The innate human ability to know location.

Background: Some life forms may be able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field lines to find north and south. Others may be able to make finer distinctions, sensing fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field or using localized field anomalies as landmarks. The theorized ability of organisms to sense electromagnetic fields is called magneto-reception. Many animals and other life forms seem to possess magneto-reception. These include the well-known ability of pigeons, dogs and all the birds who find their usual nesting spots after thousands of miles.

It is possible humans once had a well-honed sense for magneto-reception and used it during long migrations, as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Furthermore, this possibility could extend through time and be detectable in certain individuals even today. Several questions still need to be asked to determine if, like certain animals, some people can navigate by sensing the Earth’s magnetic field, either local magnetic anomalies as landmarks, an inner compass, or both. Like a living evolutionary fossil, it could exist as some type of undiscovered type of brain cell sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field. Or, it could be a different biological pathway that carries this information across the nervous system. Could it be that some people, through years of experience in the right conditions, gain access to this sense? Could it be learned? Can it be improved through conscious training? Is it a lucky set of genes?

Dr. Everett tested lobsters for this ability while he was a fisherman. He took lobsters from Ram Island in Mattapoisett, MA, Buzzards Bay and released them near Cuttyhunk Island – about 10 miles away. They returned to “their” rock within 3 days. On a foggy day, his father would steer the lobster boat from the mooring in Little Bay, Fairhaven, MA to the Woods Hole bell buoy, about 10 miles away through a winding, dangerous channel in the densest of fogs at full cruising speed with Dr. Everett on the bow listening and looking for other boats – and the buoy. In one instance, his father cut the power just as they came within 2 boat lengths of the huge buoy, almost hitting it.

One time Dr. Everett was being towed by the Coast Guard and sensed the direction was wrong. As a check, he found the compass in the cabin of his grandfather’s boat. He had to cut the hinges off with a chisel to open the case. It hadn’t been used for 40 years, so 3 generations had the same ability to know where each of 500 lobster pots were located, the coastal geography, and each person could work all day long in the heaviest of fogs with visibility sometimes not more than 1 or 2 boat lengths.

The location ability is likely magnetic in some respect. One time, Dr. Everett’s father was in the bow of Dr. Everett’s high-speed skiff, setting lobster pots on Dean’s Ledge off Mattapoisett, MA. As they were in the deep area between Nye’s Ledge and Dean’s Ledge, and with the skiff up on plane, his father shouted – “Kill the engine! Hard right! In a moment, we rode up on the bow wave of a misplaced freighter going probably 20 kn between two shallow ledges, miraculously missing both. As its bow lookout shouted at us, the bow’s depth markers showed it was drawing 32 feet, the rated depth of the Cape Cod Canal. It was perhaps a mile north of the channel heading for the very shallow West Island rip where we expected to find it the next morning. Dr. Everett’s father could also sense steel ships and use the steering wheel to avoid them while inside the windowless cabin.

Thesis: Just as have pigeons, dogs and other animals, there is some innate human ability to know precise location (Or why else did we have - and use - a steering wheel in the Everett lobster boat cabin that had no windows or compass?)

Approach: No details available yet. Project under development.

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Everett-Vehrs Conservation and Research Foundation
4007 N. Abingdon Street
Arlington, Virginia USA 22207