More than five senses

Intuition, balance, and body awareness

When we talk about our perception, we usually think of the classic five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But humans possess additional, often overlooked abilities that shape how we experience the world.

The sense of balance (vestibular sense) ensures that we can move safely through space. It governs orientation, posture, and movement – a constant, unconscious foundation of our actions. Without it, we would be unable to walk, run, or even sit upright. This sense is supported by the interaction of the inner ear, the eyes, and the sense of touch: together they provide additional information that helps us remain in balance.

The sense of depth (proprioception) goes a step further: it gives us awareness of our body’s position, even without looking. Every gesture, every step, every fine movement is based on this “inner map”. Countless sensory cells in muscles, tendons, and joints continuously send information to the brain about the movement and position of our body parts. This allows us to know, even in the dark, whether we are lying down, sitting, or standing, and where up and down are.

Beyond that, there exists the mysterious sixth sense – a capacity within consciousness. This refers to subtle forms of perception: intuition, gut feelings, premonitions. This quiet sensing escapes clear measurability, yet for many people it is just as real an experience as seeing or hearing.

This shows that our perception is far more complex than the classical categories suggest. It is a symphony of conscious and unconscious impressions, of measurable sensory channels and elusive inner intuitions – and it is precisely in this richness that its fascination lies.

Genuine experience

Our senses work best when we train them – much like muscles that grow stronger and more skillful through regular practice. In everyday life, our eyes are almost constantly glued to screens, while our bodies move very little and the other senses remain largely unused. Without conscious attention, our perceptual abilities begin to wither.

We are gradually giving up more and more of our own senses and abilities – our sense of direction to navigation apps, our personal experiences to media information, our body awareness to health and fitness apps, and our creative power to Artificial Intelligence. In this way, we become dependent on digital devices and machines that increasingly take over cognitive and sensory processes for us. When we do not use and challenge our senses, we rely more heavily on digital tools, which in turn further weakens our sensory abilities – a self-reinforcing vicious cycle.

Surely you have experienced this before:

You stand before a beautiful sunset. The colors in the sky shift gently, glowing in ever-changing shades – fiery red, orange, violet. From a distance, you hear the chirping of birds, their dark silhouettes outlined against the display of colors. You feel the last warmth of the day on your skin, the earth beneath your feet, breathe in the evening air – and, moved by the beauty of the moment, you reach for your phone to take a picture. Later, you want to enjoy it, perhaps even share it with others.

But what remains in this picture of what you truly experienced?
Not much more than the idea of what unfolded around and within you. A picture shows a lot – but by far not everything we can perceive in reality. Here are the most important things that a photo cannot fully convey or can only convey partially:

Depth Perception / Sense of Space

• A photo is two-dimensional
• In reality, we see in 3D, thanks to both eyes, movement, and perspective
• Size, distance, and spatial arrangement are often distorted in a photo

Movement & Time

• A photo only freezes a single moment
• Dynamics, rhythm, change, or sequences are missing
• Mood can feel completely different when movement is not seen

Sounds

• Voices, music, wind, or even silence…
• All of these acoustic impressions are missing

Smells

• Scent of flowers, food, rain, forest…
• Smells strongly shape the atmosphere – but they are not present in a photo

Temperature & Physical Sensation

• Warmth, cold, humidity, wind on the skin
• A photo shows it indirectly (e.g. snow), but you only feel it at most associatively

Touch / Haptics

• How something feels (soft, rough, smooth…)
• Physical contact, sense of material – not depictable
• At best, macro photography could show details that convey a sense of texture or surface, but the real haptic experience remains inaccessible

Atmosphere / Mood / Energy / Frequency

Photos often convey only the visual part of a mood. However, many impressions arise only through the combination of all senses and by being present on site:

• Mood of the people
• Emotional tension
• The “vibe” of a place
• Liveliness

Context & Meaning

• A photo shows what, but not always why
• Background knowledge, history, and personal connection are missing

Focus & Attention

• When you are there yourself, you decide where to look
• A photo already decides for you – you lose your own perception

Personal Emotion

• Your feelings in the moment (e.g. joy, awe, gratitude)
• The mood may appear different or weaker in photos

Humans are complex beings. They perceive continuously, multisensorially, and in a hyper-complex way – not only through the senses, but also through the subconscious, which constantly processes information without their conscious awareness.

Digital media cannot capture this fullness. They reduce reality, filter it, show only partial aspects – never the whole. A photo shows the world – but flat, silent, and without the senses. What remains is a fragment, a shadow of what once was. Even videos and virtual realities, which simulate sensory experiences, are ultimately just artificial models – technical constructs of a world that is infinitely richer, more vibrant, and deeper than any medium could ever convey.

Genuine experience is also called qualia (singular: quale). The term comes from the philosophy of mind and perception and describes how something feels – that is, the inner, personal experience of a sensory impression, which can only be experienced by oneself.

That is why the texts and images on Reisinn primarily serve as inspiration:

Out into the open – to experience with all your senses and to sharpen them. Perceive more, replace less with digital means. No longer just quickly document and move on with the motto: “I’ve got it in the photo.” A misconception, as we now know.

Consciously perceive the moment and pause, so that the uniqueness of what you see resonates deeply within you.

Even if artificial intelligence could one day create perfect sensory illusions –
Who experiences them?
The human. Not the machine.