Smells and Bells

Blog #10          We are all aware of the things in life that supposedly have the ability to "get us high". Of course we all know how eating can do this, as well as sexual activities and physical exercise (sports, running, etc), and drugs...But what about music? Sometimes, when I am listening to music, especially if there is a song that I know extremely well and appreciate the melody as well as the lyrics, I feel a euphoria that is unlike really anything else. If I had to compare it to something, it would be the feeling I get after I have just gotten a good workout. My entire body gets flooded by a wave of tingling happiness that usually causes me to close my eyes and temporarily just exist in that moment.        The link of the song posted below is the song that when I am listening to it, can momentarily make me feel as though I have teleported back in time to this past summer when I was in Italy with a lot of family as well as good frien...

Blog #9                                                                               Ok so I found this image awhile ago and have been curious about it ever since. I am curious about what people's first thoughts were when they read it, and I am curious about why and how exactly this can be true (I am by no means questioning that it is true, I agree with him wholeheartedly, I am just wondering how  it can be possible? I always thought that the fact that you can't actually "see God" is one of the reasons why most people like religion or gravitate towards it, and that it becomes more about faith and hope than anything else.  But it is clear that humans have the inherent desire to feel and prove things to be true or false, which we see first hand by this silly example in the quo...

Blog #8        I have been thinking a lot about how important the senses are to religion and its many different holidays. Since Easter is what my family celebrates, and having gone home to celebrate the holiday so recently, my thoughts on what the many practices of the holiday symbolize are still running through my brain. It is funny to think that a generic looking rabbit is probably more well known as the face of easter than Jesus Christ. Why is that? When did easter turn from resurrection to rabbits and colorful pastel eggs? Furthermore, is the reason for having a bunny be the mascot for Easter the same mentality behind having the jolly Santa Claus be the official mascot for Christmas? Is there something about these symbols that make them more friendly to the public? Perhaps this coincides with our generations visible lack of comfort with anything extremely religious, and instead turn to words like "spiritual" and "energy" to express their beliefs.    ...

Blog #7 Response to the massage lady      There were and still are so many thoughts racing through my head regarding the massage lady and her overall presentation to our class. A lot of the stuff that she was talking about was extremely interesting, however, it just made me more curious about a lot of other coinciding topics and psychological principles. For starters, in my mind her presentation called into question the power of suggestion and how big of a role that can play on the overall outcome of a situation. For example, when she had her and a couple of other students place there hands over Gaby's shoulder in an attempt to heal it or relieve some of the tension, she quickly followed up with a comment that the shoulder looked looser and the motion was more fluid when Gaby moved it. But did they actually do anything? Or is it just because they thought they were doing something or that Gaby thought it would do something that it actually ended up doing something? Is t...

Blog #6 What Happens When         The What Happens When play was interesting to say the least. I went into it not expecting much to be honest and came out pleasantly surprised with some parts and not sure how I felt about some other parts. As abstract/different the scenes with the two girls pretending to be children was, I must say I was a fan of the concept. I think it is really important to understand that any type of exploration into sexuality usually coincides with the loss or losing of innocence. Some might say that experiencing sexual things is what really moves a person from childhood to adulthood, and I can't help but agree with this mentality. Furthermore, I think sexual assault can really make a girl or guy lose their childhood-like mentality. That type of bright eyed ready for the wonders of the world mentality can be taken so quickly if someone is sexually assaulted. Having someone use sexuality in a forced or aggressive way can completely alter how s...

Blog #5 A Natural History Of the Senses Taste        Ive always been aware of how social a practice the act of eating and tasting food is. However, I find it extremely interesting how closely linked the relationship between peace and food is. Historically it is the same, with famous examples like thanksgiving, (I am aware that thanksgiving wasn't really as peaceful as we perceive it to be in today's society) and just other miscellaneous examples like in Roman culture and Renaissance culture. Why is this? Or rather, when did this relationship first come about? If not an inherent correlation, what started this peaceful energy we feel when we dine with someone else, or a group of others?         Asking myself the questions above brought me to this famous scene, or painting shown above. The picture obviously shows that there is a decent amount of tension and a heavy debate going on, however, the fact that this picture is so famous and i...

BLOG #4 A Natural History of the Senses Touch       The author talked about how autopsies of the cerebellum showed that the monkeys who were kept in total isolation had brain damage. Since our school loves connections, I am going to take this opportunity to connect this to one of my favorite classes Ive taken at Wheaton College. In forensic psychology we learned about the reasons for our jail system. One of the biggest reasons why jail exists, is the attempt to rehabilitate it’s inhabitants and make them ready and better suited to be thrown back into our crazy world. However, we then went on to learn what solitary confinement does to the human mind. Ranging from hearing voices, to developing full blown mental disorders, all solitary confinement succeeds in doing is making the criminals more disturbed than they first were when they entered jail. This directly relates to the study of the monkeys and how not interacting with others can actually damage the brain...

BLOG #3 A Natural History of the Senses Touch      “Infants who suffered short time deprivation became adolescents who clung to one another obsessively instead of developing into independent, confident individuals. When they suffered long term deprivation, they avoided one another and became aggressive when they did come in contact, violent loners who didn’t form good relationships”.              For ethical reasons it is clear as to why testing such as this cannot be done on human children, so the researchers used monkeys instead. It would be interesting to be able to test this and be able to say that after thorough and proper testing researchers have confirmed that not having the touch of ones mother in adolescence can greatly affect how they handle the people around them later on. However, I feel extremely confident in saying that the results would be the same with humans. This is by no means saying that it is impossible to...

BLOG #2 A Natural History of the Senses  Smell         The second half of Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses chapter on smell is just as intriguing as the first half. “Children like most smells until they’re old enough to be taught differently”. It is incredible to think about how much our society and culture dictates our reality, so much so, that it even has the power to influence our senses, which is something that we consider so personal. The example that is given is the fact that westerners find fecal smells to be repulsive, however, in Masai they like to dress their hair with cow dung for they find the shine that it gives the hair as well as the smell to be pleasing. Perhaps we would find other bodily smells appealing if the society that we were living in didn’t tell us that we were suppose to find them disgusting. Sweat is another great example of this.           Ive always wondered what we would be ca...

BLOG #1 A Natural History Of the Senses Smell           "Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once" This is one of the most intriguing quotes in the entire chapter, perhaps because of how true it is. It is interesting to think about how for the most part smell is the only sense that has the power to invade your consciousness with memory. There are certain songs that I hear that instantly take me back to the first time I heard them. However, other than that, my mind can't really conjure up other instances where my other senses can make me nostalgic quite like smell can.  However, out of all the senses if you were to ask someone what they would be willing to give up, most would answer smell. Why has smell become so unimportant to the majority of us?        The chapter talks about how smell is "the mute sense" meaning that people are able to recognize smells but it is basically an impossibility to d...