The great Greek philosopher Aristotle declared more than 2,000 years ago that “nothing is in the intellect which was not first in the senses.”

In other words, man will not even be able to think or know anything if his sensory faculties are not functioning or are impaired.

As everybody knows, there are only five senses, namely: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste—although some claim there is a sixth sense. 

All these five senses are important for the normal functioning of the human being. A malfunctioning or impairment of any of these five creates difficulties and an unbalanced growth or development of an individual.

But the impact of the impairment of any of them is not of the same degree. For example, one can still function normally though his sense of smell or taste is impaired. But not if his sense of hearing or sight is damaged. It is obvious that the impairment of our sense of sight is the most devastating.  Next is the sense of hearing.  I shall limit this discussion to the importance of our sense of hearing.

Normal baby

I remember the case of a six-year-old boy we shall call Mario.  He was born a healthy, normal baby.  His parents are both highly intelligent professionals with a college education.

When Mario was three years old, his parents noticed he began talking at a later age than his brothers and sisters.  They thought he was just delayed in developing this skill.  But when he started going to school, the teachers noticed that he was quiet most of the time and did not respond quickly when called.  He was diagnosed as a slow learner with a somewhat low IQ.

His parents could not believe such a diagnosis. They had the boy tested and he was found to be normal.  When at last this sense faculty was examined, it was discovered that he had a hearing impairment.  When this was corrected by installing a hearing aid, his performance not only improved, but his IQ rose to above average.

Our sense of hearing enables us to appreciate the sounds of nature around us— the song of the birds, the crash of the ocean waves, the rustle of the wind.

It was found that children whose parents talk to them frequently or read to them daily develop much faster in intelligence and personality compared to children who were not exposed to various sounds.

In studies conducted in Western countries, it was found that hearing impairment can and does result in personality disorder. Deaf people also exhibit many autistic-like features and some psychiatric disorders.

So, how important is the sense of hearing to man’s development? The answer is obvious.

The human ear can only hear sounds within a certain range.  Beyond that, it cannot hear anything.  But some animals, like dogs, can hear a far wider range of sounds than humans.  That’s why a dog whistle can be heard by dogs, but not by us.

But do you know that there are certain people who can hear conversations and voices from a distance? This is actually a psychic ability called “clairaudience,” meaning “to hear clearly from afar,” in contrast to “clairvoyance,” which means “to see clearly something that cannot be seen by ordinary sense of sight.” Seeing ghosts or spirits is an example of clairvoyance.

One very extraordinary example of clairaudience that I still clearly remember, although it happened so many years ago, was this incident I witnessed in the early ’60s, when I was not aware of these so-called psychic or paranormal abilities.

Sixth floor

I was on the sixth floor of our office building one lunch time.  An officemate named Greg was looking down at the street below through a closed glass window.  He saw two of our female co-employees talking under the shade of a tree. Greg said he heard what one of them was telling the other. When both girls went up, Greg said, “I know what you told her when you were talking under the tree earlier.” The girl challenged him to tell what he heard.  He said, “You were telling her that you just broke up with your boyfriend and the reason for the breakup.”

The other girl confirmed what Greg said.  But he could not have heard that conversation because he was with me on the sixth floor and the girls were on the ground.  Even if the windows were open, he could not have possibly heard that conversation.

This incident stuck in my mind for many years for the sheer physical impossibility of its happening.  Greg never experienced the same thing again. It was only after many years of research that I understood that such an incident was possible.

The next Inner Mind Development seminar, which includes visualization, will be on Sept. 12-13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Soulmates, Karma & Reincarnation” seminar will be on Sept. 19  from 1 to 7 p.m. Interested parties may call tel. nos. 8107245 or 0998-9886292, or e-mail  [email protected].