looking at people's orientation when lost, with and without big magnets strapped to their head, though I don't seem to be able to find it just now.

I write software for a living too.

I have also directly experienced stuff that is not so easily explainable, and work with it regularly. No, I can't sense the magnetic fields like that so directly, though I know roughly how to develop skills like that.

I don't think whole area of consciousness and subtle energy is ever going to be scientifically valid. I think they touch on things that are replicable, but not objectively verifiable. There are very real lived experiences of those, and sometimes we can find foot prints left behind by people who walked that way. Generally, you won't know until you walk that way too.

I'm from the Chicago area, and around here everyone navigates by the lake. For whatever reason, you tend to always know which direction Lake Michigan is in, and therefore you know which way is East (this happens even when you are dozens of miles from the lake).

I don't know if it is because of the general contours of the land, or what, but I've heard this from a number of people around here. But no one can explain (or even show scientifically) that they can always find the Lake.

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