The Sense of Smell
The sense of smell is the most basic and primitive of all our senses, and is of vital importance to humans since it helps with the survival of our species. For our prehistoric ancestors, smell was equally as important as vision in the battle for survival, since certain odours such as smoke and rotting flesh would often signal danger. Without the sense of smell, humans would not have survived the evolutionary process.
In the modern world we perceive the world mainly through our eyes and ears, and in fact the sense of smell is now repressed and controlled in a way that nature never intended. Just think about the way we try to mask any smells in daily life that we feel are unpleasant and unsociable by using deodorants and air-fresheners. Smell is still very important to us, except now we seem to have become tolerant to only pleasant odours.
Aromatherapy is a perfect example of this. Even though a particular essential oil may be precisely what is required to treat a physical condition, clients in a clinic will often object during a treatment if they do not like the aroma of the oil. The knowledge that smells can have a powerful effect on the mind has been known since ancient times. Precisely how this comes about however, is still not fully understood despite a vast amount of modern research.
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