Scent: the Most Intimate Conversation with One's Own Instincts

The subconscious is the most powerful force which makes us tick and controls our decisions. Our wishes, fears, ideas and love come from it. Many things which seem strange and unfamiliar to our mind come from the tool that nature gave us and which enabled us to survive millions of years and become modern people.

How much are you really able to listen to your inner voice? How often do you use that fantastic tool in your everyday life? Why do fragrances affect us so strongly?

When we are talking about modern humans, we can compare today's lifestyle with, say, our ancestors’ life in the recent past, and we notice a large gap.

We do not hunt anymore, since it is very complicated and dangerous. It is an incessant state of the hunter and the hunted, in which you had to rely on all your senses in order to survive and find food.

It was the utmost engagement of all senses which collect data and transfer it to the brain hemispheres which control our motor functions, makings us start an action before we are actually aware of it.

In comparison with shopping in the supermarket, it was an effort which can be compared with Olympic games in all disciplines simultaneously.
 

But what happened to our senses? What happened to our subconscious?

Unfortunately, many senses were done away with physically, because they were not used in everyday life. Good morning, Columbus... But wait, what happens with modern humans when they are forced to survive in the wilderness? There are well-known examples of Japanese captives found in the 1970's after 30 years of survival in the jungle, cases of children raised in the jungle. Medical findings showed that they were both physically and mentally healthy, and that they were using their senses, especially their sense of smell, more actively.

The fact that we can train our senses and dialogue with our subconscious is fascinating!

Make an experiment! If you have a perfume near you, smell it! Or you could smell a piece of fruit, flower, food, a slice of bread, etc. Do not think about its components,  the name of the perfume or ingredients, but try to pinpoint a feeling it awakens in you.

Does that scent embolden, relax, make you hungry, excite, calm you down, confuse, warn, make nauseous or sleepy? There are no true or false answers. There exists just you and your subconscious talking to you and changing constantly. It can take you to another side of the world in a millisecond, it can take you right or left as a breeze or as a strong hurricane.

Listen to it, mingle with it... If you obey it, you might do a great thing, avoid a disease or get well, save your life or simply please yourself, since pleasure also comes from there... And scents, music, colors, movements can take us to that world very easily.

Photographs : animals.timduru.org , Shannon Chavez .

Author : Zoka (Zoka)
Fragrantica member