Senses

From SenseThinkAct

Contents 1 THE SIX SENSES (or is it thirteen or even thirty three?) 2 SEEING 2.1 OPTICAL ILLUSION 3 HEARING 3.1 Musical Pitch 3.2 Consonance: A Western Preference? 4 SMELL & TASTE 5 TASTE 6 THERMAL SENSES 7 TOUCHING 8 MOVEMENT & GRAVITY 9 A Note on Pain 10 A note on 'Interoceptors'

THE SIX SENSES (or is it thirteen or even thirty three?)

It is common knowledge that we have FIVE senses. This view is rooted in a past where mystical symbolism of number was more important than a basis in fact. The inclusion here of the vital temperature sense expands the famous five to SIX. This number can be increased as soon as we consider that our sense of movement and balance in the inner ear is picking up information of three types - gravity, body movement and muscle action (position). So we could then say we have eight or nine senses.

This number increases again if we categorise senses by their different nerve endings rather than by environmental conditions sensed - we would then include taste and other common chemical receptors as separate from the more sophisticated organ of smell; rods and cones in the eyeball separately perceive shade and hue; there are three types of touch receptor. By now we are up to about thirteen. A recent article in New Scientist suggests a 'radical' breakdown of sensory functionality leads to a total of 33 senses. And this is without complicating things with our sense of time and rhythm, and pain.

Sensory pleasure is fundamental to our functioning. In our society pleasure has been made secondary to, and sometimes completely segregated from, work. Job satisfaction is the exception rather than the rule. A strange state of affairs. Our senses evolved so we might survive and enjoy our good earth, and be productive. Yet we find ourselves persuaded to live a life of sensory paucity.

Re-evaluating the essentially pro-life function of our thirteen or more senses by engaging directly with them, we may whet our appetite to evolve a new culture. One of whose main criteria would be to gain the maximum pleasure from our sacred time on earth.

There is also a challenge to the culture of the screen. A cybernetic culture which hardly acknowledges the diversity of our sensory manifold. We must also break away from the screen to more sensorially diverse outputs.

SEEING

The eyes are capable of taking a much greater amount of precise information in a shorter time than any other sense. This is largely due to the nature of light.

The very high speed of light means that we can see things very quickly after they have happened. The time lag is so minute that it is of consequence only when we are looking deep into space. On earth the event and our visual perception of it are, in human timescales, simultaneous. Light normally travels in straight lines and this enables us to place things in relation to each other with great precision. This means that we can locate detail very accurately. It is also capable of travelling long distances in clear conditions. From a suitable viewpoint this allows us tremendous breadth of vision. From the cathedral spire we may compare the whorls of our finger prints, landforms 15 to 30 miles away and the crescent of a new moon.

Colours depend on the wavelength of the light. Shorter wavelengths are seen as blue. Then as the wavelength gets longer we see green, yellow, orange, and red. These pure colours are known as hues. Normal sunlight is a mixture of all the wavelengths and appears colourless. The human eye can discern a remarkable 10,000 different hues. The colour of objects is caused by the surfaces of objects reflecting some wavelengths and absorbing others. Tonal variations are caused by the amount of light of each wavelength that their surfaces absorb. Between the extremes of pure hue and blackness we can see about 20 shades of grey.

Therefore the combinations of shade and hue enable us to distinguish as many as 200,000 colours. Light's huge capacity for carrying information means that vision has come to be the boss sense of the information oriented modern world. 'The cultural dominance of sight is shown by phrases such as 'world view' and 'how you see the world'.

We value the wooly look of our cardigan rather than the acrylic reality. The visual emphasis of our culture will also devalue or ignore that which cannot be conveyed visually. The look of an apple becomes much more important as a sale criteria than its taste or texture. An otherwise bland product may be O.K. if it looks right. Advertising will even go so far as to discard any real characteristics of the product in favour of much more exotic visual fantasy. Desirable images are artificially associated to the bland brand by an advertising campaign. Mundane cigarettes convey to the user an imagined air of sexual potency.

All this encourages a retreat from the direct use of our other senses into a misleadingly fanciful visual domain. The result is not only a loss of sensation from the other senses but a confusing overload of the visual perception. We are provided with such an onslaught of petty visual information that the untrained eye sees a lot but actually takes in very little. We can't see the wood for the trees. We are often left registering familiar shapes without ever seeing the new... the detail... the variation... or the growth... Rather than seeing the world as a sort of general habituated blur, the eyes could be used as a tool to obtain much more satisfying information.

OPTICAL ILLUSION

There are exceptions to these simple rules (light travels in straight lines etc.) that may sometimes mislead us. Light travels in straight lines only in media of uniform density. When light enters water it will change direction.

This accounts for the coins in the fountain not being exactly where they are seen to be.

The human eyes are evolved to make the most of light's complex characteristics. But they do have their limitations. If we are looking at a bright red picture and then turn to look at a pale faced friend we may be excused for thinking they have a greenish pallour. This is because the eye has tired of seeing the red component of white light. The remaining wavelengths give the greenish look.

Our mechanisms of memory and recognition will effect how we interpret the patterns of light that we see. We may know that a sheet that appears grey in dim conditions is in fact 'white'. As a result in some conditions we may interpret a sheet that actually is grey as 'white'.

Factors in these three areas can mislead us. It is important to check such factors when making crucial observations or when what we see is unlikely or controversial.

Recent studies have shown that the power of colour sensation relates to the intensity of hue rather than to particular colours. Objects of brighter colour seem to be closer, larger and more prominent. Bright colours reflect coloured light onto adjacent surfaces and are more stimulating. The superstitions associated with colours are largely unfounded. Green is calming and red exciting only to the extent that a person has internalised this association.

When understanding seeing it is also useful to remember that light is a form of energy which the eye captures and the brain uses to create a picture. The important point being the picture is generated by the brain and is not external to you, the picture is the visualisation of light, not the light itself.

HEARING

Sound is a simpler and less precise medium than light. But it has one overwhelming advantage. It is always with us. The sun sets and leaves us in darkness. Then sound dominates.

The source of sound is not only external... we ourselves produce sounds. Even in a sound free room we can hear the rushing of our own blood. Even in the womb when we had never seen a thing we registered the pulsing rush of our mother’s blood. We are constantly and forever immersed in the sounds that surround us.

Perhaps this is why we first communicated and developed out language in sounds. We needed a medium that was always available to us. Language and hearing abilities are inextricably linked. Oral language is the basis of reading and writing skills so central to the modern culture.

Sound is a vibration. A pulse of pressure that emanates from its source out through a continuous material. The motion uses up the energy of the vibration so that it gradually fades as it moves outwards. Sound vibrations travel at a constant 765 m.p.h. in air at 18°C. Compared with the speed of light this low speed suggests a more local and intimate medium. Sounds can vary in pitch from a high whine to a low rumble. This quality of pitch depends on the 'wavelength' of the vibration. (Although it is the same word it is a very different thing to a light 'wave')

Regular variations are heard as a pulse, beat or rhythmn. So the three variables that are discriminated by our hearing are volume, pitch and waveform. Our conceptual sense of time gives a fourth set of variables, around such things as pulse, rhythmn and duration, which become an essential part of the hearing experience.

As we have little or no control of our ears (as we do of our eyes which we can swivel and focus.) much of our hearing faculty is perceptual. There is a mental capacity to sort out sounds into their component parts. We can listen to one instrument in a band when many others are playing. Or listen to one person in a room buzzing with conversation. This is very similar to the detail from mass criteria for improving visual perception.

The fidelity of our hearing perception breaks down in certain conditions. When a sound phrase is repeated over and over again a perceptual breakdown occurs and we begin to make imaginative changes. This may lead us to trance-like or dream states and is an effect obtained through the chanting of mantras. The central place of listening in the evolution of humanity has an importance that cannot be overemphasized. You could see our socialisation from the animal state as having been a result of an ability to listen to each other.

Although the solar forces of light have taken over much of our information handling it is still our ears that retain a primal importance. If we 'are not heard' we feel profoundly powerless, misunderstood and alienated. Through language loaded with oral nuances of emotion we resolve and share our feelings with others. Given adequate un-reactive listening we can precisely pin-point causes of emotional block or turbulence. Skilled listening to each other's histories seems to be the only reliable path to understanding between people who appear to hold irreconcilable positions. In this sense hearing is the key to global peace!

Musical Pitch

Production of Notes. Traditional western melody is usually produced on a pipe or wind instrument. Probably because these resonators produce a smooth and mellifluous waveform.

Pipes. When the air in a pipe is resonated wavelengths that are whole fractions of the length of the pipe are produced. i.e. 1/2,1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/n etc. (see fig 1) The wavelength, sound or note that is equal to the length of the pipe is called Fundamental. The fractions are called Partials or Harmonics. The fundamental and all the harmonics will be present but usually one note will be considerably louder than the others. In a simple pipe instrument like the bugle it is possible, by the way we initiate the resonance with our tongue and lips, to cause any of the simple fractions to dominate. In this way a series of notes can be produced.

The notes that comprise whole fractions of the length of a pipe or string are called the Harmonic Series.

Strings. When a taught string is plucked it will also produce notes that are whole fractions of the length of the string fig.3. The dominant wavelength will depend on three factors: length, tension and mass. The relative loudness of each partial will depend on the resonator to which the string is attached and also the manner in which the string is plucked. The specific distribution of loudness and softness amongst the partials constitutes the timbre of the instrument.

This diagram shows the fundamental (1/1) + 2 harmonics (1/2 + 1/3) of a string

The fundamentaL and other partials can be cancelled by lightly touching the string (while it is vibrating) at one of the nodes. i.e. if it is touched at the node mid way along the length of the string, the fundamental and all fractions of the string which are of an odd number will be cancelled; if one third along the string, the fundamental and any fractions which do not divide by three, and so on.

The above diagrams show pure notes, but waveforms may take other shapes depending on what produces them. On top of the variations in wave form there may be variations in intensity or loudness.

Consonance: A Western Preference?

When wavelengths are in simple numerical ratios the result is smooth and pleasing. This effect was originally observed by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, and later researched more thoroughly by the scientist Helmholtz.

"When two musical tones are sounded at the same time, their united sound is generally disturbed by the beats * of the upper partials, so that the greater or lesser part of the whole mass of sound is broken into pulses of tone, the joint effect is rough. This relation is called dissonance.

But there are certain determinant ratios between pitch numbers for which this rule suffers an exception, and either no beats at all are formed, or at least only such as have so little intensity that they produce no unpleasant disturbance of the united sound. These exceptional cases are called consonance."

The Fundamental, 1/2 and 1/3 are almost perfectly consonant. The 1/4 and 1/5 are consonant with the 1/2 and also with each other. The upper partials become more dissonant. The 1nth and 1/9th are dissonant to an extent commonly found to be agreeable, but most partials above this are dissonant in a manner many people consider unpleasant. (The 1/6th and 1/18th are in direct relation to 1/3rd and 1/4th respectively.)

The first nine notes of the harmonic series are thus consonant and it is amongst these notes that the bugler must find a melody. These consonant notes were the basis of western harmonic music.

note: Beats. When two different notes are sounded together, the combined note is found to fluctuate between maximum and minimum intensity at a regular frequency. e.g. notes of frequencies 500cps and 499cps sounded together will produce one loud period or beat per second. The number of beats per second is the difference between the two frequencies in cps.

SMELL & TASTE

The sense of chemistry. The sense that can tell us of molecular differences that are invisible to any other sense. The sense that reaches into the atomic nature of matter, that can detect minute traces and differences of great subtlety.

The fact that our sense of smell can respond to such minute quantities has lead to difficulties in the scientific investigation of the field. Effects of smells on our psychology have been claimed, although there is some doubt as to how much suggestion effects the results obtained rather than the chemical nature of the smells. Lavender, Orange Blossom, Rose, and Sage are said to be calming, whilst Sandlewood, Patachouli and Jasmine may alleviate mild depression. Methods of treatment by smell are called aroma therapy.

Personally I have my doubts about such things although there is probably something real amongst a lot of pseudo-science and quackery. The relationship of smell to the process of breathing and via that to anxiety is, perhaps, more interesting. Attention to smell is attention to breathing. Attention to the rise and fall of breathing is well known to be calming and stabilising. The other point here is that pleasant, strong smells are a powerful sensory pleasure, and pleasure dilates and relaxes the body.

Its original survival function in the selection of non-poisonous foods has become obsolete for most of us. And most of our ten million or so olfactory cells lie dormant. Occasionally, specialists in a variety of industries or connoisseurs of tobacco, wine or cheese have reawakened this ability, the subtlety and precision of which is then a cause of wonder in us ordinary mortals. There are herbalists, florists, perfumiers, wine aficionados and real ale buffs who have achieved a supernose level of performance. Their training methods are, however, rarely shared in public. One imagines that perhaps there is no conscious method and it is just a conjunction of a 'gifted' individual and a long acquaintance with a subject of interest.

Our senses of smell and taste, however undeveloped and vestigial compared with some of our animal forebears, are still capable of guiding our food choice fairly well - but only amongst natural products. There is no naturally occuring toxic vapour that is odourless. However, synthetics will often give false, sometimes dangerously false, impressions to our senses and then our natural preferences can no longer be relied upon.

The sense impressions given by natural foods also guide us to eat a balanced diet. Refined or purified foods make these sense judgements less reliable. Refined sugar is a case in point. Our mouth recognises sweetness as a source of fast energy. Natural sources of sweetness are usually combined with various other minerals and useful nutrients that are necessary for the utilisation of this sugar. Refined sugar has none of these minerals and vitamins. In this way it tricks the sense. In groups like children who eat a lot of sugar this may lead to an unhealthy diet. If the use of our noses was included in our educational curricula perhaps we would begin to eat more healthily. Unfortunately the commodity food market has structured its business on our lack of discernment, and it is such vested interests that are in power.

Foodstuffs tend to be processed to reduce their smell to within an acceptably banal range; other products have smell added to them, often a subliminal dosage. lt has been observed that a product will sell better if it is slightly scented. Other products are given strong floral pongs to conceal their true chemical nature. Disinfectant that smells of Lavender.

On a local level this kind of deoderant culture may seem harmless enough, but it is all part of an alienating whole in which things are not what they appear to be. Current commercial research on 'vapours as hidden persuaders' has obvious implications as another means of manipulating consumer desire.

Footnote: The vested interests behind the sugar industry can be traced back through a history of repression and exploitation to the days when African slaves were used to produce sugar in the West Indies... under the most inhuman conditions. The sugar was then imported as cheap energy food for the working class in England with the resulting tradition of malnourishment and dental caries.

Part of the problem of the scientific investigation into (and general understanding of) smell is the difficulty that has been encountered in creating a catholic/universal classification of smells. However it is interesting to study the attempts that have been made so far, if only to give us a range of adjectives to describe certain smells and group them as a memory and learning aid.

One of the neatest systems was proposed by H. Herring who tested more than 400 different scents of people, who decided on a smell prism of only six main odour qualities.

Each of these categories could presumably be further sub-divided. Muller explained and grouped many different kinds of blossom. He reckoned that:

211 were cabbage like

138 were spicy

63 fairly similar to Heliotrope

35 had a honey odour

32 narcotic

32 Jasmine

19 balsamic

18 Cedar

14 closely resemble Heliotrope

12 Orange blossom

Another more detailed classification was proposed by Zwaardmaker adapting from Linneaus. (refs?)

Ethereal - includes all fruit odours

Aromatic - Includes Camphor, spices and Lemon

Fragrant - Flowers

Ambrosiac - Musky

Alliaceous - garlic, fish etc.

Empyreumatic - Tobacco and toast

Hircine - Cheese and rancid fat

Virulent - Opium

Nauseous - Decaying organic matter

However it may be noted that none of these classifications has gained popular currency. Smell tends to resist classification.

Trace airborne chemicals may effect our sexual attraction for each other. This may, however, only be a part of a broader chemical interaction that happens between people during social intercourse. In recent years we may have been obscuring these signals through our obsession with hygiene. (see footnote)

It would seem to be quite possible that we all give out smelly signals that are picked up by other people, often unconsciously, in the same way that many animals do. It has even been suggested that this is the way that actors gain rapport with their audience.

Footnote on B.O. and Hygiene: There are two types of sweat gland, the Eccrine and the Apocrine. The products of neither smell. The Eccrine are distributed over the whole body. Their sole function is to increase heat loss when necessary by excreting odourless saltwater on to the surface of the skin. The Apocrine glands are concentrated in specific areas of underarm groin and buttocks. These excrete perspiration in times of stress, anxiety, and other emotional activity and contain a small amount of fatty substances. It is these substances which, if left on the skin to decompose, will cause B.O. This smell will not be bad if the bacteriological community on the skin is intact except in some cases of chronic anxiety. Unfortunately washing with soap destroys these symbiotic bacteria and the B.O. becomes acrid, requiring more soap or deoderising chemicals. Which in turn seem to perpetuate the conditions under which B.O. thrives. Rinsing the skin with plain water is sufficient to remove the products of excretion and will leave the bacteriological ecosystem intact. Soap should only be used if the skin is so dirty that rinsing is insufficient. The use of soap however may be a excuse for self massage.

TASTE

Taste is separate chemical sense and one that is simpler than smell. The taste buds are on the tongue and I learnt they were arranged in four quite distinctive areas of sweet, salt, sour and bitter. But some other cultures recognise a fifth - umami, the taste of glutamates or meaty flavours

With regard to food the experience of smell and taste is often simultaneous and indistinguishable. Taste is often used to mean flavour which is the trans-sensory experience of touch, heat, smell and taste.

The word taste has acquired a strong historical meaning of conformity to certain upper-class standards of aesthetic preferences and social manners. It would seem that the rigid and simple classification of taste and the anarchic complexity of smell have long been used as class defining metaphors.

One of the key confusions to our inborn taste instincts, sugar, also has a violent class history.

In which area are the Umami taste buds?

THERMAL SENSES

Perhaps more than any other, it is the sense that connects the inner world of body organs to the outer, wide world of climate and cosmos. Our sense of temperature tells us all about the flow of heat in and out of our bodies. Heat flow happens all the time, whenever there is a difference between our body temperature and that of our environment.

This sense has in the past been included as part of the touching experience, the receptors being distributed in the skin and functioning simultaneously. We feel heat in the same way that we feel textures. In some ways this is a useful confluence of senses. Some important characteristics are shared. Temperature shares with touch a primal importance; the even warmth of the mothers womb can be shattered at birth and our adaptation to the varying temperatures of life after birth can be happy and smooth or a matter of bare survival. It also seems likely, by the way the skin encloses us, that it is important to our sense of being, of wholeness, and of our self-image.

In other ways the sense of temperature is very different from touch and the twinning of these two senses has in the past lead to confusion. Sense of temperature has a constant and absolutely crucial function in keeping us alive. As mammals our body metabolism must maintain a constant and steady temperature of 98.4°F. This varies only within one degree F during the course of a normal day. Changes greater than this have drastic results on our body functions.

Continual warmth is essential to life. So the sense must report continual changes of temperature and make body changes that retain or give off heat. This is done through a series of automatic reflexes which dilate or constrict blood vessels below the skin, initiate sweating or raise goose pimples. The central control that coordinates this complex process of temperature balance is the Hypothalamus, a substantial brain structure above the back of the roof of the mouth.

Another important difference between the sense of touch and that of temperature is that the temperature sense does not have to be in contact to give us sensation. It can, like the eye, monitor electromagnetic radiation, this time in the infra-red or heat spectrum. We can feel the heat of a fire without putting our hand in it.

As well as the automatic function we are also conscious of temperature sensation, and this gives us our experience of comfort. This information directs our choice of shelter and clothing. It is an unrecognised fact that this sense is central to the creation of those pillars of our culture - Architecture and Fashion. As soon as we realise its use in the formation of these artifacts we begin to realise its importance as a sense in its own right. Previously it has been seen as an alarm to avoid discomfort rather than a source of sensual delight with enough complexity for cultural expression. This mistake has come about because architecture's visual qualities, together with its visual methods of production and dissemination, have obscured its true basis which lies with the sense of temperature.

The sense of shelter. From womb to room, warmth retains a strong significance of life. It signifies the living against the cold dead. We hope for a warm welcome rather than the cold shoulder. Hearth is closely associated with home.

The reason this sense has so much power, apart from its significance to life, is that through temperature difference it informs us of four quite different and important variables of the environment that effect our thermal comfort. These are:

1. The temperature of the air and/or of adjacent substances.

2. The radiant heat emitted from surrounding objects and especially from the sun.

3. The movement of air across our skin.

4. The amount of water vapour in the air (or humidity)

5. In addition to these external factors it monitors conditions within the body.

Temperature of the Air

Different materials have different capacities to hold and conduct heat. When we touch or have our skin near to objects, we are given clues as to what they are made of by the heat flow to or from them. A steel rod will hold a large amount of heat and it will quickly pass it to or absorb it from your hand. Wood holds less heat and will feel warmer and 'softer' in this respect.

Air holds little heat and is therefore a good insulator. However, whether we feel air as cold or not will depend on air movement and humidity. Generally we are comfortable in air in the temperature range 60° to 70°F.

Radiant Heat. Radiant heat has the same properties as light (see vision intro). We can locate a heat source by feeling the radiant heat emitted from it on our skin and moving towards it. (The sun feels hot because of invisible radiant heat... visible light has almost no heating effect.) In this way we can locate hot bodies without having to touch them.

Our bodies also radiate heat themselves. If we radiate more than we absorb, we can feel this heat leaving our bodies. Nearby surfaces that are absorbing more of the heat than they are giving to us feel cold. Wall materials that feel most comfortable in fluctuating weather conditions are those that provide a constant source of radiant background heat. This provides the kind of thermal stability that is required for the body to relax without the static and dead atmosphere that results from the sealed air envelope needed for efficient convected heating. If a wall material is cold we may insulate against the effects of negative radiation by covering the wall with heavy curtains, wood panelling or similar material.

As water has a high heat capacity, a damp wall will feel cooler than a drywall. Surface evaporation will give an additional cooling effect.

We are remarkably sensitive to radiant temperature. We can notice a change in wall temperature of as little as 5°C. although we may well attribute this sensation to a 'cold draught'. This common mistake implies a general lack of recognition of the importance of low-level background radiation as a major component of thermal comfort.

Air Movement

We can feel air movements that are not strong enough to effect our sense of touch by the evaporation of skin surface moisture which has a cooling effect. A cold draft will of course cool dry skin but not half so quickly or noticeably. In hot conditions we will sweat to produce the moist skin surface that is so effective in cooling us.

A barely perceptable movement of air is the requirement for comfort in equitable conditions. Still air dulls the sense whilst too much air movement cools us unnecessarily. Apparently air movement is more stimulating if rising rather than sinking. This may be because warm air rises and cool air sinks.

Humidity

Humidity is the amount of water in the air and is relative to air temperature. Hot air will hold a lot more water vapour than cold air. The amount of water vapour in air is therefore expressed as relative humidity. This is the measured amount of water vapour in a sample of air compared with the maximum amount of water vapour that air of the same temperature could hold. This is expressed as a percentage. 40% R.H. is considered a minimum for both health and comfort. The implications of humidity being relative to air temperature are:

• Cold 'damp' air will become dry if it is heated up. This is why it is pointless to try to improve the humidity in a dry centrally heated flat by opening the windows...

• The ease with which perspiration evaporates depends on the R.H. Sweating is not so effective in humid conditions.

• Very dry air, especially moving hot dry air, will absorb body moisture too quickly, drying eyes, bronchial tubes, sinuses etc. This may lead to soreness or the production of excess mucous and lowers our defense to respiratory disease. 'Dry air' is air with an R.H. of 35% or less. 30% is often the case in houses with central heating. Although our sense of heat flow does not measure humidity as such, we get a good indication of humidity by the sensed air temperature compared with the rate of evaporation (cooling) of skin surface moisture. Especially around the nose and mouth as we breathe in.

Internal Body Conditions

The body produces heat as a necessary byproduct of the body's internal and muscular activity. The rate at which we produce heat will depend on how active we are. Doing physical work we are producing around 150 kilo-calories whilst asleep we're still producing 50 kilo-calories [per what? Calories are a measure of energy, not energy flow.]. Nearly 3/4 of the calories that we consume as food are lost from the body as heat. This heat is lost by convection to air, radiation and evaporation of moisture from skin and lungs. We are acutely aware of this temperature balance between the heat we produce and the heat we lose. Our internal body temperature can only be allowed to vary within 1°F. Outside this small range emergency measures are brought into play. Too cold and we get goose pimples, go paler and finally start shivering and looking for shelter. Too hot and we flush, begin to sweat and look for shelter. If it is cool the muscles will tense, and body systems alert; if it is warm they will relax. Even the mental association of warmth helps us relax.

In normal conditions we sweat between 3/4 and 1/2 a pint per day. Strenuous excercise or very hot conditions cause this to increase to as much as 20 pints per day.

This sense keeps us very much in touch with the weather. Anyone who comes from a rural district in the United Kingdom will know how important this has been to our survival. The weather is still the first essential topic of daily greeting and conversation. "Good a morning, Bert. It looks like we're in for a bit of rain."

The sense of weather, the sense of architecture, the sense of fashion, the sense of security, the sense of living being. Perhaps more than any other sense the need for stimulation is unrecognised in a world of controlled but static thermal environments.

"Whilst we may provide for all our nutritional needs with a few pills and injections, no-one would overlook the fact that it also plays a profound role in the cultural life of a people. The thermal environment also has the potential for such sensuality, cultural roles and symbolism that need not, indeed should not, be designed out of existence in the name of a thermally neutral world." Lisa Heschong, Thermal Delight in Architecture M.I.T: 1979.

TOUCHING

For the first nine months of our existence we are firmly enclosed in the womb of our mothers. The tactile sense of enclosure is one of our most important pre-natal experiences.

After birth, it is essential that holding and touching provide us with continuity and allow us to form a concept of our independent physical existence. Touch continues to reaffirm this existential security throughout our life. Touch is a sense of the skin which contains us, separating inside from outside... defining our form. Completely deprived of touch after our birth we would almost certainly perish. A great deal of touching continues to be a primary need at least until we are through the dependent stage of our development. It will retain associations of security throughout our life.

As adults we have needs for affection that are well satisfied through this sense. Direct contact with another person has the capacity to communicate caring with an intensity that no other sense can. However, sexuality and frozen needs from infancy often confuse any simple implementation of such meetings. Infant needs that went unmet at the time cannot be satisfied in adulthood. However hard we try, the anguished feeling of need remains because it is a memory, a recording fixed by hurt, rather than a current need that is capable of satisfaction. Resolution is not through touch but by emotionally feeling the full pain of the original experience.

Touch is the sense without flux, without medium, making direct contact with the outside world. A dependable sense. When we touch an object we know for sure something is there. We are certain it exists. The lucky prizewinner may be heard to say: "I won't believe it until I get my hands on it."

Touch, more than any other sense, reassures us that the external world exists and is not just a dream. You pinch yourself to check you are not dreaming. This certainty and intimacy that touching gives us has imbued it with strong symbolic power.

The master lays his hand patronisingly on the head of his servant. Should the servant ever do likewise it is taken as an insolent and threatening reversal of etiquette. Relations between men and women are a good illustration of the power of this class custom. The man always touches the woman first. For a woman to initiate an uninvited touch upon a man is usually interpreted as a sexual provocation through which the woman must appear as a 'whore'. Only when a woman clearly has higher social status than a man can she initiate touch.

Sexuality is mediated through touch and is a powerful instinctual drive. For many people the enjoyment of touching another person is almost entirely tabooed by a myth-laden sexuality. It is possible, however, to learn to enjoy touch without it being weighted down with sexual innuendo. In addition sex might become easier, lighter, if freed from the burden of our touching needs. It did not seem feasible to make any comprehensive attempt to deal with the touching aspects of sexuality, or even make a distinction between touching and sexual pleasure. I have compromised by including some exercises on masturbation as a simple solo aspect of sex, which is, of course, not only harmless but a natural and healthy function. It allows you to learn about and enjoy your own sexual response in your own time. In spite of this self-evidently positive and pleasurable function masturbation is taboo in our upside-down society. 'Wanker' being used as a term of derision to imply a useless person.

Note: The masturbation exercises from SAR Sex Guide have not made it onto this site yet as I have not been able to contact the authors to obtain permission...

MOVEMENT & GRAVITY

This integrated complex of four or five receptors will give us information about the physical realities of our bodies. Mass, acceleration, balance, orientation to gravity, relative position and movement of parts of the body, muscle tension and stretch, and the co-ordination of all these things. These 'mechanoceptors' will give us information about our postural and gestural expression of how we feel about ourselves.

How we feel ourselves to be is usually based on feelings derived from how we have been treated rather than the reality of how we are.... physically. As we move and enjoy and explore this sense we regain a strong sense of our true physicality. A self-image that is not distorted by cultural expectations, misinformation and stereotypes. A self-image that has a much more real basis in mechanical efficiency, biological health, and most important, sensory delight. ln this way we can to some extent short circuit conditionings which demeans our innate joy of being. This can be a great source of self-confidence. lt can allow us to feel grounded and at home in our bodies.

As with all senses the input from this compound sense is a source of pleasure that is ours for the taking. Moving for its own sake is normally considered crazy behaviour so our pleasure has to be framed in all kinds of game structures or other acceptable physical activities. Only small children may freely explore this sensual area of pleasure. Spontaneously playing with movement expression without rules and boundaries.

There are four main receptors that operate in this sense area. They are different from the preceding sense in that most of their messages do not enter the conscious mind. The information that they gather is sub-consciously co-ordinated in a brain structure called the cerebellum or is part of fast reflex loops that pass through the spinal column.

The four main sense organs

1. The Pacinian Corpuscles. A type of touch receptor that is found in the skin of hands and feet but also in the tendons, intermuscular septa, and around the joints. They are responsive to pressure.

2. The Labyrinthine receptors which are located in the inner ear. Three semi-circular tubes are arranged in the planes of the three space co-ordinates. They are filled with a fluid called endolymph and lined with sensitive hairs. These hairs pick up the movement of the endolymph as the head is moved. A neighbouring tubular structure called the Utriculus is also filled with endolymph and lined with sensitive hairs. Crystals of calcium carbonate, known as the Ontoliths, indicate the direction of gravity. The direction of gravity is always towards the centre of the earth.

3 & 4. The Golgi Tendon organs and Muscle Spindles work together. The Golgi tendon organs are tension recorders initiating inhibitory safety reflexes. The muscle spindles, which are complex organs, respond to the amount and velocity of stretch in muscles.

Posture is the integrated pattern of muscle use that keeps our skeleton upright against the pull of gravity. Ideally it is a clever balancing act in which bones poise one on top of the other with need for only a little muscle use to keep the balance. This is rarely achieved. Whether through accident, hostility or ignorance of our developmental needs our survival has usually necessitated the building of various protective gestures into our posture. Cowering or thrusting the chin forward are common examples. These reduce the efficiency of the balancing act and of the co-ordinated use of the body as a whole.

In addition it is possible we simply mislearn some physical actions by copying wrong models. The poor alignement of bones is compensated by muscle action. This results in these muscles being continually tense. These hypertonic muscles further interfere with healthy body functioning.

A postural expression of pride, lack of fear, self-esteem and joy is also the arrangement that corresponds to an efficient alignement of the skeleton.

However it seems Iikely that negative feelings that are denied a physical expression will not disappear but find another expression in cellular distortions, allergies or other disease. To iron out postural idiosyncrasies without going to the original root of that expression is like treating a symptom and ignoring the cause.

As we re-arrange our posture to obtain better functioning we should ideally allow any feelings expressed in the old body patterns to surface and be discharged. (see [link?]) However, this is not so easy as the appropriate memories and associated emotions may not be available at the time the posture is changed. As feelings are 'let out' the muscle tension eases and posture will tend to return to its natural state of efficiency. Perhaps the process of emotional release could be speeded up if accompanied by re-alignement work.

Taking a posture of pride and self-esteem is certainly necessary to discharge certain chronic negative conditionings. (See balance of attention - link)

The dynamic relationships between emotional expression and correct alignment have not yet been clearly worked out. It does seem unlikely that alignment work on its own is sufficient for holistic change. What alignment work will do is give us a very useful temporary relief from body misuse, backaches, headaches, tension etc and possibly prevent harmful effects from accumulating.

I will now explain what 're-alignment work' is, as a necessary back ground to the exercises that follow. Efficiency of movement is an ideal that comes from a consideration of the skeleton as a weight supporting articulated structure. It is the ideal alignment of the 200 or so bony levers of the skeleton that is our aim. This is the arrangement that will use the least energy for posture or movement. The bones are aligned by muscles. This extremely complex concerted effort of the muscles is achieved not by volitional control of muscles, but by having the correct idea of movement in mind. So if we aim to improve skeletal alignment towards a mechanical ideal we must condition our mind with ideal and accurately imagined movement.

To ensure that this idea of movement is correct or mechanically efficient it must be based on an understanding of the anatomical, neurological and mechanical facts involved. So, the first requirement, if we want to improve our own body use, is a knowledge of the skeleton and musculature as a dynamic mechanical unit. Secondly, images depicting the forces involved and their ideation and direction of acting must be constructed. These images must relate to your own knowledge and experience if they are to be vivid. They must be able to be expressed in the vocabulary of your personal imagination.

The anatomical knowledge, which is a basis for the widespread use of alignment imagery may be learnt in the following ways;

1. From the study of a full-sized skeleton considered as a dynamic mechanical frame.

2. By drawing muscles and skeleton.

3. Study of muscle charts alongside the palpation of a person.

If this factual knowledge is not absorbed the ambiguous nature of imagery can lead to mistaken and fanciful ideation that may do more harm than good.

Every bone will have at least two lines of force that express the direction in which the contracting muscles act upon it. So the detailed picture is a complex one. The forces involved (and so the images we use) may fortunately be much simplified and yet still be effective. The most essential of these compound lines of force is that relating to the function of the spine as a central axis.

"Imagine the central axis of the trunk as a sliding curtain rod, and watch it being elongated upward to raise the head to a higher position. This should be alternated with watching the spine lengthening downwards in the back like a kangaroo tail." Lulu Sweigaard. Human Movement Potential

The spine is imagined as a central line around which the body action maybe balanced. An axis. If we give this idea to our imagination it will feed it to the cerebellum, coordinating centre, and gradually if we stick with it (daily practice for many weeks) we will find ourselves being able to move more freely.

"You need a long axis, I need a long axis.

Everyone needs a long axis."

Barbara Clark Let's enjoy Sitting, Standing, Walking. 1963

Another slightly more developed set of forces that summarises the central postural directives is given in fig. 1.

There are other methods of improving the efficiency of our muscular co-ordination:

The AIexander Method: In this technique a student is shown better ways of using his body through gentle guiding in the hands of an experienced teacher. The old habitual relationships of the body are inhibited whilst the feeling of the correct use, as judged by the teacher, is experienced and gradually brought into conscious control. The wrong patterns of use are often quite subtle, and even when more obvious, they are often not felt as wrong. What we feel as 'right' is simply what we have adjusted to feel as normal. The correct posture may at first feel odd and awkward.

Feldenkrais method: a brilliant teacher who emphasises the emotive meanings of efficient posture as a generator of images. Feelings of self-esteem are fed to the cerebellum.

Many of the ancient methods of self-knowledge include postural directives as part of their training in an explicit or implicit way, for example:

Hara A Japanese term that literally translated as 'belly' means the centred, balanced and imperturbable person. The essential three instructions on the way to Hara are:

1. Drop the shoulders. Let the arms hang heavy

2. Release the belly. But allow some tension...

3. Breathe with belly on exhalation only. Inhale atease.

Zen The famous Zen Buddhist 'empty head' is often misunderstood to be some kind of metaphysical joke. It is in fact a straightforward physical instruction that relates to the feeling of an efficient relaxed posture. The balance of the heavy head on the spine will feel heavy if posture is in any way wrong. When accurate bone through bone balance is achieved the head will feel 'empty'.

Revitalising this sense with serious realignment work or playful exercise will enable us to move through the earth's gravitational field with an increased sensitivity to our bodies and what they are capable of. Further training of this sense would facilitate the learning of all other physical skills. And form a strong basis of self-knowledge for all activity. More than any other sense time spent in this area can lead to a profound sense of wellbeing and openness to change.

A Note on Pain

Sense of Pain? Sensory experience generates pleasure. Pain mediates this hedonist motivation with a counter experience so we cannot really class it a sense. It can however, like pain, give us information about what is going on which is similar to the senses.

Anomalies#Pain

A note on 'Interoceptors'

The New Scientist of January 2005 introduces a whole new category of internal senses that were not included in STA to date, the 'interoceptors', which measure things like 3 types of blood pressure, blood oxygen content, cerebrospinal pH, plasma osmotic pressure (or thirst), artery/vein blood glucose difference (or hunger), bladder stretch, lung inflation, stomach fullness etc. Anyone know any good 'exercises' for interoceptors within awareness?!?