SAVOURING SCENTS

Parent Page : Breathing, Smelling, and Tasting

The effects of panoramic seeing and listening are obvious, they are manifest.

It was because of these obvious effects, that i started becoming interested in tasting and smelling.

Tastes are also relatively straightforward. But my experience of the sense of smell is far deeper and more complex.

Breathing is a constant repetitious movement. Watching the breathing can be very good for relaxation. And, as with any intense focusing practice, can lead to special awareness and trance states. But it's not stimulating for alertness and nowness.

Breathing is intrinsically connected with smelling. The exchange between in-smell and out-smell is simply alive. It's a sense rather than a rhythmic movement.

When just breathing there can be a sensation of the connection between our inner being and the world outside, when smelling this becomes clearer, deeper and i find, more wholesome.

It's enjoyable and interesting to 'taste' the lingering smells in my body. And it seems to me that this is the only wholesome way to learn. You have to be curious, there's no point smelling unless you're actively interested.

Tastes and smells involve inner-body awareness. As i will often say, this is an area which is so subjective that it would be easy for any individual to delude themselves about how it really feels, and i don't want to get involved in anything an innocent animal wouldn't feel.

So on the subject of inner-body awareness, we really need to ask young children how it really feels. We need them to teach us. What is a healthy and natural approach to taste, smell, and inner-body awareness?

But even when a dog or hedgehog is sleeping and breathing slowly, his subliminal awareness of smells is far more astute than humans when we smell consciously.

When humans smell in and out normally, through the nose, the smell of the out-breath eliminates the smell of the in-breath, and vice versa.

Added to this, when doing smelling exercises, it's important to regulate the breathing, so that you're not trying to breathe in all the time and getting dizzy.

Noticing the contrasting smell of your own out-breath, regulates the speed of breathing.

Dogs have a slit at the side of their nostrils where they exhale the ‛out-smell' (4.50 min TED video on how dogs "see" with their noses.) This allows the 'in-smell' to remain undisturbed in the nostrils, hang near the smell-receptors, and to build up over a series of 'in-smells', without being disturbed by the 'out-smell'.

To empathise with how dogs smell, open your mouth very slightly with the lips just touching, breathe out through your lips, and you will 'taste' your out-smell. It turns the out-breath into an 'out-taste'. (If you open the lips too much your mouth will soon get dry.)

Then leaving the lips very slightly open, 'smell-in' through your nose. As you 'smell-in', the back of your tongue will automatically curl up, like a valve, where the 'K' sound or 'Q' sound is made.

This valve stops the 'in-smell' from entering in through the back of the mouth. In turn this allows a residue of both the in-smell and out-taste to build up over a series of breaths and to be sensed clearly.

The incoming scent fills your nasal canals, behind the cheek bones, the middle, top, and back of your head.

Then, the tongue drops again and the out-breath is tasted in the throat and the mouth.

'Smell-in' through your nose and 'taste-out' through your mouth.

Let the residue of the in-smell and the out-taste build up in the nostrils, nasal canals, head, etc., and the mouth, throat, etc. – over a number of breaths – savour those taste and smell residues.

It accentuates the experience if you close your eyes and use ear plugs.

It also accentuates the experience after chewing or drinking something with a strong flavour – Southern Comfort, garlic, etc.; and if you smear a little Vick, tiger balm, or something similar under the nostrils. If you have any, put a few drops of your favourite essential oil or perfume on a finger and smear it under your nose. Very occasionally (with cinnamon oil), it might sting a little, if it doesn't then smear a bit more.

If you eat sweet chocolate and then smell mint, after about 10 breaths you will feel a clear divide line on the roof of your mouth. Above the roof and at the sides and back of your head is filled with mint, and in the mouth down to the stomach is a warm chocolate taste.

Most of the inner body exercises can be done for at least 5 minutes at a time; they're focusing exercises, they are not like the one-minute panoramic exercises. When you get used to it and start building an awareness of the residues, then continue as long as you want.

Human adults think: objects produce smells – this is a very one-sided perspective. Hedgehogs stumble around through the undergrowth, and first pick up scents on the wind, which then turn into apples or beetles. A hedgehog thinks, and experiences: smells produce objects.

I believe that for hedgehogs, smelling is such an integral part of breathing that without it, breathing would feel like a complete waste of time.

Scents change with each change of wind – each fresh new in-smell is savoured and examined, searching for food or danger.

It's this unexpectedness, and the necessity to be ready for any sudden changes, which stimulates the straightforward receptive alert nowness seen in animals.

Hedgehogs and dogs notice the slightest contrasts and changes, and search out all the different meanings behind the smells.

We're only interested in the new in-smells around us. We want to know if there's anything edible or dangerous in the world outside. So we still need to take the time to breathe out but to ignore the effect. We want to concentrate on the residue of the in-scent.

Focus exclusively, enjoying, and curious about the in-smell. Sense the residue as it builds up maybe in the entire brain area. Let the sensation spread. Savour it. Examine it.

Where do you sense the scent?

It feels to me, like the sensation extends first to the upper half of my head, and then fills up the entire space above the roof of my mouth, behind the cheek bones, spreading out to the ears and the back of the head. And then, after a few breaths this sensation spreads into my lungs and body.

I've obviously no scientific proof, but i imagine that any psychologically balanced hedgehog would be intimately aware of his or her old, normal, reliable, habitual 'me-smell'. It's a central part of basic self-identity.

And, still no scientific proof, but i imagine that they are so familiar with their own inside (and outside) body smell and scent, that they are not continually aware of it. However, these smells are a guide to their own inner health (in the same way we use visual symptoms). So, even though they have no constant conscious awareness of it, i believe they would be very quick to notice and react to any changes.

It's an awareness humans have lost. We often don't even notice when we have the primary symptom of bad breath, we need others to tell us.

Every cell in out bodies has a primitive form of this taste/smell perception for its environment. Scientifically speaking each cell 'responds' to oxygen – i understand this as : each cell senses, tastes and digests oxygen.

All human adults, will be able to remember a time when the smell of a succulent meal, seemed to fill their whole body. I wouldn't be surprised if children and animals regularly felt scents throughout their bodies.

In meditation i often feel the breath permeates the whole body, filling it up to just under the skin, and then emptying out, a bit like a balloon. Smells are carried by the breath; the simplest logical conclusion any clear thinking hedgehog could make is that the smell goes where the breath goes, filling up the body to just under the skin.

And my experience is exactly that. The smell goes where my breath goes. The smell comes in filling me up to just under my skin.

This sensation is like a combination of tastes and smells. I taste, savour and absorb the residue of the fresh new in-scent. I digest the in-smell and the sensation is that i savour the scent with my whole body.

Smelling makes me aware of the shape of my body from the inside, almost as though it's hollow. By contrast, tasting is an awareness of areas inside my body, the stomach, bones, and muscles, all these areas taste different when they are not overpowered by food.

Smell confirms the impression made by the breathing of the shape of my body from the inside, and the inside skin sometimes starts fizzing, there is a sensation of vital life happening just under my skin. It reinforces the feeling of self identity in my body from the inside

This may well be to some extent my imagination – but to argue it scientifically: we know that the 'goodness' in the air we breathe, goes to the lungs where it's absorbed by the heart and circulated around the body in blood, and this 'goodness' is then absorbed by the surrounding tissue, by the cells.

No hedgehog could figure out all the science. From a hedgehog's perspective, they taste and digest the scents, and then they are conscious of it with their whole body. And as far as I'm concerned this is the truth, until it is disproved by science, common sense, or a consensus of opinion from children.

There is one other point, which i would like children to confirm, the sensation is that i digest the smell outwards through my skin, rather than inwards towards the bones and central body.

This may be connected with the sensation of the warm out-smell which is felt centrally coming up from the belly or stomach through the wind pipe and mouth, while the in-smell is sensed in the outer areas: in the top half and the sides of the head, the arms, the lungs and (though it may seem like an illusion, which i argue animals would also experience) the legs.

I find myself wondering to what extent animals can control their own scents. We know they can produce scents for mating purposes, but just generally, how is this digesting and ingesting of smells connected with producing scents?

But when i start scenting smells, i feel i digest the smell. This is a vastly different process and experience of life and it has its own consequences for our understanding.

Primarily it's a one-way process of absorbing smells. The feelings it generates are more about nourishment – not an interdependence with the outside world, but a dependence on it, a feeling of reliance on it. I'm not saying this is better, it's just another perspective.

And as i will often say on this subject: any adult or group of adults could easily start kidding themselves about the effects of scenting, and i don't want to get involved in theories or anything unnatural, anything an innocent animal wouldn't feel.

So, before i can write much more, i really do need a group of parents who will question their children, to confirm my 'theories', and then please give feedback.

There are worlds still to discover – i'm still experimenting. The world of smells and tastes are far deeper and more mysterious than seeing and listening.

Please continue with Return to Normal Human Smelling

Back to Chapter Six : Smelling and Tasting
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