Can Humans Sense Magnetic Fields?

Do you just wander into research facilities at universities and go, "yoooooo, wassup, what've y'all got for me today"?

I love how they are crouching at the entrance explaining neuroscience. 😆

I once had a friend with an amazing sense of direction. When traveling by car to places neither of us had previously visited, she always gave the correct directions (while I was ready to puzzle over a map). Best navigator I ever had.

While undergoing a brain MRI at Steinberg Diagnostic in Las Vegas I experienced unusual perceptions such as a sharp bank turn and others. Afterwards needing to check my sanity I was assured that, while not common, what I experienced was not uncommon either. This was certainly induced by the shifting of a powerful magnetic field slicing through each part of my brain. I felt as if I had been moving forward and then sharply banking right and continuing in a different direction entirely.

I feel a disturbance in the force like a billion dads just cried out: "we've been telling people about the compass in our heads for years!"

"And you're sure that this isn't just to make people look stupid?" "No, no, no. That's just a bonus."

I once 'sniffed out' my dad's lost camera battery on a beach by following what I percieved as green waves of light coming from under a rock. It was as if the battery was calling out. I had not been to the beach on the day he lost it Our entire family was in a line combing the beach, but I ran ahead to where I thought the battery would be because the green waves were bothering me My dad was not happy about me finding it, and til the last day I knew him, was convinced I was following him that day and watched him drop the battery Now I don't care if people believe this story or not. I am putting it out there in case anyone else has similar. I have synaesthesia, meaning some senses are translated to others. My theory is that this turned the magnetic sense into a visual sense and that this could explain some 'clairvoyance' in humans The battery was the only piece of electronic equipment for a decent distance, given we were on a beach. I don't think I'd have found it so easily elsewhere. I think a lot of what people deem 'ESP' is actually this sense for electromagnetism.

We may have lost the ability to sense magnetic fields from not navigating in ways that needed their use. Very few of us have ever needed that. If there are any Polynesian navigators that navigate the Pacific without instruments still alive it would be interesting to see how they did in the test.

"It's Joe's reclining chair, not used for this purpose but it's very relaxing."

When you were sleeping in the car as a kid and you could feel that one turn that meant you were home

I didnt really know what it was before now, but i personally have an incredibly potent sense of direction. In the past i have been in many situations, both on my own and with others, where i am "lost" yet i still have a distinct idea of "this way is back home" and it is always right.

Thanks for showing this. This is hard to prove, but in the early 2000s with the old bar and flip cellphones I used to be able to sense when the phone was going to ring a half a second before it rang. It was a very strong and confident sensation. I became convinced it had to do with the pre-ring handshake the cellphone tower and the cellphone make. Back then stereos weren’t as well EM shielded and you could hear a ticking sound sometimes before the cellphone rang. But I would know even before that or This would also happen if there wasn’t an active speaker around. However, I stopped getting the sensation after newer phones in the late 2000s started to come out. So, I’m not sure what changed but perhaps it was some kind of subconscious sound related phenomenon after all with the stereos or some EM sensation I perceived, or I just got old haha. Anyways, I don’t have a way to prove this so purely anecdotal. Thanks for listening.

So the most common question seems to be: how do we know the magnetic field isn't creating this result by interacting with the electrodes and wires in the cap? The truth is that while the magnetic field is changing there is induction in the cap and you can see this as an orange blob 10:12 - However after the field stops changing, there is no more induction and this is the time when the response is measured for decreases in alpha power.

Super high tech testing.... in a 1970's recliner. That's balance

My father had what I always felt was a nearly infallible sense of direction, meaning that he could accurately identify north despite being indoors and following a convoluted path through subway tunnels, buildings, caves, etc. As one of five siblings with the same father, I am the only one who did not inherit this ability; I had a different mother and my four siblings all shared the same mother. Her sense of direction wasn’t as acute as our father’s; my own mother’s sense of direction was as nonexistent as my own. One of my brothers is fond of telling folks that I can’t even find my way out of a doctor’s office after having been seen at an appointment. I poke fun at myself saying that I grabbed the “music chips” but forgot to grab any “direction chips”, so that part remains a gaping hole/socket. All of us have some music abilities but I was the one who inherited perfect pitch from my paternal grandmother. Obviously there’s no connection between musical ability and the sense of direction, but I find it interesting to note the extremes. Not having been raised with my siblings, I don’t know how well any but one sibling can identify direction, and suffice it to say that that sibling seems as infallible as my father was. I have always wondered if it had something to do with them both being able to sense the magnetic fields…

I am a Amateur Radio operator. Years ago I was transmitting at around 4 Mhz with 1800 watts into my antenna. Whenever I keyed down, I felt a change in my mind very similar to getting up quickly or a moment of quick movement. It only happen that one time. I figured it was RF messing with the fluid in my inner ear.

> super high tech instrument > Uses stool to hold the door closes Gotta love these guys

My grandmother could feel wires in walls, up until her forties, then she lost the ability. She can still tell where north is, no matter where she is.

After my car accident, I sustained a traumatic brain injury. Now, whenever there's a significant change in the atmosphere, I can feel it without knowing a thing about it. I was in a partial day hospital program and all of us would get headaches and fall asleep during eclipses. I was so frustrated I kept missing planetary phenomena. I'm convinced that our brain being forced to rewire itself after trauma heightens our sensitivity and perception- for better or for worse. What's even crazier is that sometimes the changes can't be captured with our current level of technology, so some are suffering with so many symptoms without knowing the root cause. I hope that we're able to continue more to science and research to advance society in the future. Have a great day everyone. :)

Not everyone has lost this ability. Since I was very small I had this feel for direction that was quite strong. I have been through several “experiments to test this. Among these tests I have been blindfolded on an airplane for an hour while turns of varying times, banks, and coordination then while still blindfolded asked to point in a specific direction. When I was in my teens I could find north within a few degrees every time. Now I’m in my 60’s and it’s a bit weaker with my sense of direction down to about 15-20 degrees. Twice in my life I have lost this unexpectedly and felt almost motion sick from it. I often have deteriorated senses when I’m sick or under the influence of something, and over the years it has gotten weaker, but I still do reasonably well.