Turn On Secret
By Amelie Anderson
© Copyright Deben Enterprises
Smashwords Edition
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FOREWORD
“The
purest union that can exist between
a
man and a woman is that created
by
the sense of smell and sanctioned
by
the brain's normal assimilation
of
the animate molecules emitted
by
the secretions produced by two bodies
in
contact and sympathy,
and
in their subsequent evaporation.”
Auguste
Galopin in
"The
Perfume of Women and the Sense of Smell in Love"
“When
we smell another's body,
it
is that body that we are breathing
in
through our mouth and nose,
that
we possess instantly,
as
it were in its most secret
substance,
its own nature.
Once
inhaled, the smell is
the
fusion of the other's
body
and my own.”
Jean-Paul Sartre
The Basics of Smelling
Scent
–noun
1) a distinctive odour, esp. when agreeable: the scent of roses
2) an odour left in passing, by means of which an animal or person may be traced
“Her
breasts, like lilies, 'ere their leaves be shed;
Her
nipples, like young blossomed jessamines;
Such
fragrant flowers do give most odorous smell
But
her sweet odour did them all excel. “
Edmund Spencer
Smelling is possibly the most potent and powerful sense that we possess. Humans have an enormous ability to use the sense of smell in almost everything, right from smelling the delicious aroma of a plate of food to detecting the pungent odour of sweaty armpits! However, what makes us perceive or recall what we smell?
The power of smelling is unquestionable; the multi-billion dollar perfume industry will vouch for this fact. The subtle and delicate airborne odorous compounds can easily influence humans. Components like oxytocin and pheromones are the enduring compounds that have the ability to evoke memories, passion and affections in us. Both are the natural odorous compounds that our body produces for a number of purposes.
Available research demonstrates that pheromones and oxytocin can actually make us react in a remarkable manner to a number of unique situations. In fact, research scientists at the University of Chicago believe that “"The power of scent is undeniable; humans are influenced by airborne chemicals undetectable as odours, called pheromones."
The unique sense of smell is the exclusive property of chemical sensing organ systems of the brain. The process of identification of smell compounds by the human brain is actually very complicated. It starts when very tiny molecules of scent that exist around us, stimulate unique and special cells of the nose, mouth and throat. The special cell mass sends signals to the brain for further processing. The brain, with its unique and amazing identification system, will help us segregate different smells and later identify each one of them. Olfactory nerve cells are the most efficient cells that assist in detecting different odorous compounds.
These cell masses are inside our nose and they exist as a small patch of cells very high up in the nose cavity. The olfactory sense of smell has a very delicate relationship with human emotions, mood, expressions, memories, love and passion. The sense of smell is special and unique to us. When the brain breaks down odorous molecules into individual compounds, they will have a specific chemical structure. Each chemical formula is a specific configuration that is easily identifiable. Soon after smelling a compound, the olfactory cells in the nose will help our brain to create a chemical formula with a special identity tag.
The most prominent and visible feature on our face is the nose. Likewise, the most primitive sense of a person is his or her ability to smell through the nose. Olfaction is the gift of the nature. We share this character with many other capabilities like listening, seeing and hearing. Nevertheless, the ability to smell is still the most important and critical advantage and benefit for us. The nearness to the nature and the level of intimacy plays an important role in humans as well. Nose, smell and nature are the triads of gentilities that are so delicately balanced.
Smell involves an authentic and actual physical and material contact with object in question. You may come across a beautiful garden with hundreds of plants bulging with vividly coloured flowers. You may also see a number of bees sitting on those lovely flowers and sucking the nectar from the flowers. You may feel excited and thrilled by these memorable scenes. However, the actual joy comes only when you smell those exotic scents of the wonderfully coloured flowers. You feel touched by the gift of the nature only when you smell the scent emanated by the flowers.
In order for you to smell something, there should be a series of chemical reactions in the air around and within you. To smell, there should be some smell chemical molecules vaporizing in the air around you as well. These vapours must then enter your nose in their simplest forms. When these molecules sit on the olfactory nerves or receptors, and the nerves related to smell carry the impulses to the brain, you can feel the taste and feel of the smelling molecules. It is a very dicey scenario when a series of actions within your body decipher the secrets of the smell compounds into perceptible senses like smelling.
Olfaction is a highly sophisticated action or mechanism that develops one’s ability to differentiate between smells emanated by different objects either living or dead. Just consider this scenario. All animals, including humans come equipped with a series of indigenous smells, built right in their bodies. For example, the smell of one’s armpit is a natural occurrence in people, including men and women.
It is almost impossible to avoid sweating in your armpit. It is a natural reaction provided by the nature. You may show your disapproval or express disdain when someone has a smelling armpit. However, you can never reverse some biological factors like this one. Humans come equipped with their ability to smell and be smelled by others.
The sense of smell is a powerful gift endowed by the nature. Sweat, per se, is very good for your body. Sweating is a process that keeps your body very cool. Sweat glands produce tiny molecules of sweat that also contain several other useful substances like pheromones. When you sweat, it will be very fresh and will have a mild odour. In fact, the basic function of sweat glands is to cool your body as well as to odorise it. It means that sweat has two main purposes.
The sweat producing glands are more in some places than the rest of the body. Places like armpits and areas in and around the genitals, chest and the back produce a lot of sweat. These areas have lot of curly and wiry hairs – hairs that have the ability to soak up the thick and oily molecules of sweat and later dissipate them into the ambient air by using a large surface area of skin plus hair. It is also a fact that these short and wily strands of hair start to grow only after sexual maturity. Hence, you can now make out the basic functions of these strands of hairs on your body parts.
Now, let us come back to the smelling mechanism and you can decipher the secrets behind different odorous compounds:
Once the receptor cells forward the tiny bits of smell information to the brain cells, the next delicate process of assigning the information to individual smelling experience will start within the complicated sections of the brain.
For example,
You can recognize and tag the delicate aroma of coffee brewing as that emanating from coffee beans. You can easily associate the gentle aroma of coffee brewing with great taste and aroma.
You can easily say that the fragrance of jasmine flowers arise from jasmine veins with bunches of jasmine flowers. You can also interpret that the fragrance of jasmine flowers are heady and surreal and that they have the ability to create a very good mood in you.
The baking aroma of those cookies is arising from the baking process of cookie flour and you can easily identify that someone is baking cookies. Now you can associate the aroma of cookie with wonderful and sweet taste. This innate feeling will tell you to taste those great cookies almost immediately.
Tip: Each composition or chemical formula of individual odour has its own special message tied to some form of emotions. It is possible to alter these messages to change the human behaviour. Hence, creating specific scent-messages can help you change or transform moods and help manage them in different ways.
Of late, experts are using a therapy called scent therapy to send scent messages to your brain by using the special ability of your sense for smelling. When you receive a scent message in your brain, you can respond in your unique way. It can change or transform your behaviour instantly. Some of these changes could lead to a series of actions, such as:
Enhance the feelings of happiness
Improve moods
Streamline thought processes
Improve memory power
Help remember past events
Enhance those nostalgic feelings
Arouse passion and sensuality
Arouse a feeling for love and affection
Help create a situation for sexual mating
Impress others to change their behaviour
Respond in a better manner to specific situations
Develop mental stability
Attract the opposite sex to arouse passion and sensuality
Help easy labour among mammals
Assist stay calm and relaxed throughout the day
Help cure people of a number of health problems
Use aromatherapy as a tool to cure people of mental disorders
Attract animals while you are hunting them
Integrate the delicate odorous components of scents in hundreds of perfumes.
Very cajoling, extremely indulgent and intimate – there is much more to smelling than meets your extraordinary nose. Behind the stupendous marketing and promotion appeal of a scent is the eventful science of smelling. Smelling and the human nose relate to each other with a very close and dicey equation. Your nose is a very sensitive and critical organ that can easily detect more than 300,000 different types of scents. Our sense of smelling has an important role to play in our life, especially in the domain of memory. Our nose is a beehive of smell receptors that connect directly to a particular section within the brain.
This section is directly responsible for human emotions, sentiments, perceptions, feelings and memory. Your nose is a very powerful organ that can affect more than 75% of our emotions. Olfactory glands are another important organ in the body that can register the presence of smell. On the other hand, another organ system called the limbic system is directly responsible for the ultimate power behind the science of sense of smell and odour.
The fresh aroma of roasted beans, exotic smell of incense sticks and amazing fragrance of freshly cut flowers - Did you ever wonder why the perception of smell can take you back on the memory lane to the years gone by? Smell is perhaps the most powerful and enduing stimuli known to man. The quantum of memories, feelings and emotions influenced by smell and odour are as diverse and expanding as the wide range of scents available on the planet.
The sense of smell in your body works throughout the day and you can never switch off the perception from your body. Emotions, feelings and expressions are unique, but only to humans. Smell can easily communicate with these vital things. Smell can influence and affect anything in your body – from your mood, memory, emotions, and choice of expressions, hormonal secretion and your immune system.
Fact: Scent is the only one of our five senses that goes directly to the limbic system, which is directly connected to those parts of the brain that control heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, stress levels, hormone balance, and memory.
Scent and its patterns influence smelling in a significant manner. However, scents cannot affect your judgment nor does it result in an obsessive behaviour. Moods in humans can easily affirm your intentions and in this respect, scents are truly effective and influential. The power of smell can easily enhance the sense of taste as well.
Just try this simple experiment….
Take two bowls and two different types of flowers, say hibiscus and rose. Now, place a handful of each of these two flowers in two separate bowls. Now, if you smell these two bowls separately, you can easily distinguish their individual smells and tastes very easily and differently.
This amazing character of humans enables them to taste things in different manner. This is possibly the one reason why we cannot distinguish between different smell and tastes when we suffer from a running nose.
The very idea between the powers of scent’s smelling is very intriguing. Some scents are extremely pleasing and soothing, while many others can repulse you within a few seconds. Scent and smelling can be very good partners. Scents can emanate seven different types of primary odours:
Camphor like – rather a pungent and sweet odour resembling camphor
Musky – very pleasing and alluring odour of animal scent - who can forget the enticing odour of musk after shave lotion
Rose – This is perhaps the most enduring odour known to humankind –just remember the rose attar manufactured in the Far East countries like Turkey
Peppermint – This is the most famous odour of aristocratic Europe – royalties of European royal court wore this scent throughout the day
Ethereal – This pleasing and enticing scent relates to exotic flavours of some animal scents
Pungent – Some scents could be very harsh yet very enduring. Eucalyptus can be very heady and pungent, while black pepper oil can be extremely stable and permanent
Putrid – Just remember the odour of rotten fruits and vegetables – they can be very rancid and heady with a repulsive effect.
The power of different scents can be very appealing especially those derived from animals. Scents can be the originators of excellent smells that can influence your moods by simply triggering memories of past events. On the other hand, some scents can conjure different images of old days.
There are so many different scents related to many types of smells, it is almost impossible to study and understand each of one of their properties. However, depending on the human’s ability to smell and feel, you can divide scents into two different categories:
Those that originate from animals
Those that originate from plants
A number of animals have the ability to secrete substances with very specific proportions of scent chemicals. These animal scents have many specific purposes as well. Most of these scents help animals to:
Establish their territories and share the space
Assert sexual supremacy over other animals
Use them for sexual mating
However, experts also recommend using these substances for a wide-ranging number of uses, such as:
Incorporate them into different perfumes and scents
Add them to different types of sprays and aerosols
Help transform the mood and sentiments of people
Animals that produce unique scents are very few and it is very difficult to collect and accumulate scent-bearing substances. Hence, there is a need for finding alternative sources of natural scent-bearing compounds. Plant or herbal sources of scents seem to be better alternatives, as they are very easy to grow them under artificial growing conditions.
On the other hand, plants and herbs produce thousands of chemical substances that you can use for a number of purposes, from making perfumes to aromatic oils. Odorous compounds and their extracts form a vital part of our culture as food preservatives, herbal medicines and for luxuries. Plants form the largest source of fragrant compounds used in making perfumes and scents. You can find the soothing odour of plant scents in the flower petals, leaves, bark, wood, seeds, roots, fruit rind, gums and resins.
The history of perfumes and scents
Perfumes, scents and fragrances form the three most important aspects of smell chemistry. They have been here with us for more than 600 years. The history of perfumes and scents is legendary! Ancient Indians, Chinese and Egyptians extracted scents and fragrances from a number of plants, herbs and animal excreta.
On the other hand, Europeans fine-tuned and established the art of making scents and perfumes; the royal court of Rome, Greece and France created some of the most endearing fragrances and scents ever known to mankind, while chemists from different countries of Europe synthesized some of the most fragrant odours by using a number of aromatic oil plants.
The history of scents and fragrances is one of mystery and suspense. Ancient Egyptians developed the fine art of creating scents and fragrances by using the basic methods of distillation and expulsion. On the other hand, chemists from the Middle East countries popularised such magical scents and fragrances like Rose attar, animal musk and lavender oil.