Extra senses

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Does anyone else have senses that other people don't have? I think this may be common in aspies. For instance, I have a sense of direction. Up and down feel different to me, and so do north, south, east, and west. When I'm upside down, the world doesn't seem to be upside down, because I can feel which direction is up. I went to the mystery spot with my family, and I was the only one there who could tell that we were not sideways, but on a steep slope. I've tried explaining my extra sense of direction to other people, but I get laughed at (although I've only really told my dad, who puts down everything I say anyway, so I don't know). I can't prove it to anyone, any more than a sighted person can prove to someone who has been blind all their life that they can see. I wonder if anyone else has any similar experiences.

Bump, because I hate being ignored.

I've heard that the australian aborigines don't use left / right when orienting things, but east / west etc instead, and they have a much better sense of direction. Up / down could be a better sense of balance or gravity.

Sounds like you have a better aligned vestibular ( I mean the system that controls balance) than most people. I wish I had that...

That's so cool. I don't really know if what I do is because I have Aspergers, but sometimes, I can be pretty damn intuitive and find people and things without any leads or with little leads. I just know things at times, it's weird. Of course I don't know about everything all the time. I imagine that would be far too overwhelming. I think everyone is intuitive, some people are more so than others. I also have an excellent sense of direction. I would love to try to see how I am with dowsing one day.

I can relate! (i'm sure there are many others)

At the optometrist office to test eye sight I can stand almost double the distance away and still read the bottom line

I can smell invisible things with my knees.

A lot of times I can sense the wheather, like if its going to rain I can feel that....easily. Or like If I am in a building with no windows I can feel if its cloudy, stormy or sunny out. Which I imagine is a bit weird.

I really don't understand what you are trying to say. Doesn't up and down feel different for everybody? Can't everyone tell when they are on a steep slop? I don't get it.

I, on the other hand, have absolutely NO sense of direction at all. I'm bad to the point that I get lost in MarioKart and always get that arrow indicating I'm going the wrong direction but can't figure out which way I'm pointing. I literally got lost in my own parking lot two weeks after moving into my apartment and it's not a large parking lot... two rows of cars stretching around in a half-circle. I was horribly embarrassed because I had friends over and was unable to direct them back to my apartment. They had to find my place for me and they'd never even been there before! Does anyone else have a lack of orientation this shocking?

It feels different for me to be on the second floor, rather than the first floor. Also, it feels different when I am I am in Hawaii as opposed to being in Vancouver BC.

I know exactly what you mean.

I have a good sense of direction all my life and I suspect it's common in autistic people, at least high-functioning ones, probably because we have a good visual sense. Autistic kids outperform NTs on IQ tests that are visual rather than verbal based.

Last spring I went to Arizona alone and spent a week driving out into the desert in different places and going for long walks into them. "Didn't you get lost?" people asked me. Well, no. A lawyer asked me how I do that (I've never carried a compass in my life) and I had to tell him that I didn't know.

But I've thought about it since and I think it's two things - (1) I'm unconsciously always aware of which way is east, or west, etc (you only need to know one direction and you know all of them) and (2) I'm always watching things around me, recording them visually (I often look behind me) so when I'm coming back through an area I've been I recognize things.

But, in a nutshell, I think it's all about being more visual