Physician and author Dr. Larry Dossey says there is a connection between all species, which is not limited by locality. He refers to it as a “nonlocal mind.” Consciousness is not restricted to the brain or the body, or time or place. Therefore, people and animals can have an effect on each other, even when miles apart. [5]

Can pets be so linked and in step with their owners when they are far apart, even when there is no possible way they could be using their sense of smell or hearing? An awareness of death is certainly not restricted to humans. The huge attention generated by the case of the intuitive American cat, “Oscar,” points to the interest psychic pet behavior holds:

Oscar lives in a nursing home and has an uncanny ability to sense when a resident is about to die. When a patient is near death, Oscar nearly always appears and hops on the bed. The staff have come to recognize and respect Oscar's instincts, and send for the relatives of any patient he has chosen to curl up beside. But they have no explanation for it. Oscar shows no interest in patients who are simply in poor shape, or who still have a few days to live.

Oscar, a hospice cat has an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die. One theory says a cat's acute sensitivity to smell might enable it to detect some subtle change in metabolism around the time of death, but no one has been able to explain why any moggy should show an interest in the approach of the Grim Reaper. [6]

Have you ever noticed that herds of grazing animals all face the same way? Images from “Google Earth” have confirmed that cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction. Wild deer also display this behavior –– a phenomenon that has apparently gone unnoticed by herdsmen and hunters for thousands of years. In the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, scientists said the Earth’s magnetic fields may influence the behavior of these animals. The Earth can be viewed as a huge magnet, with magnetic north and south situated close to the geographical poles. Many species –– including birds and salmon –– are known to use the Earth’s magnetic fields in migration, rather like a natural GPS. A few studies have shown that some mammals –– including bats –– also use a “magnetic compass” to help their sense of direction.

Dr Sabine Begall, from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and colleagues surveyed Google Earth images of 8,510 grazing and resting cattle in 308 pasture plains across the globe. “Sometimes it took hours and hours to find some pictures with good resolution,” said Dr Begall. The scientists were unable to distinguish between the head and rear of the cattle, but could tell that the animals tended to face either north or south. [7] The scientists noted that it's amazing that “this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters.”

Willy Miller –– a Scottish cattle farmer –– remarked: “I’ve never noticed that my cows all face the same way.”

Another German research team made the equally surprising discovery that magpies have a sense of self-recognition when looking in a mirror. Until now, this characteristic “human” capability has been seen clearly only in apes, though also, as the team noted, “at least suggestively in dolphins and elephants.” It also noted that the magpie findings “suggest that essential components of human self-recognition have evolved independently in different vertebrate classes with a separate evolutionary history.”

Discovery of a magnetic “sixth sense” in deer and cattle has a broad implication. Many life forms as diverse as birds and bacteria have it. They use it primarily for navigation.

But it is surprising to find it in pastoral cattle and foraging deer that do not appear to need such a navigational aid. The researchers said that the findings challenge neuroscientists and biophysicists to explain how this magnetic “sixth sense” works. [8]

The human sixth sense has been, by far, the most ridiculed and debunked individual ability throughout all the ages. But now, a sixth sense is finally being discovered, revealed, and even revered by some modern scientists –– without much anathema –– as our natural “sense of balance.” An up to date New York Times, International Herald Tribune newspaper story plainly reported:

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