Share

Can your body 'sense' the future?

Even without any external clues, your body can predict events that are about to happen. For example, you might sense that your boss is about to show up while you're playing a video game at your desk.

That's the conclusion of Northwestern University researchers who analysed the results of 26 studies published between 1978 and 2010, and published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Perception Science.

The subconscious mind

It has already been shown that your subconscious mind sometimes knows more than your conscious mind, according to study author Julia Mossbridge, a research associate in the visual perception, cognition and neuroscience laboratory at Northwestern.

"What hasn't been clear is whether humans have the ability to predict future important events even without any clues as to what might happen," she said.

For example, a worker playing a video game while wearing headphones wouldn't be able to hear if the boss was coming around the corner.

"But our analysis suggests that if you were tuned into your body, you might be able to detect these anticipatory changes between two and 10 seconds beforehand and close your video game," Mossbridge said. "You might even have a chance to open that spreadsheet you were supposed to be working on. And if you were lucky, you could do all this before your boss entered the room."

This type of occurrence is sometimes called presentiment (as in sensing the future) but it's not clear if people are actually sensing the future.

"I like to call the phenomenon 'anomalous anticipatory activity,'" Mossbridge said. "The phenomenon is anomalous, some scientists argue, because we can't explain it using present-day understanding about how biology works, though explanations related to recent quantum biological findings could potentially make sense. It's anticipatory because it seems to predict future physiological changes in response to an important event without any known clues, and it's an activity because it consists of changes in the cardiopulmonary, skin and nervous systems."

Read more:
Get in touch with yourself

Can you sense when something is about to happen? E-mail us at community@health24.com

More information

The Parapsychological Association has more about precognition.


(Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.)

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE