Smells and Bells

In thinking about the escapable absolute definition of what the sixth sense is, I thought back to fantasy books I had read as a child. The Golden Compass Trilogy provides a good perception of humans relationship with the natural world. Within the confines of this alternate world, the human soul takes the form or lifelong animal companions, referred to daemons. There is an indestructible tether between an individual and their daemon, they cannot be separated by more than a few feet at a time. It is believed that the daemon shape shifts at will into any animal until it's human enters puberty, at this stage the daemon achieves permanence of one animal. This seems to symbolize how, as we get older, our personality solidifies and settles. We gain a more distinct identity than we had as a kid. The word "daemon" has old religious context as well. In Christian writings the word is used in reference to a demon, or evil spirit. The Greeks used the term in mythology to explain a ...

In Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous he emphasizes that we have a penchant in Western society for understanding spirits in the likeness of human form. To me, this may stem from the depictions of the intangible dieties in Greek and Roman mythology; while the gods and spirits take many forms and are symbolized by different objects their primary form is that of perfected human physique and unmatchable beauty. This perspective, Abram points out, is somewhat of an anomaly because in indigenous cultures sprites and dieties are "primarily those modes of intelligence or awareness that do not posses a human form."  Taking cues from this, I believe that Abrams sixth sense is more of an indescribable comprehension and enlightenment as to the existence and operations of spirits in the natural world. Our preconceived notions of what we believe to represent spirits, limit our receptibility to the wonders of the natural world. Everyone has the capacity to gain englightenment via the...

Tell me y'all looked at those images and you're not drooling right now. Even just pictures of food elicits a physical response from me, my stomach growls, my mouth salivates, sometimes my head begins to hurt a little bit. The mind is a powerful thing, seeing or picturing delicious foods make the body respond with huger or desire to eat, taste, smell, touch, and consume. Feel the steam from your food on your face, touch the warmth of your bowl, hear the crunch of celery/carrots, the splash of gravy, admire the visual of your food as a whole plate, smell the beef stew, the hopps of the beer, and obviously the taste of it all. When certain foods bring back fond memories or remind us of positive past experiences any component to the eating process, the senses mentioned above, become triggers a sense of nostalgia and comfort. This is the beauty of comfort foods. Usually warm and filling, comfort foods are essential when in groups, and even more so to the individual alon...

I attended What Happens When its opening night with Gaby. I was apprehensive when I entered Watson, but overall I found the play tastefully done, incorporating modern visual aids as well as important social issues present on this campus. An overall theme of the play was communication, both verbal and non verbal, as it relates to consent. The ways in which we communicate our intentions and emotions with others is through visual, verbal, physical cues. Our five senses are paramount in assisting with our communication in the outside world. The play focused primarily on language as a means of communicating with other our intentions when in potentially dangerous sexual situations. You can read a friend's lips when their whispering to you from across class, when you're too spaced/hurried to acknowledge someone you can throw up a peace sign (or maybe that's just me..).  When discussing sex, it is important to engage visually, audibly, and physically to pick up signals from oth...

On March 31st I attended JBK's talk "Doing it Orally." I found the presentation thought provoking and informative. As it bridged the concept of eating with many of our senses, including taste (obviously), hearing, seeing, and touching. There is an obvious connection between food and sex; kissing is eating, and beyond that - eating is more than merely tasting. As quoted in the song of songs, "Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, for your love is sweeter than wine. Your ointments yield sweet fragrance (1:10)... My sister, my bride, I have smelled my myrrh and spice. Making love is like eating and smelling (5:1)." Clearly, kissing requires your mouth, but it also stimulates other senses: smell, taste, touch, and sound. The mouth is a multifaceted sensory receptor. Eating could be considered hearing because the bones in the ear come from the jaw. "Ear tests words as palate tastes food" (JOB 12:11). The Song of Songs reaffirms the taste-hearing connec...

As an athlete, my first trip to the chiropractor was in seventh grade and my mother had been giving me home massages since rec-league in elementary school. It has always amazed me how with the most subtle click of the realignment tool (looks incredibly menacing but it's actual mechanical realignment is undetectable on the skin), bones were corrected in my spine and mountains of pain were alleviated from my body. Out of necessity and proven value I am an avid fan of massages, the knots and contusion that covered my body from contact sports as well as daily wear and tear - carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder, carrying bags of grain to the barn, chores, sleeping incorrectly, slouching, etc - provided pain regularly. When we had the massage therapist as our guest speaker, she echoed many things I had previously heard from my many visits to physical therapy offices. I have also participated in touch-energy centered practice such as yoga, meditation, and recently my mother forced...

Your nose can smell something long before your eyes can see it. Fragrance plays a large role in your first impression of a person. In temples, natural flowers are present to keep the air clean and bring with them the presence of nature, God is always present in nature. Indian temples posses one distinct scent of Camphor. Camphor has medicinal powers and its smell alone has been known to heal people. It is often used as an air cleaner and the light from the burning Camphor, lit as an offering to the gods, allowed for temple visitors to see. The sensory experience of visiting temple was bound to the smell of Camphor as well as the light its fire cast within the temple walls.

March 20th was Norooz, the Persian New Year, and as my father is 100% Iranian, this is a significant day every year for me and my family. A crucial part to the ceremony is the table setting in the dining room, usually my father, his parents, his three brothers and their wives and families gather together in Washington D.C. This is a very visual component to the New Year celebration, the ceremonial table is called "Sofreh-e Haft Seen" (the cloth of seven dishes). Each dish in this spread begins with the Persian letter Seen. The ceremonial table is set usually 2-3 days prior to the New Year, with an intricately embroidered carpet or runner covering the entire table. There are seven dishes total, this number is sacred in Iran, representing the seven angelic heralds of life -rebirth, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, patience, and beauty. The symbolic dishes are: -Sabzeh - which are green sprouts, usually wheat or lentil. sabzeh represents rebirth. -Samanu - puddin...

Thinking about sound and the memories and emotions that can be triggered from different noises, I was reminded of an interesting piece I had read a while back about racial stereotypes and the specific effect of music. Essentially a black man walking down the street whistling Vivaldi would elicit a more positive response and less discomfort from a passerby than a black man who was not whistling. One can assume that the reasoning behind this is that the recognition of Vivaldi by the black man would indicate his opposition to the common hood rat, thug, gangster stereotype of black people. So much can be (sometimes falsely) assumed or inferred from sound about a person, place, or interaction among people. Brent Staples, author of the book Parallel Time, explains in his book that while being an African American graduate student at the University of Chicago that his presence in the streets, dressed as a student was making whites uncomfortable, they would avoid him or sort of cros...

When I think of amplified senses and other manifestations of sensory experience, art and touch are obvious. As we discussed in class and learned from listening to clips, creating music can be an emotional experience on both an individual and communal level - both audibly, visually, and through touch. Artists are commonly perceived to posses a heightened emotional reception and emission that allows them to express themselves through various forms of art (Van Gogh, Kurt Cobain, etc.) As shown in the image above (taken from the movie 'Ghost'), art can also be an incredibly erotic and physically sensual experience as well as a visual aesthetic. The portrayal throughout history of the naked human form was a way to celebrate God's work (in Greece as early as 5-6th Century BC), an idyllic perception of the body, creating a diety likeness. The strong tether between the human body, sex, and the expression of these things through sculpture and paint is primarily manifested through...