Sacred Sense: Reclaiming Wholeness in a Fragmented World

Dearest Readers,

I am sending each of you love and blessings today as the world seems rather uncertain right now. May what is sacred to you become your sanctuary and may you know true comfort through this. 💖💖💖

When I connect with my ancestors—or guide others into that sacred space—I often find myself saying, “Sense the presence,” or “Let yourself get a sense of what’s coming through.” This word, sense, flows from me instinctively, but lately, I’ve felt the urge to pause and truly sit with it. What does it mean to sense, beyond the surface? What hidden wisdom might this simple word hold?

The word sense itself winds back through Old French sens and Latin sensus, meaning “perception, feeling, understanding.” Already, the word invites us into a deeper mystery—a reminder of something ancient and intimate within us, a way of receiving the world directly, soul to soul.

When I was young, school taught us about the “five senses” as the primary ways we come to know reality: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Each of these, they said, defined the borders of our sensory world, each separate yet essential. But I’ve recently come to realize these five senses are just one chapter of the story.

Today, science acknowledges an expanded range of senses, each one offering subtle dimensions of perception that shape how we experience life:

• Proprioception: Our awareness of where our body is in space—how we can touch our nose with our eyes closed, knowing exactly where it is.

• Equilibrioception: Our sense of balance, held within the vestibular system.

• Kinesthesia: Our sense of movement and coordination.

• Thermoception: Our ability to detect temperature—whether a place is too hot or too cold.

• Nociception: Our sense of pain, protecting us from harm.

• Interoception: Our internal awareness of hunger, fullness, tension, and the heartbeat within us.

Each of these sensory gifts helps us inhabit our bodies and meet the world around us. But still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more—something beneath this mosaic of senses, a deeper web holding it all together. Then, I came across a phrase in an interview with Neil Douglas Klotz that brought this feeling into focus: Sacred Sense.

Klotz described this Sacred Sense as the primordial sense—the original, whole way of perceiving, which existed long before we divided our awareness into parts. This “original sense” spoke of unity, of a feeling beyond words—a presence we can feel but not always name.

His words reminded me of something the philosopher Jean Gebser called the “mental structure of consciousness”—a phase in which humanity shifted from perceiving everything as interconnected to seeing it as fragmented and categorized. Rationality became our primary lens, breaking things down into measurable parts, each separate from the other. In fact, the word rational itself comes from ratio, meaning “to divide.”

In that shift, Sacred Sense was also divided, first into five senses, then into more. And while these separate senses help us navigate daily life, I believe we lost something essential in the process. Sacred Sense—the pure, undivided way of perceiving—was forgotten. But I believe we can reclaim it.

And what if Sacred Sense is more than the sum of these divided senses? In addition to a sort of integrated sensing system, I think Sacred Sense is the ability to sense the sacred. In this way, it’s also a subtle but profound way of knowing, of perceiving life’s sacredness woven through every detail. Maybe you’ve felt it in those extraordinary moments—when standing in reverence beneath ancient trees, witnessing a sunrise that takes your breath away, or in the quiet, shared presence with someone you love.

And maybe Sacred Sense isn’t reserved only for these peak experiences. Imagine if we could invite it back into the fabric of everyday life, allowing it to flow naturally through each breath, each quiet interaction.

Then, I began to wonder: if the nose is the organ for the sense of smell and the ears the organs for hearing, what is the equivalent organ for this Sacred Sense? How might we sense the sacred with our bodies? And then it came to me—we already have within us a system that holds every part of us together, weaving our separate senses into a true, embodied unity. This system is the fascia.

Fascia is an intricate, continuous network of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, every bone, every organ. It is the body’s silent unifier, the tissue that keeps us whole, both literally and energetically. But fascia is more than structure; it’s exquisitely sensitive, finely tuned to even the subtlest shifts within us. Through this web, we can begin to feel not only the separate parts of ourselves but the wholeness that lives beneath. Fascia is the organ of Sacred Sense and a reminder that we are inherently, deeply connected.

Imagine what might be possible if we could listen through this web of wholeness—if we could perceive not just with our divided senses but through Sacred Sense itself. Imagine knowing that every moment is infused with the sacred, that life itself is speaking to us in a language we have always known.

Sacred Sense calls us to remember: we are not separate; we are woven into the very fabric of existence.

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A Ritual for Awakening Sacred Sense

Here is a gentle ritual for attuning to the fascia, to help you remember and embody Sacred Sense. Through this practice, we can begin to sense the sacred in every moment—not just with individual senses, but with our entire being.

1. Begin with Breath: Find a calm, comfortable space. Close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths, feeling the air filling and releasing from your lungs. Imagine this breath flowing through your whole body, gently touching every part.

2. Body Scan: Bring your awareness inward, traveling slowly through each part of your body from head to toe. Notice the presence of your fascia—a soft, resilient web that connects everything within you. Imagine it as a network of light or warmth, holding you together.

3. Invoke Sacred Sense: Now, invite yourself to sense a feeling of wholeness, something beyond the sum of all your parts. Imagine the fascia as an unbroken web, connecting not only your physical body but reaching outward to the world around you.

4. Expand into Sacred Sensing: Slowly, allow your fascia to become a conscious sensing system. Let it extend your awareness to the energy, life, and presence of what’s around you—the sacredness that is woven into each moment. As you open your eyes, feel your fascia sensing beyond physical boundaries, attuned to the sacred threads connecting you to all things. With each breath, let yourself feel, perceive, and receive this wholeness, knowing that Sacred Sense is always here, helping you experience life as sacred in every moment.

May we come to know Sacred Sense as a way of being, a way of returning to ourselves and to the world. May this practice help us remember that we are woven into the sacredness of all things, feeling life not as isolated fragments but as a single, living whole.