Receiving Messages Through Our Senses

Religion in itself is a set of guidelines for proper behavior within society, family and friends and even in our most intimate relationships. Religion, regardless of which one, provides us with stories and reasoning to follow specific guidelines and the consequences that will ensue from not following these guidelines. Religion also provides the answers to the most difficult questions that cannot be satisfactorily answered by science and it gives its followers the feeling of belonging and reason to exit. What Happens When, like religion, carried a message of guidelines involving our behavior towards sexual encounters and activity occurring on this college campus. Like religion, it provided a story with a narrative that we could all relate to and apply to our own behavior and experiences. And, like religion it explained the consequences that result from behavior that does not follow the specific guidelines for sexual activity without consent.

            What Happens When and the practice of religion both partially function with the same intentions: to maintain a safe, healthy, respectful community/society. Both appeal to senses in different ways to impart their specific messages, Religion often through ritual practice that can involve any and all of our senses and What Happens When, which appealed to our vision, our hearing and possibly our sixth sense which can account for the sensation of being up close and in person.  Watching students whom I pass every day in the halls enact such uncomfortable and hurtful scenes that I come across not to infrequently, was very powerful and difficult and successfully spurred conservation among my friends and myself. Using theatre to impart such an important message was far more effective I believe than simply leading a conversation.  It allowed for me to understand the full circumstances of situations and appreciate the emotions that each person was feeling, regardless of their behavior being right or wrong.  Like ritual practice in religion, appealing to multiple senses to carry out a message was a very powerful way of telling a story and allowing the essence of it to sink in.

In particular, the sense of touch was emphasized in the message of the play and throughout the performance. Touch is a very important part of sexual interaction, it allows for pleasure, connection, and the knowledge that what you are experiencing is solid and real. It is also a form of communication and one can instantly sense if a touch is loving and warm, cold and cruelly intended, or forced and unwanted. The way we use touch in sexual relationships is very important and in the picture above demonstrates that it can be used to protect ourselves, to push someone away. It can also be used to show affection and signal to someone without words that you are interested in them. What Happens When visually demonstrated how important it is to be aware of the touch you exert on others, the message that it sends to them and their reaction to your touch. Do they feel comfortable by your touch, do the come closer and seek out more or do they draw away and hold themselves in a protective position. These are all signs that we can be aware of, through our sense of touch and vision, to help protect ourselves and each other. 

            It was important for our class to see this play, because we have been learning about how religion uses our senses in rituals to impart meaning, and in the same way, we can take in the meaning of What Happens When through our senses and apply it to the well being of ourselves and everyone around us. We can be leaders in maintaining the guidelines around sexual behavior that keeps everyone safe and helps people be aware that they have the power to give consent and to not give consent as well as to ask for consent. Also, as we have seen among the many religions we have delved into, people have extremely different ideas of what is right and what is normal, so we can be leaders in accepting the differences among people on campus and making everyone feel appreciated and included.