In the NRC last Saturday I read with more than ordinary interest an article about the influence of smell on our behavior. That interest stems from my time with Sara Lee when I was also responsible for Ambipur, the devices that spread odors in the house or in the car. That businesss was born out of nowhere about fifteen years ago and has since taken off. Competition soon followed us on our heels, and a whole new category of air freshener products appeared on the shelves of supermarkets. The article in the NRC tells about the history of Rolls-Royce that a few years ago saw sales drop dramatically. The aspiring buyer no longer smelled the age-old leather smell in the new models. This was caused by the new mandatory methods of treatment of the leather against flammability, because of which the leather no longer smells of leather. The solution was simple: installing scent dispensers under the seats that spread a leather smell, and.... sales increased significantly. Another example of how we are unconsciously influenced by smell: a Swiss hotel chain ensures that in all their hotels around the world there is the same smell that is associated with Switzerland, a smell of money with that of fresh alpine meadows and thin mountain air. When someone enters a Swissotel somewhere in the world again, there is a feeling of recognition, a kind of home feeling. Thus, it turns out that senses that we do not initially expect have an important influence on our behavior and well-being. I would expect that sensory seeing is especially guiding in our behavior. But apparently we are often unconsciously guided by much more subtle signals in our actions.
This story reminds me of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with our guide Zondi on a very early morning in the bush in Umfelozi, in South Africa. I still lie curled up in my sleeping bag as I slowly wake up from the light of the morning sun. The dew sits on every blade of grass around me and immediately gives me a fresh feeling. The smell is a mixture of all kinds of herbs growing around and the fresh dew. What a wonderful awakening.
The night passed quietly. I sat out my guard that night for five quarters of an hour in the dark with a mug of tea by the campfire, and it flew around again this time. The nights are so beautiful, it is a unique experience to sit under such a fantastic starry sky and enjoy the silence and the sounds that come from nature, such as sometimes the sound of Baboons, who argue a little, or the cry of a hyena in the distance. Every eight minutes or so, and I'm guessing because we don't have a watch with us, I shine the strong pocket lamp around to make sure there are no animals around. You see animals through the reflection of light in their eyes. If the eye lights are quite far apart, we may warn the guides, because then it is probably an animal of reasonable size such as a hyena, leopard or lion. However, there is almost never acute danger because the animals are blinded by the light for some time. A curious hyena always runs away immediately when we shine the light on him.
This night watch I have not seen eyes and with some regret I wake up my successor when my time is up. This is in contrast to two nights before, when a group of twelve Lions approached our camp nearby. Through adequate action of Zondi and our other guide Warren they continued their journey after a while and we again quietly(?) could go to sleep. Back in my sleeping bag, I continue to enjoy the spectacle of the universe lying on my back for some time until I fall asleep.
That morning I wake up and when I open my eyes I see that a few meters next to me also Zondi slowly comes to the living. He gets up and sits with his sleeping bag all around him to stare in silence for a while. What's going on in him, I ask myself when I look at that beautiful black head of his. He who is so intertwined with nature and knows so much about it. I know he's a little flu, and I gave them some of my paracetamol yesterday, so I ask him, after we've been quietly enjoying the dawn for a while: 'Hi, good morning, how are you today?” “Not so fine, I have a sour throat” is het eerlijke antwoord van Zondi met zijn zachte, maar nu inderdaad wat groggy stem. We chat a little further and at some point I ask him what are the most important senses for him here in the bush. My expectation is that he will say: See and hear, after all you have to be constantly alert by looking around you and listening carefully if you hear something suspicious? Zondi lets the question settle for a moment and then says to my surprise: “Intuition, smell and listening”. He tells me that he is constantly on his mind when choosing the paths we take. The connection with his intuition is the guide in Meaning Life, also in the encounter with people who come in his path. The smell and hearing carries beyond the sight in the often dense bush. So it is actually quite logical that he rather relies on sound and smell. Our conversation goes deeper and deeper. I realize that my senses have become sharper here in Africa, I have become more open, so to speak. I also realize that it is good that my senses first connect with my feeling, my intuition, and only then proceed to a reaction or action. Can I hold this when I get back?
So it turns out that in nature, both in the Western world and in Africa, we are guided by other senses than those that are so obvious. We are not so aware of it. Is that bad or scary? No, because it is our own (UN)consciousness.
Boy Van Droffelaar, PhD
