Sixth (non-?) Sense

If you define 'Senses' as the entry points/means by which we experience the world, I'm voting to add a sixth I'm labeling 'hope.'  Synonyms would include 'potential,' 'faith,' 'promise,' 'possibility,' or 'vision.'  You could argue hope is less real/tangible than the other five, but I'd argue back, citing Synesthesia, the neurologically baffling state wherein a Synesthete experiences one sense in the form of another, as instead of hearing a sound, sees it as a color (thunder might manifest as a red rectangle, or the sound of a piano might be experienced as a flash of blue light).  If that is possible, then I believe some of us actually experience hope in a way that is just as real as sight or scent, etc. 

Hope in the form of a 'before'

Like everything, hope is relative & subject to degrees. Depending on the seriousness of your conviction, hope could be as small as the sparks of interest in a chance meeting or the rush of obtaining something dilapidated to restore.  Bumped to the next level, we have re-marriage after a bad divorce, buying a whole fixer-upper, or moving somewhere radically unlike where you're from.  Then the epitome of hope is faith, when defined traditionally as 'belief in the substance of things not seen.'  

And 'after,' in the form of manifested potential

Not surprisingly, hope is the very model of my favorite psych concept--intermittent reinforcement, the sure-fire way to create an entrenched behavior by randomly rewarding or withholding reward for it.  The fact that once in awhile & following no particular pattern, we get a pleasing result from some behavior, & that the positive result is not attributable to anything we did or didn't do.  This forms the basis for gambling, gardening, Home Depot & HGTV.  

This weekend hope took the form of sanding/painting/transforming an ugly brown lingerie chest purchased at a big box retailer about ten years ago.  Since I'm happy with the result, maybe I'll move up to leaving the house & meeting people next weekend.  

The new/old piece in place

Or maybe I'll paint the two chests in my bedroom.