Humans think of the brain measuring environmental response through the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. We include the sixth sense of intuition, and the seventh sense of humor.

Traditionally, scientists have thought of the first five senses as being "quantifiable", meaning measurable, definable within a physical realm, and therefore logical and finite.

We would like to take those senses to a higher "sense" of purpose, and to explain how those seven senses make up some of the more subtle components of the experience of Humanity.

The seven senses by which Humanity processes external and interactive stimuli can be catalogued in accordance with the Seven Rays of Creation present within the third dimension. The order of their appearance may surprise you; many humans are used to relying on a mere fraction of their sensory input systems, and have not yet learned to harmonize (or recognize) the delicate balance between the seven "systems" of stimuli receivers.

The purpose of this essay is to introduce the integration of the seven physical senses with which humans consciously work, and to begin that integration vertically with the four planes of manifestation and perception through which humans process sensory input: physical, mental, etheric, and astral.

Smell - First Ray
Touch - Second Ray
Sight - Third Ray
Hearing - Fourth Ray
Taste - Fifth Ray
Intuition - Sixth Ray
Humor - Seventh Ray

SMELL: First Ray (Purpose, Power and Will)
As humans become more technologically advanced, they get further away from their reliance on sense of smell. Smell is often equated as a defense mechanism, and tends to be associated with hunting. It is said that humans have "evolved" to a point where they really don't need their sense of smell as an active barometer of sensory input.

Smell is one of the most under-rated senses there are, for humans. Most humans are used to their pets using their sniffers to determine if they like a person (or another animal), but in our society, it is considered impolite for one person to "smell" another human, or to give any impression of being aware of smell, pleasant or otherwise.

We disagree, on the grounds that a person's smell is our best possible clue to determine the chemical and astral balance of another human. Every human has their own smell, and if the human is healthy, the smell is healthy. Relatively speaking, every person has a distinct scent, and if that person is healthy, his smell should be pleasant, or at least inoffensive.

How humans interpret Smell:
Physical - unless a person smells really good, or really bad, we're probably not going to form any conclusive opinions.
Mental - we may mentally judge what we smell by what we're used to smelling, and what we've consciously agreed or been conditioned to think is "good" or "bad" smell.
Etheric - smell becomes more interesting; we begin to distinguish the smell of a person whose energy is in positive motion, or we begin to sense a repression, or angst, through a somewhat negative or very slightly sour smell.
Astral - this is where the components of the other three planes (physical, mental, and etheric) converge to define an overall or collective smell, and it is here that the true Soular smell of a person is recognized within the deepest fibers of our own Souls. While the other three smell detectors, so to speak, are debatable, it is the astral smell that truly defines a person in the physical plane. When the astral smell is pervasive enough to allow a person to "reek" in the physical plane, there is a serious overbalance in one area or another.

TOUCH: Second Ray (Love, Wisdom)
Sense of touch is truly the most intimate form of cellular communication two beings can exchange. It is the greatest and simplest means of expressing love and affection, sympathy and compassion. To touch another being is to allow yourself to be touched as well. To touch and "be known" is the greatest expression of love, and trust, that two beings can exhibit toward one another. Humans have been separated from their conscious telepathic and empathic training, but it is through touch that the greatest communication of Spirit and Consciousness is relayed.

How humans interpret Touch:
Physical - pleasure or pain, and infinite degrees between.
Mental - like smell, touch often relies on what we've consciously agreed or been conditioned to think is good or bad touch. Censorship of emotions is more likely to evidence, as humans have been conditioned to think that touching and being touched in pleasure are wrong. It is the mental plane of awareness that will throw up the most roadblocks between one being and another; it is the emotional expression of the mental and astral planes that will accept touch as a rare and unfamiliar pleasure.
Etheric - touch becomes a magnetic expression, an attraction of compatible energy.
Astral - sense of touch has the loudest impact on the physical body. It is through touch that the greatest magnetic attraction is allowed between the vertical planes of the Persona and the Soul, thus the Soul becomes properly polarized within the physical dense plane.

SIGHT: Third Ray (Matter aspect, Light)
Sight and Sound are the two senses that humans have come to rely upon the most. This is not "wrong", as Sight and Sound are the invocative forces of Creation, but as applied in the physical plane, sight and sound are greatly undervalued and are not applied to their full potential.

Sight and Sound, as the invocative forces of Creation, should allow for the easy transferrence of information or sensory input from the physical brain to the astral brain, and vice versa, but again, humans are conditioned to not willingly or consciously receive that return circuit of astral impression upon the physical brain.

Thus, a person "sees" third dimensional objects, and assumes that what he sees with his eyeballs is all there is to see, and all that is there. When a human visualizes something in his mind's eye that is not physically there, he assumes it is his imagination, or that it doesn't exist.

Sight is actually the first sense, of the seven, that has the potential of creating a physical counterpart to what is in the imagination. It is the imagination (a reflection of the astral impression), and the reflection of the imagination within the mind's eye back to the astral mirror, that creates a "print", an image, and with the right stimulus and universal receptivity, can be manifested into the physical plane.

As Sight is a function of the Third Ray, so is verbal communication. The function of words is to physically create an expression of Thought that is relayed from one communicator to another. Positively speaking, words are the physical object (through the invocation of Sound) that ideas of Light are translated into the physical dense plane.

How humans interpret Sight:
Physical - pretty or ugly; safe or dangerous; light or dark.
Mental - safe to say that agreement and conditioning is applicable, again. However, because humans rely so heavily on sight, and there is so much sensory input available in this area, humans have a lot more latitude to form their own impressions and tastes. It is in this, the first physical realm, that humans exponentially have more creative ability, and the opportunity to project their own "visions" of creation and expression. Art, in various mediums, initially has the greatest spectrum of possibility that is easily recognizable to other humans. Thus, without the direct sensory contact of touch or smell, an artist can empathetically reach more humans or other beings through art or literary communication - both perceived (initially) through sight.
Etheric - It is through sight that humans first begin to extrapolate the possibilities beyond What Is, to reach into the creative realm to find What Could Be.
Astral - Through the astral, one expression recognizes another, and awareness is cognized. Matter becomes recognized and initiated as living consciousness, and impresses itself on its fellow Matter through relationship, and a reciprocal relationship of recognition and attraction is formed. Eventually, that recognition is related back to the third dimension, and physical counterparts respond to mutual attraction.

HEARING: Fourth Ray (Harmony, Sound)
Sound is the second most relied-upon sense. As with Sight, few humans truly make any distinction regarding what they hear, and they tend to tune out when they need to concentrate, or they tune in when they think certain sounds or noises may pertain to them. There is as much to hear as there is to see, and it becomes easy for humans to disregard what they hear as being trivial or inconsequential if what they hear does not require their direct attention. Thus, humans become conditioned to hearing, and like Pavlov's dog, they wait to hear the bell that has relationship within their lives.

It becomes easy to fall into a pattern of hearing people based on how they sound, rather than upon what they are saying. Certain humans sound "more convincing" (and are probably aware of this talent), and when humans are faced with an overload of auditory or sound input, they may well rely upon the sound of the messenger, rather than the contents of the message.

It takes a developed sense of hearing and awareness to discern not only what is said - but also that which isn't said. This is where humans really have the greatest opportunity to maximize the "intelligence" of their seven senses; by learning to listen to the other senses; then the words become a secondary interpretive device, and the intent of the person speaking becomes more clear.

Sound, as an expression of Fourth Ray, is what balances with Sight, a Third Ray function. To see and hear appropriately, one must weigh both impressions against one another to form a true expression.

How humans interpret Sound:
Physical - music, or noise.
Mental - opinions about the music, or opinions about the noise.
Etheric - where the true processing of auditory input goes. This is where "truth" and "untruth" are separated. Judgment is not made without "majority vote" from imput of the other senses.
Astral - may discern sound and the import of the sound by standards not rationalized by the third dimensional mind.

TASTE: Fifth Ray (Motion)
As mammalian bodies were designed, there is a rather limited approach to how we ingest nutrition. For humans, to digest food, it first has to get past our taste sensors. The sense of taste is one of the body's strongest defense mechanisms. We may train ourselves to consume unpalatable foods, but in our opinion, if it doesn't taste good, why would you want to eat it?

Humans are distinguished from animals in a variety of ways, but the most embarrassing, in our opinion, is that humans will train themselves to eat things they don't like because it's "good for them". This is either a remarkable talent, or a terrible abuse.

The Fifth Ray of Motion is that which is applied to Science and Systems; the natural working out of an order. The sense of taste, as a fifth ray function, should (if not handicapped) allow humans to determine what is beneficial to put into their bodies.

Animals automatically react against poisonous or other anti-conducive substances, and it seems that humans should have this ability, as well. However, humans are distinctly unlike animals and other beings in the sense that they read newspapers and magazines, and watch and listen to television and radio programs where humans are constantly exploiting Sight and Sound to project the idea that foods are good or bad, and that all humans will invariably benefit from this dietary structure or that one.

Humans are also unique for introducing chemicals to the foods they eat, and it is no wonder there is such opportunity to exploit the benefits of this or that chemical, or to decry this or that chemical, so that the doomsayers virtually have control of the food supply simply by dictating what humans should or should not eat.

Taste is and always has been an honored defense mechanism for the human body, and we think it a reliable system to determine what is healthy to eat. We might recommend a varied diet, but we still think it is up to the individual to determine if a deficiency is apparent, or if a counterbalance needs to be introduced. In all cases, we think diet, and consumption, ought to be a pleasant experience, and one not based on deprivation.

How humans interpret Taste:
physical - good or bad, with infinite degrees in between.
mental - good for me; bad for me. Often associated with guilt related to societal expectations and traditions.
etheric - the first realm of pleasure experienced as an individual in the physical plane.
astral - taste is the first pleasure that can be assimilated by one individual and radiated to the collective consciousness. The astral association with physical taste is the first multi-plane of consciousness that can be relayed as an "equivalent" sensation between one plane of consciousness to another entity in a different plane of consciousness.

INTUITION: Sixth Ray (Ideal)
Intuition is that first plane of awareness where one human being can interpolate or extrapolate sensory input to form a conclusion reached either through deduction or induction. Intuition defies two-dimensional logic, yet it is intuition that allows us to go beyond our five senses, and to extract a compatible relationship of shared Humanitarian experience between one consciousness and another.

It is intuition that allows humans (correctly) to accept their conceptualizations of the input created from the first five senses. It is DENIAL of the sixth sense of intuition that allows humans to say to themselves, "I did not smell/touch/hear/see/taste that." This denial is also a rejection of the Ideal - that which says that we do know what we know.

The mental plane of consciousness has been the biggest enemy of intuition, in the sense that humans often perceive that ideal and logic are somehow mutually exclusive. One is "provable" in the third dimension, and the other is not; does that make either one any more or less real?

It is the Sixth Ray of Consciousness that will allow humans to KNOW, and to accept that they know. Those humans who limit themselves to the five senses are living in the Dark Ages, and submitting to slavery of the imagination. Those who KNOW are the ones who know that creation begins with the imagination; to begin something new, outside of what is "known". When something becomes "known" well enough, it is then accepted by humans into the physical dense frame of reference.

How humans interpret Intuition:
Physical - this is the first point (in the seven senses) where the physical may receive an impression, but immediately begins to send input "upstairs" for further processing.
Mental - an idea begins to develop that goes beyond input, and the brain begins to process possibilities over and above sensory response.
Etheric - the sixth ray of Ideal and intuition manifests into the physical plane. The etheric plane of consciousness resonates with Harmony, and responds by reflecting that harmony back into the physical plane.
Astral - intuition is less an "impression" than a "captured idea" that holds magnetic resolution with the Soul, and thus reverberates within the mirror consciousness between the astral imprint and the mental consciousness of manifestation.

HUMOR: Seventh Ray (Divine Law)
It has been said that the Universe has no sense of humor; that to ask for something, one is going to get the "literal" translation of what they asked for. Yet, there are references to "cosmic jokes", and it becomes difficult to distinguish whether this is an issue of bad/no humor, or a matter of translation.

As debatable as humor is in the physical plane, it's almost scary to think of trying to determine the humor quotient of fourth- and fifth-dimensional beings. Unfortunately, it is a fact that most humans, at least subconsciously, think of themselves and their lives as cosmic jokes.

The Universe does have a sense of humor, but humor through cruelty is not one of its means of expressions. What humans often think of as Catch-22's (no end solutions), are solvable on some level, and rather than thinking of the Universe as a mass-parade of string-pullers, we need to start thinking of ourselves as conscious co-Creators.

Whatever else can be said, it is undeniable that humans do have senses of humor. Humor is often what makes life palatable when nothing else does. It is humor which allows humans to go beyond their other senses and to say that through the expression of joy and laughter, Humanity lifts itself from the oppression of input and calculation as demanded through our other senses.

The true joy of humor is that it not only matches our other senses; it is the only sense that truly escalates a human beyond his reference points. As the Seventh Ray is the point of Divine Law and Creation, it is essential that humor be infused to add the additional creative elements of empathy, compassion, and identification.

The ability to appreciate humor, and to share it, is the Soul of Humanity.

How humans interpret Humor:
Physical - response is secondary to mental; humor is processed through the mental plane. If the energy is reciprocated correctly, then humor has positive impression on the physical body.
Mental - humor exercises mental thought, and is positively stimulating.
Etheric -humor resonates within various planes, and the etheric becomes "amplified" as a point of receptivity and conscious empathy.
Astral - Light is projected through the astral body, and is reflected through related astral bodies in proximity.

Love, Galadriel
11/08/2003
Esoterica/7senses.html