Smells and Bells

Disclaimer: some statements may not apply to people with touch impairment  How does touch bring fill one with pleasure or pain? Can touch bring forth memories? The experience of touch is very intimate and passionate, but it can leave one with a lingering desire for more or for a longing of release.  In  Constance Classen's work,  The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch , she illstrations that the sensation of touch goes above and beyond a simple skin contact. Our sense of toch encopasses pin, pleasure, and affection. One can form bonds with loved ones, but also with animals, sports, etc.  In religious spaces, the feeling of holding an inanimated object, touching another person, flipping through pages can be the begining of a forming a bond. The physical element of it solidifies the concept. Since the feeling of touch can be renacted at any moment; while, also unleasing emotions and meories attched to that particular touch. 

       Disclaimer: there are may logical reasonings that can be used to provide an explanation for what is stated below. It is also important to note that credibility is at hand due the narrator's age. What even is the sixth sense? Is it a mother's super strength when her child is stuck under a car? Is it a twin's ability to sense that something happened to their sibiling? In all honesty, I wouldn't be able to tell you. However, I would describe the sixth sense as something that diverges from the standard five senses that can be found in the American culture. This reminds me of a dicusson that took place on Wheaton campus. Unfortunately, I can't remember the discusser's name nor the title of their discussion, but I do recall the topic regarding the intrepretation/ reaction of  hearing voices across various cultures. In some cultures it was deemed acceptable and in other cultures it was deemed as unacceptable. For the culture that it wasn't suportive, th...

Disclaimer: some statements may not apply to imparied smell persons. Do you sniff your food before you purchase it? Do you whiff the aroma of the food you’re about to eat? Sometimes the aroma of food or other products can take us on memeory lane. It can also be used to describe something in particular that couldn't be described in any other way. I n  Deborah Green's work,   Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature , she conveys that perfume and incense contribute to deepening one's connection with religion. The role of scent in a religious setting is to triiger one's memory and remind one that this is the place where love and devotion occurs. It can aslo bring up the thought that one can smell God. Since one can smell God, then one is with God. 

My Final Thoughts It was quite an honor to be a part of this classroom. Originally, there was another class that I was going to take, but a friend of mine brought this class to my attention . I had no idea how immevsereed the conversations would be. It was a frresh breath air to have a different structure of classes. It was also something that was foreigh to me. I wasn't used to a heavy discussion based class sytructure, but I did enjoy it. This class has taught me that there are ways to teach a subject in a way that invites creative thinking on an academic standpoint.

Disclaimer: some statements may not apply to imparied taste persons When you eat your food, do you let the food settle in your month long enough to notice your tongue's taste receptors reacting? Can you detect what tastes stand out when you eat your favorite dish? Unless there's a specific reason, it's probably unlikely that you pay attention as you gulf down your food.  In  Elizabeth Pérez's work,  Religion in the Kitchen : Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , she emphasizes the importance of preparing food. Through the process of cooking foos one has to taste to the food to ensure that it is good enough to serve one's God. In essence. it's as if one can taste God whenthey devour something very delicious. When food can bring one delight and remind one of fond memories, it holds the power of bonding the person to that particular food. This can relate back to religion since food unites one with other as other join in to assisst...

Disclaimer: some statements may not apply to people with hearing impairment. What are the sounds you hear when you enter a religious space? Is it the sound of bells, singing, murmuring, humming, stomping? Hearing can sometimes provide us with strength, comfort, unity, joy, sadness, anger, and a ton of other emotions. I say this because when music flows into our ears and throughout our bodies it ignites a fire of passion within us. In Anne Rasmussen's work, Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia , she highlights the power of sound, which is created by the singing as well as the beat or rhythm components. It serves as a way to engulf the history, identity, and spirituality of the subject at hand. It is truly a beauty when one can listen to the production of music. Good music touches the soul as the ear captures every little sound produced. The lack of music creates a space for those gathered in religous spaces to have a disconnect from each other, b...

Disclaimer: some statements may not apply to visually imparied persons. When you are prompted to close your eyes and think of God what comes to mind?  What image do you see? When it comes to seeing, our sight plays a very essential role. As we enter religious spaces, our eyes catch the vibrancy of colors, the texture of fabrics, and the shape of furniture.  In Diana Eck’s work, Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India , she reveals the important role of sight and physicality in Hinduism. For Hindus, sewing and physicalness are intertwined. There’s time and effort given to provide gifts and to take care of the Divine. As a result, there’s an expectancy of their God appearing in a physical form for their faithfulness.  To possess the ability to see, it allows one to develop another way to connect to one’s religion through their senses. The sighting cements their faith since there is a mental imagery that reminds one of one’s faith as they think back to it fro...

My family is very connected to the supernatural, 6th sense world. My sister is a practicing witch, and while no one else in my family really digs the witchcraft stuff (it’s totally growing on me though, I’m not gonna front), it would be nonsense to ignore all the wack shit that we have experienced. Out of body experiences, dreams with implications for the future, seeing black figures before bad things happen, entering rooms and randomly being completely overcome with terror. We’ve had things move, toilets flush, lights and microwaves flicker. Last night I slept in my sister's room because my dog spent a very long time just standing in the middle of the kitchen, frozen in place looking afraid he wouldn’t move even when we called him and pet him, and it took lots of loving coaxing from my sister to get him to move. A few days ago my mom suddenly started getting anxious in the kitchen for no reason; my sister thinks it from her reading more and more about darker magic, weird things ha...

I’ve never really been one for things with really delicate tastes, things like flavored water and often floral foods and drinks were not for me. They just didn’t pack enough of a punch, felt too much like a suggestion of the fruit or flower it was supposed to taste like, they don’t have enough flavor to justify that much texture. However, for Mother’s Day my sister baked a booooooomb rose cake and I have not been able to stop stuffing my face with it. It is white cake with a little bit of rose jam in the batter, rose and strawberry jam separates the layers, and it is decorated with rose buttercream and fondant roses. It is incredible, and as I scarf it down at near violent speeds, and in this moment I am so grateful that my taste buds have grown in their appreciation. I was a very picky kid, with lots of flavors I didn’t like and textures that I couldn’t stomach. In class we discussed how children are often very sensitive to foods, and that their pickiness is often a safety mechanism. ...

As a class, we explored the concept of positive healing touch quite a bit, how hugs and kisses can make people feel better and bring comfort, with it even being considered essential to proper development. While we did discuss how some people do not like to be touched all that much, or see physical touch as something that needs to be built up to when creating relationships with people, one thing I think we could’ve explored more is the idea of touch-related trauma. Often people who have been assaulted in some way, such as having been attacked or sexually violated, will find themselves having very complex relationships to physical touch and their own body existing as a physical thing. When you are assaulted, very often you will experience a sensation of dirtiness, a need to sit in the shower, and scrub in an attempt to rid your body of whatever trauma had occurred. Often after this very often an overall disconnect to the body will occur, with the victim losing the relationship they previ...

Our eyes allow us to remain alert and get precise understandings of where certain threats are. They are quick to identify things that are out of place, that seem dangerous or maybe delicious, and all in all, just let us know what is up right in front of us. There are certain sights that bring me a lot of peace, and there are certain sights that make all the hair on my neck stand up. Basically everyone in my house has some level of trypophobia, which is phobia of like small bunched together holes. I get super grossed out because my immediate association and primal thought process is seeing holes and imagining them in flesh, like a bunch of tiny bot fly entrances on a small animal's back. It repulses me, random sets of holes gross me out, though things like honey combs are fine. I never really know what is gonna gross me out or not, so I tried to avoid weird groupings of holes in general, but I used to be way worse. That is, however, until I started painting and found myself looking ...

In a world that avoids all things magic, I have come to the understanding that there is no one real reality. Different cultures dictate what is real and what is not. In the past year, I have dabbled in reality-bending myself, I have read books that have made me question what is real? Are there dimensions that are overlapping with ours? How can we really know what we are seeing is what other people around us are seeing.  The world's a mind fuck, to say the least, the sixth sense is just another way that people use to reflect that. I understand that what I see is not always real. I live in a reality dictated by the drugs that my doctors shove down my throat so that I will not see what others do not see. This always made me question what is real. I am a person that has suffered from severe paranoia my entire life. What I heard and what I saw from a young age was not the same as my fellows, so out of fear and conformity I went to the doctor, I got pills that would make the shadows disa...

Overall, this class made me think about my senses that I had been desensitized to. It was comprised of so many different things that I take for granted and opened my eyes more to the world around me. I think one of my greatest takeaways from this class is the fact of how much all of the five main senses, as well as the sixth sense, play parts in religion. I absolutely loved the first book we read, because she talked about all of the senses in different magnitudes and I felt as though Ackerman was able to make every reader relate or understand one more thing than they knew before about a sense. This class I feel as though it made me think about the things I take for granted like my sense of taste. Before this class, I feel as though I just never recognized the impacts it has on my every day to day life. And being apart of the tasting group, making the cookies, I think it also made the impact a bit more prevalent. This class made me aware of how I find comfort in the landfill and makes ...

One of my main memories from Church when I was younger was singing the song “Lamb of God.” In Church, this song is always sung at the time where we give the sign of peace by shaking hands, hugging, or even giving a sign of peace to a person who maybe a couple of rows away. This song was a huge part of my life, and for the longest time, I used to run around my house and sing that song while giving peace to each of my stuffed animals. Whenever I hear this song being played it gives me comfort and brings up the memories of me swinging in my backyard singing it, and going to church with my family. This song fills my heart and I feel loved. Though Anne Rasmussen talks about noises in Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia, and about the ranges of loved to hated noises, which can be applied to songs and noises all around you that are picked up by our ears. She talks about how sound pollution affects America much like regular pollution, and how there are measures being ...

Taste is one of my favorite of the senses just because I feel as though it is something that can make us feel at one with each other. It is one of the senses in which we are able to bond while making a dish, or sitting down eating enjoying not only the food but the company with the people who you are with. Elizabeth Perez wrote a book, Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions, where she talks about and touches upon the importance of religious cooking. She also talks about the importance of what religions do in order to prepare certain foods or certain foods/ drinks for ceremonies. Growing up in a Catholic setting we used to bless the body of Christ and the blood of Christ before we would be able to accept it. You would bring these items down the aisle and then the priest would have us join in prayer to bless the items. We use communion in the church to be able to have and feel the presence of God. We talked about this in class where some ...

In the book The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, by David Abram one quote stuck out with me the most which was “...along with the other animals, the stones, the trees, and the clouds, we ourselves are characters within a huge story that is visibly unfolding all around us, participants within the vast imagination, or Dreaming, of the world.” I look at this quote and I completely agree with it. We are characters in which have our own stories that intertwine with other people’s stories. I feel as though the best way in which to describe how I felt as though it was already written and almost as if it was the sixth sense was the mother’s day after my aunt had passed away in April. This was the first holiday in which we all came together and tried to celebrate, but the mood was very somber at this time. I went out and played with the neighbor kids and we talked to this older woman who was tending to her garden and told us to all pick a flower. I pick...

Overall, I found this class to be such an amazing, interesting class, filled with a variety of abstract ideas and ways of thinking throughout the academic approach to religion. One very general, massive point that I learned throughout this class, was how there is a multitude of ways that the 6 senses, we explored throughout the term, can be applied to religion. It honestly quite fascinating how big of a part that they really do play. And that is the biggest take away that I got from this class. I would have never thought about senses and religion, in the ways that I did, if it were not for this class. I look forward to taking more classes like this, and wishing to get JBK again!!

The sixth sense is quite the sense. Some parts of it can be controversial among some. For other it plays a key role in their lives. Many view the sixth sense in a various amount of ways. Some think it is simply just being able to sense someone right behind you. Others think it's the ability to sense more spiritual beings. However all can agree that it is a very interesting part of senses. Throughout The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More Than Human World, written by David Abram, he explore the written language to distinguish humans from their experiential relationship to the nonhuman environment. This idea immediately brings to mind the spiritual world. For some the spiritual world is non-existent to them. However, for others, its is very prevalent in their lives.  For Christians, the spiritual world is a very real one. "The Holy Spirit" is something that is very prevalent in the lives of Christians connecting the sixth sense directly to religi...

Hearing is one of the most important sense for many organisms all throughout the world. Some purely rely on hearing more than anything else. A perfect example of this would be bats. They are pretty much blind and hearing allows the survive in a multitude of ways. Throughout Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia , written by Anne Rasmussen, she explains religious musical praxis in Indonesia and how important music is to that culture. This goes hand in hand with Christianity.  Within Christianity it is very important to to sing to the lord. In the bible it even says “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them” (Isaiah 42:10). Singing to the lord plays a key role in Christianity and other religions as well. Which makes the sensation of hearing that much more important for those who engage in it.

Each and every minute we live our lives, for those who are not blind, we are seeing whatever is before us, unless we are asleep. Seeing has many purposes for us, as humans. And it is crucial to many aspects of our lives. Throughout Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India , written by Diana Eck, she explores how sight is essential to Hindu culture. Going into the physical representation of God and how it is important. Sight can be related to religion because of our visual perception of God. This visual perception is held sacred to many differnt cultures. As a Christian myself, there are so many images of Jesus Christ all throughout churches. This allows individuals to to form a picture in our head of what Jesus would look like in person. This is very symbolic to each and every believer whether or not they are part of the religion of Christianity.  Seeing plays such a crucial role in so many different aspects of religion that religion would not be the same without sight. It w...

My personal favorite... Taste. Taste is such a beautiful thing in our lives. We, as humans, survive off of eating and drinking, which means we are constantly tasting different things all throughout our lives, the good and the bad... Throughout Religion in the Kitchen : Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , written by Elizabeth Pérez, she touches upon the importance of religious cooking, which leads me to my point on how religions have certain food or drinks that are taken during religious ceremonies that are extremely important to those who engage in them.  Within the religion of Christianity, on the first Sunday of every month Christians engage communion. During this religious act bread and wine is passed around. When they take a bite of the bread, it is supposed to represent the body of Christ, and when they drink the wine, it is supposed to represent his blood as he was crucified on the cross. As a result communion is done in the remembrance of eac...

Smell is like a love hate relationship for us... It is a sensation that we, as human, can absolutely love or hate. Sometimes we want to always smell the scent of that amazing food, or love to be around someone who has an amazing smell to them. However, sometimes we cannot stand scents, like if we are driving behind a trash truck, or that kid that sat the side of you in your history class your senior year of high school who had the worst smell of BO, and you wanted to put on a face mask... Throughout the book, The  Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature, written by Deborah Green, she explores the ways that rabbis’ reading of biblical texts along with intimate experiences with scents allows for further and better interpretations of the text. This is such a important aspect of religion because scents and aromas can play so much more a larger roll than we think. For instance, part of the Wiccan ritual, sacred scents can actually awaken the sen...

Throughout each and everyday of our lives we are constantly touching everything. I am currently touching multiple keys on my keyboard all at once, with my arm on the desk, sitting on my chair, with my feet resting on the floor. No matter what we are always feeling something through the sense of touch. However, touch can be so much more than just a feeling. As Constance Classen, the writer of The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch, describes it as being so much more than just a feeling. The bond of touching between loved ones, or the strict feeling of pain we get through touch. Through a religious standpoint the feeling of getting baptized, for Christians, can be an extraordinary feeling like none other.  For me when I was baptized the feeling was like none other. And I am sure that each and every person at some point in their lives have experienced some sort of touch that was like none other. It was special. And it shows just how the sensation of touch can be all that m...

It's crazy to think that this class is already over. At this point it feels like the entire semester has gone by so quickly. In my entire time at Wheaton, this was the only religion course that I have taken. It has also been the most discussion based of my courses. I think this was a refreshing experience in the sea of STEM classes that I have taken throughout my time here. While I thoroughly enjoyed most of my STEM classes, none of them have really been about developing new, thought provoking ideas concerning spirituality and the senses. It was a new way to think about the self and my relationship to the world around me. I honestly did not think this class would be as interesting as it has proven to be, nor did I imagine that it would make me think this much. Its sad that we had to spent the last part of the class doing stuff over video call, but I think being able to take the class from the comfort of our own homes allowed for a different atmosphere that we would not hav...

The act of seeing something is almost always depicted as an action taken by the observer on the item being see. To me, it was always about one person fixing their gaze upon something. When I thought about it, I know that it is just our interpretation of different wavelengths entering our eyes, but intuitively it seems more like an active thing on our part.  In Diana Eck's  Seeing the Divine Image in India , I got a sense that "seeing" is about much more than just what wavelengths the rods and cones in our eyes are detecting. The Hindu idea of d arśana  is a much more passive concept than the way I usually think of sight. Instead of something getting looked at by the observer, it is more like the sight is getting broadcast by the thing being seen. To quote Eck, "The deity presents itself to be seen in this image".  I really enjoyed this concept, because it can be applied to more than images of deities or people. One thing I have always tried to do is...

Honestly, I have no idea what I’m supposed to write about for my blog post on the sixth sense. I’ve never seen God, an angel, or any otherworldly entity. No one has ever paid me a visit. I never remember my dreams, so if they’re prophetic I would have no clue. I’ve never partaken in any form of magic, and I’ve never traveled through space and time. I’ve never even been hypnotized. In terms of the sixth sense, my time thus far on Earth has been pretty anticlimactic, and I can only help but wonder- is it my fault I’ve never experienced something science can’t explain? The phrase “Use it or lose it” applies to the first five senses. People only notice what they pay attention to. I can scarf down an entire plate of food and barely taste it if I’m not paying attention, but there are people who are able to train themselves to detect all of the ingredients in a complex dish. It is possible to orient oneself through sound, yet many struggle to notice the majority of the sounds around them....

I was unsure what to think about a class named “Smells and Bells” but I am very glad that I took this class. I had never taken a religion class in my entire life. I was somewhat scared going into a 300 level religion class with no knowledge, but I liked the connection that was offered through the class and I was intrigued to do it. I mean, who doesn’t like food?  At first in this class, I didn’t enjoy it very much. The class size was very large and the classroom shape didn’t seem to work for the style of class that it was. With the large class size, I felt intimidated to speak up in class, which was something that I have never dealt with before in my life. The conversation also seemed to move too fast for me to handle.  Everything changed after I presented, alongside some of my fellow classmates, in the smelling group. I had a lot of fun working with my classmates on the ideas for our presentation and I've also always liked presenting in class. In high school I did theatr...

Playlist I made for this post: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3WGxkB9qFM5sEUxroq4nzj?si=qNXZiTpQSDqtnVoJd1Xixg I walk into the gym and the smell hits me, and I am overcome by a jarring familiarity. It is sweet and makes me feel warm, and for a brief moment I close my eyes, and breathe in deep through my nose. Suddenly I am 8 years old again, speeding around that dingy rink in a small Florida town. I can see it all, how grimy and dark it is, how the air was thick with sweat and old shoes. And I can see how beautiful it looked illuminated by those cheap neon lights. Every Sunday I had classes there in the under bright fluorescents that buzzed in the background of each rollerskating. I loved roller skating, I was all about it, career choice #1 from the ages of 7-9 (besides boxer, or artist, or architect, of course. I like to keep my options open!) and the rink had become my classroom. But Friday nights were a whole different story. Fridays and Saturdays were when the rink would be boo...

City life makes you find comfort sound unlike anything else. It fills the silence with suspense, fills your head with images only city slickers or storytellers could conjure up so fast. We lose comfort in the nothing, forget that quiet is a state of being that is warm and welcome. School got me accustomed to the stillness, but it took work. It took walking inch by inch, fighting panic attacks rising my throat and blinking away tears that felt irrational. It’s the fear of the unknown, influenced by all the wack stuff you do know. In the city, you have to be careful, aware. You learn how to sense people around you, hear them over the rushing of crowds to move out of their way. The echoes of the woods are very different from the banging hum-drum of city streets. My lack of familiarity filled every crack and shifting leaf with images of attackers and assaulters because while the woods might be safe, in the city you know You Never Know what could be around. So, wherever you go you stay aler...