The Sixth Sense

Let’s begin this section with a little fantasy: You are in a dark space, a complete void. You cannot see a thing; you cannot hear a sound, there are no smells and no flavors, and there is nothing you can touch around you. Now imagine being in this state for such a long time that you forgot you ever had senses that could feel such things. Eventually, you even forgot that such sensations could exist.

All of a sudden, a faint aroma appears. It grows stronger, surrounds you, but you can’t pinpoint its location. Then, more fragrances appear, some strong, some weak, some sweet and some sour. Using them, you can now find your way in the world. Different aromas come from different places, and you can begin to find your way by following them.

Then, without forewarning, sounds appear from all around you. There are many kinds of sounds; some like music, some like words, and some are simply noise. But the sounds provide additional orientation in that space.

Now you can measure distances, directions; you can guess the sources of the smells and the sounds you are receiving. This is no longer just a space you’re in; it’s a whole world of sounds and scents.

After some time, a new revelation is made when something touches you. Shortly after, you discover more things you can touch. Some are cold, some are warm, some are dry, and some are moist. Some are hard and some are soft; some you can’t decide which they are. You discover that you can put some of these objects in your mouth, and that they have distinct flavors.

By now you are living in a plentiful world of sounds, smells, sensations, and flavors. You can touch the objects in your world, and you can study your environment.

This is the world of the blind-from-birth. If you were in their shoes, would you feel that you needed the sense of sight? Would you even know that you don’t have it? Never, unless someone told you about it or you’d had it before.

The same is true for the sixth sense. Without Kabbalah books, we’d never know we had once had it. Although we don’t remember having this sense, we all had it prior to the breaking of Adam ha Rishon, of which we are all parts.

The sixth sense operates much like the five natural senses. The only difference is that the sixth sense is not given by nature; we have to develop and cultivate it. In fact, the name “sixth sense” is a bit misleading because we are not actually developing another sense; we are developing an intention, a new approach to our perception of reality.

While developing this intention, we study the Creator’s Forms, the Forms of Bestowal, opposite from our natural egoistic makeup. This is why the sixth sense is not given to us by Nature; it is opposite from us.

Building the intention over each desire we feel is what makes us conscious of who we are, who the Creator is, and whether or not we want to be like Him. Only if we have two options before us can we make a true choice. Therefore, the Creator does not force us to be altruistic, like Him, but shows us who we are, who He is, and lets us make our own free choice. Once we’ve made our choice, we become the people we intend to be: Creator-like, or not.

Why, then, do we call the intention to bestow “the sixth sense”? The answer is simple: by having the same intention as the Creator, we become Creator-like. This means that we not only have the same intention, but because we have developed equivalence of form with Him, we see and perceive things we would not perceive otherwise. We actually begin to see through His eyes!