Mating By Instinct and The Sense of Smell

The Sense of Sex

This is the first in a five-part series on the senses. The five basic senses are smell, hearing, sight, taste and touch. They let us live and are the means to be in contact with the world around us. They make life what it is, without them, we could not survive. You have to be in contact with your world to be in touch with your Self. We live by our senses. They tell the brain what they have seen, heard, tasted, smelled and felt. Then the brain sends commands to the body. The senses are tools for the brain. They are the means by which we receive outside information for the brain to evaluate and respond.

First up will be smell, yes the olfactory of them all. There is some disagreement, though not by me, on which sense is the most developed at birth. It is thought by some that it is the sense of touch. Others, I included, say that it is the sense of smell. It is well-known that newborns know their mothers by their scent; how they smell. It is what no other has, the “scent of a woman,” and they can tell. And let us be frank, there is no wonder why when you consider the path to birth. There are smells that you just cannot forget, and for me, I do not want to, ever. Though, I would say it is more an aroma that stirs the soul. That tantalizing smell of the female will not be mistaken, no matter how long you may have “been away.” Just with a whiff, you know. It is the most powerful odor there is. This surely was not by mistake. The journey of our creation starts there and our birth ends there. It was designed to be that way.

There is a biological reason why the sense of smell is the most developed at birth. It is that we may survive and procreate. And no matter your beliefs, it is as we were created to be. Recent research (http://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/restoring-microbes-infants-born-cesarean-section) has shown that Babies delivered via the birth canal acquire a microbial community (microbiota) that resembles that of their mother’s vagina. Babies born by cesarean section tend to acquire a microbial community that more closely resembles that of their mother’s skin. The microbiota acquired by a newborn are thought to be essential for the development of a healthy immune system and metabolism.

I could go into all of the details but I will summarize to focus on the benefits. Vaginal birth provides protection for the baby that cesarean birth does not; though, as the research shows, exposure to the Mother’s vaginal fluids after birth does provide some of this protection. Now, what does this have to do with the sense of smell. Here is where I take over.

The baby who travels the length of the Mother’s birth canal certainly would be fully immersed in the smell of the vagina. It is in the vagina where the most contact will occur with the baby’s nose and mouth. The scent cannot but make a lasting impact on the mind and memory. It is as it is meant to be. It would not be otherwise. The male and female are different and so would be the effect.

It is unfortunate that women—mothers or not—are now covering up and trying to rid themselves of the smell that is a part of who they are. The woman has been made to feel shame of her body and scent. It is so sad. For we need the human smell to remind us that we are. And we wonder why it seems that man and woman are not as attracted to each other, as they once were. It is not the same. There is no denying it. There really should be no wonder or reason to ask why. But there is. Why does it seem that there is some hidden hand that is trying to pull us apart. Whose agenda is it? When we interfere with nature, nature will talk back.

We are born with our senses and for good reason. It is so that we may live. And we have to provide the stimulation for them to carry out the roles that have been assigned to them. So, when you smell it, taste it, see it, hear it and feel it you will know. It is for us then to create, invent and discover those things that awaken and give life to the senses. We have to put a name on people, places and things to know what and who they are when we meet them again. One thing for sure though, we have been stimulated by each other, just as we are, from the beginning. The most intimate senses, of course, are the sense of smell and touch. When you feel it, you will believe it. And the sense of smell tells us much about things in our environment even when we cannot see, hear, taste or touch them. Though, smell does affect our taste and the things we are attracted to or repulsed by, which prompts me to ask, have we covered up our natural smell to the point that man and woman have lost their natural attraction to each other.

How does the sense of smell work?

Smell is a very direct sense. In order to smell something and know what it is, the scent, with the least amount of adulteration, has to make its way to the nose. The sense of smell brings us into harmony with nature, and sharpens our awareness of other people, places and things. It can influence our mood, help us to respond to those we meet, who we want to be near and who we want to see again. Our sense of smell is not as accurate as that of some animals. This is what “they” say. Well, the animals are not dumb at all. They use their sense of smell for finding a receptive mate and mating partners. The very same thing we use to do in the beginning. Being civilized now, and human, I guess we think it is not needed anymore. We cover up our natural scent with all sorts of perfumes, lotions and potions.

Certain scents, that still smell the same, can remind us of past relationships and people we have known. They can stir memories that you may have once thought forgotten. Some scents make a picture come into our minds. Some make us feel relaxed; others make us feel excited. There are still segments of the science community that hold on to the notion, for I believe that is all that it is, that other mammals use a separate set of sensory receptor cells in their nose to receive social and sexual information from members of their own species. I say, we do to. It would not seem so to some because we have stepped away from our natural self. At times, it is hard to tell what is real.

The social behavior of most animals is controlled by smells and other chemical signals. We are losing our ability to smell nature’s scents. We have invaded our sense organ (the nose) with all kinds of chemical concoctions to make ourselves smell better. And this often suppresses our awareness of what our nose tells us. Many have been taught that there is something shameful about body odor. I do not embrace this teaching. People who actually use their senses of smell to test things usually say that they “sniff” whatever substance they are testing. And there are “sniffers” or should I say, those who like to sniff.

You hear it said that men are visual creatures and this may be so, but smell of the female body drives the average, even less than average, man wild with desire. It makes the heart race, the pulse quicken and without intervention will explode to an orgasmic finish, many times at the blink of an eye. Let me set up a scenario that was not at all uncommon in years gone by. There is likely no such need today as things are more easily done. It was all you had in your toolbox and you had to go there when all else failed. Back in the teen days when you have found a place with just enough privacy to be with the girl of your desires  the girl of which your hormones have led you to is when you pulled out that line used by so many boys. This would usually be in the backseat of  a car, a room away from the parents or just about anywhere that would accommodate two teenage bodies in heat.

The atmosphere would be charged up with hormones and adolescent lust of desire where begging was the norm. You could not ease your way to where you wanted to go because of the one thing that stood in your way, the forever despised girdle. The small girls would even wear them as a defense against the probing mind and body parts of the teenage male. As much as you try, you are getting nowhere further than kissing, rubbing and hugging but there was always that last angle to play. At this point you were in agony and you needed to release. Well, OK, OK, then, just let me smell it, let me put my finger in it. And surprise, more times than not this would lead to where you wanted to go all along. Need I say you would delay washing your finger for as long as you could hold out. My point is, it is nature it is in us, not by us but for us. No one taught you this, no one told you. It is just in you as a male. Your nose would take you there. To a man it is more aroma than smell. It can make you weak in the knees and firm in the joints. It all seems to be fading away in the fog of body washes, and summers eve.

Mating: when mating first took flight it was helped by instinct and smell. In this day and time, of course, we try to cover up as best we can our natural aroma. Man and woman likely did not look that different from each other so it would not have been looks or some special getup or hair style that fired up the desire for sex. Or romance. Unlike today, man and woman did not have sex face to face, which came to be known as the missionary position. So named because early missionaries advocated the position as “proper” to primitive Peoples, to whom the practice was unknown. I believe this to be legend. Though it would be interesting to know how this really came to be. And as far as I know, no other animal do the do while facing each other.

Yes we are animals and  man and woman were covered with hair, for good reason, with just four things of note setting them apart. Those things that made the difference, of course, were the sex organs and the female breast. It had, and has to be this way for the survival of the species. And, of course, without perky and firm breast how would a newborn eat? Whether we believe we were created or evolved, we could not be the same. We had to be different to be. Man and woman were built to accommodate each other, for mating. The penis and vagina were not born by accident.  Survival and sex (reproduction) are our strongest drives and they are with us from the start. Some choose to deny it, some run from it and others rush to embrace it.

Just a little sniff will go a long way. Leave your mark and men will follow you—that is—if they can smell you. Sex is in our nature as living beings. And so is our scent.