All language subtitles for Through.the.Wormhole.S02E05.720p.HDTV.x264-DIVERGE.HI

[ birds chirping ]

Freeman: Touch...

Taste...

Sight...

Smell...

Hearing.

These are the senses
that connect us to the world.

But are there
more than five senses?

Researchers are diving into
hidden folds of our brains,

discovering that the blind
can actually see...

That thoughts can
fly across space...

And that somehow, we might have
the power to feel the future.

Is there a sixth sense?

Space, time, life itself.

The secrets of the cosmos
lie through the wormhole.

♪ Through the Wormhole 2x05 ♪
Is There A Sixth Sense?
Original Air Date on July 6, 2011

== sync, corrected by elderman ==

The human brain
is a truly remarkable organ.

It contains
as many nerve cells

as there are stars
in the Milky Way.

Sights, sounds, smells, anything
happening in the world around us

triggers waves of activity

that ripple through
this vast network in our heads.

Could this network interact
with the world

in ways we don't yet understand?

We are only
just beginning to see

what these cells
are really capable of.

As long as the brain
remains a mystery,

the sixth sense cannot
be written off as superstition.

Scientifically,
it's entirely possible.

I was mostly a good kid.

But every once in a while,
I stepped out of line.

But even with my back turned...

...I knew when I'd been caught.

I could just...

feel her accusing stare.

Was this a sixth sense?

At Tilburg University
in the Netherlands,

Beatrice de Gelder
is researching

how emotions travel
from person to person.

She studies blind sight...

...A strange phenomenon
in which some blind people

are able to see emotions
in other people's faces.

De Gelder: We tend to think
of visual perception

as a matter of intact eyes.

In fact, the eyes only see

because they are connected
to the brain.

Freeman: Most of Beatrice's
patients don't appear blind.

On the outside, their eyes
look perfectly normal.

But on the inside,
there is hidden damage.

In a healthy brain,

a complex symphony of signals
flows from the eyes

to a region called
the visual cortex.

But if the visual cortex
gets damaged,

usually as a result of a stroke,

the signals can no longer
be picked up.

A stroke normally affects
only one side of the cortex,

leaving the patient blind
in one eye.

Beatrice is investigating

whether the brain
might have other ways

to pick up signals
from that eye.

She uses a partition to separate

what a patient's blind eye
and functioning eye can see.

A computer shows images
of happy, sad, or angry faces

to one side only.

De Gelder:
So, we present a stimulus.

It's an image
of somebody laughing,

somebody expressing joy.

Freeman: Electrodes
on the patient's face

pick up any twitches
of his muscles,

detecting if he reacts
to the emotions on display.

We see that his face
was actually imitating.

He was using the same muscles
without knowing it, of course,

that the model he is seeing
on the screen

uses to produce
that smile.

Freeman: What's remarkable
is that the emotional faces

are being shown only
to the patient's blind side.

The seeing eye only sees
neutral expressions.

Yet, time and again,

Beatrice's patients
imitate the emotions

their blind eye is looking at.

But the response
is not a conscience one.

De Gelder:
We asked the person,

"Were you sure,
or are you guessing?"

And we systematically get the
answer that they were guessing.

Freeman: Beatrice believes
blind sight is a deeply buried,

subconscious sensory system

rooted in a hidden part
of the brain

that receives signals
from the eyes

only when the image
is loaded with emotion.

But where could that
part of the brain be?

[ Monitor beeping ]

De Gelder:
We are really trying

to tap into the different layers
of the brain.

From the surface landscape,

we try to sort of go underground
in a way.

You can see
that this is, like,

underground or undercover work.

What is it all built on?

What are the lower,
more ancient layers?

Freeman:
Beatrice uncovered those layers

by showing the same images
of facial expressions

to blind-sight patients
while they were inside an M.R.I.

Normally,
information from the eyes

travels down the optic nerve
directly to the visual cortex.

But when the eyes
are looking at human emotions,

the signals diverge
from that path

and travel to the amygdala,
the superior colliculus,

and six other structures
in the brain.

De Gelder:
The human visual system

consists at least
of nine different pathways.

Only one of those
we begin to understand,

and the eight other ones are
completely in the background.

So it's only in the case where
that one needs to be sidestepped

that the alternative pathways
have a chance.

Freeman: Beatrice has identified
subconscious mental pathways

that allow us not to see
emotional stimuli

but to sense them.

We all have these pathways,

even though
they are normally overwhelmed

by our primary sense of sight.

It's the first
scientific evidence

of a new sense
beyond the five we know.

De Gelder: One should
have a sympathetic ear

to those noises
about a sixth sense

because we don't have
a clear view yet

of the abilities of the brain.

Freeman:
Beatrice's work has shown

that our brains can sense things

even when
we are not aware of them.

It implies that any search
for a sixth sense

depends on understanding
the boundary

between conscious awareness
and subconscious experience.

Once a month,
an elite group of philosophers

meets at a small tavern
in Greenwich Village.

[ Mid-tempo music playing ]

Greetings, New York.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Freeman:
They call themselves

the New York
Consciousness Collective.

♪ I act like you act ♪

♪ I do what you do ♪

Freeman: At the helm of this
jam session is David Chalmers.

He may never fill
Madison Square Garden,

but his research is earning him
a growing fan base in academia.

He's trying to understand

the nature and limits
of consciousness.

♪ What consciousness is ♪

♪ I ain't got a clue ♪

Consciousness is pretty well the
biggest mystery in the world,

and for these reasons, because
it's such a hard problem,

scientists tended
just to set it aside.

Science is objective.

Consciousness is subjective.

It's just in the last couple
of decades, really,

that scientists have
started coming back

to consciousness as a problem
in its own right.

Freeman: David believes the way
to understand consciousness

is to think of it in layers --

layers constructed from the data
our senses are gathering.

So, consciousness
has all these different levels.

First of all,
there's primary consciousness.

This is consciousness
of the things around you.

I look out, I might see someone
and see what's around them.

That's my first level
of consciousness.

But then if I stop and reflect,

I could be conscious
of my consciousness.

I can become conscious
of what I'm thinking about.

Then we've got consciousness
within consciousness.

If I reflect again,

I can start to be conscious
of the fact

that I'm conscious
of my consciousness.

Then you get consciousness
that contains consciousness

that contains consciousness.

Go three levels deep.

In principle, you could
repeat this to infinity.

Freeman: Since our brain
is dealing with so many layers,

it stands to reason that
we might not always be aware

of everything we're sensing.

Chalmers: Some things
are in the background

of your consciousness,

way out in the distance.

Some things are flickering
through your consciousness

that grab your attention
for a moment, then they move on.

Some things are in the focus
of your consciousness.

They grab your attention.

They don't let go.

Freeman: But how do we discover
what we are missing?

Why does only
certain neural activity

manage to fight its way
into our awareness?

What's actually happening
in our brains

when we are conscious
of something

is still a complete mystery.

One of the basic questions
about consciousness

is whether you can explain it
in terms of physical processes

'cause we've got used to
the idea in science

that you start
with a few basics in physics,

like space and time
and matter.

Put them together,
you can explain everything else.

You can explain chemistry.

You can explain biology.

Now, I think
in the case of consciousness,

this great chain of explanation
breaks down.

My view is, we've got a new
fundamental building block

in nature of consciousness,

and we need to understand the
fundamental laws that govern it.

Freeman: This scientist
thinks he's discovered

a new and surprising
aspect of consciousness.

He believes it does not simply
exist within our minds

but extends outward, as well.

And he claims
he has the evidence to prove it.

What is a thought?

Neuroscientists would say

it's just a pattern
of electrical activity

inside our brains.

But if I scowl or smile,
my thoughts can cross a room.

In fact, they're reaching out
to touch you right now.

Some scientists believe this
is how the sixth sense works --

that human thoughts merge into
a collective consciousness

that spans the globe.

Roger Nelson has spent
the past 30 years

looking for evidence
of a global mind.

Nelson: Consciousness lives
in the real world.

The touch is very light.

But to the degree
that it's a real touch,

it's extremely important.

Most people don't believe
this is possible.

The research shows
that it is possible.

Freeman: In the mid-1980s,
Roger began investigating

a strange phenomenon

that had been reported
by several other researchers.

They had noticed that the
readouts of electronic devices

called random-number generators

could be affected
by people sitting next to them

if those people focused
their thoughts on them.

In the course of a long series
of experiments over years,

we found that people
could change the behavior

of these
random-number generators

very slightly but significantly.

Freeman:
Random-number generators
are electronic coin tosses.

Instead of heads or tails,

they throw ones or zeros.

Their results are supposed
to be totally random.

Roger reasoned that
if one person sitting close by

could alter their readouts,

then perhaps the mass thoughts
of entire cities

could do the same.

Could random-number generators
placed around the world

be used to track the minds
of millions of individuals?

Nelson:
What we have done is set up
a scientific experiment

with a fairly simple hypothesis.

The idea is,

when large numbers of people
share a consciousness state,

especially emotional,

then our network will show
deviations from randomness.

Freeman:
By the late 1990s,

Roger had persuaded several
colleagues across the globe

to collect random-number data
in their labs.

The global consciousness project
was born.

This is a map

that shows where
the global consciousness project

has installations
all around the world.

That's Hawaii there,
Australia, New Zealand,

lots of them in Europe.

There's a random-event generator
or a random-number generator

attached to a computer
at each of those places.

Freeman:
This global network runs 24/7,

collecting data and then
sending it back to a server

at Roger's lab in Princeton.

Nelson:
We take the real-time data,

and every second,
a color block will appear.

Mostly it's small,

but when there's a big deviation
in the data like that...

Oh, my God, another one.

[ Laughs ]

This is unusual to see
so many large deviations

in such a short time.

Freeman: Every time
there was a major global event,

Roger checks to see if his
network deviates from normal.

And many times, it does.

Some of the strongest changes

took place during the
presidential elections of 2008.

Nelson:
When the polls closed,

the media were saying,
"Looks like Obama has won."

This graph shows the data

from the time the polls closed
for the next five hours.

In the middle of that
is Obama's victory speech.

[ Cheers and applause ]

We have never been just
a collection of individuals.

We are and always will be
the United States of America.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Nelson:
This is a strong trend.

It just goes straight up
this incline.

[ Cheers and applause ]

It's like 1,000-to-1 odds

that we should have that
accumulation of positive effects

in a data set this size.

We have more than
340 independent experiments.

When we put
all the data together

from 12 years
of these experiments,

the bottom-line result

has odds against chance
of a billion to one.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Freeman:
Roger's data suggests

there is some form
of global consciousness.

But how might it actually work?

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake

believes the answer lies
in a hidden field

generated by all living things.

He calls it a morphic field.

Fields are regions of influence.

It's easier to see what fields
are with magnetic fields.

These balls are little magnets,

and as I drop them
onto the plate,

the balls attract each other
or repel each other.

They turn around, and so
they all join up in patterns.

There's a self-organizing
property in fields.

They're inherently integrative.

And what I'm suggesting

is that there's another kind of
field called morphic fields,

which organize
the bodies of animals and plants

and organize the activities
of brains and minds.

Freeman: Rupert believes
that morphic fields

are what allow birds to fly
in perfect formation,

what guide the mass migrations
of herd animals,

and he also believes

they are the reason
we get that uncanny feeling

when someone stares at us.

He has even run
a series of experiments

to try to prove
that this sense is real.

[ Beeping ]

Not looking.

You either look
or you don't look

in a random sequence of trials
at somebody else,

and they have to guess
in each trial

if they're being stared at
or not.

Not looking.

Sheldrake: The starer should
concentrate their mind

on the person
they're looking at.

When I do it, I also think
of the person's name.

Looking.

I concentrate
all my attention on them.

When I'm not looking at them,

I look at the floor
or I close my eyes,

and I think of something
completely different.

Not looking.

Brilliant.

14 right and 6 wrong.

Something's going on,

and although the effect's
not big, it's consistent

and it's repeated over
large numbers of trials.

Freeman: Rupert has gathered
a body of evidence

that shows people
really do appear to know

when they are being stared at.

For him,
it supports the idea

that our bodies are surrounded
by morphic fields,

an invisible extension
of ourselves.

What I'm suggesting

is that our minds work
through extended fields

that stretch out far beyond our
heads into the world around us,

linking us to other people
and to our environment.

Freeman: Many scientists
dismiss Rupert's ideas,

arguing that
if morphic fields exist,

we should have detected them
by now.

But in a darkened lab
in Sudbury, Ontario,

this researcher believes he has

and that he has evidence

that thoughts can fly
from one mind to another.

Every minute of every day,

we are surrounded
by an invisible force.

Our world is wrapped
in a magnetic field.

For many creatures on Earth,

life would be impossible
without it.

Birds, sea turtles, and fish
rely on this global magnetism

to navigate.

Could our minds
be using it, too?

And is it, perhaps,
the root of the sixth sense?

Michael Persinger runs
the neuroscience research group

at Laurentian University
in Canada.

The powerful effect of Earth's
magnetic field on animals

inspired him to investigate

whether it could
also influence us.

Animals can use the
three-dimensional magnetic field

of the Earth

as a kind of navigation
or homing device.

There's very good evidence
for it.

Freeman: The connection
Michael suggests could exist

between Earth's magnetic field
and human brains

is much more controversial.

Persinger:
The sixth sense is effectively

the ability to detect
information at a distance --

that's one
of the definitions --

through mechanisms
not known to date.

The critical question is,
how is it done?

The magnetic field of the Earth

is basically the medium within
which we were all exposed,

all seven billion of us.

[ Indistinct talking ]

And that's what allows

the potential exchange
of information.

Freeman:
According to this theory,

Earth's magnetic field is like
an ocean rippling with waves.

Electrical activity
from our brains

can surf along on top of it,

passing from one person
to another.

It's a radical idea,

but Michael has designed
an elaborate experiment

to put it to the test.

And whatever you do,
don't drill into his head.

Trephining
is outlawed in Canada.

His team placed two subjects,
Mandy and Mark,

in rooms 20 feet apart.

The rooms are acoustically
and visually isolated

from one another.

They are also
completely shielded

from Earth's magnetic field.

Michael replaces that

with a precisely controlled
magnetic field of his own design

generated by electrical coils
on this headband.

In this way,
he can be sure

that Mandy and Mark experience
identical magnetic fields.

By producing the same
complex configuration

of a magnetic field
in two different brains

at a distance,

you're basically imitating
what happens in nature

in the Earth's magnetic field.

I'm going to
turn off the lights,

and I'll be recording
your E.E.G. the entire time.

And we'll be able to see
if, indeed, their brain activity

is the same once they share
the same magnetic field.

Freeman: Over the course
of the next 20 minutes,

a light will flash at Mark
several times

while Mandy remains undisturbed
in her darkened room.

Michael and his team

monitor both of their
brains' activity.

Three minutes in,
the light begins to flash

in Mark's room.

You can see
a nice spike right there.

About five minutes later,

the light flashes again.

Same intensity. Actually, you can
see the spikes even in this one.

Mandy's brain activity

spiked right at the time
mark saw the flashing light.

Now Dr. Persinger's team
need to know

what Mandy experienced
while she sat in the dark.

Mandy: Well,
at about three minutes in,

in my left visual field
of my left eye,

I experienced a bright flash.

And it lasted very briefly,

and it felt like it just sort of
faded into the darkness again.

Later on at around
six to eight minutes in,

I had a flash
in my right peripheral field.

Persinger: When the light
was flashing to one,

producing all these changes,

the other person's
brain activity,

even though they were
in the dark,

also changed.

Freeman:
The experiment seems to show

that two brains
in separate locations

can share a single experience.

Persinger: Human thoughts
are not non-physical.

They are physical units
of action potentials

from the nerve itself.

Can they be transmitted
across space?

Under certain conditions,
absolutely,

and there's evidence for it.

If we have seven billion
human brains

all immersed in the magnetic
field, which they are,

then a change in one,
if it's connected --

and we are
'cause the magnetic flux lines

go right through us,
right through our brains --

then a change in one
could influence everyone.

Michael Persinger
believes he has evidence

for a primitive form
of sixth sense --

an ability to share
simple sensations

with people who are
far away from us.

But our senses may not just be
able to travel across space.

They may be able to reach out
across time

and feel the future.

Science is full of ideas
that seem hard to believe.

Take quantum mechanics.

In this strange world
of subatomic physics,

a particle can be
in two places at once...

Until we look at it.

Most physicists
will tell you

where the particle ends up
is just a roll of the dice.

But there's another theory.

My conscious mind

could be controlling
this subatomic world.

And the sixth sense

could be what makes
the universe tick.

Michio Kaku
is a theoretical physicist.

As a pioneer of string theory,

which proposes the world
is actually nine-dimensional,

he believes scientists
need to keep an open mind

about the sixth sense,

no matter how strange
it may sound.

We physicists are conservative
revolutionaries

in the sense that
we have to be open

to all sorts of crazy,
bizarre phenomenon.

Who would have thought

that there's something
called radioactivity?

Who would have thought that we
would have quantum forces?

So we have to be open
to these things.

The most successful
physical theory of all time

is called quantum mechanics,
the theory of the atom,

because it's based on the idea
of probabilities,

that you don't really know
where an electron is.

And electrons can exist,
in some sense,

in multiple states
at the same time.

Freeman: The fuzzy nature
of subatomic particles

might just provide a way
to explain the sixth sense.

Erwin Schrodinger,

one of the founders
of quantum mechanics,

designed a thought experiment
to drive home

the strange rules
of his theory.

Let's say we put a cat
and a vial of poison in a box.

[ Cat meows ]

We add an atom
of radioactive uranium

and a geiger counter.

If the uranium decays,
it sets off the geiger counter,

which then releases the poison
and silently kills the cat.

[ Cat meows ]

Before we open the box and look,

we can't actually know whether
the uranium has decayed or not

since radioactive decay

is a probabilistic
quantum event.

Here's the question.

Is the cat dead or alive?

Well, according
to quantum mechanics,

the cat is neither
dead nor alive

but the sum of the two states.

Well, at that point, you say,
"Well, that's nonsense.

"That's preposterous.

"How can you be both
dead and alive simultaneously?"

Freeman: Schrodinger's cat
was supposed to show

that nothing in this universe
is certain

until someone
makes a measurement.

But another pioneer
of quantum mechanics,

Eugene Wigner,
believed it could teach us

something else about
the working of the universe --

that consciousness
controls everything.

Kaku: Wigner said,
"Let's take it one step farther.

"If I, a human being,
looks at the cat,

"I am conscious.

Therefore, consciousness
determines existence."

At that point,
Einstein went ballistic

and said, "what?

"You're saying that the fact
that you are a conscious being

determines the fact
that the cat is alive?"

The answer is yes,
and Wigner made one more step.

And that is,
"How do I know I'm alive?"

You see, the cat and me,
we're part of the same universe.

If I don't know
the cat is alive or dead,

I could also be dead
at the same time

and not even know it.

So, who determines
that I'm alive?

Well, Wigner's friend
looks at me,

I look at the cat,

and we exist.

But then who
looks at Wigner's friend?

And there's an infinite chain
of people looking at people

looking at people

until, finally,
you hit cosmic consciousness.

Some consciousness
that's ethereal,

that envelops the Universe,

which looks at us and says,
"Aha, the cat is alive."

Freeman: Wigner believed
that consciousness

is an inextricable part
of reality,

that nothing really happens
in the physical world

unless a conscious mind
observes it.

Most physicists regard
cosmic consciousness

as an intriguing idea
that will never be provable.

But in Princeton, New Jersey,

Roger Nelson may have
some solid evidence.

In the vast array of data

collected by his global
consciousness project,

one date stands out
above all others.

[ Sirens wailing ]

Nelson: We explored the data
around 9/11

because there were changes.

This shows a little more
than a week around 9/11.

Here, right in the middle,
is September 11th,

and this little block
respects the time

when the first plane hit

to the time
when the last building fell.

Freeman:
On that fateful day,

Roger's global network
recorded random-number data

second by second.

Nelson: Here, we already have
some activity

that doesn't
really look normal,

and at this point,
which is 4:30 in the morning,

the data really changed
and took off in a way

that I think
is highly significant.

This is an aberration
in the random walk,

and it happens to be centered
on 9/11,

and it happens that in order
to be centered on 9/11,

it started before
the first plane hit.

We don't have
an explanation for that.

Freeman: 9/11 was the first
and only time

the global consciousness network
responded to an event

before it actually began.

Roger believes it shows
human consciousness

does not just react
to major events --

it is an inextricable
part of them.

But the nature
of that connection

is still unclear.

One of the really hard questions
that we're dealing with

is how it works.

Is it a global consciousness
that we can sort of imagine

but we can't perceive directly?

Is it a global consciousness
having a premonition?

And we honestly cannot say
what of those things

it could be.

Freeman:
Is this the first evidence

of cosmic consciousness?

Something that's part
of the very fabric

of the Universe?

This man believes it is.

He claims he has evidence
that each one of us

has an extraordinary
mental power

to predict the future.

The future
is always out there...

Just beyond our reach.

The question is,

can we ever perceive it
before it becomes the present?

We've all had gut feelings

that something
is about to happen.

Now researchers claim
to have proof

that those feelings
are more than superstition.

They could be coming
from your sixth sense.

Dean Radin,
a senior scientist

at the Institute
for Noetic Science,

is a leading voice in the study
of the sixth sense.

Radin: Most people
at one time or another

have an experience
that they might call

an intuitive hunch
or a gut feeling.

A prototypical case
is driving down the road

and you're coming
to an intersection,

and you just get a bad feeling,
so you slow down.

Something feels spooky.

[ Truck horn blares ]

[ Tires screech ]

And a truck goes through
the red light

and would've hit you broadside
if you had not slowed down.

But what is that?

Sometimes it's coincidence.

Sometimes people make up things.

The presentiment experiment

is a way of seeing
whether or not, in principle,

that sometimes
it's actually because

you're getting your future --
your future experience.

You put your arm up.

Freeman: Dean has developed
a scientific method

to test whether people
can really anticipate events

in the future --

an ability he calls
presentiment.

Today, he's working with
a volunteer, Janet.

Okay, have fun.
Thanks.

Freeman: He has asked her
to look at a series of images

on a computer monitor

while he records her body's
physiological responses.

What she looks at are
a randomized series of photos --

some bland,

some emotionally charged.

Dean charts
Janet's skin conductors,

a measure of her stress level,

against the types of images
she was seeing.

What Dean and any other
psychological research

should expect to find

is a sharp change
in the response

right after
an emotionally jarring image.

But that's not what he finds.

Dean: This line shows where
the actual picture shows up.

So if this picture
shows up here,

you would think that
there shouldn't be

any difference in
the overall average

of the emotional pictures

and overall average
of the calm pictures.

But when she sees an emotional
picture, there's a bump up.

So, now we go backwards in time
five seconds before,

and we can see
that from that moment

that if it's going to be
an emotional picture,

she's already becoming emotional
as compared to the calm.

This difference is what I call
a presentiment response.

Freeman:
According to Dean's research,

Janet's body is responding
to the pictures

five seconds before
she sees them.

It's the same effect
he's found in hundreds of trials

over the past 30 years.

All of his subjects
show this presentiment response.

Rabin: It appears as though
the information

is leaking backwards in time.

What this experiment suggests

is that there's some kind
of anticipatory effect

that's five seconds.

We don't know what the limit is.

Freeman:
If our minds really can see

into the future...

How can we explain it
scientifically?

Kaku:
In the 1860s,

during the time
of the American Civil War,

physicist James Clerk Maxwell
in England

worked out the entire theory
of light and electromagnetism.

What Maxwell showed
is that light,

this mysterious thing
that pervades our Universe,

is actually a wave.

So we now know that light
is nothing but a wave

of electricity and magnetism
oscillating together.

Think of a dancer waving
this gigantic flag.

The hand motion comes first,

and then the wave
starts to unfurl.

But let me let you in
on a dirty little secret.

There is a second solution
to Maxwell's equation

that has haunted physics
for the last 150 years.

There are also
these bizarre advanced waves --

solutions that allow you
to see the future.

Freeman: In the advanced
wave solution,

the flag moves
before the dancer's hand.

Information travels
from the future to the present.

So, could
this alternate solution

to one of the basic laws
of physics

explain Dean Radin's results?

In the 1950s,
genius physicist Richard Feynman

realized
that advanced wave solutions

were actually mathematical clues

that a new form of matter
existed -- antimatter.

Hmm.

What looks like matter
traveling backwards in time

is actually antimatter
acting perfectly normal.

Kaku: Matter going
backwards in time

is the same as antimatter
going forwards in time.

We thought that maybe,
just maybe,

it might be possible
to see the future,

communicate with our descendents
from the present time.

But here comes Feynman,
who says, "no."

Freeman: Feynman won
a nobel prize for this work.

But Dean Radin isn't convinced
that advanced waves

rippling backwards in time
from the future

can be written off
entirely.

Radin:
In modern physics,

now we at least
have a plausibility argument,

where we can no longer say
that the physical world

makes it impossible.

We know that it is possible.

So the challenge now is to say,

"Well, how do we connect
this missing gap?"

Freeman: Advances in
theoretical physics are one way.

But there is another --

more evidence.

This researcher
could be the man

who finally
convinces the world

that the sixth sense

is real.

Scientists have been
searching for evidence

of the sixth sense
for well over a century.

If it exists,

it can't be as strong
as the other five senses.

Otherwise, we wouldn't
still be arguing about it.

But if we can prove
that the sixth sense is real,

it won't matter how weak it is.

It would turn modern science
on its head.

Daryl Bem has had
a long and successful career

as a Professor of Psychology
at Cornell University.

Now he, too, has turned
his focus to the sixth sense.

I wanted to do work
on precognition or premonition

because it just boggles the mind

to think that the future
can affect the past.

Freeman: Daryl has spent
the last eight years

testing this very question.

A person is shown two curtains

and are told that behind
one of the curtains

will be a picture

and behind the other
is a blank wall.

And their task
is to pick the curtain

that has the picture behind it.

Freeman:
Just like Dean Radin,

Daryl is trying to see
whether people can anticipate

future events.

Bem: The computer waits until
they've made their selection,

and then, without cheating
by looking at what they did,

it flips a coin.

Freeman: Most of the time,
their success rate is 50/50.

In other words,
they're guessing.

But when and only when

the computer shows
erotic images,

subjects can predict
what's behind the curtain

53% of the time --

a small
but statistically significant

beating of the odds.

Daryl believes this ability
to sense erotic opportunities

in the future

has developed
over millions of years.

It was shaped by evolution
to give individuals an edge

in finding mates.

Evolution rides on
reproductive advantage --

the ability to seek out
and have sexual opportunities.

So it makes sense
evolutionarily

to think that precognition
or something like it

would certainly serve
reproductive advantage

and survival advantage.

Freeman:
If he's right,

Daryl has revealed
a completely unexpected aspect

of human nature.

Time may not flow neatly
in one direction.

And humans,
being evolutionary survivors,

have learned to use that
to their advantage.

Bem: I call it
"Feeling the future"

because it tries to
get in the fact

that the future
is able to affect

both your thoughts --
cognition -- and your emotions.

Freeman:
When it was published

in the Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology,

Daryl's article
caught worldwide attention.

Sixth-sense research,
long on the fringes of science,

is moving ever closer
to the mainstream.

There's more
sixth-sense stuff around

than we are maybe
willing to acknowledge

because we are processing
much more information

on a continuous basis
than we are aware of.

Persinger:
It's clearly physical,

it's tied to
small amounts of energy,

and it tells us
that there's a connection

between us
and our world around us

that we haven't previously
fathomed.

Bem: We're at the point
where we can show

that we have anomalous findings.

And what do we mean
by anomalous?

It means it doesn't fit
into the current structure

of how we conceptualize
physical reality.

We're looking at the edge of
what's known.

Radin: I think we can say
with high confidence

that in the realm
of psychic phenomena,

something interesting
is happening.

Freeman:
Is there a sixth sense?

That's not even the right
question to ask anymore.

Mainstream brain research
has already uncovered

previously unknown
sensory pathways.

But whether our thoughts
can join a global mind

or whether we can sense
the future,

we only have fragments
of evidence so far.

In the end,
we will find the answers

because they're all...

Right here.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==