Our Special Senses
'On' your person is a collection of profoundly complex, profoundly valuable tools enabling you to interact with your environment and yourself. Although a challenge to fully fathom, understanding their basic mechanics further inducts you as the captain of your ship.
Learn facts about your body to:
- Maximize use of your design features
- Further integrate Brain and Body as one harmonious process
- Consciously respect your special powers, and your seniority as director of your own film starring YOU
- Astound your friends at cocktail parties... amuse others in the queue... annoy your family who already thinks you're too much of a smarty pants...
A Nervous Perspective
Information Abounds
Our bodies and minds are constantly creating in present life, collecting information about what's new and adjusting as needed to maintain our health and well-being. Sometimes everything works so well we take it for granted; sometimes information doesn't get through clearly, like when muscles are tense, we're emotionally depressed, or there's an equipment failure like when our sensory receptors are damaged in a scar or injury. Sometimes there's even a data conflict, like when our eyes see yummy cake and our nose smells nasty garbage. Our brains must then determine if that smell is related to the cake or not. To find out, problem-solving is essential.
Do you do the detective work to collect and decipher the messages? Sometimes 30 seconds of investigation, collecting additional necessary data to understand the situation is all it takes. Don't give up! It brings new meaning to, 'why just have your cake when you can eat it too?'
Conductivity & Coordination
So the nervous system controls the collection and interpretation of data. That means that we are electrically wired, or energetic. The better tuned our overt receptors (the five senses + perception), the greater our chances of relating effectively with our environment. Furthermore, the better wired we are to our spinal chord (the super highway), and finally our brain (the control center), where gazillions of calculations are performed with the messages from our senses, the better chance we have of understanding our environment. Finally, whether or not we have sound problem-solving and project management skills determines whether or not we take appropriate actions based on the messages (make good choices).
Integrated Sensing
Think about how much coordination and chit chat must go on between Brain and the many bits of Body associated with:
- Pouring a perfect cup of coffee
- Brushing your teeth (don't forget the back ones)
- Creating a unique flower bouquet
- Riding a bicycle or driving a car
- Giving a hug personalized just for him or her
Whew! How do we do it?!? Actually, just the mechanics of breathing alone is mind boggling. What an amazing design.
A Chakra Perspective
The senses and the chakras correspond as follows:
- 1st chakra (around tailbone, perineum) - sense of Smell
- 2nd chakra (around sacrum, two inches below navel) - sense of Taste
- 3rd chakra (around solar plexus, two inches above navel) - sense of Sight
- 4th chakra (sternum) - sense of Touch
- 5th chakra (throat) - sense of Hear
- 6th chakra (forehead) - sense of Perception
- 7th chakra (crown of head) - sense of Empathy
More about chakras can be found on the chakra page.
Continued Learning
Take the Senses Challenge - BBC Science & Nature: Human Mind & Body
Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World - Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Right Side/ Left Side - Neuroscience for Kids