Why do girls get turned on just by smelling men?

[Big_Sting_9]

Why do girls get turned on just by smelling a mans sent ?

[tbssftw]

check out the pheromone

research forum!

[Pagodeiro]

Hi Big Sting....

remember

when you´ve been turned on by the smell of a women and you will understand how it works..
figure it out by

testing pheromones in each situation you can imagine..
if you asd for scientist reasons... go with tbssftw....



Best Pago

[belgareth]

The simple answer is because if

animals weren't mutually attracted to each other the species would die out rather quickly. That isn't true of just

humans, maybe less so of humans than many other animals because we have sex for fun as well as reproduction while

most animals don't. However, the basic instinct is still to reproduce and scent plays a huge roll on selecting a

worthwhile mate. If you want the mechanics of it, there is a lot of material on the subject and much of it

contradictory.

[DrSmellThis]

There are lots of reasons,

having to do with conditioning, upbringing, and hard wiring of the brain.

But at the most basic level, airborne

pheromones from one human are picked up by the nose, (the mechanics here are hotly debated by the "experts")

triggering the brain to release neurotransmitters important to sexuality (neurotransmitters being closely related to

hormones), and the whole body to release various sexuality-related hormones, many of which are related to estrogen

and testosterone in both men and women.

Since pheromones are mostly airborne hormones (But also fatty acids and

other substances), it's mostly one person's hormones triggering another person's hormones. So if you are horny,

she is also more likely to be, for example.

Whatever the hormones in your body happen to be, those will affect

the hormones of everyone around you.

Since your hormones interact with your thoughts and feelings, both causing

the other to exist as they are, your thoughts and feelings DIRECTLY, CHEMICALLY affect those of everyone around

you.

Think about that one a while, people!

Whatever you wish others to feel and think, you must think and feel

the correct, compatible kinds of things. There is no cheating! This is a fundamental problem with pickup techniques,

which don't reform the individual human's mind and feelings, as much as they just seek to manipulate "targets"

using brute technique. Unfortunately or fortunately, you must attain sexual enlightenment to get the ladies,

grasshopper!

Truly we are, in some centrally important ways, all one human body, and one nature. Here I refer to

a truth of science, not spiritualism. The vast majority of humans have no idea that this is true. But now you

know.

I should add that there are both conscious, mental; and unconscious, automatic sides to this whole

thing. The best results come from a partner thinking you smell sexy mentally, as well as getting affected on a

purely chemical level.

[idesign]

Doc, would that explanation

carry over to explaining how a person under high stress can transfer that stress to a room of people? Or is that

more behavioral cause and effect?

I've also always wondered why a man and woman "click" sometimes. I'm sure

a lot of it is visual, but that cannot explain the "thunderbolt" you get sometimes. Would your above explanation be

at work here as well? Kind of a "perfect storm" of hormonal action mixed with personality and looks? In other

words, what's on Cupid's mind?

Touching on Bel's point, scent would work on a primal level, feeding

attraction subliminally with hormones. But somehow, with humans, I think there must be more, as he alluded.



Interesting stuff.

[DrSmellThis]

Certainly, if you are feeling

stress, to put it simplistically, you are releasing stress hormones into the air as pheromones and triggering others

to feel this as well.

One bummer with that is that the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is important to sexual

response of various kinds (including visual), gets converted to adrenaline and cannot trigger said responses.

[belgareth]

Doc,
The other side of it is

that when you are feeling calm and happy you seem to spread that as well. Do humans produce a pheromone signifying

happy or content? Kind of a chemical purr?

ID,
You are right, I was alluding to there being more but I think

each human's response level is different. One person goes completely off the deep end over somebody while the next

finds them extremely attractive but ever shows a thing and seems able to just shrug it off. Add alcohol or otherwise

lower the person's inhibitions and you see an altogether different response. Fun to watch but disconcerting if you

don't know what is happening.

[idesign]

Doc,


The other side of it is that when you are feeling calm and happy you seem to spread that as well. Do humans

produce a pheromone signifying happy or content? Kind of a chemical purr?

ID,
You are right, I was alluding to

there being more but I think each human's response level is different. One person goes completely off the deep end

over somebody while the next finds them extremely attractive but ever shows a thing and seems able to just shrug it

off. Add alcohol or otherwise lower the person's inhibitions and you see an altogether different response. Fun to

watch but disconcerting if you don't know what is happening.

Right, what I'm getting at is to what

extent pheromones "control" interrelations.

In your example (let's forget about alcohol or drugs) one person

may react strongly in a romantic way, and another will yawn. I'm wondering is there a way that pheromones "mesh"

between individuals? Like a hand fitting a glove?

Human pheromones must be exponentially (if not infinitely)

more complex than the lower animals (I know, this may go against your philosophical grain). It does stand to reason

that with all the other higher functions humans posses, their pheromonal development must be at a similar higher

function.

And/or to what extent visual cues and personality attractions blend with whatever pheromonal signals

are simultaneously attracting.

As a rank uneducated amateur, I imagine it to be a combination of all-the-above.

But since this discussion is about scent, I'm particularly interested in the pheromone/olfactory/neurotransmitter

angle.

Doc, you said something about dopamine being involved in visual cues.

[DrSmellThis]

Right,

what I'm getting at is to what extent pheromones "control" interrelations.

In your example (let's forget

about alcohol or drugs) one person may react strongly in a romantic way, and another will yawn. I'm wondering is

there a way that pheromones "mesh" between individuals? Like a hand fitting a glove?

Human pheromones must be

exponentially (if not infinitely) more complex than the lower animals (I know, this may go against your

philosophical grain). It does stand to reason that with all the other higher functions humans posses, their

pheromonal development must be at a similar higher function.

And/or to what extent visual cues and personality

attractions blend with whatever pheromonal signals are simultaneously attracting.

As a rank uneducated amateur,

I imagine it to be a combination of all-the-above. But since this discussion is about scent, I'm particularly

interested in the pheromone/olfactory/neurotransmitter angle.

Doc, you said something about dopamine being

involved in visual cues.

* I do think that human's sexual response is more complex than for other animals in

that it just involves more higher order processing; more the holistic integration of sensory, emotional and

cognitive information.

* Idesign and Bel: One pheromone I believe is involved in stress reduction is iso-valeric

acid, a main component of valerian root. Recall that there is quite a bit of valerian root in Pheros, and

that Pheros has a strong track record of promoting relaxation. On humans, the chemical is produced in

greatest concentration in the feet. Dogs naturally produce a lot of it, which might explain recent results

supporting the use of dogs in treating autism, and promoting stress reduction in various stressfull settings, such

as the workplace. If you want to prove this to yourself, open up a bottle of valerian root and inhale deeply. You

should feel more relaxed.

* Yes, dopamine is involved in the processing of visual sexual cues, as well as

various other aspects of sexuality. This is why wellbutrin, a dopamine agonist and antidepressant, is prescribed for

those for whom other antidepressants causes sexual side effects, for example. Dopamine is one step away from

conversion to adrenaline, which has the opposite effect over the long term (even though a brief burst can sometimes

be associated with horniness in those with young and healthy sexual systems.

[Pendragon]

Dopamine is one step away from conversion to adrenaline, which has the opposite effect

over the long term (even though a brief bust can sometimes be associated with horniness in those with young and

healthy sexual systems.

The part of adrenaline relative to horniness reminds me of some people I've

known before where it would seem they were getting along. Then out of no where this huge fight would break out. And

always shortly after that they're hugging and kissing on each other.

I wasn't quite sure if it done

conciously or not. But they did seem to fight over the smallest thing just to jack up the emotional level and then

make out.

That seems fairly dysfuncitonal, but whatever works for you.

[DrSmellThis]

Yeah, possibly the adrenaline

is a significant cause in that case. Other factors might be testosterone levels spiking, and post fight

endorphins.

[Irish]

Great thread! Here’s some thoughts about the types and extent of phero influence (my opinions only, informed

only by obsessive reading on the subject, and lots of personal experimentation).

The good Doc is really hitting

the nail on the head above, about the inter-connectedness of how we affect one another. I have some building-block

ideas that underlie all my phero experimentation:

* Our bodies release certain substances into the environment,

which others can detect (consciously or unconsciously.) Certain of these substances affect the mood, autonomic

state, brain activity, mental focus, sexual arousal, positive perception, and endocrine state of other humans (I can

cite studies for each of those effects). Modern hygiene certainly interferes with the natural human phero process;

yet for better or worse civilized people are “stuck” with modern hygiene.

* Human behavior (esp.

sexual behavior, which is what we’re all interested in here) is influenced by the above. But humans (and all

higher primates) are not automatically driven to stereotyped behavior, because of our more developed forebrains.

Lower mammals will mate if all the hormonal and situational conditions are “correct”; but the higher

primate’s forebrain can override a hormonal state of readiness. This has been proven in ape behavior and

humans as well (studies of castrates, etc.) And it’s pretty much common sense if you think about it. The point

of it all is this: there’s a limit on what pheros can do. Pheros can help get her in a state of physiological

readiness, but you still may have to deal with her unique human psychological state at that time. Unless of course

you give her a frontal lobotomy I suppose, or enough tequila to put her higher brain to sleep.

* That individual

human psychological state I mentioned above is the real wildcard in the whole mating game. That can override

attractiveness, sexual arousal, and everything else you’ve worked so hard to set up. Doc can tell you about

all that, but that’s where you get into individual and unpredictable preferences, moral compunctions, etc.

having to do with both genetic predilection as well as the growth experiences of a particular woman. So to be widely

successful over time, you’ll need to become psychologically perceptive and persuasive, in addition to all your

other attractive points.

* I think pheros can also act as repulsive agents, or as gating inhibitors. For

example, some pheros may be intended to drive males into their own territory, or for dominant males to drive away

inferior males. This may be why some civilizations developed group male bathing, or ritualized Western hygiene in

general, to allow males to work more closely in groups without antagonizing one another. Washing off the pheros

makes them more aromatically “childlike” (unthreatening). I have more thoughts about

attraction-repulsion phero “gating”, but haven’t really proven all that to myself yet...

*

Anthropologists have observed distinct non-verbal human cues and responses, unfolded in specific order, as common to

successful “mating encounters” among strangers, and across all cultures. Even primarily psychological

writers such as Stendhal inadvertently describe the same stages. [Amazingly Stendhal, writing in 1822, predicted

that in 100 years underlying brain activity for attraction would be understood by scientists. He was right, but it

actually took over 150 years for scientists to make much progress! Stendhal also gives this cryptic one-word

footnote in De L'Amour: “Scents.”] I believe phero effects are a part of this unconscious courtship

behavior, especially during a successful approach. I think pheros unconsciously contribute to readiness, focus, and

attractiveness during a first encounter. But pheros alone will not substitute for the “proper” unfolding

of the non-verbal human courtship ritual.

* The “thunderbolt” discussed in earlier posts (“love

at first sight”) seems to arise more out of the individual psychological side of all this. If someone is in a

state of emotional readiness (Stendhal), or predisposed toward a certain psychological type by childhood experiences

(Hendricks), they will likely feel that dramatic instant attraction if they meet someone close to their personal

unconscious “ideal”. A less dramatic version of passionate “falling in love” seems to be

prompted by an interruption of the universal human courting stages by a period of mixed signals from one partner.

Tennov and, more poetically, Stendhal, describe that psychological process of falling in love, which is much more a

mental state than a state of sexual desire.

[DrSmellThis]

Since he so rarely posts, I

have to remind people almost every time that Irish is one of the most respected posters in the now substantial

history of the forum. He is also one of my very few personal favorites, going way back. I have long wished he posted

more frequently (hint, hint ). The post above, of course, shows why.

Irish was making great posts the day I

joined the forum, and was part of the reason I joined, along with a few other interesting posters. That was LONG

time ago.

BTW, on a somewhat related note, it would be nice if Bruce considered rescinding the ban on PMs after

all this time so that forum members would be able to keep in touch with each other again. I really don't like

posting my personal email for the whole universe to see. It doesn't seem that we have any known people hanging out

here these days who would be at risk for abusing it.