Love Potion Number Nine

“Much of what I discovered about human mating is not nice. In the ruthless pursuit of sexual goals, for example men and women derogate their rivals, deceive members of the opposite sex, and even subvert their own mates. These discoveries are disturbing to me; I would prefer that the competitive, conflictual, and manipulative aspects of human mating did not exist. But a scientist can not wish away unpleasant findings.” (David M. Buss, The Evolution of Desire, Revised Edition 4).

We all know how smells affect us. The smell of cinnamon and pine, bring to mind memories of Christmas for me. Aromatherapy and how the different scents can change the way we feel, some stimulate, and some relax, etc. Most all of us also know that the different moods that we have, and our nutrition, play are large role in the chemicals and hormones that our brain produce, further effecting our moods. Even though we consider ourselves in a class above and beyond all other living creatures, we are still animals.

I don’t think that any woman can argue about the effects that hormones play in their lives, once they reach puberty, and who hasn’t witnessed the effects that hormones play in young males lives and behavior.

There has been a lot of research into Evolutionary Psychology. Survival instinct leads much of our conscious, but mostly unconscious thinking, towards keeping the human race going, and the survival of the fittest. A man will have sex with most any women, however, due to the time and commitment of the women, she is more selective, or at least was before birth control was so easily obtainable. Also, it is her job to make sure that her young are healthy, so that they too can survive, and go on with their part in keeping the race and genes going.

We know how male animals can smell when a female is in heat, and will come running from miles away to mate with her. Many males in the animal kingdom will fight to the death to be able to win the prize of the female, which in turn leads to her copulating and conceiving from the stronger male. Female peacocks, for example, will choose the male with the most gorgeous and healthiest feather display.

We humans all believe that we are selecting our mate by conscious choice…but are we?

Contrary to what men would love to believe, it is the woman that does the selecting of her desirable mate, and according to Evolutionary Psychology, she will select a partner that has a different immune system than her own. This is based on the fact that it will make her young stronger, and less susceptible to a wider range of diseases. If has also been proven that if a woman chooses a lifetime mate that has an immune system that is close to her own, she is more likely to stray with a stronger male. A woman will choose a mate based more on his smell rather than on his looks.

I wrote an article awhile back, called “The Secret Seducers”, on pheromone. It was mostly on their discovery that humans possess them, and the studies performed by Dr. Winnifred Cutler, who played a large role in discovering the fact that we humans do, in fact, produce pheromones that are unconsciously picked up by other humans, both male and female. I also touched on how the pheromones of the male play a part in the woman’s menstrual cycle and fertility.

In tests, women were able to use the male’s scent to sort out the men with similar immune systems from the men who had very different immune systems. Sorry guys, you don’t have that ability. This ability is exclusive to females. Although, this is not the only criteria females use to select her mate, it does play a large role in it. Even though we may be convinced that there are other elements that are the source of our attraction we feel so deeply for another, in actuality, we are being bewitched subconsciously, by their distinctive sexual scent.

“Pheromones also trigger the desire to mate. It appears that a woman’s pheromones incite a couple of make love.” Cynthia Watson, M.D.

"Human pheromones become active at puberty. Like hormones, they are secreted by glands and circulated in the bloodstream...pheromones are produced by the apocrine glands in the armpit and around the genitals, where underarm and pubic hair is designed to trap the odor. They can also be smelled around the nipples, face, and on the soles of the feet." Cynthia Watson, M.D.

Copulins

It has been shown that during the time of ovulation that women will dress more alluring, and is more apt to concede to sex with a male during that time period. For men, they are able to subconsciously smell when a woman is ovulating, by the hormone that is exclusive to women, which is copulins. Copulins, which a woman secretes vaginally, when detected by the male, have been shown to raise a man’s testosterone level by as much as 150%.

Studies conducted by a team led by Professor Karl Grammer, who synthesized some of these substances, showed that the male subjects found the same females much more appealing when they smelled her pheromones during her ovulation cycle. It also appears, according to a study by Astrid Juette, of the University of Vienna in Austria, that the smell seemed to equalize the attractiveness of the less attractive women, with those that are more attractive.

It has also been shown that the degrees of copulins that a woman produces, varies with her menstrual cycle. They can be inhibited, however, by taking the Pill or antibiotics, a decrease in estrogen deficiency, douching, and in women that are postmenopausal. Paul Spinrad, the author of The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids (1994), stated that only one-third of women produce copulins. It has been theorized that the less attractive women are the ones that benefit the most from them, therefore increasing their chances in the playing field of the mating game. However, it has also been theorized that only one-third of the women produce them at one time, as it has been shown that copulin production increases during the ovulation period of a woman’s cycle. The discovery of copulins is still very new, and there is still much more research that needs, and is being conducted on them. Although it has been determined that woman possess them, and that the surrounding males do in fact pick up and act on them subconsciously, the jury still seems to be out as to whether all women possess them.

Since copulins are in vaginal secretions and have been known to be subconsciously detected by the male through the Vomeronasal organ (VNO) within the nasal cavity, as well as through direct genital contact, it might explain why men find cunnilingus to be so exciting and stimulating. Some European women have been known to dab their vaginal juices on the same areas that perfume is applied in hopes of delivering a greater dose of copulins to their male suitors, as clothing can inhibit their transmittal into the air. Pheromones have also been shown to play a part in the well-known “spring fever”, due to the discarding of heavy coats, and bundles of clothing, therefore allowing the pheromones to be more easily transmitted into the air.

From personal experience, my lover once stated that he thought that I enjoyed cunnilingus, and “got into it more” when I had not washed first. Since doing this research, I can’t help but wonder, if it wasn’t him who got into it more, therefore increasing my pleasure.

Napoleon Bonaparte wrote a dispatch from his camp to Empress Josephine, “Don’t wash any longer, I’m coming back soon.”

Not only has the detection of copulins been proven to increase a male’s testosterone levels by as much as 150%, they have also been found to increase libido, and enhance sexual pleasure.

Luis Mont-Bloch, neurophysiologist of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, "Our VNO is about a thousand times more sensitive than our sense of smell." By means of the VNO, these chemical attractors have an effect upon the hypothalamus. That is a region of the midbrain that regulates the most important processes in the organism - body warmth, sexual drive, fat metabolism, sleep, blood pressure, and breathing. In tests up to now, the substances have influenced twenty various metabolic processes - within fractions of a second.

Each human has their own distinctive pheromone aura, although, the degree can be affected by age, health, mood, washing, etc., and have been proven to affect the heartbeat, breathing, skin temperature, and hormonal balance, among other things, and the changes have been measured to take place as quickly as ten-thousandth of a second upon exposure to the VNO, to just as little as thirty millionths of a billionth of a milligram.

Dr. Winnifred Cutler has stated, "If you divide up the research on pheromones into what type of behaviors are shown to be affected by them, you can organize them into four different classes: mother-infant interaction, territorial marking, reproductive synchrony, and sexual attraction.

What is that something, that you just can’t quite put your finger on, that you chalk up to “chemistry”?

NOTE: This is the second in a series of articles relating to our communication through chemistry.

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