Hello, everyone, and welcome to Chatterbox, the QLoop series, which features interesting conversations between native speakers about fascinating topics.
And joining me today as my co -host is, as always, Anna.
Hey there, Anna. How's it going?
Hi, Andrew. Hi, everyone.
Nice to see you. Anna, today we are going to talk about a topic that is actually very difficult to say.
And listeners, you can repeat after Anna and I here the name of this title because it is a mouthful.
It is Sixth Sense. Sixth Sense.
Anna, do you want to say that as well, that title, just so that our listeners can try and repeat after you as well?
Sure. Sixth Sense. Sixth Sense.
it's that th after the six it's horrible isn't it it's even hard for me to say it horrible i feel like it's not a very common sound like well that word in general sixth is just really difficult to say so guys if you can nail that one then i think all of the other english words will be very easy for you to pronounce because that's even hard for for me to say and anna as well but anyways guys that is our topic today we're talking about our sixth sixth sense.
And that just means our sense of intuition.
In the previous Chatterbox episodes that have been released over the last few months, we've been talking about the five senses and the standard senses, right?
Like sight and hearing and feeling and touching and smelling.
But in today's episode, we're talking about our sense of intuition, which is what we call our sixth sense.
So we'll get into all of the details and we'll chat about that in just a moment.
But before we do, I want to let everybody know that there is a helpful study guide for this episode available for all Q -Lips members that you can download by visiting our website.
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Okay. And with that being said, Anna, I think we should jump in and get started with our conversation.
conversation. And maybe a good place to start would be just defining what our sixth sense is and what intuition means.
So Anna, would you do the honors?
Could you define and tell us what we mean when we're talking about our sixth sense or we're talking about our sense of intuition?
intuition well for me my definition of a sixth sense is a lot to do with intuition it's this feeling that you have about something that maybe something is good or maybe something is bad and it's just that as i said it's a feeling that you have about a situation you can't really put put your finger on it sometimes, but you just have a sixth sense that something is going to be good or be bad.
And it's not necessarily based on something tangible, right?
Like touch or smell or sight.
It's just a feeling.
And even though it feels almost supernatural, I think sometimes that that we just get this gut feeling that I know we're going to talk about later.
Actually, really, for me, it's just the memories and experiences that you've had in your life.
And your brain is looking through those and making a judgment based on a situation and telling you, I remember that this happened before and that didn't work very well.
Or I remember that this opportunity was really good in the past. So why don't you do this?
So for me, it's actually not not something very supernatural.
It's actually just something totally, totally normal and extremely useful.
I don't know if there's anything you'd want to add to that, Andrew.
Yeah, I think you did a pretty good job at defining it there.
For me, what I think of as intuition or our sixth sense is just, like you said, it's a feeling.
It's like like, illogical, right?
Usually, we're like, I don't know why I just feel like doing this is a bad idea.
And I can't really explain why.
Like, if I look at all of my reasons for doing this thing, if I were to write them down on paper, they all feel good and look good and seem like good decisions, but I still have a bad feeling about it.
And so that's what intuition is.
It's usually like this feeling that doing something is a really good idea or doing something is a really bad idea.
And some people really, really use this sense to guide them with decision making in their lives.
And other people, for whatever reason, don't use it as much. And I'm really interested, Anna, because you said it was very helpful for you.
I'm kind of the opposite.
I don't think that I use intuition too much. Maybe my sense of intuition is pretty dull.
I don't know. But I don't think that I use my intuition to guide me as much. I think maybe I am more of a logical person.
I try to use my sense of logic and deduction rather than just feeling.
And if I can't really explain why I think something is a good idea or a bad idea, then I probably would avoid doing it.
But yeah, Anna, how has it been helpful for you?
I'm curious to learn more about that.
well it's interesting because I definitely had a different experience to you Andrew around intuition six cents and for me it's been a really valuable tool to actually tell me at different points in my life you know what actually I feel like I should be doing something else for example if I'm talking about my career I don't think this is quite right for me and maybe that's not exactly intuition maybe that's just a feeling I don't know but I'm going to put it in the category of intuition.
And I think it's helped me a lot with people also as well.
And there's just some times where I get a bad feeling about a person.
And I'm sure if you're listening to this, you've had this situation as well.
You meet someone and you can't put your finger on it, but there's just something about them that tells you, hmm, I think it's best to have distance with this person.
And I've really trusted that actually, especially when it comes to people.
If I get like a bad vibe or like I said, there's just a sixth sense that this could be somebody that I don't really want to get involved with, then I really do stick to that.
I'm not rude to that person or anything like that, but I trust it.
And I think there's something that my brain is telling me here, because again, to go back to what I said before, your intuition is not not something magical.
It's just your brain telling you things based on your memories and your experience.
So I really do trust it when it comes to people.
And I don't know, maybe I'm too trusting sometimes.
Maybe, I think, probably, Andrew, like you said, there needs to be a little bit of a balance because your brain could also be using memories and experiences that aren't actually helpful for you.
So there's also some logic that definitely should be brought into the situation as well.
But for me, it's been a really, really great tool especially with people but I think that's also because I would consider myself to be somebody that's I find it quite easy to pick up on social situations how people are feeling if I sense that somebody is feeling a little bit angry or a little bit annoyed or I find that quite easy to pick up on so maybe that's why I trust my intuition more in that case but no for me it's definitely been a tool.
And I wonder, Andrew, you mentioned there before that you tend to rely more on logic, but have you ever had a time where you had a gut feeling that turned out to be right?
Well, Anna, now that you put it that way, I'm thinking that maybe I do use my sense of intuition because there are some times in social situations or with meeting people where just the vibe's off, You don't really need to explain it, but you're like, okay, I don't know.
There's something a little bit strange about this person.
Maybe they have ulterior motives and ulterior motives means they have this plan or some goal in mind to take advantage of you.
So sometimes maybe you're shopping for something and the salesperson is being really, really friendly with you, but you can tell that they're being insincere.
Just the vibe is off, right?
They're not really a nice person.
They're just trying to sell you some product or something like that.
And yeah, there are other situations where in my life, in social situations, you can tell there's just something weird and probably it's not a good idea if I become too close to this person.
I should keep an arm's length between us.
So yeah, definitely I use some intuition for navigating social situations in the world.
I was thinking more of intuition as being like, I was just in my car and I was going to make a left -hand turn.
And then I suddenly felt like I can't turn left. Like if I turn left, something bad is going to happen.
So I decided to go straight instead.
And then wouldn't you know it, the car behind me turned left and got into an accident.
That's what I was kind of thinking of with intuition, like this very, very strong feeling of you shouldn't do this or you should do that.
And then something disastrous happens as a result.
But to tell you the truth, I haven't had that situation in my life ever.
How about you? I can't think of any big specific examples, but I get what you mean.
There have been people that have been involved in these maybe disasters or big events.
And they're like there was just something telling me not to do it or not to open the door or not to go on the train, for example.
Yeah, I guess maybe if that's how they felt it, I guess that could be their version of intuition.
For me, maybe it's been more about making decisions with my life.
So i remember that when i moved to spain for example i just had this really strong gut feeling i was like i need to make a change i need to leave and i it was so strong that i mean that's i followed that you know i made the decision to stop and take a different direction in my career when actually i started off really well in my career i feel and i had a lot of potential in that that sector, but I just had this underlying feeling that something wasn't right.
I was like, Anna, if you stay here, not that something bad is going to happen, but things are not going to work out for you.
You're not going to be doing what you should be doing.
Maybe that's more along the lines of what you were talking about with intuition, but I just had that sense, that gut feeling.
Something wasn't settled.
Something wasn't right.
Whereas if I compare that to a a point in my life where I am now.
Of course, my life's not perfect.
There's so many things that I have to improve and get better at.
But I don't have that unsettling feeling where you don't feel like you're quite going in the right direction, if that makes sense.
And I think for me, intuition is so useful because it is your body trying to tell you something.
It's trying to tell you something and you can listen to it or not.
And I guess maybe one way to see it is like it's a tool toolbox.
You can apply logic.
That's a tool. You can use your intuition and you can say, okay, but I'm going to listen to it, but I don't think I'm going to validate that.
But it is your body trying to tell you something, your body and your mind.
So I think it is worth listening to, but I really don't know about these kind of freak events where people say something was telling me not to get on the plane or something was telling me not to take that left. left. I don't know.
I think sometimes in hindsight, it might be easy to think about it like that, but really it was just that you just decided not to turn, to turn left. Right.
But I mean, I don't know who's to tell anybody what their experience was.
Everybody has different experiences in life, but I do definitely feel like intuition is an important, an important tool for me personally, definitely.
And I do think that intuition maybe is a spectrum.
For some people, it could be very strong.
And some people have a very strong sense of intuition.
And then maybe for other people, like for me, not as strong.
And we also talk about it in kind of gendered ways as well.
And I'm not sure if this is the case or not.
But sometimes we talk about mother's intuition, where a mother, or sometimes we talk about women as being more intuitive than men as well.
And I'm not sure if that's the case or if there's anything to that.
But yeah, I could see that maybe a mother is more intuitive and tuned in to like caring for their children, right?
And so they would try to use like every resource that's available to them to help them care for their kids and sort of like almost an instinctual way to raise children.
So maybe mothers have better instincts and intuition than guys like me.
I'm not so sure. But yeah, I don't really feel like my intuition is too strong, unfortunately.
That's really interesting.
Maybe not. I mean, and then I think this then plays into the idea of, you know, almost supernatural stuff as well, where, like you said, some mothers sometimes say they're talking about maybe something that happened to their child.
And they're like, you know, I was just at home and I could just feel that there was something wrong.
And that's a little bit different than the situation we were describing earlier, where you meet somebody and you kind of get a bad vibe.
It's a little bit different, right?
One of them for me personally is a little bit more kind of in the supernatural, spiritual area.
And the other one then is a bit more about sort of relationships and more tangible, right?
Right. So I guess it's a really interesting topic because it's so open, really, isn't it?
It's like, well, you could see it as this sort of weird spirit that sort of tells you that something is going to go wrong.
But I don't know if I believe in that.
I have to be honest. But I do believe in the, you know, meeting somebody or assessing a situation and getting a feeling about it.
So I don't know. I don't know where that that sits for me.
I wonder then if I could ask you, Andrew, to move the conversation to a slightly different area.
What about in terms of the sixth sense in popular media and culture where you are?
How is the idea of the sixth sense?
Is it viewed in a positive way, in a negative way?
Is it something that's celebrated?
How is it in the culture where you are?
hmm well i guess i could talk about canadian culture intuition yeah i feel like because it's not something that's standard or easily defined like even we're having a little bit of a difficult time talking about exactly what is it and how do we feel it how do we use it because of that i think everybody has a different opinion about it and everybody has a different feeling about it it there's of course in pop culture there's like that movie called the sixth sense that's more about like seeing ghosts and sensing the supernatural right i don't know if i can go that far and when it gets into like the supernatural
with ghosts and being able to see different realms and different creatures and stuff i don't know if i really buy into that personally but i think for for me, like, we do have survival instincts, right?
And sometimes you feel those in your gut.
So for example, I can say I'm not a very intuitive person.
But if I'm walking home at night, I'm going to do certain things to make sure that I can stay safe, right?
Maybe I'm not going to have my AirPods in so that I can keep my ears open and I could listen to some thief or some mugger or something like try and sneak up behind me, right?
You want to use your ears.
Also, if I I know that there's like a really dark alley that's maybe a quick shortcut to to get home or there's like a little bit of a longer route that I could take but it's well lit and there's more people there then I'm going to take the well -lit street where more people are at just so I can stay safe.
That's kind of using your survival instincts your survival intuition but to me that's also like logical like that's just something that of course you would do because because that's the safest way to make it from point a to point b so it's kind of intuition but also logic at the same time but it's funny though have you ever had that feeling and maybe you have as well guys where you just get the sense that somebody's watching you and you can't see them but you just get like we have this phrase in english where we say like somebody's eyes burning into the back of my head i don't know you just get
a feeling that somebody's looking at you and you kind of turn around and you're like hey and maybe they sort of turn their head very quickly to look away but that's this weird intuition sense and i guess that probably comes from the fact you know that we're we are animals at the end of the day but it's like you get a sense a feeling that somebody's watching you maybe that's that prey predator thing i imagine that's kind of programmed into all animals that you just kind of feeling that you're being watched.
And that's definitely one thing I would put in that category because you can't see them.
You can't see them literally standing in front of you.
You don't have a visual, but you just get the feeling that you're being watched.
And that can be a little bit of a freaky, weird experience, but I've definitely had that happened to me and and I know that other other people have as well it might not be anything serious it could just be something silly like at work or whatever you just get the sense that somebody's looking at you maybe they're angry with you or something like that um or it could be in a more sinister way right but yeah I don't know sometimes I just get that feeling that somebody's like looking at me or maybe I've got something on my face like pen on my face or something like this and you can kind of you kind of feel
that everyone's looking at you so yeah so So I would put that in that category as well.
But like you said, I mean, yeah, there is that feeling of especially walking down a dark path, like you said, you know, in a way that is just common sense.
It's like, it's dark.
I probably shouldn't go there.
So, you know, is that your gut feeling or is that just common sense?
I don't know. It's a really good question.
And I think it might be a little bit cultural as well.
I remember when my wife and I were in Hawaii, we took the city bus and when we got on the the bus.
My wife got on the bus first and then she sat down right behind this couple.
And I was getting like the, I guess here's a good example.
I was getting a gut feeling like this couple is not the kind of couple that you want to sit behind.
Just like the way that they were moving their movements and their speaking was a little bit erratic.
And I was like, these are some people who are maybe on drugs right now.
That's the kind of vibe that I was getting.
And I know that because I've lived in big cities in Canada, where you get exposed to being around drug addicts from time to time.
And you can sort of learn about different behaviors and signals and stuff that people who are high on drugs give off.
And yeah, you maybe just don't want to like get involved with those kinds of people, especially not when I'm on vacation in in a different country, right?
So if I were the leader, I would have sat on like the other side of the bus or towards a different area where we would be away from them and we wouldn't have any interaction with them.
But because my wife got on first, she sat directly behind them.
And it turned out that nothing happened.
It was totally fine.
But I think my wife didn't have that kind of gut feeling or interaction just because here in Korea, there's no real drug problems, thankfully.
And she hasn't really been exposed to those kinds of people.
And she wouldn't be aware of the different signs and behaviors that people who are high on drugs give off.
And so yeah, for me, sometimes I guess this is a big conversation about people.
And I like we do use our intuition a lot to read the vibe and different body language and signs that people give off.
But in that moment, I realized like, oh, my wife doesn't have maybe some of the same intuition that I do about certain behaviors and certain actions that other people give off in this kind of specific situation.
At least that was my vibe.
I have no idea. Maybe the people were just like, not high at all.
But I kind of got that feeling that they were.
Sure. And this is the thing that's also important to come back to your intuition isn't always right.
And even though that I feel like intuition is an important tool, I think there is a recognition that actually maybe sometimes your intuition could hold you back.
You might get a sense of somebody or something, a situation, and then maybe you decide not to engage with that person or you decide not to do something and actually it could hold you back because maybe your intuition isn't right.
And I think you highlighted a really important point there, which is, you know, your intuition, again, it's not something magic.
In my opinion, it's just your brain looking at all the memories and all the experiences that you have and it's giving you a feeling based on that so of course everybody's memories and everybody's experiences are different so it's completely not surprising that people would react differently in different situations you might put me in the same position and i might not get a gut feeling that something is is is bad but somebody might get that feeling so i think it totally depends on the person and different people pick up on different things but i guess your intuition isn't always right.
I'm trying to think of times when I haven't been right about people specifically, I would say.
And there's definitely been times when I initially got a really weird vibe from somebody.
And this sometimes happens when I'm teaching or have been teaching in the past mainly because I used to meet a lot more people.
And not that they were weird, but maybe Maybe they would give me an aggressive vibe or maybe that they were a little bit unhappy.
And I would really pick up on that.
And I really got a sick sense around who they were as a person.
But then actually sometimes when you take people out of a learning environment, because one thing I've learned is that when people are learning and they're concentrated, I don't know if you found this, Andrew, and maybe if you're listening to this, you'll be like, oh yeah.
Yeah. Sometimes when people are concentrating, they look very angry.
They don't smile when people concentrate.
They tend not to smile because they're thinking so much and they can get quite stressed sometimes if they don't understand things.
And so it can come across as if they're really angry.
I found this. Maybe they are actually.
Maybe you're listening to this and thinking, no, Anna, probably they just didn't like you very much. It could be that.
That's it's also one possibility.
But I do think there is an element of when you take people out of a learning environment, and then you're like, Oh, actually, they're much more relaxed and much more easygoing than they came across initially.
So again, sometimes that comes back to that classic English phrase of you can't judge a book by its cover, even though that's more focused on appearances.
I'm going to put it in that category as well of, you know, So sometimes your impression about somebody at the beginning isn't always right.
And maybe we could also put that into the category of intuition and sixth sense about people.
So yeah, I guess your intuition isn't always right.
Some people just make a bad first impression, right?
I've had people that I've met where initially I thought, you know, this person is a little little bit rude, or we didn't have a great start to our relationship.
And then later on, you're like, Oh, my God, you're actually like a really nice person.
I thought you hated me at first. Right.
And then once you get a little bit closer, then you realize that that was totally wrong.
It was just the first impression was weird. And I've had that as well, when I meet people, because I'm pretty shy and reserved and quiet when I meet people in certain social situations at first, But then after we have this expression, you come out of your shell.
And although I might be a little bit quiet or reserved at first, once I get closer with people, then I'm actually very, very talkative, unfortunately.
So some people think I'm like really quiet at the start, and then it's not so much the case.
So maybe I've even given off that first impression before.
And I had one final thing that I wanted to talk to you about in regards to this topic.
And it's about the animal world.
Because sometimes we say that animals have this sixth sense and that, you know, I'm sure you've heard stories on the news before about like birds or, or dogs or different animals who have like run away before an earthquake or a tsunami hits.
And sometimes we hear about animals that have this ability to flee danger before it happens, before humans realize, right?
Like there's a hurricane coming and all the animals left. Why are they going away?
It's like, oh, it's because three days later, a hurricane is going to hit.
Like, how did they know they had this kind of sixth sense or this intuition?
Or maybe they're tuned in to some kind of phenomenon that's happening out there that just humans can't tune into.
to. Have you ever heard these stories of animal sixth sense or anything like that?
Yeah. I mean, the classic thing is like when cows are lying down, right?
If cows are lying down, it's going to rain.
Really? I never heard that before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
So when cows are lying down, it's probably going to rain or it might rain.
And it's actually not really a sixth sense.
I don't think they're just picking up on on atmospheric changes in the environment.
But I actually think that with animals, it's more actually the senses that they're relying on.
So they have a much more acute sense of hearing.
So even though it might seem like, oh my goodness, how did they sense that?
Actually, it's because they're much more in tune with certain things.
Dog sense of smell, for example, some animal's sense of hearing, they're just able to pick up on cues that we we don't have. And I'm not sure that animals are able to store memories and experiences in the way that we are as humans.
Again, guys, I'm not an expert.
So maybe they do have a sixth sense.
So maybe there's just something that we don't know about animals.
But I think it's more just that their senses are more acute, rather than they have a sixth sense.
That's my take on it.
I don't know what you think, Andrew.
Yeah, no, I completely agree with you.
I think you're right.
But in a way that is like magic to humans, right?
If you're a cow and you can sense different changes in atmospheric pressure, and humans we can't, that's like magic.
That's cool. Or if you're a dog and you can hear all these different frequencies that the human ear can't, that's like magic.
magic that's amazing so even though it's not really magic or not really a sixth sense to us when we can't sense that then it does feel that way yeah i'm actually wondering now whether my cow lying down theory because it's raining is just like an old wife's tale i've been told since i was younger so please don't take that as verbatim guys please go away and double check that i don't want want to be spreading misinformation um but that was one thing that i um had picked up on and actually i'm just looking at it now just very briefly um it seems to be that actually that may be a complete and utter
lie so there you go some farmers farmers wisdom yeah i've been living a lie my whole life but there i mean it's an example of something that's been passed on in culture about that you know yeah and and probably through observation too right like i'm sure there's been generations and generations and generations of farmers who have noticed like huh before it rains the cows tend to lie down and it might not be like a 100 correlation between the cows lying down and then suddenly rain falling but there's probably some connection there which is why it's it's passed down and that's why it's an old wives
tale right it well and i think this is a good place to wrap up our conversation guys we'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions and your takes about it as well because i do think this is a really interesting topic and something that i'd like to learn even more about as someone who feels like my sense of intuition is pretty lacking and pretty dull i would love to hear from you guys especially if if you feel like your sense of intuition is the opposite of mine, if it's a very sharp and strong sense of intuition, please share your thoughts and opinions.
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Okay, Anna, thank you so much. Please take care.
And guys, we'll catch you all in the next episode.
Until then, bye -bye.
Thanks very much, everyone.
Bye.
