June, 1999

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all well and enjoying life. We are supposed to be in east Asia’s rainy season at the moment, but have been getting beautiful skies every day here in Japan.

FREE pheromones!
This month’s Pheromone News contains another editorial entry, meaning I just plain made it up as opposed to reporting on a research article. It was inspired by all the mail I get from readers who want to know how to make pheromone supplements work for them. I hope you find it useful. Don’t miss the contest at the bottom. FREE BOTTLE OF pheromones TO THE LUCKY WINNER! If I get enough response to this, I will run a contest every month.

If you are having any interesting experiences with pheromones, supplemental or otherwise, PLEASE, write them down and send them to me. I’m running low, and I know there is a wealth of useful information out there “in the trenches” as they say.

Enjoy,
Bruce Boyd
editor
news@love-scent.com
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Sources:
I am signed up with two services that notify me of any new appearance of pheromone research or other news anywhere on either the web or any of the thousands of Usenet newsgroups. I also periodically run searches on the medical research web-sites to see if any new material pops up, and of course I often get occasional hot tips from you, my “alert readers”.
Thank you.

Sometimes the “news” will be not so new. If it doesn’t appear on the PRI site (“http://www.love-scent.com/research”), and I find it interesting, than it’s news to me and I’ll review it, so don’t be afraid to send in an old article you come across. If it hasn’t found it’s way into the internet or a research journal, I probably haven’t read it and would be very happy for a copy, which I would then of course highlight in a PRI newsletter (with your name if you like).

I’m also interested in printing personal experiences with pheromones, so if you have something to enter in that area please send it in. I can leave your name off or print it as you like.

Pheromone News may be distributed freely, if copied in its entirety.

Send articles and personal stories to:
news@love-scent.com
Back issues and sign up information located at:
http://www.love-scent.com/zine
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This issue’s “news”:
*Being Friendly as an Aphrodisiac
-editorial and contest
*The Human VNO; How We Sense pheromones
-by Bruce Boyd
*pheromones in the Cinema
-weekly feature
*Alert reader pheromone story
-anonymous
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Being Friendly as an Aphrodisiac
-editorial

I receive quite a bit of mail from readers (mostly men) wanting to know how to make supplemental pheromones (colognes, sprays etc) work for them, and it has stimulated quite a bit of thought on all sides in coming up with answers to these questions.

At the heart of the problem lie a few questions. What is it that pheromones, natural or supplemental, do for people? What don’t they do, and what is it that people *want* them to do? From my experience, I think I can safely say that people who purchase the popular pheromone products are hoping that they will make the wearer seem more attractive to those around him or her with some social (usually romantic) goal in mind. Personally, I feel that enough scientific studies have been done to conclude that there is a strong possibility that this will occur, but looking at pheromones as an aphrodisiac that will drive the opposite sex wild with no effort involved is a big mistake in my mind.

What do pheromones do? I’m going to go out on a number of limbs here. Remember, this is an editorial, and in a moment, it may even turn into a sermon. pheromones create “chemistry” between people, which is a very powerful thing, but keep in mind that pheromones as an industry is very young and that of the potential hundreds of human pheromones that exist, only 3 that I know of have been bottled and sold. Of these, the two most sold and tested are andorstenone and andorstenol, which are produced naturally by both men and women. They have been linked with social attraction between the sexes, and seem to heavily affect our perception of people we don’t know or have just met. When we are attracted to someone, what is it about them that we find special or more importantly, *how do we respond* to that attraction?

I am convinced that androstenol and andorstenone whether natural or supplemental give the bearer an aura of attractiveness, which could be interpreted as beauty, youthfulness, strength or even intelligence by the perceiver depending on his/her own psychological make up. But is that enough? Is that our final goal, to be perceived as beautiful or powerful. I don’t think so. People who write me, want to make contact. They want to meet someone. They want to do things together. The world is full of young beautiful people oozing with natural pheromones who can’t get to “hello”, who go through life enshrouded in a protective cloud of aloofness or fear.

People want to know if pheromones can help them meet men/women. The short answer is “yes, but you’ve got to smile once in a while.” If there is anything useful that I’ve learned in four years studying psychology, it’s that “people like people who like them.” If you go through life wearing a suit of armor, an aura of sexiness and power are only going to make it harder to meet others. You have to be friendly and helpful, and is that really so difficult? You don’t have to be cool or witty or come up with great pick-up lines. Just smile, be helpful and let people know that you are a decent sort of person. Then you will see some fireworks with your pheromones whether they come out of a bottle or not.

There is a popular feeling among men that women are attracted to strong (dominant) males, and I suppose it is true, but common sense says that Mr. Powerful, along with his pheromones, had better give off the impression that his powers are going to be used for protecting his offspring and other benevolent purposes if he expects to find a partner with any self-respect and intelligence.

So in closing I would like to try an experiment/contest, and would like to ask everyone who is reading these words to participate. For the next 24 hours I want you all to give a warm smile and greeting to everyone you meet. Then sit down and fill out the following survey and e-mail it to me at:
news@love-scent.com
I wish I could say I will send a free bottle of pheromones to everyone who responds, but I can’t afford that, so I will send one free bottle to ONE person who thoughtfully fills out the survey. I will choose at random from those who put a little effort into it, so you don’t have to BS your way through it.

I will try to summarize the results in the next issue. If you are the winner, I will notify you immediately by e-mail, ask you for your mailing address and send you a bottle of pheromones. I can withhold your name or print it here as you like. How’s that?

Regarding being especially friendly (check the appropriate):
___ I felt like an idiot.
___ It was painful.
___ It was a disaster.
___ It was surprisingly great
___ It was hard to remember to do it.
___ It was hard to do.
___ It made me nervous.
___ It set me at ease.
___ I always smile at everyone anyway, so I didn’t notice any change.
___ I felt phony
___ I couldn’t manage it.
___ People took advantage of me.
___ I think I will try it again sometime.
___ I met someone nice.
___ I got a date.
___ I got a raise.
___ I got nauseous.
___ Other event(s) (explain)__________________

Please describe your experiences, comments and/or feelings regarding being friendly as an aphrodisiac:

Send completed surveys to:
news@love-scent.com
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The Human VNO and how we sense pheromones

After many years of darkness on the subject, scientists now seem to agree that there is a very unique system with which both humans and many other animals receive their pheromonal chemical messengers from the air. This system is quite separate from the one with which we detect normal smells and is especially linked to our emotions and sexual behavior. This system is known as the AOS (accessory olfactory system) and even uses a special pair of organs to do its work, the VNO (vomeronasal organs). The following is a short history of the discovery of these organs through which pheromones influence our perceptions. Many of the details come from an article that appeared in the Journal of NIH Research in January of 1994 (volume 6) by Robert Taylor and from the book, The Scent of Eros by James Kohl (pheromones.com) and Robert Francoeur.

A great deal of research has been done, which clearly shows the power of pheromones over the sexual and territorial behaviors of various animals. In these studies there can be little doubt of the importance of the VNO in mediating these effects, because when the VNO is surgically removed from any of these animals they will not mate at all unless they have had prior sexual experience. If you open most medical text books, however, you will read that the human VNO disappears while we are still in the womb, and therefore does not exist in adult humans. This was the unchallenged medical dogma for fifty years, and has only recently been corrected.

The human VNO was first mentioned in anatomy books as early as the late 1700s, but the whole idea of its existence was stricken down by a team of well-known scientists in the 1930s and no one has had the courage or inclination to refute them until now. There is a lot of speculation as to the psychological forces that could create such a long and hard to break “dark ages” for pheromone research, but in any case the independent efforts of two teams of researchers have demonstrated to everyones satisfaction that humans do indeed possess a VNO that does in fact react to stimuli in the air. David Moran, Robert Josephson and colleagues at the University of Toronto in Canada reported in the Journal of Otolaryngology that vomeronasal pits were present in about 40 percent of the adults they examined, and Bruce Jafek, an otolaryngologist at the University of Colorado in Denver found a VNO in all of his subjects.

The jury is still out as to whether the VNO is actually connected to the brain or not, but there is plenty of strong support that it does. Two of the VNO’s staunchest supporters, scientists David Moran and David Berliner have helped found two companies that are banking that it does, the Pherin Corporation in Menlo Park, which is devoting a lot of time and money into researching the VNO as a delivery system for drugs, and the EROX Corporation, the first fragrance manufacturer to patent pheromones for reputed effects on sexual behavior.

Does this mean we are no more than animals and can be literally led around by the nose? Not according to Robert Taylor: “the effects of chemical cues in mammals depend strongly on other visual, auditory, or tactile stimuli received at the same time. Furthermore, mammals are behaviorally more complex than other animals. Human sexual behavior depends on everything from hormonal state to childhood memories and moral philosophy. A chemical cue is unlikely to override a lifetime of socialization.”

In other words, as I said in the editorial above, you might want to smile once in a while!

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pheromones in the Cinema

I was trading a few funny movie pheromone stories recently with Jim Kohl (pheromones.com), who aside from being one of the top pheromone researchers is also a regular guy in the true Dave Barry sense of the word, and has collected more than two hours worth of “pheromone moment” segments! I have yet to stump him. Here is one of my favorites:

from a great movie entitled:
A Fish Named Wanda
Remember the numerous hysterical scenes of macho ex-CIA operative, played by the fantastic Kevin Kline bracing himself for sex with his girlfriend (Jamie Lee Curtis) by inhaling the vapors from her boots. Remember what gets her off? That’s right, men speaking foreign languages. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I have enough of these to last me a couple of years worth of issues, but I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU, so please send me your favorites and I’ll print them for you. Names withheld on request.

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User Corner

Dear Bruce:

I’ve had great results with the Hi-Octane + 2 product. Women are definitely attracted to it. I’m in sales and I’ve noticed that my female clients are more receptive and spend more money. It’s like a secret weapon.

name withheld on request
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Thank you all, and keep those articles and experiences coming!

Feel free to distribute this newsletter freely if copied in its entirety. Sign up information and back issues are located at:
http://www.love-scent.com/zine

Bruce Boyd
Sendai PRI
news@love-scent.com