Original subtitles

Most of us believe we only possess five senses,

but there are people who claim we have more,

and that we can learn how to use them.

From talking to the dead to connecting with

the earth's magnetic field, these believers are out there.

I need to meet them.

My father was a scientist

running a top secret government project.

One night in his lab, an experiment went horribly wrong,

rendering him invisible.

Fearing he was disappearing forever,

he rushed home to see my mother.

And nine months later, I was born.

My life's mission is to investigate concepts on

the fringe of science, conducting experiments to test

those claims regardless of taboo or seeming unprovability,

searching for the clues that will make me visible.

I walk on the edge of science.

I am Mister Tachyon.

Many human senses have evolved and been lost through

the history of life on Earth.

Superior senses of smell, sight and sound that were once part of

our biological toolbox became less necessary for survival.

Some people claim that we once had access to senses like

the ability to navigate using the earth's magnetic field,

and that humans could communicate in ways that

transcend the accepted laws of physical nature,

including ESP, the ability to communicate across space using

only your mind, and psi, the ability to speak with the dead.

Measuring a sixth sense is challenging scientifically,

but I still need to investigate.

It could hold the key to unlocking my invisibility.

Some people say they have the ability to view the world

remotely, that they're able to sense information about

distant or hidden locations.

I'm meeting up with remote viewer John Cook to learn more.

What is remote viewing?

Remote viewing is the ability to perceive details of a location

or an activity that is otherwise shielded to you

by it being distant, or it being remote in time or space.

What makes remote viewing unique and testable?

Remote viewing is done under controlled conditions.

The person who's doing the viewing is blind to the nature

of what they're looking at, and it's important that there be

an actual thing that you are viewing.

And so you need to be able to get feedback at the end

to have a looped closure essentially.

Do you get visions, or how does the information come to you?

It's more of a general perception that's happening.

You're getting all sorts of different kinds of detail about

the location or the thing that you're looking at.

It's not coming in in a nice, clean, orderly, visual way.

Is remote viewing an extra sense?

It is a sense that every human being has to varying degrees.

The ability or the aptitude for it is distributed in the general

population probably something like musical inclination is.

Some people can't play a violin to save their life.

Other people, they're four years old,

and they're up onstage and they're blowing your mind.

I'm going to test John and see if he can remote view

a location, and I've recruited a volunteer to help.

So I'm gonna be trying to do a remote viewing session today.

And when you get there, if you could just try to experience

that location as fully as possible,

walk around, look at things, touch things, listen to things,

pay attention to details that are especially interesting,

and we'll see how it goes.

Neither John, the volunteer or myself have any idea

where we are going.

Three distinct locations with recognizable landmarks

were chosen and photographed.

The three photos along with written descriptions were then

placed into sealed envelopes.

After a brief meeting with John,

we travelled to one of the locations.

Again, none of us have any idea where we're going.

Alright, so the target is Tachyon-Ian.

How are you feeling right now?

Kind of skeptical, to be honest with you,

but I'm gonna keep an open mind to it.

We're gonna declare what we call a water gestalt,

which just means that some element of the target

may contain predominantly water.

Biological, is looking at something.

There's a sort of a... a degree of intensity of

looking at a particular thing for some length of time.

Right now I see... I've got the skyline.

I see the waves of the lake coming in.

Descriptors related to the water are that it's energetic,

it's propelled.

And if you listen carefully, you can hear the...

the water hitting the rocks over there.

The structure basically delineates edges of a region.

So it's like there's some function of this structure

that actually is a clear division between regions

for some reason.

In the middle of all this, there is a very specific

upright focal point.

It feels essentially permanent.

How accurate do you expect you'll be?

It varies with remote viewing.

Sometimes it can be spectacularly on.

You can wind up at the end of a session

with three-dimensional clay models that very obviously are

the location that you're talking about.

Other times it's a complete bust.

This is sort of the experience of lan at the site.

Typically you're looking for somewhere between 60+%

of the things that are said and identified to be true

in order to consider it a hit.

And the idea is when it's on, it's really on.

Done.

I got sucked into this fountain thing,

so if they're not at a fountain, I'm fucked.

To measure how John did, I have asked five volunteers

to examine his work and compare it to the information

in the three sealed envelopes.

The volunteers have been given two tasks: try to match

John's work with the contents from one of the envelopes,

and then rank their confidence on a scale between 1 and 5,

with 5 being 100% certain, and 1 being 0% confident.

My hypothesis is that the volunteers will match

John's viewing to the chosen location

with a high degree of confidence.

I selected Envelope 1,

and I give it a confidence rating of 5.

I think #1 is most likely to be this photo,

but I'm probably just #3 confident because

the description was too generic.

I selected #1.

Level 5 confidence.

I selected #1.

I gave it a 5.

4 out of 5 picked the right location.

Only one failed to identify the bridge and water.

Under the circumstances, this is as good as I think

I hoped to do, other than an absolute complete hit.

That would've been awesome, but...

I have to say, John, these results are pretty amazing.

None of the volunteers have any knowledge of the experiment,

and those who chose correctly

had an overall confidence rating of 90%.

John's notes indicate that he immediately linked our location

to moving water, and our location is set beside a river

emptying into a lake.

Predominantly water.

He also noted an upright rigid structure, and another structure

he described as rigid with parallel lines.

When he put all of this information together,

he took the water and structures to be a fountain,

which was not correct, but the description also resembles

the rock feature and the bridge.

Overall, John's description seemed accurate

in a number of ways, and my volunteers confirmed this.

While I only ran one trial with John,

the results are very interesting

and compel me to continue with my investigation.

Next, I wanna meet someone who believes

they can speak with the dead.

I'm investigating whether humans possess

or can develop additional senses.

My experiment with remote viewer John Cook was compelling,

and I am motivated to continue my investigation.

I've found a woman who claims to have been connecting with

the spirit world for over 30 years.

She specializes in psychic healing,

and believes her ability can be explained with science.

Everything's heightened when you're doing this work.

Your brain chemistry changes, your physicality changes.

The spirit world, they vibrate at a higher level than us.

We're solid, they're gaseous.

So think of physics and how vibrations are different

according to the state that you're in.

So what's really interesting for me is that I use all five senses

in a heightened state in order to meet with the spirit world.

Carolyn has agreed to participate

in an experiment for me.

She believes her brain changes during her readings.

I don't have any ways of tracking

her communication with the dead, but I can track

her brain's electrical activity with an EEG device.

An EEG uses electrodes that can measure brain waves.

Our experiment will measure four rhythms produced by the brain:

alpha, beta, delta, and theta.

The frequency of each gives us an idea of

how alert a person is.

I'm going to start with a baseline reading of

her brain activity while we have a regular conversation.

These frequencies show her normal brain activity.

I'll then compare these results to her brain frequencies

during three separate readings.

Upon completion, I will debrief with each volunteer.

My hypothesis is that I should see measurable differences

in her brain frequencies between her baseline

and her accurate readings versus when she is not accurate.

I'm hoping to connect with my dad.

Oh my goodness, there's a father figure that's come in.

Is your father in spirit?

Yeah.

I feel like with your dad, there was never a dull moment.

If people got bored, they'd call up your dad and say,

"Okay, well let's do something,"

and he would rise to the occasion.

Today I hope to connect with my father.

Strong working man.

I feel like he carried the world on his shoulders.

Do you understand that?

- Mm-hmm, yes. - Yes? Okay, good.

Part of him wants to apologize for not really taking in all of

who you are, because I think he missed the fun aspects of you.

Hmm.

He's telling me that he now understands that you are very

different outside of the home than you were in the house.

I'm looking to contact my stepdad, Charlie.

He wants you to laugh, he wants you to smile.

He doesn't want you to cry.

He says this is a celebration of me being with you.

I think that's one of the things you whispered to him

before he left, was that... don't leave me.

- Right. - Right?

- Yeah. - And he hasn't.

With the readings finished, I meet with the volunteers.

It was interesting to see the accuracy.

I was pleasantly surprised, I would say.

There were many, many things that...

that you can't tell from a photograph.

Now onto the EEG data.

Carolyn's brain activity changed in unique ways

between the baseline and readings.

During her readings, beta brain waves, showing intense focus,

and theta brain waves, which relate to daydreaming,

were dominant at times.

These two waves are not dominant in her baseline test.

Next, I examine the specific time she gave an accurate

or inaccurate reading to each of the subjects

based on their anecdotal evidence.

Do you understand that?

Yeah, my aunt recently passed.

When Carolyn was reading accurately, her brain was in

a focused or dream-like state 75% of the time.

But he just feels like someone who could do bowling very well.

When her accuracy was off, her brain was mostly in a state

similar to her baseline, or normal.

This data supports my hypothesis,

and there's an interesting correlation between

Carolyn's unusual brain states and her accuracy

reading the subjects tested.

Even with this interesting data, I'm forced to use anecdotal

evidence to gauge how accurate her ability is,

and this prevents me from making a conclusion

in regards to her claim to speak with the dead.

I would also like to examine her brain data when she's focused on

other activities like reading or doing a puzzle.

Now I need to find a less anecdotal way to test accuracy

in individuals who claim to have an extra sensory ability.

I want to connect with someone who claims they have

an extra sense, but one that is grounded in the physical world.

And I've found someone near Seattle

that might be able to help me.

I need to meet him.

I'm exploring the idea that humans possess

or can develop additional senses.

My experiments with a psychic and remote viewer

gave me some interesting results,

and I am eager to continue my investigation.

I found someone whose brain apparently has

a measurable difference in the way it perceives the world.

He claims altered wiring in his brain

allows him to see things geometrically.

The name's Jason Padgett.

I'm a synesthete and acquired savant.

Basically an ability that I have is something that we all have,

but we're not aware of.

A synesthete is a person who senses the world differently.

Some see words in certain colours.

For some, sounds trigger strange sensations.

Others like Jason see the world in math.

Describe your condition for me.

I see motion in picture frames, which makes everything

that was curved looked like it's slightly pixelated,

and seeing things in picture frames makes the way that...

things move and the math behind it much more obvious.

Interesting.

Is this something you were born with?

In 2002, I was attacked by two muggers,

and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the ground

getting punched and kicked from all different directions,

and it damaged the part of the brain that

smooths out picture frames.

So now whenever something moves, I'm aware of the picture frames.

Put it in here, then it winds up being like say 6.28...

It forces you to see in calculus,

which to me is absolutely key to understanding the universe,

reality, everything.

So what do you see when we toss this orange?

So as we toss this orange back and forth,

like for instance, that looks about like -.1x squared.

So that equation describes the arc of this ball due to gravity,

a parabolic arc.

The orange does travel along an arc

that matches Jason's statement.

How does your ability help you describe moving objects in math?

The slower it's getting, the closer the picture frames get,

and the faster it moves, the further the picture frames

get apart from each other.

A good way to describe it is like a flip book.

You know how you can draw a cartoon character on several

different pieces of paper, then you flip the paper

and it looks like the cartoon character moves,

but it looks kinda jittery.

And the more pictures you draw, the smoother it looks.

Is modifying our brains, our bodies to give us extra senses

something that we should do?

Modifying ourselves not only is something that we--

that we should do, but perhaps we are

the natural evolution for computers.

And perhaps event-- the only way for us to keep up with it

is to merge, you know, with computers.

Jason's story raises the question about

modifying ourselves to acquire extra senses.

But the unique and tragic way he acquired his extra sense

makes it impossible to replicate.

I need to find someone who is using other means

to explore the potential for extra human senses.

Some believe that all humans were once connected to

magnetic north as a means of navigation.

Carl Smith is working on a project called North Sense.

It uses technology to help people connect with a sense of

direction that humans have lost along our evolutionary path.

North Sense is the basic aim of trying to give people back

a sense, which is the ability to actually detect north.

The implant is actually just a body piercing,

so the actual sense or the technology is not actually

implanted in the body, and we are basically trying

to establish what effect the North Sense has

on the human condition.

North Sense sounds interesting,

but I need to learn more about this project firsthand.

Carl puts me in touch with someone who already has

the implant, the leader of a group called Cyborg Nest,

Liviu Babitz.

I have the North Sense connected right here to my body.

How does it work?

The way it works is every time you're basically facing

the magnetic north in the certain location you are,

it will give you this short vibration.

The North Sense doesn't ask me, or I don't ask it if I am

interested to know where the north is,

the magnetic north.

It just gives me that information every time.

What do you hope to gain from this extra sense?

When you start searching about the north and the earth magnetic

field, you understand that it's part of everything that we know.

It's everywhere in our traditions,

starting from the feng shui religions.

Nature is built different on the north side

than on the south side.

Animals have this sense.

So the whole thing comes from

a very basic existence of us as humans.

We want to open this door.

We want to start sensing what we can't sense.

I'm going to run an experiment to test if the North Sense

changes Liviu's navigational memory.

To do this, I brought Liviu and two control subjects

who do not have the device to an unfamiliar city,

Breda in the Netherlands.

It's a medieval city with a complex network of streets

and city squares.

From the same starting point, I take each subject on

a disorienting walk to a church in Breda's central square.

Do you know where you are right now?

I have no idea. No, I don't know.

If I asked you to get to where we met,

do you think you'd be able to do it?

No, I think I have no clue where to go, actually.

I'd like for you to make your way back to where we started.

A local familiar with the city could do this walk

in five minutes.

I will map their routes and record the time each subject

takes to complete the test.

My hypothesis is that the North Sense implant will help Liviu

navigate his way back to the meeting point more efficiently

than the control subjects.

With the experiment underway, I head back to the meeting point

to collect the data.

I'm testing a new technology called North Sense.

I've asked two control subjects without the device

and the third with the North Sense, Liviu Babitz,

to navigate an unfamiliar city.

One at a time, each individual set off from the town church.

I recorded their time back to a meeting point

and mapped their route.

My hypothesis is that the ability to detect magnetic north

will enhance Liviu's ability to navigate a confusing network

of streets more efficiently than the controls.

I didn't feel confidence when I was navigating

because I'm very used to using my GPS.

So not having access to my phone when I was doing this

felt kind of unnatural.

When I started the experiment, I didn't know exactly what to

expect, but that feeling that follows me every day of knowing

all the time where the north is is something that's been already

built into my perception of life.

So I expected to feel confident about me going back.

Well, my strategy at the start was I knew the last few turns.

My sense of direction told me it was at a certain place,

and at the same time I had the sense of direction telling me

like where roughly the part we started was.

But by the time I got to the park,

I had no clue where I was, so...

My first control completed the test

in just under seven minutes.

Iris, you found our destination.

I found it!

What was your experience like?

I had no clue where I was.

I was just following some sort of feeling.

Did you feel confident?

Not at all.

Would you implant technology to help you,

to give you a sense of direction?

Yeah, I think it would be very helpful for me.

Only if it's safe.

My second control did not find his way to the meeting point.

We were supposed to meet at the giant block.

Giant block, right.

Yeah, do you have any sense of where that is?

Uh, right now not really.

I probably took the wrong turn out of the park,

because after that I didn't really know where I was going.

Do you feel that having another sense,

something like the North Sense, might've assisted you?

Yeah, I think it would've assisted me for sure.

With the North Sense device, Liviu found his way back

in just over four minutes, arriving at our destination

the fastest out of our three subjects.

What was that experience like for you?

It was very, very exciting.

It's the first time I do something like that.

What role did North Sense play in helping you navigate back?

I have zero visual memories of where we've been all the way

now, and suddenly the North Sense was the main thing that

created the memories or the understanding,

and the hearing and the sight were the secondary things.

Everything that we created as humans

we created because we have senses.

So now add to these senses and imagine

how much more we can create.

This preliminary experiment supported my hypothesis.

Liviu navigated the city better than the other subjects.

To determine if this is due to the North Sense or some other

factor, more testing will have to be done,

but this is a promising start.

My last experiment demonstrated that technology may help enhance

human sensory perception.

Liviu navigated an unknown city better than the other

test subjects, but the results were not overly significant.

More testing with other people connected to the device

is needed.

My experiment with Carolyn was interesting.

While I was not able to determine if she can communicate

with the spirit world, I learned that her brain does change

during readings.

My remote viewing experiment with John came back with

the most interesting results.

The data appears to support the hypothesis that he was able to

view a location remotely.

Do these results constitute evidence of extra senses?

I need to do more experiments.