Primitive senses and ment-o-portation

When I did my medical school, I was engrossed with the senses that advanced/evolved organisms had. The five major senses which were all neatly packaged within our own heads were classified in the order of advancement. Vision/Sight ruled above the other four (smell a. k. a olfaction, sound a. k. a. audition, taste a. k. a. gestation and balance and equilibrium) so much so that the others were considered as primitive senses.

I have had my own set of (different) views as I was interested very much in cats and other mammals. Such beings depend on their ‘primitive’ senses far more than us. I think it is easy to understand why someone would become fascinated by this fact. I mean, look at the graceful yet brutal way in which the bigger cats hunt down prey. It fits in so well with your sense of sexuality and pleasure, doesn’t it? There have been theories (debatable) propagated which link up olfaction, sex and emotions.

I think I digressed a bit. The reason why I am posting about this rather unlikely topic is because of something that happens to me every day; the memories associated with my primitive senses; especially, the olfactory memory and auditory memory. Getting confused? Here’s an example.

I was watching VH1 today evening and I watched a video from the mid ‘90s by Aerosmith called ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’. I was suddenly transported back to my first year of medical school. For a few seconds, without me realizing, I felt like back then. Carefree, naïve and worry-less, I felt like running down the stairs at my home and going out to my friend R. B.’s apartment for an all encompassing talk about what came to our minds. It is not just memories. It’s more like ment-o-portation (noun: an act of being moved to a state of a different set of feelings, usually in the past, totally unrelated to the present feelings; mental tele-portation; etymology: Engayging Life, the blog).

Stronger, though, is my olfactory memory. And it is, for all your kinky ones, associated with sex. (At least, my digression makes sense now.) I can feel the touch of my partners if I smell their perfumes, deodorants, aftershaves or a simple talcum powder! It is so unreal and it freaks me out. And to make it even juicier, I have these things with me always so that I can get some ‘kick’ out of it every now and then.

Funnily, I don’t have Vinokur’s. I have perfumes that he’s gifted me. But I don’t have what he used to wear which, as I realized right now, is something that I can easily buy to complete the little inadequacy. And as a tip, such olfactory materials help to lighten the heavy-workload of a long distance relationship. In fact, one of the commonest tips to maintain such a relationship is to send scented postcards and perfumes.