How does my daughter instinctively know which direction she's facing?

That’s so interesting because I just heard a piece on the radio from a social scientist who said she was in a small country where everyone always knew and answered a greeting with what direction they were facing in. Apparently all the people in that country have that ability. The scientist said that after she was there for a week she had a moment or two where she could mentally see herself from outside in relation to her location. Maybe your daughter somehow has that ability too?

I wonder if it has to do with the iron in her body.

There’s accumulating evidence that birds utilize iron to read the earth’s magnetic field.

Does she have it since the vaccin?
Does she have ultra fast download speeds?

Or just a small compass in her purse/smartphone?
Is she perhaps magnetic?

That’s amazing. Seems to go way beyond the standard biological wayfinding ability most folks have to some degree.

She’s always had it @rebbel.

It’s astonishing to me too @cookieman.

Since you know the precise location, can you drag her back there to scan for anomalies, such as the midst of a scrap yard or any place noted for powerful electromagnets?

The answer is painfully obvious.
She is a witch.

Not possibly painful for YOU loli.

Lol you guys!

There was this other thing she did, which may, or may not be related.
She had a rectangular wooden thing to hang on the wall. It had pre drilled holes on either end on the back to hang it on..
She turned it over, studied it for a minute, then threw a couple of screws in the wall and hung it right up. The screws were perfectly placed and it was perfectly level. No measuring, no nothing!
I was like “How the hell did you do that?”

I tend to know which direction I’m facing when I live in places that are fairly flat and have mostly east west and north south roads. Even inside of a house I know, because I know as I travel to the house which direction I’m driving. Every time I make a turn I’m making note of which direction I’m traveling.

In places that it’s not as easy I know by the sun more or less, especially in the winter the sun is especially low in the southern sky in the US as it travels east to west.

The perfect placement of nails or screws is really amazing. I’m the one in the house to hang pictures, and I have to use a level. The height of the picture I sometimes have to change three times before I get it just where I want. I can tell when something is off by millimeters though. I can tell if it’s not quite in the middle just by looking, that sort of thing.

When I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, I was disoriented for a couple of months because the water was on the wrong side. I don’t think it was a “sensing the water” thing. I think it was a “places I like to go are on the coast” thing.

^^I understand that! When I moved to the west coast of Florida I had to get used to the water being west instead of east. It was habit to associate water with east. Although, in Pinellas County (where Clearwater is) it’s even more confusing that there is the gulf and the bay and the water is everywhere.

@Call_Me_Jay…that’s the crazy thing about my daughter. It doesn’t matter where she is, she just knows.

^^Maybe she has a big magnet inside of her. Interesting.

When I was in college I read about this big study that showed that in the US contiguous 48 men had much better abilities than women with direction, specifically being oriented NSEW. In Alaska, there was no gender difference. It was assumed both genders were raised and taught to be aware of direction equally. Your daughter seems to have some sort of truly natural ability.

If she had a magnet inside her I’m sure she would have clapped it out by now.

A while back I heard about a tribe that has no words for left and right. Instead they use north, south, east and west. They train themselves to keep track of their orientation to the Sun.

* crapped * not clapped.

I have a hard time with left and right!

We have a saying in German to make it easy to remember “Links ist, wo der Daumen rechts ist”.

I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT RAGGIE!!

I think we learned that the pointer and thumb make the letter L on the left hand.

Depends on which way you look at it @raum. See how I even messed that up!

@Dutchess_III Haha…that’s true. Maybe they should clarify “while pointing towards a direction”?

@Dutchess_III Well, I guess we can conclude one thing. Your daughter’s special gift wasn’t acquired genetically! :-)

Nope @janbb!

My husband is the same way. It really makes me crazy for someone to give me driving directions that start with ‘Go north…...” Unless it’s early morning or late afternoon I have no clue about direction.

@LostInParadise In southeast Florida it’s very common to give directions using NSEW and sometimes you say both The direction and left or right for emphasis. Depends.

I’d tell you go north on Powerline Rd and the Winn Dixie is on the northwest corner at Palmetto Park Road. Most Floridians would understand. Many of my Michigan friends wouldn’t understand. They go by the mitt.

I am the same way. It has helped me and possibly saved me many times.
I was paddling out in Penobscot bay when a fog bank rolled in one afternoon. Complete disorientation on the water in fog is not fun. Yet I knew the way back to the coast correctly despite others in the kayak party that wanted to go every other way.

@Forever_Free rides with me!