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58/JAIN STUDIES AND SCIENCE
Scientists of the present times have established beyond doubt that a vast amount of intelligence is stored in our genes. All our life supporting activities are coded within them. Scientists call this intelligence – instinct. Jains call it ogh.
Mahapragya cautions that instinct must not be confused with the sixth sense also called ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception) in scientific terminology. Many thinkers believe that nature had endowed the sixth sense to us. Our ancestors and several animals and birds are said to possess sixth sense. In humans this power (of the sixth sense) was found in its natural form only during the primordial stage, but as civilization developed, man gave up exercising this faculty. In several animals and birds, the existence of the sixth sense can be seen even now. For instance,
(1)
Sensing an impending earthquake or storm, animals and birds take shelter in their holes, nests or other protected places.
Several fish cannot see. But by means of minute electric current they negotiate their way through, avoiding obstacles present in the water.
In the modern age, the sixth sense is also found to exist in the aboriginal people. For instance, (1) The aboriginals of Australia say that they use smoke as a signalling
device only to draw the attention of a particular/the desired person. After that an exchange of ideas between the two of them takes place only at the level of mind.
(2)
American aboriginals have a special name for the sixth sense - shimfo.
All these examples do point towards the existence of sixth-sense, but the scientists have found that these are activities related to sensory organs only and are not trans-sensory. For example, bats have a hearing mechanism which operates at 40-50 kHz of acoustic frequencies, whereas, human ears can respond only up to 20 kHz. Extra sniffing prowess of dogs too is a well known fact. Similarly, some birds and animals can feel the very low frequency vibrations which precede an earthquake. These activities may look like Extra-Sensory Perception, but in reality these are examples of refined senses only.
7.2. Loksangya
In Acharangvratti, Sheelanksuriji has described it as mundane (laukik) belief. It is this ability of humans which separates them from any other form of
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