Chumfo, the Super-sense 



dinary sensitiveness of certain blind people, who 

 walk confidently about a cluttered room, or who 

 sort the family linen after it returns from the 

 laundry. These blind people say, and think, that 

 they avoid objects by feeling the increasing air 

 pressure as they approach, or that they sort the 

 family linen by smell; but it appears more likely 

 that a greater unity and refinement of all their 

 senses results from their living in darkness. 



That our human senses have unused possibili- 

 ties, or that we may possibly possess extra senses 

 of which we are not conscious, may appear if you 

 study the phenomenon of hearing, especially if you 

 study it when you hear a strange sound in the 

 woods or in the house at night. It is assumed that 

 we always locate a sound by the ear, and that we 

 determine its volume or distance by our judgment 

 from previous experiences; but that, I think, is a 

 secondary and not a primary process. When we 

 act most naturally we seem to locate a sound not 

 by search or experiment, but instantly, instinc- 

 tively, absolutely; and then by our ear or our 

 judgment we strive to verify our first chumfo 

 impression. 



As a specific instance, you are lying half asleep 

 at night when a faint, strange sound breaks in 

 upon your consciousness. If you act naturally 

 now, you will nine times out of ten locate the sound 



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