Humans, God and Our Amazing Sense of Smell: The Science behind Perfume and the Fascinating Life Lessons It Can Teach Us

Teresa Neumann-Opinion : May 24, 2017
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Oh, we humans. Such a mixture of spirit and earth! As for God, what does He smell like and can we smell like Him? This, and more, from the inner rumblings of a spiritual romantic.

Rutgers University recently published a study that "debunks the 19th century myth that animals are better at sniffing out scents than humans." (Photo: Public Domain/via Pixabay)

"When it comes to our sense of smell," noted the report, "we have been led to believe that animals win out over humans: No way can we compete with dogs and rodents, some of the best sniffers in the animal kingdom."

Said Rutgers' neuroscientist John McGann: "For so long people failed to stop and question this claim, even people who study the sense of smell for a living. The fact is, the sense of smell is just as good in humans as in other mammals, like rodents and dogs."

Humans, the report went on to note, can discriminate maybe one trillion different odors, he says, which is far more, than the claim by "folk wisdom and poorly sourced introductory psychology textbooks," that insist humans could only detect about 10,000 different odors.

Our sense of smell plays a major, sometimes unconscious, role in how we perceive and interact with others, select a mate, and helps us decide what we like to eat.

"We can detect and discriminate an extraordinary range of odors; we are more sensitive than rodents and dogs for some odors; we are capable of tracking odor trails; and our behavioral and affective states are influenced by our sense of smell," McGann wrote in Science.

In fact, the report concludes, "Our sense of smell plays a major, sometimes unconscious, role in how we perceive and interact with others, select a mate, and helps us decide what we like to eat." (Photo: Public Domain/via Pixabay)

Well, call me a spiritual romantic, but this report had me extrapolating like crazy the possible links between God and His creation; heavenly smells and earthly perfumes. I started wondering:

• Does God have a unique smell all His own?

• Do we, or our souls, individually smell a certain way—good or bad—to Him? If so, do we have His scent on us?

• Do planets, galaxies, black holes, indeed, the universe, smell?

• If so, what does Heaven smell like?

• Is it our profound sense of smell, or something deeper—like a drive to be like, or smell like God—that drives us, as humans, to create perfumes?

Indeed, perfumes have an ancient, fascinating history. In its earliest form, they were used for incense, thus the Latin name "per-fume" meaning "through smoke." Flowers, oils, herbs and other plants—like frankincense, opoponax, and myrrh—were typically mixed with water and alcohol to make fragrances.

Interestingly, the two most common flowers used today in the making of perfumes are roses and jasmine. Like wine, the world of perfume is rich with metaphors related to the senses and the emotions they evoke. Jasmine means grace and elegance. Roses symbolize love.

And, as any musician would notice, the descriptions of perfumes are also much like music. For example, perfumes are judged by three "notes": head, heart and base (aka "earth" or "feet") notes. Because the head note is the first scent people smell in a perfume, it's the most important in terms of marketing and sales. The initial head note evaporates very quickly, but like a musical overture, sets the tone for the fragrance. (Photo: Public Domain/via Pixabay)

The middle—or heart—note follows the fleeting head scent. More stable and "rounding," this equalizing fragrance lingers longest and is what most people will associate with your smell.

The base notes are what reportedly provide the "depth" to perfumes; they are crucial because they reportedly anchor the lighter scents present in the heads and hearts of perfumes after they start evaporating and ultimately provide the lasting impression.

Is anyone "smelling" the Body of Christ right now?

Perhaps the oddest thing about perfumes is the fact that they sometimes contain bizarre "non-pleasant" ingredients added to ultimately achieve a distinctively "pleasant" scent! Substances like deer musk, castoreum from the castor sacs of beavers, and ambergris—an intestinal secretion from sperm whales. (Click here for more on some of these yukky ingredients)

Oh, we humans. Such a mixture of spirit and earth!

To our noses, swamps stink. Rotten eggs make us gag. We run from skunks and wince at the acrid aroma of dead fish. Meanwhile, deserts smell dusty, approaching storms stir up whiffs from the earth and sky, forests fill our nostrils with enriched air, and ocean breezes refresh.  

In other words, there are anti-dotes to everything in nature and in the spirit. Feeling stinky today? You need to take a jasmine scented  bath or dive into some other heavenly concoction. Have you been warned that you're being overly confident, prideful or ready for a big fall? Rub some smelly earth on you before it's too late. (Photo: Teresa Neumann)

Most of all, now—more than ever—we need to slow down and smell the roses. It appears there are some amazing life lessons out there that we've been too busy to notice.

And who knows? If we could become more sensitive to the smells around us we might be able, some day, just by our sense of smell, to be alerted to an advancing earthquake ... or the Presence of God.