This week I am on retreat in Northern California adding finishing touches to my Introduction to Embodied Awareness on line course that will launch in April.  Today I am reviewing the Module on the 12 senses as I bask in the sensory stimulation of my current environment.  While I was walking in the hills, I turned off my hearing aids to dampen the din of traffic rolling along the freeway by the nature reserve; one of the advantages of wearing hearing aids.  I am staying on the edge of a nature reserve. . . streams of sunshine make the emerald green hills even more vibrant against the bright orange California poppies that grow wild in these parts. It rained just before I arrived, and the ground is moist and full of life.  The fragrance of Spring is in the air, everywhere.

Our bodies are receiving stations for signals sent between the outer material-physical world and the inner world of the psyche or soul.  We are vibrational beings.  From the molecular vibration of different substances which constitute our sense of smell, to waves of light that impact the retina of the eye, our sensory nerves transmit electrochemical signals to our brain that we interpret as physical reality.

Who would have thought that smell is vibratory?  One of the latest theories, according to biophysicist and perfumer Luca Turin, is the sense of smell is based on the molecular structure of a substance.  The olfactory receptor sites respond to the molecular vibration and send a signal to the brain where the scent is interpreted as a fragrant rose, or exhaust fumes from the bus.  Smell can also be a subtle intuitive signal when it takes the form of a metaphor—like when something smells ‘fishy’ or is a ‘fresh’ idea.

Smell is vibration.  I don’t know why that fascinates me so much; but it does.  It reminds me of the reality that life is not always what it seems and we can ‘smell the truth’.  I have come to view every aspect of being as a signal—the quality of our thoughts, the experience of emotions and all our physical senses as subtle signals—messages between the outer material world and the inner world of Spirit.  It is not the content of thoughts and feelings as much as the quality that is the signal—it’s the vibration our thoughts and feelings emit that signals how important it is to return to the sanctuary of Spirit within the soul before taking action.

We are mediators between inner and out worlds—finding a way to move between worlds with grace and ease.  If we pay attention to the subtle signals, how might that impact our awareness of our relationships with each other?