[Drifter]

In man five ‘powers’ exist, which are the agents of perception---that is to say, through these five powers, man perceives material things.
These are;
sight, which perceives visible forms;
hearing, which perceives audible sounds;
smell, which perceives odors;
taste, which perceives foods; and
feeling, which is all parts of the body and perceives tangible things.
These five powers perceive outward existences.

Man has also ‘spiritual ‘powers’: These are;
imagination, which conceives things;
thought, which reflects upon realities;
comprehension, which comprehends realities;
memory, which retains whatever man imagines, thinks and comprehends.

The intermediary between the five outward powers and the inward powers is the ‘sense’ which they posses in common---that is to say, the sense which acts between the outer and the inner powers, conveys to the inward powers whatever the outward powers discern.
It is termed the ‘common faculty’, because it communicates between the outward and the inward powers and thus is common to the outward and inward powers.

For instance, sight is one of the outer powers; it sees and perceives this flower, and conveys this perception to the inner power—the common faculty---which transmits this perception to the power of imagination, which in turn conceives and forms this image and transmits it to the power of thought; the power of thought reflects and, having grasp the thought, conveys it to the power of comprehension; the power of comprehension, when it has comprehended it, delivers the image of the object perceived to the power of memory, and the memory keeps it in repository.

The outward powers are five: the power of sight, of hearing, of smell, of taste and of feeling.
The inner powers are five; the common faculty, and the powers of imagination, thought, comprehension and memory.

‘Common sense’ as defined by Abdul l baha.

Originally Posted by leskey Hi, Austin. Some would argue that the secarios (pertaining to self) are not a pre-requisite of consciousness. The thought is an abstract, perception precedes action and the probabilities are as multifarious as they are valid, hence my definition.