Is a human superior of all creature? What do I have accomplished? Like every human why do I even compare superiority in terms of accomplishments, whereas I cannot even end up my day as a street dog does? A street dog having a deep nap on a busy street, birds singing and enjoying scattered food in front of an overcrowded restaurant, two tiny ants having sex on a busy dining table and, there was me in-between these fantastic scenarios; feeding my empty stomach. I didn’t even smell the “mixed vegetables” that was served, I didn’t give a pause to sense the taste of what I was chewing, like most of the proud human, I filled up my upper abdomen and started planning for the accomplishments.

Human beings were occupied for food and sex in ancient days and today with too many “things”. In the race of becoming a “human” /a superior human, we haven’t just failed to become human but, lost the sense of human senses.

In the book Slights of Mind, Stephen and Susana have stated: “magic trick work because humans have a hardwired process of attention and awareness that is hackable………” Agreeing with this term a hardwired process in my understanding means, the human brain cannot stand as an individual system. It learns the things from the outer world, it does not react on its own understanding. For example, a simple calculator, when 2×2 is pressed it gives 4. But, the calculator doesn’t think on its own, it just processes the multiplication, it doesn’t think the process. Facts or truth do not matter to the brain, it simply processes the input; it is just a processor.

Nose doesn’t smell, the tongue doesn’t taste, the skin doesn’t feel, the eye doesn’t see, and the ear doesn’t hear. All these important organs work as a medium to the brain. And brain precisely processes those all. But senses!! It cannot be processed. Senses are pure. The way nose, tongue, skin, eye and, ears are mediums to the brain, the brain works as a medium to sense. Humans should be considered superior not because of the brain but of sensorial capabilities. And all these messes around the world is because we have placed our brain as a decision maker and with our brain, humans are getting lost in ”achievements”. But the brain doesn’t think of sense, I would like to repeat it again it is just a processor, a hardwired process and brain has nothing to do with results. Brain decides to open the eyes to see the world whereas sense prefer to close the eyes to feel the world. Sense deals with experiences not with the process. Sense is a “new brain” central mechanism of the human body.

As a kid, I got into a so-called “bad habit” of eating mud. I used to eat earth (mud). Nothing was tastier than mud to me. Later, after keeping me under strict supervision my parents made me quit it. But even after so many years, whenever I eat something delicious I get that taste of mud, more than hunger it satisfies my soul of taste. I suppose, “it is not the memory” that brings the same taste again and again; it is the “sense” sense of taste, that revive the memory. Perhaps, memory has no connection with the brain but with Sense. This could be the reason why I smelled “Tests”. In his book “Perfume, the story of a murder” Patrick Suskind had cited “The soul of being is their scent…. how beautiful his mind is!! I suppose, in the race of proving ourselves; human, we have forgotten to smell all the incredible fragrance spread all around us, but we are not becoming human. I literally don’t see any point of having this advanced world if we are not smelling anything but polluted air. I believe, everything exists in this world has some sort of smell which makes them all unique. I just smelled my hands, at this very moment I smelled it, it smells, it has some scent in it. At this point, this smell pulled me towards myself, it triggered my curiosity to know about myself and how my other organs are responding to it. It could be the 13th essence, which was mentioned in the book Perfume. “……12th essence could be identified but the 13th the vital one could never be determined……” what if that 13th essence is discovered! How beautiful this existence would become! These are the real mysteries which are supposed to be disclosed.

We are just looking at the world, to look is coordination of brain and eye, it is just a process but to see; the act of seeing is the sense. In the book Slights of mind, it was mentioned that moon in the horizon appears bigger, whereas the same moon in the open sky appears smaller, because there are too many obstructions in the horizon and depending upon the context, our brain automatically zooms to our interest. In the same way, we hear what we actually want to hear. The sound we hear depends upon the way our brain perceives it, Sound is the reception of waves and perception by the brain. In the book “A Natural History of the Senses” Diane Ackerman has very beautifully mentioned, Outer space is silent but on earth, almost everything can make a sound, that is the reason why we have two ears and one mouth, it means we must hear twice before we speak. So, in that sense, we are here to listen, enjoy every beats without any purpose as if we are here to listen. Even a newly born baby who can’t see clearly for 4-5 months recognize his/her mother through intimate sounds of the heartbeat. Mother and child are united by umbilical sound. But unfortunately, ignoring the natural law of listening/ art of listening, we learned to speak twice then we hear. We are living with culture whereas we need to live with nature. We are living with purpose…. with the brain, whereas we need to live with our senses……

There is everything real in this world, but I am the only one creature who is “making real”, if it can be made then it is not real. And in the deeper sense of sense there is not even anything called “experience” there is just sense…and the Death is an ultimate sense, in this sense of death there is life; a beautiful life……full of senses……a beautiful world to live, not to make……I am so fake.

Bibliography:

Lectures of Dr. Sanford Kwinter

Slights of Mind: Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez- Conde

Perfume, The Story of a Murderer: Patrick Suskind

The natural history of the senses: Diane Ackerman