Our sense of
smell
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Build-up of the nose Talking about scent it would be impossible to
neglect the workings of our senses. The nose is important for the respiration
because air for the lungs is being warmed up and dirt is being filtered out.
In the upper nose cavity the actual sense-organ can be found. |
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We can only perceive substances
that float in the air like a gas or a
vapour. The actual sensation comes about because aromatics dissolve in a
layer of slime and are being recognised by specialised receptor cells. These
receptor cell only work specifically for a certain aromatic, so that we only
have a limited amount of cells to smell the rose. It means there is a maximum
of what we can smell. When overtaxed we even stop smelling and even the scent
that was so richly present in the room will not be perceived any more. In her
work a friend of mine has to work often in an awful smelling environment. She
says : " Inhale firmly three times and you won't smell a thing".
Because of the limited amount of cells we have to be careful with our noses.
Master perfumers sometimes can perceive and name more than 7000 different
scents. For myself I doubt I would surpass the 200...And you? |
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Triggering facts Smelling with the nose and tasting in the mouth
are closely connected with eachother. When we have caught a cold it is not
very well possible any more to taste anything. The nose is useful when
sampling food and warns us when something isn't right. It is our 'oldest'
sense and stands in close relation with our inner feelings, like drives or
fears. Scent can influence our feelings in a very subtle way. A few examples
: From an American survey it seems that the
buying of a house is stimulated by the presence of the scent of freshly baked
bread. The famous Japanese "drive to work"
is being caused also by the fact that many employers use their
airconditioning to disperse lemon oil and other arousing scents. In Paris' subway pine oil is used at some
stops to let the passengers relax. |
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Description of scents Scents can only be descrbed in terms of
scents that you already know. Suppose you would have to describe the scent of
a rose towards someone from outside the earth, you wouldn't come far,
flowery, sweet, honeylike...it would only give new questions. You need the
direct experience in order to be able to exchange. Just like sound can be
explained in terms of wavelengths and frequencies, or light as combinations
of different colors and intensities, people try to come towards a system to
describe scent objectively. The following system is used often in the world
of perfume. Nice to find out how nutmeg, a sheep , or curly kail smell... |
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1.
Flowery, sweet 2.
Fruitlike, juicy 3.
Ether like, fresh 4.
Grassy, green 5.
Herbal, spicy 6. Woody,
hard 7.
Earth, rootlike 8.
Balsam, resin 9.
Fire, smoky 10. Oily 11. Waxlike, greasy 12. Animal-like, warm |
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Now it becomes obvious that it is not
possible to reach 'any' scent with the help of incense. Because we are combusting
different substances category 9 will be dominant, and subtle scents like
category 4 and 7 will not be possible. Even with ethereal oils we are limited
in what we can reach. Looking at it this way our own reaction to scent
becomes more important than the amount of scents that we can get. |
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The human reaction on scent Much is being postulated about the magickal
influence of scents upon human behaviour. People are looking at the animal world
where dogs sniff eachother in order to stamp eachother ally or enemy, or moth
males can smell their partners from a kilometer distance. Such mechanisms are
supposed within the human sort. We are talking about the so called feromones.
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Feromones :
A feromone is a chemical messenger that transfers messages between
individuals of the same sort.(Wikipedia) |
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The best known example is that of a group of
women who live together in the same house for a couple of months. Their
menstrual cycles adapt towards eachother with as consequence that they all
menstruate at the same time. This effect would be caused by feromones. All
kinds of properties are attributed to feromones, when you would wear them you
become irresistable for the other sexe! What to think of the following
advertisement: |
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Alter Ego
For men ; with 3 human feromones |
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Alter-Ego is the first product in its sort that
not only contains one or two feromones, but three human feromones, carefully
mixed in a base of oil, to create a scent that is simply irresistable for
women! It is being proved that Alter Ego is an
extroardinary stable product that delivers more consistent results then most
other feromone products. This means that the effect that you have today will
probably repeat itself tomorrow and the days after tomorrow. When it gives
you a desired result it will please you well that you can create the same
result whenever you want. source
: feromonen.nl |
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We can hardly take these stories seriously,
although it is appealing wanting to believe in them. However, the importance
of feromones for the human sort is small, compared with the animal world. In the
flow of time scent has become cultural less important. In the western world
much is about the masking or prevention of stench. In our world scent has
become a subjective thing. Think about it : when a dog smells at something,
would it think that something could stink? No! For the dog, scent is similar
to vision, and you just perceive that, without finding it positive or
negative. But there are cultures that still value scent. When saying goodbeye
to a loved friend, Papuas in New-Guinea press their hands under the armpits
of the other and rub their hands on their own body. As if it is a foto, they
will carry the scent-impression of their friend with them |
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Besides the fact that we are culturally less
devoted to scent, we are fysically less equipped than animals. The organs
that are necessary to perceive feromones are only rudimentary present in the
nasal cavity. You can compare it with the appendix, which we still have in
our body but has lost its function. Another example is the tailbone. It is
all about the so called vomeronasal organ that in the picture is still in
front of the actual organ of smell. People and lots of other mamals still
have a channel running behind the frontal cutting teeth, through which they
can suck up the fereomones. Only the actual organ can hardly be discoverd
within humans, as opposed by for example cats or horses. Parallel
with the diminished perception of feromones is a diminished production of
feromones. We are talking about the so called apocrine glands, of whick for
example gorillas or chimpansees have all over their bodies and secrete
feromones. Around the nipple we still have some of those glands through which
a baby can find the nipple easily. Only around the sexual organs and under
the armpits we still have some of those glands. The influence of feromones on
people is in my opinion rather exaggerated, and miracles like in aboves
advertisement will certainly not take place in such a manner. The actual
miracle is probably the astronomical profit that this firm will make thanks
to the believing attitude of the buying public. Alter ego... |
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So what do scents then? Scents influence our consciousness and are
capable of bringing us towards a certain mood. Scents don't force but they invite.
And it is absolutely true that lemon has an arousing quality so that it is
great to smell while you are at work. It might even improve the quality of
your work. Or that Jasmine has a relaxing quality and that it is nice to
smell a bit before you go to sleep. But it doesn't mean that Lemon will make
you work or that Jasmine makes you sleep. Scents give extra value to the
world, although we are not conscious of that, but it is a fact that people
who have lost their sense of smell for some reason have a high risk of
getting depressive complaints. As a seeker on the spiritual path
consciousness is your working field. Changing thoughts, other moods,
perceptions of a world for which you are looking...Scents can be of great
value, but the actual work has to be done by ourselves. |