Humans may be able to see magnetic fields

[Human No More]

...except no such effect has been documented. A blind person's sense of touch/smell is often actually exaggerated out of optimism or a feeling that 'they must be better somehow because they have this obvious disadvantage' - in essence, a non-blind person can learn to use their senses as effectively, but it just takes practice that many people will never have the motivation to keep up.

[apache_blanca]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Can humans sense Earth's magnetism? Human retina protein can function as light-sensitive magnetic sensor
This is amazing - of course this is just a first step, but it seems that human retina has the ability to sense magnetic fields. ...If I visualize this literally as something perceived with the eye (and this study points to it), I imagine a world that is glowing , that all plants and animals would show patterns and even the Earth itself would "glow". Maybe Earth was Pandora for us after all before we forgot how to "see" it.

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Well as I said I can imagine that it is a more subconscious thing or we have lost the ability to consciously perceive. It could manifest in a scenery to look eerie or calming or sickening or beautiful without any obvious reason for that - or it could lead to us intuitively knowing where to go to get back to the car or if a person is standing next to us or not, but we might loose that ability if it is dark or close the eyes (which usually is something that is done in experiments to exclude visual interference). It certainly would be an interesting research to prove or disprove that, I hope it will be done

would be interesting, yes, & hopefully not brushed off as something "not enough scientific". I know about one guy who always saw "colored circles around people & everything" & was pretty much surprised when, at age 22, he discovered that not everybody saw the world like him! Also, I heard quite a bit about kids that saw "light circles & lines". Imho - yes, the ability is there, but since it is not trained, not used, & moreover, denied & scoffed at ("stop talking nonsense, you're a big boy/girl") then it goes into "hibernation mode". Like, I used to speak fluent French - but after years without the practice, now I can hardly remember 4 words. Which doesn't mean I have no talent for the languages; I simply forgot.

Some adult people I know perceive these things - but they are shy to talk about it for the fear of being laughed at.

[Human No More]

That would be like forgetting how to hear. Even if you ignored it, it would be there. I'm sure some people believe they can see 'extra' things, but it's like people who claim to be psychic, all properly executed (properly controlled to avoid confirmation/disproval bias) experiments and peer-reviewed studies have disproved it.

Just because there is a potential doesn't mean it is present as an ability/feature - humans are still capable of having tails, among other features, it just isn't expressed and the tail disappears at an early stage of development, but could easily be engineered to be fully expressed again (I want a tail...).

[auroraglacialis]

Originally Posted by Human No More

in essence, a non-blind person can learn to use their senses as effectively, but it just takes practice that many people will never have the motivation to keep up.

I did say nothing to the contrary of this. Of course this comes from practice, it also shows that the capabilities of humans to preceive with their senses are in many cases a lot higher than what people actually use. So all I try to say is that there are sensory possibilities that we are not aware of - or rather that we are only aware of if we see others use it (and even then we are sceptical)

Originally Posted by apache_blanca

Imho - yes, the ability is there, but since it is not trained, not used, & moreover, denied & scoffed at ("stop talking nonsense, you're a big boy/girl") then it goes into "hibernation mode"

Yes interesting. I do not know if this is really related, but this would be what I mean by saying that perceptional ybilities may be lost. Actually if you ask children, they can often describe very different perceptions of the world. This is shrugged off as fantasy, but who knows...

It could also really be that some people do have other sensory perceptions than others, so some may have more acute hearing or vision than others. Like red-green-blindness. Or like me hearing high pitched signals better than my friends (these audio-based repellants of rodents or insects really are annoying).

Originally Posted by Human No More

That would be like forgetting how to hear. Even if you ignored it, it would be there.

I would not really compare it that way. more like a dulling of a sense. If the sense is not every pronounced in the first place, I think it could get lost, especially if it is not one that expresses itself consiously. We all loose some sensory ability or never learn to use them. Like the fine tactile senses the blind people learn to use again, or certain tases and smells. One thing for example is the internal senses - we all get inputs to our brains on what our stomach and bowels do among others, but we are consiously aware only of a few of these internal senses - but they do have their expression in the subconscious and there are people who have abilities to "listen" to them more thoroughly.

psychic, all properly executed (properly controlled to avoid confirmation/disproval bias) experiments and peer-reviewed studies have disproved it.

Well there is this one: http://www.psy.unipd.it/~tressold/cm...reeResp010.pdf on "telepathy"
Not that I say all claims of psychics are true - in fact I think there are vastly more total frauds out there than any remotely honest people and I am usually extremely sceptical about such. So I do not really want to say that all the psyhics and dowsers and all that are real - far from it. I think a lot of that is bullsh1t, but I do not want to dismiss the possibility that some things are possible either.

Just because there is a potential doesn't mean it is present as an ability/feature - humans are still capable of having tails, among other features, it just isn't expressed and the tail disappears at an early stage of development, but could easily be engineered to be fully expressed again (I want a tail...).

Yeah - a tail would be awesome in some ways - Though I guess those humans born with it today usually do see it the other way - ok, more the parents see it another way if they get a baby that has a tail and let the surgeons remove it.
But the example with the tail shows, that there is for example a chance that some things are expressed in some or few people only. So maybe this is expressed in a few people only?

So as kind of a disclaimer, I want to add that of course I'd also prefer to see more studies on this and I think that will be exciting, this thread is purely speculative