Why isn't 'Mind' considered a sense

[The Sum of Awe]

I know there are more than 5 senses, but to keep it simpler I'd like to narrow it all down to the basic five, and discuss a 6th)

The senses make us aware of the world around us, through various properties that objects have.

You can comfort the senses. Examples:
1) Sight - Looking at art, light show
2) Hearing - Listening to music, the sound of humming
3) Feeling - Massages, blankets
4) Smell - The smell of flowers or deodorant
5) Taste - Snacks, spices

With the mind you can do the same; blissful memories, nostalgia, thoughts, emotions.

You can discomfort the senses.
1) Sight - Ugliness, too much brightness
2) Hearing - Nails on chalkboard, dog wimpers
3) Feeling - Scratching, bruising
4) Smell - Stench of sweat, or poop
5) Taste - My cooking

Once again, you can discomfort the mind; regrets, fear, anxiety, depression.


You can alter the senses

1) Sight - Visual hallucinations
2) Hearing - Audio hallucinations
3) Feeling - Tactile hallucinations
4) Smelling - Olfactory hallucinations
5) Tasting - Gustatory hallucinations

As for the mind, why couldn't we consider the 'feeling' from intoxication (one of the multiple ways to alter senses) to be a hallucination in the sense of 'mind'?


So what exactly is mind? It is what it 'feels' like to simply 'be'. Some might have it harder to notice it than others, because when we are not sensing it we aren't aware that we aren't.

I'm not saying 'consciousness', I believe, personally, that consciousness is the result of all information received from all functioning senses. Mind is distinct from the other senses because you can know what it 'feels' like (not in the same sense as the 'feeling' sense) to simply think, be, or have emotions without the others.

But if I were to suggest a way to experiment this, I think one of the most accurate ways would be to rid someone of all 5 senses at once temporarily and have them report if there was some 'sense' there.

I'm pretty sure that's impossible, especially the temporarily part. Even if it wasn't we'd need very willful rab-lats, pay them very good money, and i bet still it'd be hard to find just one.

 

[Terese]

Because the mind is the controller of the senses.

 

[Sunstone]

Hey Sum, interesting question. How about you shut down your senses and then take a walk through a forest to see how many trees you bump into using only your mind as a "sense".

 

[psychoslice]

The only thing we can ever know as a human is through our senses, there is so much happening out there that we can never perceive, we are limited by our senses, just like a blind person is, which can only feel the world. Yes we can be very arrogant about what we believe we know, when in fact we really know nothing.

 

[crossfire]

Intellect is considered to be one of the six sense media in Buddhism. The intellect is the sense for sensing and processing ideas. (sorry for the sutta quote in the general discussion area--it is for reference only.)

"'The six internal sense-media should be known': thus was it said. And in reference to what was it said? The eye-medium, the ear-medium, the nose-medium, the tongue-medium, the body-medium, the intellect-medium. 'The six internal sense-media should be known': thus was it said. And in reference to this was it said.

"'The six external sense-media should be known': thus was it said. And in reference to what was it said? The form-medium, the sound-medium, the aroma-medium, the flavor-medium, the tactile-sensation-medium, the idea-medium. 'The six external sense-media should be known': thus was it said. And in reference to thus was it said.​

-source-

 

[McBell]

Because the mind is the controller of the senses.

I would say the mind is the "central hub" for the senses...

 

[McBell]

Hey Sum, interesting question. How about you shut down your senses and then take a walk through a forest to see how many trees you bump into using only your mind as a "sense".

Now try the exact opposite: turn off your mind...
what good are your senses then?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I know there are more than 5 senses, but to keep it simpler I'd like to narrow it all down to the basic five, and discuss a 6th)

The senses make us aware of the world around us, through various properties that objects have.

You can comfort the senses. Examples:
1) Sight - Looking at art, light show
2) Hearing - Listening to music, the sound of humming
3) Feeling - Massages, blankets
4) Smell - The smell of flowers or deodorant
5) Taste - Snacks, spices

With the mind you can do the same; blissful memories, nostalgia, thoughts, emotions.

You can discomfort the senses.
1) Sight - Ugliness, too much brightness
2) Hearing - Nails on chalkboard, dog wimpers
3) Feeling - Scratching, bruising
4) Smell - Stench of sweat, or poop
5) Taste - My cooking

Once again, you can discomfort the mind; regrets, fear, anxiety, depression.


You can alter the senses

1) Sight - Visual hallucinations
2) Hearing - Audio hallucinations
3) Feeling - Tactile hallucinations
4) Smelling - Olfactory hallucinations
5) Tasting - Gustatory hallucinations

As for the mind, why couldn't we consider the 'feeling' from intoxication (one of the multiple ways to alter senses) to be a hallucination in the sense of 'mind'?


So what exactly is mind? It is what it 'feels' like to simply 'be'. Some might have it harder to notice it than others, because when we are not sensing it we aren't aware that we aren't.

I'm not saying 'consciousness', I believe, personally, that consciousness is the result of all information received from all functioning senses. Mind is distinct from the other senses because you can know what it 'feels' like (not in the same sense as the 'feeling' sense) to simply think, be, or have emotions without the others.

But if I were to suggest a way to experiment this, I think one of the most accurate ways would be to rid someone of all 5 senses at once temporarily and have them report if there was some 'sense' there.

I'm pretty sure that's impossible, especially the temporarily part. Even if it wasn't we'd need very willful rab-lats, pay them very good money, and i bet still it'd be hard to find just one.

There have been lots of sensory deprivation experiments, such as isolation rooms and immersion in neutral buoyancy tanks, and lots of cultures practice this kind of thing (a sweat lodge, for example, is based on overloading some senses while removing stimulation for others). Early astronauts and cosmonauts went through such experiences to ensure they could handle the stress of spaceflight.

 

[HonestJoe]

A sense is a means by which we detect something about the world. The mind is a convenient term we give to the processes of our brain. Information travels from our senses to our brain and the input is interpreted and responded as part of the mind processes. The mind itself has nothing to detect anything with, nor does the brain (directly) for that matter.

 

[Tumah]

It looks to me like the senses are strictly input faculties. The mind is a processing facility. The mouth, hands, legs and reproductive organs are for output.
So the mind isn't a sense because it doesn't receive external input and also serves and mainly serves for processing the information that the senses received.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

Intellect is considered to be one of the six sense media in Buddhism. The intellect is the sense for sensing and processing ideas.

I find the Buddhist model quite practical. The mind "senses" thoughts and feelings in much the same way that the bodily organs sense sights, sounds, taste, touch and smell.

 

[Sunstone]

It looks to me like the senses are strictly input faculties. The mind is a processing facility.

It's a bit more complex than that, if I recall. For instance, the information the eyes receive goes through something like three to five layers of "processing" even before it reaches the brain for further processing.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Because the mind is the controller of the senses.

Mind (Manas) can control the senses only with great difficulty. Only accomplished yoga practitioners are said to be able to do that (not to feel cold even when sitting on snow, etc.). Otherwise it is an active participant in processing the input from senses and reacting appropriately to them. It is one step beyond senses.

"The five sheaths (pancha-kosas) are described in the Taittiriya Upanishad. From gross to fine they are:
Annamaya kosha, "foodstuff" sheath (Anna)
Pranamaya kosha, "energy" sheath (Prana/apana)
Manomaya kosha "mind-stuff" sheath (Manas)
Vijnanamaya kosha, "wisdom" sheath (Vijnana)
Anandamaya kosha, "bliss" sheath (Ananda)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosha#Origins

 

[Willamena]

The senses make us aware of the world around us, through various properties that objects have.

In this regard, "mind" does not vary from the senses.

 

[crossfire]

I find the Buddhist model quite practical. The mind "senses" thoughts and feelings in much the same way that the bodily organs sense sights, sounds, taste, touch and smell.

Pattern recognition.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

The senses make us aware of the world around us, through various properties that objects have.

Somehow this didn't register until @Willamena just commented on it. It's important to keep in mind that what we perceive through the senses/mind is the subset of properties of objects that our senses detect. A red ball is red only because of the system that includes the light source and the color receptors in the eye--people who are colorblind to red do not detect this 'property,' and the lightsource can affect the perceived color as well. The senses/mind makes us aware of the world around us through the various properties the senses detect, out of the vastly larger set of stimuli and properties that our senses do not detect in relation to objects that appear to exist in the world around us.

 

[Quagmire]

"Why isn't 'Mind' considered a sense"

Because most don't have any.

 

[Jiddanand]

Without mind the Senses don't work. Mind helps the Senses to perform their actions.

 

[Jiddanand]

"Why isn't 'Mind' considered a sense"

Because most don't have any.

That's known as "Nonsense".[emoji3]

 

[humanelk]

I consider "mind" to be the combination of inputs of all the senses. There is something to discussing the brain as its own receptive sixth sense when it comes to sensing changes in blood chemistry. Hormones, alcohol, caffeine, and whatever other drugs you can think of... These things are frequently dealt with directly within the brain via the circulatory system. Hormones are especially interesting to regard in this way, since their introduction into the bloodstream is often indirectly tied in with both our senses of the outside world and also with our internal thoughts. The brain's ability to affect and be affected by internal and external perceptions via hormones has all kinds of implications for understanding our own behavior and emotions, and for the behavior and emotions of others! Good question!