Smells and Bells

                     One of the most fun parts of this class has been entertaining the notion of a “6 th Sense”. A subject which was jokingly breached on the first day for a laugh has now become the subject of some analysis by the class. This semester, we attempted to find an answer to the question, ‘what is the sixth sense?’. The answer to the classical interpretation of that question is ESP, or perhaps some form of supernatural extrasensory-perception. While this is an interesting subject worthy of much Kripalanalysis, what I find more intriguing about pondering the sixth sense is the idea that we may be lumping more than one sense into the five categories we’ve established. For example, the sense of pain is a very separate experience from touch. Although pain is exclusive to touch, it activates a unique part of the brain not engaged in experiencing ordinary touch sensations. For this reason, would it not be appropriate ...

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...

David Abram writes about medicine and magic, an unlikely combination to the Western eye, but one that is highly valued in many other cultures around the world. As it happens, I started reading this book last week while in the ER with my girlfriend, who had just broken her foot. So that happened to her last Tuesday night, and on Thursday morning, I started feeling kinda crappy. By Friday night I had a fever which lasted through the weekend. Overall, this was in no way a pleasant experience for either of us. It was painful for her to walk and she was greatly restricted to what she could do, and I was stuck in bed, the usual effects of a fever. But as miserable as we both were, it was a surprisingly enjoyable weekend to be together. We took care of each other constantly, watch movies, listened to music, and just rested. Who knows, it's possible that my getting sick was some mystical connection to her, and that it was in some way, a way for us to further spend time together and to ...

"Language is steeped in metaphors of touch... call our emotions feelings, we care most deeply when something 'touches' us. Problems can be thorny, sticky... [there are] touchy people... get on our nerves" (70) Longing Hands touching  Touch is something most of us take for granted - most of us can touch, or in Ackerman's interpretation of touch above, have the ability to be touched in some way. Upon reading Ackerman's explanation of the relationship between touch and language - through the way people talk or act we get 'feelings' about them. Touch is intertwined in everything we do - in either an emotional or physical context. There is a small number of people, in fact, who were born with the inability to feel physical touch - both positive and negative. This is called anhidrosis . Analyzing what it means to not feel touch, gives an insight into what it's like to feel . Yes, from a typical perspective of a person who can touch, being able...

Christ was taken from the garden in the night like a thief and led before the people who once called him the Son of God. They heard him preach the word of His Father and then denied Him as one. They called him a liar and falsely accused Him. He was scorned, shamed, and spat upon.            As a member of the chorus, we get to represent many different parts in the story of Jesus' crucifixion. We play the mob and the general commentators. Despite feeling like we are suffering from multiple personality disorder, these choruses are amazing to sing. The opening Chorus is like a prayer asking God to help us understand the sacrifice that Jesus made so that we might be free of all our transgressions. After that we become the mob; however, when Pilot's servant strikes Jesus for the first time we become the apologetic sinners, we sing: 11. Chorale (time in video 0:28:27) Who has struck you thus, my Savior, and with torments so evilly...

When Ackerman writes on touch she mentions that "our fear of pain contributes to it. Our culture expects childbirth to be a deeply painful event, and so, for us, it is" (102).  The idea that we could control the amount of pain we feel just by changing our mindset fascinates me. I once had a friend who dislocated his shoulder while diving. We drove to the hospital and after many hours of waiting they informed him that they would just pop it back in. Steve had the choice of being awake or being put under. I was very uncomfortable with the thought of just hearing and seeing his shoulder being returned back to its natural resting place and couldn't even image his thoughts as he would be the one feeling it to. To me the choice was obvious. But much to my surprise Steve said he'd been practicing meditation and that he would be fine without any medication. He told the doctor to give him a minute and then to proceed. What I saw next amazed me. My friend simply closed h...

The ritual I did with different kinds of fruits on the first day of class comes a "seder" for Tu B'Shvat ("The 15th of Sh'vat" - the Jewish New Year for the Trees).  I wrote a short description of this text in the Jewish food blog The Jew and the Carrot here: The Original Tu B’Shvat Seder: 'Pri Etz Hadar' According to what we've read in Diane Ackerman's Natural History of The Senses , everything we know about the world we live in is mediated to us through our senses.  But what in particular do are senses "tell" us that is so important to know? Our senses alert us to what is food, who would be a good mate, and predators that might be out to get us. Our senses give us pleasurable rewards presumably for what is good for us to smell, touch, taste, hear, and see. And we experience disgust or pain for things that are presumably bad for us. However, it's also possible that not everything that feels pleasurable to us is alwa...