Smells and Bells

You know when you get the sort of strange feeling when you step into a friends house for the first time. You don't know where anything is, you're not quite sure how to go about doing anything, and the entire house smells weird. Not necessarily a bad smell. although that can happen, but it's as if you're surrounded by something your body has to get used to. It can take some time. Eventually, as you become better friends and you visit their house more and more often; you'll start the notice the smell less and less. It will become second nature for you to be in this house. You may not even remember that it used to smell so different to you, now you don't notice any difference from anywhere else in your life. Why is that? I know when people come to my house for the first time I have asked what they smell that's different than what they're used to. They mention that they can tell I have a dog. Does it smell bad like a dog? No, simply that there is an ani...

When I walked into class and saw the three guest speakers, I knew I made the right decision to get to class that day. The House of Larva is a drag show that is intended to engage all of the senses. In class we did a few things that were much more about touch and smell. However, my favorite part was the real show that evening. The dramatic costumes and images and lighting are what made the entire experience so memorable. The costume I remember the most was that of Anfanga Sphinx (my apologies if that is spelled wrong). The costume had no real organization to it but it immediately drew your attention. There was torn cloth, glitter, something that resembled flour, a marker, and cloth strategically stuck to cover the nipples. The look made a bold statement, which I am sure was the intention. A statement I'm sure it wasn't planning to make but did an excellent job of doing so was to the young men who were clearly out of their element at this show. They had a bit of trouble figur...

One of my Mother's favorite stories to tell people is that when I was little I was such a picky eater that I went through a phase that I would only eat white food. It's true, there was about a month of my life that I would refuse to eat anything that wasn't basically white in color. Why? I have no idea. Yet, I also have no idea how or when or why I got past it either. One of the great mysteries is why our tastes change as we grow older and develop into fully functioning adults. I am so glad I have been able to grow as a person and explore new flavors and foods because I would have missed out on so much in life if I hadn't. When we try a new food, that memory of whether the experience was pleasant or not stays with us for years. It will be the deciding factor in whether we eat it again or not. For example, when I tried peanut butter the last time, it made it difficult to breath and I broke out in hives. So I don't plan to eat it again anytime soon. On the other hand...

I have been an athlete my entire life. From Karate as a child to Gymnastics, Cheerleading, and Track & Field as I grew up. The sore muscles from a workout were always my signal that I put in work that day and got some good things out of it. Many people will take Advil to help ease the pain of their aching muscles, but I never liked to. I wanted to feel the muscles 100% naturally and feel as they healed themselves over time. It helped me to gage whether or not I was recovering properly from the workouts and gaining the full benefits. I prefer to stay away from pain killers as much as possible, and many people question why I do so. I have many reasons as to why, but none were like the validation I felt when I read Ariel Glucklich's Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul .  This book showed me that there were so many different sides and dimensions when it came to pain. The way society has changed it's views on the subject in the past few centuries says it...

“We are all, secretly, nocturnally gifted. We just live in the day, oblivious to our own secret stars” - Kripal Before this class, I didn't take much time to really think about the senses. I knew the five basic senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste. At the beginning of the semester, I was assigned to be a part of the group assigned to present about the sixth sense. I had no idea what to expect. Thankfully, I got into something incredibly intriguing that would peak my interest for some time even after our work was presented. With looking into the sixth sense, I became much more interested in how this research pertained to me personally. I read so much about how this sense can be interpreted in a number of ways. Which leads me to believe it may be different but also the same for everyone. Many different sources, as well as those given in Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and The Sacred , present the sixth sense as an extraordinary connection to the spiritua...

Personally, I have always despised drawing and/or writing with chalk. I never quite knew what it was. Is it the feeling of it against the concrete? The blackboard? Is it the sound it makes if it moves just right? What is it that makes me physically cringe when I use chalk? With some research and discussion with other people, it seems to have something to do with the negative connotation of "nails on a chalkboard". It's a sound that will make anybody uncomfortable. Why? Because we have been told it's a bad sound. In an article published by Daily Mail it says " The researchers - led by Michael Oehler of the Macromedia University for Media and Communication in Cologne, Germany - found that the listeners who'd been told they were listening to fingernails were more disgusted and appalled than those who hadn't" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2056640/Revealed-Why-fingernails-blackboard-sound-awful.html ).  This research is in support of...