Touch and Natural History of the Senses

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 Touch

Quote and Question from the Chapter 1 of Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman ;

Quote: “It imprisons us, but it also gives us

individual shape protects us from invaders,”


Question: how do senses both limit and free us


Other Notes:


  • Massaged babies gain weight as much as 50 percent faster than unmassaged babies. They’re more active, alert, and responsive, more aware of their surroundings, better able to tolerate noise, and they orient themselves faster and are emotionally more in control.

  • “At the University of Colorado School of Medicine, researchers conducted a separation experiment with monkeys, in which they removed the mother. The infant showed signs of helplessness, confusion, and depression, and only the return of its mother and continuous holding for a few days would help it return to normal.”

    • WHY would you do this experiment to monkeys??

  • “Any first-time touch, or change in touch (from gentle to stinging, say), sends the brain into a flurry of activity. Any continuous low-level touch becomes background.”

  • “Trans Time, Inc., a member of the American Cryogenics Society,”

    • What I find funny about these companies is that they keep going bankrupt before technology advances enough to reanimate their customers.

  • “Something about its (Wolfen/Predator) heat-seeking ability makes it doubly horrifying.”

    • Extrasensory abilities are demonized (ie witches, Sixth Sense)

Final Thoughts
One of the ideas that Ackerman brought up that I found fascinating was that senses "can imprison us, but also gives us individual shape, and protects us." The idea that senses, touch, taste, or smell can limit and free us is interesting. It reminds me of Aldous Huxley's idea of consciousness from "the doors of perception," wherein he claims that our brain acts as a reducing valve for ultimate consciousness, filtering out all of the "useless" sensory information to form our consciousness perception of the world around us.

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