Connecting the Dots

We have seen it happen time and time again. Somehow animals seem to know when some disaster is about to strike. Amazingly some humans can also sense the same, and the reason behind this is interestingly simple.

So how do animals know to go to higher ground and let us humans catch the wave when there is a tsunami approaching? Why do dogs start to bark before an earthquake strikes? Why do seemingly animals outperform humans in every area when it comes to a life endangering situation?

Humans that can predict disasters just before they happen are not oracles of have a gift of future vision. They simply can sense things that most people have chosen to ignore or be distracted from.  An Iphone and a Blackberry are wonderful advancements in technology, but they distract you and allow you to tune out the rest of the world. Animals however are constantly in survival mode. They are constantly watching out for predators and other things that signal danger.

As for humans, we have social structures that rely on others to warn us of danger, so as a result we have allowed a part of our survival sense to become inactive. The weather is predicted and so are other things that we formerly had to look out for. Animals however do not have this luxury and must rely on all their senses looking for something that is out of place.

The humans that can sense things are very aware of their surroundings and can actually feel when things are out of place. But admittedly not everyone has the same heightened ability, but we all have some. Some are more in tune to nature where others are more in tune to other people as with Connecting the Dots. We base our predictions on human behavior, where others look at things like what animals are doing, the leaves on trees, what the air feels like and so on. They can quickly connect the dots as to what it all means simply based on feelings.

In some cases science has provided us with some things to look for. An example may be receding water before a tsunami or turned up leaves on a tree tend to be a predictor of rain. But of you are jacked in to your MP3 player, you may not even here the sound of an approaching storm until it is on top of you.

Being focused on a task or multitasking also hinders our ability to sense when things are wrong. Our higher level of intellect tends to distract us with tasks and takes from our ability to sense things. A similar example is talking on the phone while driving. Our driving skills are reduced as our brain is multitasking between trying to not sound like an idiot on the phone, navigating and not crashing into the stopped car in front of you.

Here is a fun little experiment that will help you better understand how things work.