Beyond the Five Senses: 8 Ways Your Body Experiences the World

Did you grow up thinking there were only five senses? What if we have more than 5 senses?

In this post I am going to share about the 8 senses (and the 3 often hidden senses) and how each of those 8 senses support how our body experiences and how we process the world.

The Original Five Senses –

I imagine, you have heard of the original or the classic 5 senses – sight, touch, taste, sound and hearing. Each of these senses links to how you experience the world. For example –

1. Sight (Visual) –

Sight is where your visual world comes alive. From the different colours of the rainbow to the landscapes you can see. Sometimes people experience differences with their vision (i.e. where flickering lights can be too overwhelming).

2. Touch (Tactile) –

Touch is where you are in contact with another person, unbent or experience. For example – the touch of a jumper we wear to the touch of someone’s hand we are holding. There are many variables to touch and sometimes people are hypersensitive to it (i.e. someone not liking different materials or hugs from a stranger).

3. Taste (Gustatory) –

Am guessing you may be familiar with this one 🙂 From the texture of velvety chocolate, to the flavours within an Indian or Thai meal – taste allows us to experience the world in a different way. People experience different variables around taste from textures to flavours and each person is unique.

4. Sound (Auditory) –

Again each of us is unique when it comes to sound. We hear different sounds within peoples voices, music, the environment we live in and nature and have different tolerance levels.

5. Smell (Olfactory)-

Smell is a powerful sense and can bring back memories. For example – have you ever walked in to a shop and smelt the perfume or after shave of someone you loved or maybe smelt a freshly baked cake? Then you know the strength of smell. Individuals have different tolerance levels to the sense of smell also.

The 3 Hidden Senses –

The 3 often hidden senses are – proprioception, interoception and vestibular. Following is a brief explanation on each of these.

1. Proprioception (Sense of Body Positioning in Space) –

Proprioception refers to the sense that provides information about the spatial position and movement of different body parts in relation to each other and the environment (Blumer et al 2024). It’s present in each muscle movement and links to agility, balance and co-ordination. It is proprioception that helps us to touch our elbow when our eyes are closed.

2. Interoception (Internal Sense) –

The word “interoception” was coined by British neurophysiologist Charles Sherrington 

“to refer to sensations from the interior of the body, especially the viscera.” ~ Craig, 2015.

Craig (2015) discovered from his research that interoception included “small-diameter sensory input from the whole-body – not only from viscera, muscle, joints and teeth, but also from skin. This concept of interoception includes the idea of common sensation. And in this conceptual framework, nocioception and thermoreception are aspects of interoception.” (p.4). You can read more here.

3. Vestibular (Balance) –

The vestibular sense relates to the inner ear and helps process movement and balance. The vestibular system influences how we walk, how stable we are when standing and sitting, eye movements to track items that we see as well as overall balance (Khan and Chang, 2013). An example of how we use the vestibular system is when we walk in a straight line.

Over to You…

I hope this post has helped in identifying the 8 senses. How will this information support you to lead an embodied life? Feel free to share any insights or discoveries bowl.

References –

Blumer, R., Carrero-Rojas, G., de la Cruz, R. R., Streicher, J., & Pastor, A. M. (2024). Extraocular muscles: Proprioception and proprioceptors. In Reference module in neuroscience and biobehavioral psychology. Elsevier.

Craig, A.D. (2015). How Do You Feel? An Interoceptive Moment with Your Neurobiological Self. New York, USA: Princeton University Press.

Khan, S., & Chang, R. (2013). Anatomy of the vestibular system: A review. NeuroRehabilitation, 32(3), 437–443. https://doi.org/10.3233/nre-130866