There is a lot of debate about the role that pheromones play – or don’t play – in humans. Much of science assumes that the Vomeronasal organ, a.k.a. VNO, or Jacobson’s organ (as we discussed in part five) is vestigial – or inactive – in humans. The VNO, remember, resides in that limbic system and we know that in many other animals it is responsible for receiving and interpreting signals that are seemingly beyond what OUR five senses can do by chemicals we’ve termed “pheromones”.
Now, pheromones are interesting little buggers. Our friendly neighborhood Wikipedia defines pheromones as chemicals that trigger “a natural response in another member of the same species”. (Keep that “same species” thing in mind… we’ll be coming back to that later in this post.)
But pheromones aren’t just sexual. Different members of the plant, animal and insect kingdom use pheromones for all kinds of crazy things. Aggregation pheromones cause insects to come together in a mass. Plants and insects release alarm pheromones, signaling danger to others of their kind. Epideictic pheromones, released by female insects upon their egg clutches, cause other females to lay their eggs elsewhere. Releaser pheromones are molecules so powerful that they can cause mates to be attracted from a distance of several miles in moments. (Over distance. Keep that one in mind, too, will you?) Others include territorial pheromones (thank you to the dog peeing on your tires), trail pheromones (which is why those pissants who come to steal your sugar all follow the same path), informational pheromones (why is that dog sniffing my tires?), calming pheromones… and there are MORE.
WOW.
That’s an awful lot of information being exchanged between members of the same species, without the benefit of sight, sound, taste, touch… OR SMELL.
Did I mention that pheromones are odorless?
But wait just a minute, you silly, silly human… how dare you assume that simply because THE ENTIRE REST OF THE PLANT, ANIMAL AND INSECT KINGDOM ON THIS PLANET makes use of these “extra-sensory” signals on a daily basis that YOU have something similar going on within you?
Silly human.
LAWS OF ATTRACTION
Lust. Sexual attraction. Desire. Sexual chemistry. It is a primal thing that simply seems to just happen between certain individuals. It cannot be ignored when it does… nor does it seem that it can be created when it doesn’t.
This simple yet sometimes frustrating conundrum can create all kinds of complexities in human relationships.
Lust is not love. But neither is lust mutually exclusive to love. You can meet someone you’re sexually attracted to, fall “in love” with them and learn to deeply love and care for them. But loving someone and being in love are two entirely different things. Being in love requires sexual desire. Lust, if you will.
This is the complexity I was referring to. Differentiating between loving someone and being “in love” with them can be difficult when you want to experience the full nine yards with someone because you genuinely enjoy them and care for them but simply don’t feel the “spark”. Conversely, being in lust with someone can feel an awful lot like love, when the basis for a truly loving relationship just isn’t there. Ideally, we all want to meet someone toward whom we feel romantically inclined AND personally compatible with.
In the end, sexual attraction does not conquer all. But neither does love. Successful, long-term romantic relationships require a combination of both.
I genuinely BELIEVE that sexual chemistry is a purely biological function. A necessary one, to be sure, that separates genuine romantic attraction from friendships or familial relationships. It is STRICTLY biological. (And yes, I just used the word “believe”! You can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve used that word.)
There is a reason we call it sexual CHEMISTRY. Pheromones are chemicals. Chemicals, released from our brains into our bodies in response to anothers’ chemicals, cause us to FEEL a certain way, which further releases other chemicals (hormones), which cause us to react and become attracted to and aroused by that person.
Non-Verbal Communication Over Distance via Emotion.
Distance? Sure.
“It has been soberly calculated that if a single female moth were to release all the bombykol [sexual pheromone] in her sac in a single spray, all at once, she could theoretically attract a trillion males in the instant,” wrote Lewis Thomas in The Lives of a Cell.
But let’s take a step back to the first stage in all of this – the reception. What if your chemicals don’t mesh with another’s? What if YOUR receptor isn’t sensitive to his or her particular pheromones? And no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you’d like to, you can’t change your body’s chemistry to react to theirs because the signals simply aren’t getting through?
I’ve thought about this long and hard throughout my adult years because I’ve personally faced this conundrum more than once. And now I think I’m finally beginning to understand it – especially after reading the following article today. Apparently, sexual chemistry may be, very literally, GENETIC. And it all goes back to that funny little organ we discovered the other day (thanks, Mike, for the heads up!)… the Jacobson’s organ, located smack dab in the middle of our… yep. Limbic systems.
Sexual Pheromones and Sexual Desire
Imagine an invisible, undetectable force that’s powerful enough to override your sense of reason yet draws you to someone with an almost animal passion. These aren’t Cupid’s mythological arrows, but real shots of human pheromones. Scientists have been researching for years whether or not humans, like other animals, exude these secret scents, with attention focused on a small organ composed of two small pits a few centimeters up the nose. [Editor's note: The author is referring to the NVO or Jacobson's organ!]
Biologists describe pheromones as “smellprints” supposedly as unique to each of us as our fingerprints. Smell is the most primitive of human senses and, unlike sight and touch, travels a direct route to the brain’s limbic lobe where it can provoke an emotional reaction that can, quite literally, be a turn-on.
There’s no doubt that pheromones underlie sexual and other types of behavior in animals, but given the complex human psyche, can these invisible lust signals be all you need for love? The scientific verdict is pending, but an increasing body of evidence suggests that the chemistry of sexual attraction and arousal is more nature than nurture and quite beyond our control. Not so far-fetched a notion considering how often we speak — and sing — of sexual chemistry.
Love or lust — the question hasn’t stopped the fragrance industry from attempting to cash in on the accumulating knowledge about pheromones by producing synthetic versions of these elusive chemicals. True, the new fragrances aren’t billed as aphrodisiacs. Instead, they’re advertised as mood-enhancers designed to help you relax and shed your inhibitions.
While there’s absolutely no proof that they can deliver on any kind of erotic promise, the new pheromone perfumes are selling briskly, even to repeat customers. Which may prove, yet again, that when it comes to aphrodisiacs, nothing trumps the power of suggestion.
Leave it to humans to attempt to override something primal and genetic with a mass-produced cologne. *grin*
So what if your individual “smellprint” simply isn’t compatible with another’s? Can you expect to change your very genetic code and chemical makeup in order to make that happen? Probably not.
THEY WERE SOAKED IN WHAT?
Not only are pheromones apparently person-specific, they are SPECIES-specific. (Remember I said we were going to get back to that?)
Now… let’s talk about Bigfoot. Finally. *grin*
While filming Mysterious Encounters, I had the dubious honor of using “pheromone chips” in our field research. The idea (not mine) was that pheromone chips would attract a Sasquatch. Some even claimed that they’d worked in the past, though I was skeptical of those claims and the supposed evidence that was produced.
Have you ever smelled a bag of rancid potatoes covered in billy-goat urine, decaying meat and fish sauce? Yeah?
NOT EVEN CLOSE.
These things REEKED SO INTENSELY that simply opening the cap on the jar would cause anyone downwind to immediately begin gagging. Literally dry-heaving. The chips were small, orange plastic jobbers that were so foul that you cursed yourself for forgetting – on the third junket when you should have known better – to pack the Vick’s Vaporub and your cameraman is snickering as he’s zoomed in – shooting safely from six feet away – the reaction of you trying not to puke on your shoes… until, of course, you subtly and oh, so deliberately exhale in his direction right over the top of the horrendous thing and he immediately yells, “Cut!” because he’s begun to gag on his own bile and can no longer hold the camera still and you smile as you ask, “Did you get the shot, Jay?” and you’re still catching whiffs of it on your clothes six hours later back at base camp because you happened to be within three feet of the damned thing or accidentally brushed your clothes with the rubber glove you were wearing while dispensing it.
Yes. That bad.
But the smell wasn’t the half of it, because you were fully aware the entire time that they were soaked in… Aw, geez, are you ready for this?
The vaginal secretions of apes and humans.
Yes, I know. There are so many potential off-color jokes to be made here that I’m going to simply ask that you don’t do what I did and ponder the procurement of said secretions and simply move along. Nothing to see here, folks.
The whole time I was submitting myself to this olfactory torture, I was wondering, “Why?” It wasn’t my idea (don’t worry, Mr. Moneymaker, I won’t name names – *grin*) and I couldn’t figure out why on earth you’d want to use a pheromone chip to attempt to attract something not-quite-human and not-quite-ape with the vaginal secretions of both when pheromones are known to be species specific.
It seemed kind of silly to me.
But, hey… it was all in the name of “science”, right?
So just for the record: NO. I don’t think pheromone chips are a potentially valuable research tool. Unless, of course, you had the opportunity to obtain genuine samples of Sasquatch pheromones. In which case, the point is rather moot, isn’t it? ;)
Now, pheromones are interesting little buggers. Our friendly neighborhood Wikipedia defines pheromones as chemicals that trigger “a natural response in another member of the same species”. (Keep that “same species” thing in mind… we’ll be coming back to that later in this post.)
But pheromones aren’t just sexual. Different members of the plant, animal and insect kingdom use pheromones for all kinds of crazy things. Aggregation pheromones cause insects to come together in a mass. Plants and insects release alarm pheromones, signaling danger to others of their kind. Epideictic pheromones, released by female insects upon their egg clutches, cause other females to lay their eggs elsewhere. Releaser pheromones are molecules so powerful that they can cause mates to be attracted from a distance of several miles in moments. (Over distance. Keep that one in mind, too, will you?) Others include territorial pheromones (thank you to the dog peeing on your tires), trail pheromones (which is why those pissants who come to steal your sugar all follow the same path), informational pheromones (why is that dog sniffing my tires?), calming pheromones… and there are MORE.
WOW.
That’s an awful lot of information being exchanged between members of the same species, without the benefit of sight, sound, taste, touch… OR SMELL.
Did I mention that pheromones are odorless?
But wait just a minute, you silly, silly human… how dare you assume that simply because THE ENTIRE REST OF THE PLANT, ANIMAL AND INSECT KINGDOM ON THIS PLANET makes use of these “extra-sensory” signals on a daily basis that YOU have something similar going on within you?
Silly human.
LAWS OF ATTRACTION
Lust. Sexual attraction. Desire. Sexual chemistry. It is a primal thing that simply seems to just happen between certain individuals. It cannot be ignored when it does… nor does it seem that it can be created when it doesn’t.
This simple yet sometimes frustrating conundrum can create all kinds of complexities in human relationships.
Lust is not love. But neither is lust mutually exclusive to love. You can meet someone you’re sexually attracted to, fall “in love” with them and learn to deeply love and care for them. But loving someone and being in love are two entirely different things. Being in love requires sexual desire. Lust, if you will.
This is the complexity I was referring to. Differentiating between loving someone and being “in love” with them can be difficult when you want to experience the full nine yards with someone because you genuinely enjoy them and care for them but simply don’t feel the “spark”. Conversely, being in lust with someone can feel an awful lot like love, when the basis for a truly loving relationship just isn’t there. Ideally, we all want to meet someone toward whom we feel romantically inclined AND personally compatible with.
In the end, sexual attraction does not conquer all. But neither does love. Successful, long-term romantic relationships require a combination of both.
I genuinely BELIEVE that sexual chemistry is a purely biological function. A necessary one, to be sure, that separates genuine romantic attraction from friendships or familial relationships. It is STRICTLY biological. (And yes, I just used the word “believe”! You can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve used that word.)
There is a reason we call it sexual CHEMISTRY. Pheromones are chemicals. Chemicals, released from our brains into our bodies in response to anothers’ chemicals, cause us to FEEL a certain way, which further releases other chemicals (hormones), which cause us to react and become attracted to and aroused by that person.
Non-Verbal Communication Over Distance via Emotion.
Distance? Sure.
“It has been soberly calculated that if a single female moth were to release all the bombykol [sexual pheromone] in her sac in a single spray, all at once, she could theoretically attract a trillion males in the instant,” wrote Lewis Thomas in The Lives of a Cell.
But let’s take a step back to the first stage in all of this – the reception. What if your chemicals don’t mesh with another’s? What if YOUR receptor isn’t sensitive to his or her particular pheromones? And no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you’d like to, you can’t change your body’s chemistry to react to theirs because the signals simply aren’t getting through?
I’ve thought about this long and hard throughout my adult years because I’ve personally faced this conundrum more than once. And now I think I’m finally beginning to understand it – especially after reading the following article today. Apparently, sexual chemistry may be, very literally, GENETIC. And it all goes back to that funny little organ we discovered the other day (thanks, Mike, for the heads up!)… the Jacobson’s organ, located smack dab in the middle of our… yep. Limbic systems.
Sexual Pheromones and Sexual Desire
Imagine an invisible, undetectable force that’s powerful enough to override your sense of reason yet draws you to someone with an almost animal passion. These aren’t Cupid’s mythological arrows, but real shots of human pheromones. Scientists have been researching for years whether or not humans, like other animals, exude these secret scents, with attention focused on a small organ composed of two small pits a few centimeters up the nose. [Editor's note: The author is referring to the NVO or Jacobson's organ!]
Biologists describe pheromones as “smellprints” supposedly as unique to each of us as our fingerprints. Smell is the most primitive of human senses and, unlike sight and touch, travels a direct route to the brain’s limbic lobe where it can provoke an emotional reaction that can, quite literally, be a turn-on.
There’s no doubt that pheromones underlie sexual and other types of behavior in animals, but given the complex human psyche, can these invisible lust signals be all you need for love? The scientific verdict is pending, but an increasing body of evidence suggests that the chemistry of sexual attraction and arousal is more nature than nurture and quite beyond our control. Not so far-fetched a notion considering how often we speak — and sing — of sexual chemistry.
Love or lust — the question hasn’t stopped the fragrance industry from attempting to cash in on the accumulating knowledge about pheromones by producing synthetic versions of these elusive chemicals. True, the new fragrances aren’t billed as aphrodisiacs. Instead, they’re advertised as mood-enhancers designed to help you relax and shed your inhibitions.
While there’s absolutely no proof that they can deliver on any kind of erotic promise, the new pheromone perfumes are selling briskly, even to repeat customers. Which may prove, yet again, that when it comes to aphrodisiacs, nothing trumps the power of suggestion.
Leave it to humans to attempt to override something primal and genetic with a mass-produced cologne. *grin*
So what if your individual “smellprint” simply isn’t compatible with another’s? Can you expect to change your very genetic code and chemical makeup in order to make that happen? Probably not.
THEY WERE SOAKED IN WHAT?
Not only are pheromones apparently person-specific, they are SPECIES-specific. (Remember I said we were going to get back to that?)
Now… let’s talk about Bigfoot. Finally. *grin*
While filming Mysterious Encounters, I had the dubious honor of using “pheromone chips” in our field research. The idea (not mine) was that pheromone chips would attract a Sasquatch. Some even claimed that they’d worked in the past, though I was skeptical of those claims and the supposed evidence that was produced.
Have you ever smelled a bag of rancid potatoes covered in billy-goat urine, decaying meat and fish sauce? Yeah?
NOT EVEN CLOSE.
These things REEKED SO INTENSELY that simply opening the cap on the jar would cause anyone downwind to immediately begin gagging. Literally dry-heaving. The chips were small, orange plastic jobbers that were so foul that you cursed yourself for forgetting – on the third junket when you should have known better – to pack the Vick’s Vaporub and your cameraman is snickering as he’s zoomed in – shooting safely from six feet away – the reaction of you trying not to puke on your shoes… until, of course, you subtly and oh, so deliberately exhale in his direction right over the top of the horrendous thing and he immediately yells, “Cut!” because he’s begun to gag on his own bile and can no longer hold the camera still and you smile as you ask, “Did you get the shot, Jay?” and you’re still catching whiffs of it on your clothes six hours later back at base camp because you happened to be within three feet of the damned thing or accidentally brushed your clothes with the rubber glove you were wearing while dispensing it.
Yes. That bad.
But the smell wasn’t the half of it, because you were fully aware the entire time that they were soaked in… Aw, geez, are you ready for this?
The vaginal secretions of apes and humans.
Yes, I know. There are so many potential off-color jokes to be made here that I’m going to simply ask that you don’t do what I did and ponder the procurement of said secretions and simply move along. Nothing to see here, folks.
The whole time I was submitting myself to this olfactory torture, I was wondering, “Why?” It wasn’t my idea (don’t worry, Mr. Moneymaker, I won’t name names – *grin*) and I couldn’t figure out why on earth you’d want to use a pheromone chip to attempt to attract something not-quite-human and not-quite-ape with the vaginal secretions of both when pheromones are known to be species specific.
It seemed kind of silly to me.
But, hey… it was all in the name of “science”, right?
So just for the record: NO. I don’t think pheromone chips are a potentially valuable research tool. Unless, of course, you had the opportunity to obtain genuine samples of Sasquatch pheromones. In which case, the point is rather moot, isn’t it? ;)
