The Psychology of Touch
Beings in union love each other, touch each other,
need each other, heal each other.
We are here on earth to touch each other
physically,as well as spiritually,
emotionally and mentally.
The field where intimacy, love and sex all come
together is in the world of touch. Touch is such a
basic need that people easily forget it or do not see
it as a separate distinct essential need. The hunger
for touch is a real human need almost as important
as food. And just as intimacy can be seen differently from
love and sex, though they often combine the two, touch also is an activity in
itself and can be a wholly satisfying experience as people who give and receive
massage well know.
The most important way we give love to a baby is through touch. For babies,
and the rest of us, love is equated deeply with touch. The problem for adults
though comes in with the intense association we make between touch and sex.
Just like we fear intimacy we fear touch because sexual issues intervene in our
consciousness. Holding the hand of someone you love is a very intense
experience, it’s the essential need of both people, to experience touching of a
person you love is emotionally rewarding, try it some time, without sex.
At the very heart of sex is our need for touch. The secret connection between touch and sex is crucial to
understand for it is here that humanity falls into a ravine of terrible suffering. Touch and sex are different
ends of a spectrum; one represents the intensification of the other. Touch moves energy and depending on
the type of touch, where the touch, and the motive and intent of the touch, the amount of energy that moves
varies. The human body is electric and needs grounding through physical touch. The activity of the billions of
nerve cells in the brain and the central and peripheral nerve systems are all highly electric in nature and all
have their grounding points in the skin, which is the largest organ of the body. When we touch or are touched
we ground some of our surplus energies and this calms the nervous system. Holding hands with a lover or a
friend calms you down, makes you feel better, back to earth and your troubles go away.
The Psychology of Touch
We are born with an intense skin hunger. Babies have a deep need for touch
and if not forthcoming healthy development is
interfered with. Touch is a God given need that we
never outgrow and it can be enjoyed for its own
sake, not just as a prelude to sex. As adults we have a
strong need to hold hands, be held in someone's
arms, to hug, receive a nonsexual massage, have our
face or arms stroked, be cuddled, caressed, etc. All of
these things have actual physiological effects on our
biochemical and bio-energetic systems. Brain
wave activity is increased resulting in increased
alertness for instance. The amount of insulin needed in diabetics is reduced,
hormone levels increase and sleep patterns are
enhanced. Touch is physically necessary and
beneficial to our entire sense of well-being.
Through touch multiple neuronal messages are
transmitted to our brains stimulating the
production of hormones (chemical/emotional
energy) that provide physical and emotional
good feelings. Simply put, humans thrive on
touch. Th hunger for touch is a real human need. And though touch is
physical, the need provides sustenance and anchoring for our emotional,
mental and spiritual selves which all need to feel securely anchored in a world
of love.
Touch is an activity in itself, and is wholly satisfying,
healing and a necessary life experience. Touch does
not need to lead to sex and it helps all of us to realize
that. Touch in the form of massage, affection, hugs,
cuddles and plain pure tenderness diffuses emotional
tension. It grounds the entire system and touches
our souls.
The Psychology of Touch
Our hands can also literally act as extensions of our heart. With our heart and
hands working together we can reach directly into another person’s being
through the surface of their skin. We can touch someone very deeply and
when we do we are touched equally. The laws of giving and receiving work
perfectly in the world of touch.
The Home Base
Foraging peoples, or hunter-gatherers, obtain food when and where it is available in the
territory surrounding a central campsite, or home base. In modern foraging societies, such as that of the San people in
the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, men and women divide work duties, in fact you still do it today...
Women gather readily available plant and animal
foods, like going to the grocery store, while men take
on the often less successful task of hunting. You’ll
find that your role as a female has not changed
much in a few thousand years, learning about this
brings about dramatic changes in your..life.
Female and male family members and relatives
bring together their food to share at their home base.
Sharing of food at the home base is usually done
within the family, including relatives.
Because some of the oldest archeological sites were
places where food remains and stone tools were
found together, they were thought to represent
home bases, indicating many of the social features
of modern hunter-gatherer campsites, i n c l u d i n g
pair-bonded males and females.
Indeed, with further study, marks on bones were
detected proving that early humans cut up and
bashed open animal bones at these sites. Yet tooth
marks made by hyenas, cats, and jackals were also
prevalent, indicating that potential predators
were active at these sites.
Safe home bases where social groups lived,
children were active, the sick were attended,
and food was brought for sharing, may
have developed sometime after 1.7 million
years ago.
In fact, evidence of hearths and shelters, typical of modern human home bases, are not
clearly evident in the archeological record until after 500,000 years ago.
PeopleNology
Gregory Bodenhamer
