Fine Tuning the Five Senses

[TGO]

So I came across a basic yet informative article on fine tuning the 5 basic senses. Besides what the article mentioned, what are some ways/methods/diets/vitamins/physical or mental exercises that you use to improve your senses?

I only ask because here at the Nexus, there is talk about opening/awakening the third eye, reaching/striving for enlightenment, and learning to navigate the DMT realm (which to me feels like the development of a "6th" sense). So I figured it might be interesting to see the different ideas of how to improve upon our regular senses while not exploring (or under the influence of) the psychedelic worlds.

Thoughts?

Thank you in advance and I do apologize if this has been discussed before.



Edit: I just recently started taking Men's One A Day Multivitamin to help get some of those essential vitamins and minerals my body tends to lack due to semi-poor diet. I can't say I've noticed any improvement in my five senses but I definitely feel much healthier. Alert and energized! Anywho...

 

[SpartanII]

Attention plays a big role in how we perceive with our senses, therefore, even with the senses "fine-tuned", if you're not engaging full, sustained attention to them, you're perception may be attenuated.

I'd recommend mindfulness meditation practice to greatly enhance the perception of your five senses.:thumb_up:

I just recently started taking Men's One A Day Multivitamin to help get some of those essential vitamins and minerals my body tends to lack due to semi-poor diet.

Based off my personal research and experience, food-based vitamins are a much better (although more expensive, unfortunately) option. They are supposed to be way more bio-available, and you can take them on an empty stomach without stomach discomfort.

 

[RAM]

I'm not a vegan, but I've read that being one can help you get much more in touch with your body. I have had week-length amounts of time recently where I have abstained from junk food and masturbation as well as doing a lot of yoga. During those stretches I noticed great improvements to my senses in that I was noticing things I did not notice before.

To be completely honest, it's kind of annoying. I don't want to hear the almost-inaudible buzzing coming from my keyboard nor the muffled weed-whipper being used two miles away. I also live near a freeway and I never really noticed the sound until I started practicing more mindfulness. I don't want to hear this stuff!

Isolation tanks can also really help you get in touch with your senses. Some might accuse people who use them a lot of being escapists, but it is really the exact opposite. Once you have been in a state of such relaxation and isolation, it becomes way easier to access your worldly senses. But I find physical sensation misleading and shallow in many cases.

A lot of people I know experiment with cannabis and psychedelics for the "funny feelings" it gives them, but I think their effects are really much more profound. I once read how it's about the effect the drug has on your consciousness, not your body. This is why I enjoy doing drugs in isolation now, as I can really dive into my own mind without being distracted by the physical world or by culture.

And maybe this is more for a philosophy post, but I find that ideology arises out of sensation. A child born with no senses (i.e., no way to interact with the outside world) would be to us a "brain-dead blob," but at least the child would be free from internal ideological forces. We could still classify the child as a male or female and give it a name with our ideological systems, but it wouldn't know. I'm not saying that I want to be like this, but this idea helps put the ideologies that try to take advantage of me in perspective. I can use my senses to help defeat them, but in many cases this involves dulling down my perceptual abilities and not analyzing so many details to escape possible manipulation.

Anyway, back to your original post, mindful meditation, isolation tanks, yoga, a cleaner diet, and just deeply focusing your mind on different sensations could help you improve your ability to sense the world around you.

 

[Auxin]

When I simultaneously radically improved my diet and switched to a plants-only diet I did notice a marked improvement in my sense of smell.
It can be interesting on dog walks or 5K runs, smelling into peoples houses. You know who likes what food, the brand of coffee people prefer, who has lots of books, who grows weed.... who has a habit of not bathing before sex (I guess napoleon wasnt alone in that fetish)... who has mice in their house... OK, not all are good- but interesting none the less

 

[TGO]

Thank you for the responses so far!

Based off my personal research and experience, food-based vitamins are a much better (although more expensive, unfortunately) option. They are supposed to be way more bio-available, and you can take them on an empty stomach without stomach discomfort.

Great tip! I will be looking into that a little bit in the future since the multivitamin bottle I bought contains a 200 count. That's the better part of a year (taking one a day) and I only started taking them about 3 weeks ago! The no stomach discomfort part of the food based vitamins is very appealing though!

To be completely honest, it's kind of annoying. I don't want to hear the almost-inaudible buzzing coming from my keyboard nor the muffled weed-whipper being used two miles away. I also live near a freeway and I never really noticed the sound until I started practicing more mindfulness. I don't want to hear this stuff!

:lol:

I definitely get that! I live in an apartment complex with paper thin walls and I do not want to hear/see/smell/touch/taste anymore of my neighbors business than I already do! But I am looking to move into a house soon where these techniques will be employed in a more efficient manner. Hopefully somewhere slightly beyond the city limit where it is a bit more peaceful.

I googled isolation tank centers to see if there were any places nearby but sadly there are not. Any tips for building one? Obviously a makeshift one. While tripping on various psychedelics I have tried out the sleep mask and noise cancelling headphones to induce a pure visionary state of mind. I'm sure there are some similarities between that and isolation tanks...and of course it would be a bit different since no tripping would be involved.

I also enjoy tripping alone for the most part and if I do trip with someone, it is with my girlfriend. She lives with me and we are very close. Lone journeys really get you to take a look at yourself, that is for sure. Like a giant psychological mirror of some sort!

As for the "brain dead blob", that is an interesting topic. There would be no way for them to communicate with the rest of the world effectively. Obviously they would be aware of things, in a sense, but I can't even begin to imagine what their "reality" would be like. A dark silent void? Or maybe the brain could create a "view" of the world similar to how CEVs behave...? I honestly have no idea, I am just speculating. I wonder how they would even communicate with themselves in order to go about doing things that we wouldn't even think twice about...like taking a drink of water or using the restroom. What would their internal dialogue sound like? Would they have internal dialogue at all? I would imagine they would have some form of it. It wouldn't be English or any other language (especially if they were born without working senses) but the brain is quite powerful so it seems like it would find a suitable substitute...interesting stuff indeed!

Anyway, back to your original post, mindful meditation, isolation tanks, yoga, a cleaner diet, and just deeply focusing your mind on different sensations could help you improve your ability to sense the world around you.

:thumb_up:

 

[TGO]

When I simultaneously radically improved my diet and switched to a plants-only diet I did notice a marked improvement in my sense of smell.
It can be interesting on dog walks or 5K runs, smelling into peoples houses. You know who likes what food, the brand of coffee people prefer, who has lots of books, who grows weed.... who has a habit of not bathing before sex (I guess napoleon wasnt alone in that fetish)... who has mice in their house... OK, not all are good- but interesting none the less

Very nice! Ever since I quit smoking cigarettes back in October my sense of taste and smell has also improved dramatically!

 

[amandanita]

Much of this will be echoing things that have already been said, but these are the things that have really opened up my senses recently (I hadn't really noticed how dull my senses had gotten before they were resensitised by these positive changes):

[*] Quitting smoking (of cigarettes, but this includes all smoking)
[*] Mostly raw vegan diet
[*] Fresh wild berries and herbs from nature
[*] Mindfulness (*)
[*] Gluten-free diet
[*] Natural oils, virgin oils, no animal fats
[*] No dairy full of hormones and contaminants

* Today I was out inspecting different wild plants that grow around here.
One of them had the most amazing scent, it was intoxicating. When I smelled it, the entire
world around me disappeared. There was no me, no human, no plant, no world, just a scent,
its essence momentarily the entire reality. That's how I smell any flower, any plant, any
scent, good or bad. Not all of them are intoxicating, I don't let myself drown in each and
every one, but when I smell something, I concentrate on the smell entirely, fully. I give
it my full focus.

Lately I've become more mindful of the wild plants around me. Not just the few that I eat but the ones that I don't know. Because of that mindfulness I found this plant that smells sweeter than any perfume I've used, and I've used some expensive ones! :lol: I'm going to make body/skin oil from it to use as perfume And it seems to be common around here too, I'll collect as much as I can

Making those changes will also improve your sense of taste. It's nice to have my old senses back Not all of it is positive (re: Auxin) but all of it is useful!

When I make raw vegan food (like the raw (no bake, no flour) blueberry apple pie I made today) I like that I can not only taste the combined tastes but also pick out the individual tastes and concentrate on them separately if i I want to It's a different level of tasting that you'll have missed if you've let your sense of taste become dull. And of course raw ingredients tend to have clearer, less "flattened" tastes so that helps too!

 

[TGO]

Right on, Amandanita! It is nice to see someone else who truly takes the time to "stop and smell the roses" as the saying goes! Being in the city, there are tons of sights, sounds, and smells to interact with but unfortunately it is also tainted. Between light pollution at night(can't see the stars well ) and air pollution (dirty city smells if you know what I mean) it really makes me want to move back out to the country side. Perhaps ill be able to someday!

 

[amandanita]

Right on, Amandanita! It is nice to see someone else who truly takes the time to "stop and smell the roses" as the saying goes! Being in the city, there are tons of sights, sounds, and smells to interact with but unfortunately it is also tainted. Between light pollution at night(can't see the stars well ) and air pollution (dirty city smells if you know what I mean) it really makes me want to move back out to the country side. Perhaps ill be able to someday!

I know how it is to live in a large city. They have their own interesting smells, though not very clean :lol: I hope one day you'll get to live somewhere where you can see even the faintest stars in the night sky and smell flowers not enveloped in toxic smoke.

 

[Cognitive Heart]

I'd recommend mindfulness meditation practice to greatly enhance the perception of your five senses.:thumb_up:

Yes, thank you for that. :thumb_up:

 

[RAM]

I googled isolation tank centers to see if there were any places nearby but sadly there are not. Any tips for building one? Obviously a makeshift one. While tripping on various psychedelics I have tried out the sleep mask and noise cancelling headphones to induce a pure visionary state of mind. I'm sure there are some similarities between that and isolation tanks...and of course it would be a bit different since no tripping would be involved.

Here's a decent link: http://www.isolationtankplans.com/welcome/

I just improvise with the headphones and eyemask as I do not want to pay $70 an hour and drive kind of far to go to one all the time. Building your own would cost some money and take up a good amount of space, but then you would have constant free access!! They also sell simplified ones, but those too can still get rather expensive.

The tank does a great job with total sensory deprivation as your body is suspended in body temperature salt water. So you can't see, hear, touch, taste, or feel. Feeling is the one that is most difficult to eliminate while simply lying in bed. But once you "lose your physical shell," consciousness exploration becomes much more streamlined.

And as an added bonus like I said, you'll start to appreciate the sensations you do have even more. Good luck!

 

[TGO]

Thanks for the link! Yeah, I figured expense would be the biggest issue but no worries. After all, I've never been in a true isolation tank, so I don't know what I'm missing! :lol:

The only time I've ever felt total loss of my "physical self" was during a few DMT breakthroughs. It has also happened to me on higher doses of golden teachers. But to induce that state of mind in a sober setting is infinitely interesting to me. Sensory deprivation and consciousness expansion seem to go hand in hand!

It also seems to me that one would find a whole new appreciation for their senses after spending a long while in the tank...but that is probably the point or at least part of it!

 

[amandanita]

Thanks for the link! Yeah, I figured expense would be the biggest issue but no worries. After all, I've never been in a true isolation tank, so I don't know what I'm missing! :lol:

The only time I've ever felt total loss of my "physical self" was during a few DMT breakthroughs. It has also happened to me on higher doses of golden teachers. But to induce that state of mind in a sober setting is infinitely interesting to me. Sensory deprivation and consciousness expansion seem to go hand in hand!

It also seems to me that one would find a whole new appreciation for their senses after spending a long while in the tank...but that is probably the point or at least part of it!

Find a new appreciation for your senses... or be surprised to find out you find total sensory deprivation desirable and peaceful. (The latter is pretty rare I think, but you never know... ) I really recommend trying it if/when you get the chance!

 

[Doc Buxin]

Attention plays a big role in how we perceive with our senses, therefore, even with the senses "fine-tuned", if you're not engaging full, sustained attention to them, you're perception may be attenuated.

I'd recommend mindfulness meditation practice to greatly enhance the perception of your five senses.:thumb_up:

I second this recommendation wholeheartedly based upon a lot of experience.

Based off my personal research and experience, food-based vitamins are a much better (although more expensive, unfortunately) option. They are supposed to be way more bio-available, and you can take them on an empty stomach without stomach discomfort.

From my experience in this field, which is ridiculously extensive (a lot of people call me "the encyclopedia" & others call me "doc" ), I have to agree with Spartan here also, although I will take it one step further...

"Food-based" vitamins are much better, but "food-grown" vitamins tend to be the best (if one is into multi-vitamins). The difference being that "food-based" usually is in reference to USP vitamins (isolated nutrients created in a lab) in a base of what are ususally called "superfoods" (i.e. spirulina algae, wheat grass juice, bee pollen, goji berry, etc.), whereas "food-grown" vitamins are actually deactivated, nutritional yeasts that, when they were alive, were fed lots of foods, superfoods & USP vitamins, thus becoming part of the yeast itself & therefore the most like foods.

Hope this helps.

 

[Doc Buxin]

Fasting can greatly improve all your senses.

It is not for everyone though & I do not recommend fasting just on water. Usually freshly made vegetable juices & broths.

That being said, here's what I'm taking right now (I change what I take according to the seasons & how hot, cold, windy or rainy the time happens to be).

Since it is sweltering hot here in Nor Cal right now, I'm taking what's called "Pill Curing" (sometimes mispelled "Pill Culing" due to the translation of Chinese into English), the Chinese name is "Kang Ning". It is an herbal formula for digestion that keeps excess phlegm out of the stomach & the head. This is especially important during the hot summer months due to the limited amount of blood available for digestion (hot weather will bring more blood to the surface of the body to keep us cool, thus reducing the overall amount available for digestion, thus creating more phlegm througout the body).

I combine this with Yin Chiao (also spelled Yin Qiao), a world-famous Chinese herbal formula like Pill Curing, this formula vents heat out of the upper surface level of the body. It's traditionally used for the beginnings of colds & respiratory flus to abort the disease (if you use it at the first signs & take copius amounts of it). It is a very safe formula to use for summerheat problems though.

Let's see, what else?

I generally always take herb formulas to support my kidney function (the ears are the flowers of the kidneys) year 'round. This is a long-term strategy for aging gracefully that the Chinese physicians figured out over two thousand years ago. Since we're in the hot season, I use Zhi Bai Di Huang (also known as "Eight Flavor Rehmannia" or "Rehmannia, Anemarrhena & Phellodendron Formula" ). It is one of the cooling kidney formulas. I'll change this up when the weather gets cooler.

Always something for the liver/gallbladder system too! The eyes are the flowers of the liver! Again, due to it being the hot time of year, I'll use Jia Wei Xiao Yao (also known as Free & Easy Wanderer or Rambling Powder). This stuff helps keep you emotionally cool & calm while decreasing tiredness. It is a thousand year old formula designed specifically for those who live in cities. It has way too many benefits to list here so I suggest if someone is interested to google it.

And what else might Doc have up his sleeve?

Well, I generally always take herb formulas to keep my lung function in tip-top shape since not only do I love smoking good quality Cannabis, tobacco & DMT, but also because the air quality 'round these parts is way worse than a few bong hits & organically grown, hand-rolled tobacco spliffs per day! The nose is the flower of the lungs.
My two all-time favorites are Qing Qi Hua Tan (Clear Lung Qi & Disperse Phlegm Formula) & Bai He Gu Jin (Lily Bulb Formula To Nourish The Metal). The Qing Qi is a broncodialor & expectorant that has mild anti-bacterial & moisturizing actions on the resipiratory system. Bai He is cooling (anti-inflammatory) & very moisturizing for the lungs, stomach, heart, large intestine & skin.

Besides all that I'll usually throw down some propolis capsules (resin the honey bees collect from trees & glue their hives together with. A slightly warming, wide-spectrum anti-viral, bacterial & fungal that doesn't kill probiotic bacteria) & some Chuan Xin Lian tablets (very strong, cold anti-viral) to keep all the nasty viruses that hide out in my body at bay (shingles, herpes, etc.).


Oh yes, the summer is the season of the heart & sweat is the fluid of the heart, not to mention that the tongue is the flower of the heart. Taking extra precautions against heart attacks & strokes in the summer season is very important especially the older you get! I tend to cook up daily batches of a formula known as "Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan" or "Heavenly Emperor's Special Pill For The Heart" during the hot months. I tweak the recipe slightly to fit my personal mind/body type. I also use an herbal supplement called Flavonex that contains both Western & Chinese herbs that are know to enhance circulation, strengthen the blood vessels & tone the heart muscle, including Ginkgo biloba extract.

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. I'm sure that's more than most people want to even contemplate or digest anyway!:surprised

 

[TGO]

Doc, thank you for the wealth of information! The Chinese culture has always fascinated me. Ancient traditions and medicines keeping people alive and well for many years is enticing! Looks like I have some homework to do!

"Food-based" vitamins are much better, but "food-grown" vitamins tend to be the best (if one is into multi-vitamins). The difference being that "food-based" usually is in reference to USP vitamins (isolated nutrients created in a lab) in a base of what are ususally called "superfoods" (i.e. spirulina algae, wheat grass juice, bee pollen, goji berry, etc.), whereas "food-grown" vitamins are actually deactivated, nutritional yeasts that, when they were alive, were fed lots of foods, superfoods & USP vitamins, thus becoming part of the yeast itself & therefore the most like foods.

Thanks for clearing that up, it makes a lot of sense! I'm just now starting to get into the whole "being healthier" thing. I have mistreated my body during my relatively short time on Earth so far which is the main reason why I started this thread. To get ideas for being healthier and improving one's senses and their entire being in general. Thanks for the great tips so far everyone!

 

[Doc Buxin]

I remembered this morning that certain hygienic practices go a long ways towards keeping the senses in tip-top shape also...

Nasal rinsing or "neti-potting": Irrigating the sinuses (not just in your nose; there are sinus cavities in your forehead that, when free of mucoidal plaque, which most everyone has but doesn't know it, allow your third eye to really open & blossom). Saline solution is sucked up into the sinuses from the nostrils, allowed to wash the upper & lower sinus cavities (one needs the head to be upside down for this procedure to work properly) & blown back out the nostrils or spit out the mouth. Just as important as brushing/flossing the teeth, this procedure is not a huge phenomenon in Western culture due to the culture's adversity to spitting, blowing & hacking up/out phlegm. It really is too bad since many modern diseases find their etiology in mucoidal plaquing.

Eye washing: Rinsing the eyeballs with stimulating/irritating liquid mixtures. This procedure helps keep proper Qi (energy) & blood flow to the eyes themselves (blood always follows the Qi). Fluid mixtures range from very irritating (formulas containing cayenne pepper believe it or not), anti-septic (formulas containing boric acid), to mildly stimulating (eyedrops containing menthol). Fantastic for prevention of general eyeball atrophy, cataracts & eye infections such as conjunctivitis (pink eye).

Ear candling & warm oil: These procedures include using ear candles (long, thin funnels made of unbleached cotton or linen soaked in wax (i.e. paraffin or beeswax); the small end inserted into the outer ear canal snuggly & the large end lit on fire. This creates a mild, warm vacuum that helps rid the inner ears of wax, dirt & debris. Usually, for a deep cleaning, one will want to use more than 1 candle per ear. Afterwards, it is also advantageous to drop one or two drops of slightly warm olive oil into the ear canal to soothe & protect the inner ear.

Oil pulling: Orally swishing with a high quality cooking oil such as olive, coconut, or the traditional sesame oil from the Ayurvedic medicine tradition. This procedure brings all sorts of benefits to the oral health. Usually done directly after brushing/flossing; using a tablespoon or more of oil to swish in the mouth for at least 5 minutes if not more (the longer the better). Not only does this procedure really help keep mouth inflammation down, but it also directly moisturizes, from the inside out, the face, the sinuses & the brain (which can use all the fats & oils it can get!).

Alternating hot & cold showers: Exactly what it sounds like. This procedure benefits the skin, the nerves & the body's temperature-regulation processes. Always start with hot as you can stand it, then switch to as cold as you can stand it. If possible, & water & time supplies permit, alternate back & forth several times, always ending with cold (this closes up the pores of the skin to better protect you from outside influences, both weather & airborne diseases). Hot weather doesn't seem as hot, cold weather doesn't seem as cold & you feel like a million bucks! This is the one procedure that I have practiced the longest (for some 30+ years).

More to ponder & contemplate from Doc.

 

[TGO]

Thank you so much, Doc! You have been extremely helpful!

8)

:thumb_up: :thumb_up: