Smells and Bells

Alright, let’s tie this up in a nice little bow. I genuinely did not know what to expect coming into this class. The extent of my knowledge of the senses comes from elementary school when we had to make it a little song to get the information through our tiny heads. Beyond that, everything seemed pretty cut and dry. We have five senses. We need to use all of them to survive. It’s as simple as that. I did not know how there was enough to talk about the senses to fill an entire college course, especially one specifically regarding the relationship between the senses and religion. But the fact that we were barely able to fit all the content in before the semester ended proves just how wrong I was. Let’s talk about why that is and what some of the things I learned were. First off, even the most basic assumption about the senses, that there are five of them, was questioned immediately. The sixth sense may not have been as clearly defined as the other senses, but there was certainly a lot to...

  It’s time for a sound/taste crossover post! Let’s talk about table manners. We talk about table manners like they’re one concrete set of rules that we are supposed to follow. People say “Learn your table manners” like they would say “Learn your times tables” or “Learn your ABCs”. This results in people growing up with what they believe is a universal standard for how to act during meals. I am here to tell you that this is a LIE. You have been LIED TO. Table manners are a hoax! Though I probably don’t need to tell you this since I’m confident everyone has had an experience where they are taking part in a group meal outside of their familial bubble and feel awkward because everyone else at the table is acting completely differently from them. This is something I witnessed constantly growing up, and I think my experiences highlight a distinction in table manners between religions. Now let’s tie it back to the sound part of this whole thing. There was one element of table manners tha...

  Ah, the sixth sense. The catch all. The scapegoat. Long recognized, barely defined. My perspective on the sixth sense has changed quite a bit from the beginning of class to the end. I’ll admit that at first I thought the addition of the sixth sense was quite unnecessary and just detracted from the five “real” senses. After all, scientists have agreed for centuries that there are five primary senses, proven through empirical examination and utilized frequently in our day to day lives. It seemed to me that people used this sixth sense as a sort of catch all for any feeling they had which didn’t fit neatly into the five established senses. And so, after a semester of learning about this sixth sense, do I support its nomination into the Mount Olympus of senses? Well, kinda. Here’s the thing about senses: The idea that there are five of them is kinda a lie. I’ll probably touch on this more in my final post so I won’t belabor the point here, but the concept of having five distinct and ...

  This is gonna be a short one cuz I genuinely don’t have much to say. I haven’t had many experiences with smell and religion and can’t think of many examples of how it is utilized in religion. That fact alone is interesting though so let’s chat about that for a bit. First of all, when I say I can’t think of many ways in which smell is utilized in religion, that’s not entirely true. I want to make it clear that there are many situations in which smell plays a major role in a specific religion’s culture. All five (or six) senses are utilized to a certain extent and that’s the entire point of this class. That being said, I do feel as though smell is actively put into practice the least. Or at least, people perceive smell as being put into practice the least, and I’m curious why this is. We know from Deborah Green’s book that smell can be and is incredibly important, so why is it that we see so little of it in religion? My best answer is that we think about religion primarily from a w...

There’s this trend at Passover at my house every year where all the kids will fight over the Maror, or bitter herbs. This takes the form of horseradish at most seders, but can be any variety of supposedly unpleasant tasting herb. Every year, the children in attendance at the seder will ask for more horseradish and complain when their parents say they need to save room for dinner. But this begs the question, if the bitter herb is meant to be, well, bitter, then why do so many people enjoy it? This process happens again with the Karpas, or salt water. We dip parsley in a small bowl of salt water that is supposed to represent the tears of Jewish people who were forced to suffer through slavery and death at the hands of Pharoah. Though yet again, people will take large clumps of parsley, throw it on their plate, and munch away at the salt water drenched greens throughout the rest of the seder. Again, if the karpas represents something so terrible and is meant to be manifested in an unpleas...

Smells and Bells has come to an end and so has my time as an undergraduate student. This course has changed me significantly- not at the core- I have always appreciated my senses and taken the time to understand them, but in the way that I am able to much more precisely identify just how important these senses are to me and why. It has also in a way prepared me for leaving this place.   It has allowed me to soak in my sensory experiences here knowing that they will be with me forever, if not physically through memory and through connections I find everywhere. The distinct smells of my Davis House kitchen, the touch of my friends hands, the sounds of walking the Chapel bell as it hits the hour, the feeling of the Emerson House ghost following me into my backyard. These are all things I have been able to pay more attention to, immerse myself into more and more every day with greater appreciation for how each of these senses is contributing to my overall experience- one that I will be...

Alright, let’s talk about DRUGS. They’re a money sink, they make our brain look like a fried egg, and most egregiously, they are responsible for the deaths of Heath Ledger and Philip Seymour Hoffman. And yet, despite all the horror, drugs are still a growing epidemic in this country. Why? Because they “make you feel good”. Though what that means can vary drastically from drug to drug. But the kind we’re particularly interested in here are the ones that can make you talk to god. Yes, that’s right, for only a few dozen bucks a night, YOU, can commune with God! (I’m legally required to inform you that this last sentence was sarcastic and I do not in fact endorse the use of (most) drugs, even to talk to God.) This can mean a lot of things as there are many different ways in which people have claimed to communicate with God. Sometimes it’s one way communication, sometimes it's back and forth. Sometimes there are visuals involved, sometimes it’s audible, sometimes it’s communication di...

Before taking this course, I don’t think I thought too much about the senses, honestly. If last semester's me were to hear I said that, I would probably have been offended. I definitely have always been interested in the senses, but this class gave me such a better insight into senses that I thought I knew so much about but in reality had never sat down and had to think too much about it.  I have never thought very much about my sense of smell because of the fact that I have a very poor sense of smell normally, and I also was not expecting that we would talk about the sixth sense in this class (although I am very happy we did). I doubt, though, that, previous to taking this course, I even knew much about the senses that I appreciated greatly and was aware of how much I appreciated them. I had never sat down and had to consider how much I care about taste, and how truly important taste and cooking are to me. Honestly, I really enjoyed the icebreakers at the beginning of class, and l...

  The thing I loved most about Elizabeth Perez’s book, Religion In the Kitchen , was how she talked about cooking – and especially cooking in the home – can connect us. My mom is an amazing baker, and I remember some of my joyous moments were spent in the kitchen with us. She taught me all the best ways to cook and in all the best ways. I learned how to be organized from being organized in the kitchen, how to care about if you’re doing too much or too little, and, most recently, how to trust your gut.  I’d say that gift-giving is my love language, but my artistic family always says that there is no greater gift than the one you make yourself. Food, I feel, is such a fulfilling gift to give my friends and family. I will prepare for weeks just to make something nice for people. I love cooking to the best of my ability too. I care about presentation, having fresh ingredients, and making something tasty but also good for your body and soul.   Although my family is not re...

      School's Out.    It's been four months since my first blog post on the senses, and I still sit in the same "sea of smells" as before, although perhaps it’s a bit mustier. But, if I've learned anything, it's to appreciate the less pleasant sensations. A monolithic sensory palette is no palette at all, and as such, I wish to spend my last blog post meditating on a new sense, one with much more potential for linguistic expression: hearing.    Around me, dozens of sounds swirl around my head. Heavy feet stomp from above, creaking the hundred-year-old wood. A door slams, followed by sharp, clear laughter reminiscent of wind chimes. Cars rumble alongside the buzz of crickets and thick summer heat. And in the distance, I hear the faint mumblings of Kendrick Lamar's new album. With sound, the unseen world becomes realized, and I find myself able to connect with it beyond my physical limitations. In this sense, I ground myself into a universal narrat...

       After having read both of Ariel Glucklich’s Sacred Pains, I think the most shocking thing I learned — after the incredibly detailed explanation of torture methods used during the Spanish Inquisition and the notion that communicating pain creates similar behavior to that of the Marquis de Sade — was that while touch can inflict pain, lack of touch can too. It seems paradoxical at first, but upon further thought, I realized how powerful, prolonged touch deprivation could be.       To preface, I’ve never been an exceptionally touchy person. My family is Catholic, so any physical sentimentality we have for each other remains locked away until a death-bed confessional. Occasionally, we hug as hello or goodbye, but for the most part, we keep our hands to ourselves.       This is not to say I was deprived of physical touch as a child. If I asked for a hug or kiss, I quickly received one, but very rarely did I have that impulse....

      Coming fresh out of a pandemic, I believe one of the most important claims in the books we have read is Classen's in which she describes the importance of touch and tangible experience. Why do humans see concerts in person, when they could stream the same music online without spending nearly as much money or time? The answer is obvious —we are willing to pay a price to be part of a shared, tangible experience or to connect to someone special.       You might not think that for students as stubborn to participate and uninterested in learning as us that being in a classroom is preferred over zoom. Actually, upon coming back to campus, I heard endless remarks of those being happy just to be back in the classroom setting. They couldn't figure out why. Agreeing with Classen, it's because we need this tangible experience to learn effectively. You've probably heard about the "zoom fatigue" experienced by many during this time, and I have to agree. The r...

 This post is very different for me to write. Before taking this class, I only had heard of the sixth sense. I really did not know what it was or how to describe it. I did do not really believe in supernatural beings or being that we cannot see like ghosts. After putting together the presentation with my group members, I have a better understanding of what exactly it is. People have different examples of their sixth sense. Some people can read minds, whereas other people can determine their future. Some people can hear colors. I have to say that I feel like I do not have a sixth sense. I am fascinated by the people that have a sixth sense, I wish that I did. I feel like having a sixth sense is truly the only way you can understand it. I am very happy that I had the opportunity to take this class so that I could learn more knowledge about the senses of the human body.  

      There is nothing a people person loves more than an unplanned reunion with a friend from long ago. Or seeing a loved one after a long period of no holidays. For humans, the sight of a loved one, to be in their presence, is essential. Diana Eck argues that in Hinduism,  Darśan is a type of communion between deities and worshippers; seeing in this way must be essential for Hindus to reconnect with their beloved gods. Eck also mentions that Darśan is never solely a visual experience but rather involves all senses. The communication between worshipper and deity provides an experience beyond the five senses, reaching into the sixth...     David Abram argues that humans have lost their touch with the living earth, resulting in devastation of our natural word. While some consider the gift of  shamans and sorcerers to be a supernatural one, connecting our human world to another dimension, Abrams argues that their power lies within their ability to c...

When JBK asked us what our favorite scent was in class, I responded with “smell”, because I can definitely appreciate a good scent. But after giving it some more thought, I think that the combination of sight and touch is what grounds me, and makes me the most calm. The idea of going into a sensory deprivation chamber totally freaks me out! I’d be scared that I would literally lose *touch* with reality. In the third chapter of The Deepest Sense by Constance Classen, Painful Times , Classen explains how blindness due to disease, malnutrition or accident was not uncommon in the middle ages (Classen 51). She also explains that a few blind individuals from this time became renowned craftsmen, their sense of touch heightened by relying on senses other than sight. Unfortunately, many blind people from this time were hired on construction sites as tradewheel operators, since they would not be scared by the sight of the sheer drop that was below them. This was a very dangerous job as the whee...

  This post is definitely going to be the hardest for me to write. I do not believe in ghosts or the supernatural, I am not horribly invested in astrology, and I’m barely able to collect my thoughts on a day-to-day basis, never mind think about how my every minuscule action could affect me down the line. I can count on two hands the number of dreams that I’ve had that I’ve remembered and on one hand the number of dreams that I could actually recall now and explain. When I was little, however, I had one recurring nightmare that I can still vividly remember.  The nightmare had a few key plot points that always happened whenever I would get it. It always started out with me wandering my house alone, with it ominously empty and eerily quiet. Eventually, I would end up in my younger brother’s room, searching everywhere for a sign of him. After I had checked everywhere else, I would get to the closet. I would open it up and a huge bear would emerge and start to chase me. It was ...

       At the beginning of the semester, one of our ice breakers was to say what your favorite sense is. I hadn’t really put that much thought into it before, but I eventually settled on Touch as my favorite. As a way of dealing with stress, and as a way to keep my hands busy, I started to make friendship bracelets and recently taught myself how to embroider. I soon ran into a problem however as I only have so much wrist space. I didn’t want to recreate the silly band era of my life just with friendship bracelets, so I instead decided to put them up for grabs on my dorm room door. The reason I was able to create so many in the first place was because of the need to do something with my hands. When I’m watching TV I often feel like I can’t fully pay attention to the content if I’m not also doing something else. I think it’s a bit of the ADHD brain going on there, but once I start to make bracelets with my hands I find it easier to concentrate. One of the things that I...

  I am notoriously bad at color choices. I am always first to back out of PowerPoint design as I cannot for the life of me make it look decent, most of my closet contains clothing somewhere in the realm of blue, black, and gray, not to mention the time in high school wearing jeans and a t-shirt that was the exact same shade of navy blue. That last one I will blame on the fact that I was always running late and got dressed in the dark in my rush. This was also a clear issue when I started to make more and more friendship bracelets. It was always clear when I had picked out a bad color combination because those bracelets would stay on the door for a fairly long time before being claimed.  My early solutions to this problem were to ask people what colors they wanted in a bracelet, however, this isn’t as easy to do with strangers who are just grabbing off of a door. This then led me to a random hex code color generator. I would generate 4+ colors at a time and picked the group...

  I have had swimmer’s ear too many times to count, but I can proudly say that I’ve only ever had an ear infection once. The swimmer’s ear makes sense since I was a part of local swim teams from ages 9 to 18, even though I wasn’t really good at the sport. The ear infection though I remember exactly when it happened. I was in fourth grade when I got it, and I woke up in unbearable pain. Now, I was notorious for being a crier when I was little (so much so that my mom didn’t believe that I had gotten stung by a jellyfish until I got stung two more times, but that’s a story for another time), so I’m glad that my mom believed me when this happened. My mom called the doctor’s office and the earliest appointment that they had for me was at 3:30. At first this was fine, until about 10 am. My mom suddenly decided that she was not mentally prepared to listen to me scream and cry in pain for 5 more hours so she called again and luckily was able to get an appointment in 45 minutes in the nex...

  Taste is an interesting sense for me because I don’t feel like I have a strong connection to it. I am notoriously a picky eater. Although I’m not the pickiest, even in my family, I feel like my pickiness is still noticeable. As I’ve grown up I feel like I’ve grown to appreciate more foods and tastes, but my favorite of my acquired tastes is seltzer. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a bit of a problem when it comes to my love of seltzer. Every time a college break rolls around my family likes to joke that the only reason I’m going home is so that I can restock my seltzer cupboards on their dime, and they’re not wrong. However if you met me five years ago, I would have spit seltzer out and refused to drink it vehemently.  About 10 years ago my mom decided to cut caffeine, and by extension soda, out of her life. She realized that Diet Coke was doing far more damage than good to her so she decided that it would be for the best to leave it behind. However, as any carbo...

     I wrote a previous blog post about my brother’s gross Luigi hat. I now return with an update on the hat. About a month ago my brother had to say goodbye to his hat. Although many would have drawn the line in the sand when it started to turn a different color, or when the brim began to fray, or even when it became possible to see through the hat because of how threadbare it became, the final nail in the hat’s coffin was the latch on the back of the hat. The piece of fabric you use to tighten or loosen a hat fell off, meaning that there is no physical way for my brother to wear his hat anymore. Apparently, he even tried to approach members of my family asking them if they would be willing to sew the piece back onto the hat, but all of us were wise enough to say no. Now my brother has officially moved onto the new Luigi hat, albeit begrudgingly.  Although this may seem like a victory, the Luigi hat remains. He immediately started wearing the new Luigi hat and h...