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Scents of the World

When we breathe, we detect the electrical charge of the molecules that enter into contact with the receptors in the nasal cavities. This contact lasts a millisecond, and then our memory restores the smell to us. Starting from our development in the womb, we learn to recognize smells through those of the food that nourishes our mother.

Smells have great importance and are often connected to our tastes. The natural odor of people whom we meet or pass prompts us to immediate reactions of attraction or repulsion, without our being conscious of the origin of these reactions. This sense is very important in our sexual relationships and is a determining factor in our choice of partners, even though our mind provides us with all sorts of “reasons” for our attraction. Women are particularly sensitive to smells, and for all human beings, losing the olfactory sense is accompanied by a loss in sexual interest. Since antiquity perfumes have been an important part of human creativity. They evolve over time, tastes change, but not the attraction that they exert upon us. The craft of the perfume maker is so refined and his apprenticeship so long that it often occurs in a familial setting, because a “nose” is only acquired by starting the apprenticeship at a very tender age. The link between smell and memory is very subtle and is “worked” from the very first years of life, upon entering into contact with all the scents of the world.

Our nose informs us about the food we consume. It also informs some therapists about the mental state of their patients. Anxiety literally has a smell for those gifted with this sensitivity. Some nurses and psychiatrists speak of the particular odor of schizophrenics. Masseuses often smell changes in the body’s natural odor when tensions in the body give way to muscular relaxation and pleasure.

The more we lose the natural refinement of this sense, the more the industrialized societies artificially perfume the world. Public places, clothes, cars, airplanes, supermarkets, shopping centers, artificial foods, books, and a good many other things are scented, the aim being to get us to buy.

Our fifty million olfactory cells urge us toward all sorts of pleasures. Sometimes the enchanting allure of a single smell is enough to give us back our taste for life. People who stop smoking experience a whole new emerging universe of smells within a few months of quitting.

The yoga of awareness to our olfactory perceptions allows us entry into an infinite world. Awareness to the smells of things rapidly gives the impression of coming alive again, of regaining the use of a sense that has ensured our survival and has over time become a little unnatural. We will be surprised by all the information our nose provides us, once we allow our consciousness to enter into this activity.

As soon as I awaken, I become present to the sense of smell. What comes to me as I cross my apartment? The smell of the parquet? The smell of a bouquet of flowers? Of fabric warmed by the sun? Of butter and bread, or the tea or coffee that I prepare? Of the fruit in a bowl? Of a cat that approaches me? Of a child? Of a man or woman?

What do the smells of those I meet, those I talk to, those I work with, tell me?

When I meditate, the sense of smell can allow me to float far, far away, to open up space infinitely.