Human Development

August 10, 2025, 7:42 PM

From page 130:

"The primary reason why smudging has such profound effects on consciousness is the spirit and power of the plants, their gift from the Great Spirit. However, modern science also offers an interesting interpretation of the power of smudging. Smells induce altered states of awareness because of their connection with specific parts of the brain."

From page 131:

"Among all the senses, the sense of smell has the most direct connection with the non-cognitive portions of the brain. Sensory information from the skin and skeleton, from the eyes, ears, and tongue all has pathways leading into the cerebral cortex. Small has no representation in this thinking portion of the brain. Instead, most olfactory impulses are processed in an ancient structure known as the rhinencephalon (literally, 'nose brain'), a part of the limbic system. The limbic system is associate with the regulation of heart rate, respiration, hormone levels, emotions, and sexual behavior. Sights and sounds make us think. Smells make us feel. Because smell is connected with the breath, the life energy that we take into our bodies, it is the most intimate sense."

From page 131:

"In polite society, it is proper to ask, "Do you hear? Do you see? Do you taste? Do you feel? All of the imply acceptable modes of sensitivity. When have you heard someone ask, Do you smell? Isn't it interesting that a refined person is called a person of taste, not a person of smell. Smell takes us back to a deeper way of knowing. People who smell the world and one anoher are likely to do unpredictable or passionate things."

From page 131:

The association between smell and the limbic system explains why smells evoke memories, instinctive reactions, and feelings such as attraction or disgust or why sacred scents--incense in temples, sweetgrass in tipis--can awaken ancient ways of knowing. (see endnote #21 on page 362).

From page 362, endnote #21:

"For a bouquet of olfactory information and resources, contact the Olfactory Research fund, 145 East Thirty-second St., New York, NY 10016-6002; (212/725-2755).

See its

Compendium of Olfactory Research: Explorations in Aroma-Chology: Investigating the Sense of Smell and Human Response to Odors, 1982-1994.

The reader is also referred to the following excellent works:

David Howes, ed. The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses (Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 1991), and

Constance Classen, David Howes, and Anthony Synnot, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell (New York: Routledge, 1994).

August 10, 2025, 8:43 PM

From page 131:

"In 1580, the French essayist Michel de Montaigne astutely observed:

I have often noticed that (scents) cause changes in me, and act on my spirits according to their qualities; which make me agree with the theory that the introduction of incense and perfume into churches, so ancient and widespread a practice among all nations and religions, was for the purpose of raising our spirits, and of exciting and purifying our senses, the better to fit us for contemplation. (see endnote #22 on page 362).

From page 362, Endnote #22:

D.M. Frame, trans., The Complete Essays of Montaigne (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1965, page 229.)

From page 131:

"Olfactory sensitivity is fundamental to physical and social survival. Inuit peole can smell different qualities of sea, ice, and weather. Hunters determine with all of their senses, including smell, the location of prey, or they rely on following their more sensitive relations, such as the wolf, who can smell a caribou from three miles away.

From page 131:

"Lovers breathe and smell each other to kindle their passion. Wrong Choices are made because human scents are masked by perfume and deodorants. Divorces occur because of olfactory incompatitibilities."

From page 131-132:

"Creating a proper smellscape is essential for Native American healing and high-lights an important difference between allopathic and indigenous methods of diagnosis. Native healers know that a sweet smell, like sweetgrass, often indicates good medicine and health."

"Bad Medicine, disease, and toxic spirits smell bad. Allopathic physicians rely exclusively on the visual sense to determine a patient's condition. At one time--and for only a very brief number of years--physicians tapped a patient's chest or placed their ears directly on the skin to diagnose heart disease, and they took careful note of the smells of different diseases. Today, sensual cues have been replaced by laboratory tests, all of which are read visually. Doctors may be able to practice their science with only eyes and cortex, but THE ART OF TREATING THE WHOLE PERSON REQUIRES ALL OF THE SENSES AND BOTH SIDEDS OF THE BRAIN."