A couple of days ago, I was listening to my daughter talk to her little friend while playing in her room. She told her friend that dogs could see spirits that people didn't because dogs see things differently from people. This idea caught me off guard so I did a little investigating on it and it would appear that my kid could be right. I had always presumed that dogs could see spirits as a matter of intuition and not actual 5 senses perception. While the former may still be true, I think now that dogs do actually see spirits. Here's why...

A spirit may only dimly manifest on our physical plane...so dim, in fact, that their form may be out of our range of visual perception. We may only be able to detect them, if at all, as a barely perceptible blur or movement or shadow caught in the very outer limits of our range of vision. Dogs, however, see things differently. A dog's gray scale vision allows it to see light emitted from objects in darkened areas, where such would be imperceptible to humans. Next, a dog has a much greater ability to perceive motion than humans. In other words, it can detect a dim object moving in a dark room...that, to us, would not even be seen. Further, a dog has a greater sensitivity to flickering light. All this presents one certainty, that a dimly light moving object can be clearly seen by dogs in a dark room but not by us...or if only just so.

This too applies to other animals.
When I was very young, my parents adopted a cat that could see spirits as well.
I believe most animals are sensitive to things we are not.They seem able to even detect earthquakes well in advance to our instruments as well.

theres an old wives tale that goes something like:

if you gaze between a dogs ears while its watches a ghost you'll see it as well.

Do you think there's any truth to that? I just think it has less to do with 'sense' and more to do with their actual properties of vision.

highly doubt it. tried it once when i was a kid. i think the dog thought i was crazy. of course that was going on the logic that "dogs must see ghost all the time then!" so i assumed there'd be one if i checked. (sigh)... the child mind...

for dogs perhaps it is more from visual acuity. they are incredible creatures.

maybe for humans our awareness of them is from some form of intuition. i can't say that i've ever seen a ghost but i have felt a strong presence that was stifling and unsettling. Ghosts? idk, but it was definately a gut feeling / hair-raising type of event that people normally associate with that sort of thing. (on the fence as to what i think "spirits" may or may not be, or if even the phenomenon is spiritual in nature.)

got it from a book about ghosts / hauntings. i asked my grandmother about it then & she said its an old superstition.

interesting thread btw. seeing it reminded me of the book. one of the first books i read on my own. there was a cool lil' illustration showing a man standing behind a big dog and they both looked scared.

This post has been edited by abadaka: Sep 3 2008, 01:59 AM

Animals do have a sixth sense,if thats what you call it.the Asian Tsunami,most of the animals senesed somthing was up.More people than animals died,becuase apparently the animals sensed somthing.those that could get away did.Can they sense vibrations we can't.

A dogs sight is as effective as a humans,yet their hearing and sense of smell are great.

As opposed to humans, animals rely more on instinct than intelligence to survive. So I think that their 'flight or fight' stimulus...warning them of danger...is far stronger and accurate than in humans.