Touch contributes dramatically to our feeling of well-being. In this episode, Ackerman explores how touching and being touched promotes physical and psychological growth in young monkeys and humans. She also explores human responses to touch in massage, relationships, and art; and cultural perspectives on touch in social taboos, hugging, and kissing. To explain our biological responses, series host and naturalist Diane Ackerman introduces a scientist who has identified how the brain's sensory map operates. His research has led to the groundbreaking discovery that even if a person loses a limb, the brain will respond as if that limb is being touched.
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00:00Mystery of the Senses
00:03A NOVA miniseries with Diane Ackerman
00:30Tonight, the sense of touch
00:34The pungent waters that seep from hot springs
00:45Near the little town of Calistoga in Northern California
00:48Are thought to have special powers
00:50Nance's spa offers a mud bath made from volcanic ash
00:56Mixed with naturally heated mineral waters
00:58Well, here we go
01:02This thick mud feels wonderful
01:31Between my toes
01:32It's hot and squishy
01:34And I feel like I'm paddling through cement
01:36Of course, I feel it with my skin
01:38Our skin stands between us and the world
01:41No other part of us makes contact
01:43With something not us
01:45But the skin
01:46It imprisons us
01:49But it also gives us our sense of individual shape
01:52It's waterproof, washable, surprisingly elastic
02:00And it can even mend itself when it breaks
02:03Of course, it does tend to cascade and roam as we grow older
02:11But it lasts remarkably well
02:13And accompanies us through all of the ages of human experience
02:17But most of all, it harbors the sense of touch
02:21And right now, nothing could be more delicious than that
02:26At Nance's spa, the mud bath is followed by a wonderful Swedish massage
02:35Because touch makes the world tantalizing and rich
02:41It's marketed in malls and catalogs all across the nation
02:45Oh, you like that, huh?
02:48Okay
02:48Ooh
02:49Wait, let me
02:51It's very slow, all right?
02:53Do it real fast
02:54Real fast?
02:55Yeah
02:55Try it on your legs sometimes
02:57Like this
02:57You can also utilize it yourself
02:59Oh my God
03:00Too fast?
03:02No, no
03:03Not fast enough, huh?
03:06Okay
03:06Turn around
03:13I'm going to give you some shoulder massages first, okay?
03:16Is it too strong?
03:19Oh, no
03:19Good?
03:20It's good
03:21Okay
03:21One of the nice parts about this machine is it can be utilized over the entire body
03:25Arms, legs, shoulders
03:26Feels good?
03:30Ooh
03:30Ah
03:31Ah, okay
03:33Okay
03:34Not sure everyone's doing stress
03:35Yeah
03:36Relax over there
03:41Let her up
03:41Get those muscles
03:42Nice part about this is the hands or fingers rotate one direction
03:50And then they rotate a second direction
03:54You can also put vibration on
03:56It's designed that you can lay it on a bed or on the floor or on a sofa
04:01And you can lay back in it and put your head down to do that
04:05Now watch your face to show you how intense it can be
04:07See?
04:09It was a hard day at the office
04:10Is that good on or bad?
04:13I don't know
04:14I think that it's doing neurological damage to me
04:17Without touch, we would live in a sensory desert
04:22Touch is our most erotic sense and subject to many taboos
04:28Touch allows us to express our most intimate feelings toward one another
04:42But many of the loveliest touch sensations have absolutely nothing to do with sex
04:48One of our first experiences in the world is our mother's caress
04:55Babies are cradled, cuddled, and held close
04:59And that can make all the difference
05:01Touch, we're finding, is a very important means of communication
05:06It's important for relationships
05:08It's important for growth and development
05:10It's important for the development of the immune system
05:13And so on and so on
05:15Who touches infants, how, and for how long varies enormously among cultures and between generations
05:27Parents and grandparents come to Tiffany Field's Touch Research Institute
05:37To learn the secrets of how to touch their young children
05:40You'd think that would come naturally
05:45But what we're finding is that there's very little touch in this society
05:50The teachers are being asked not to touch children
05:53Parents are being warned about sexual abuse connotations of touch
05:58And people are very reluctant to touch
06:01Parents don't really know how to touch their children
06:04When to touch their children
06:05And how old is too old to touch children
06:07So one of the things we're finding is if we teach the massage
06:10It's a very concrete way to touch
06:12It's very clear that it doesn't have sexual ramifications
06:16And so they learn the massage and do it with their child
06:20It helps the children sleep
06:21It helps the children relax
06:23And it helps the relationship between the parent and the child
06:26Some babies enter the world before their time
06:50For them, the world can be a hostile place
06:54A glass prison with no mother, no comfort, no touch
06:58Premature babies have a very, very difficult time
07:05They're left in these little boxes called incubators
07:07And they have no parents around to touch them
07:10In addition to which they have bright lights and loud sounds
07:13And they're pretty much left there with very little contact
07:17We're finding that if we go in and massage these babies
07:20They gain weight
07:22They gain 47% more weight than if they're not massaged
07:25They go home sooner to their parents
07:27And they're just much better babies
07:29Why should massage be such a tonic?
07:47Research at Duke University reveals a fascinating clue
07:51To the role touch plays
07:52In maintaining the healthy development of newborns
07:56And not just humans
07:57When separated from their mother for short periods
08:04These rat pups grow more slowly
08:07Even if they're warmed by an incubator
08:09But if the pups are caressed
08:20They think mother is at hand
08:22No matter this is a brush
08:24Not her rough licking tongue
08:25Wake up guys
08:27Doesn't that feel good?
08:31Wake up
08:31There you go
08:34It seems to them that all is safe and well
08:36So back to the business of growing up
08:39In fact, there's evidence that touch creates chemical changes in the brain
08:46That last a lifetime
08:47But touch is not only vital for physical health
08:52It is essential for a baby's psychological well-being
08:56In the 1950s, Harry Harlow tested this theory
09:00Newborn rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers
09:06Then given two stand-ins
09:08A wire mother they could only suckle
09:10And a soft cloth mother they could also hug
09:14The need for snuggling proved overwhelming
09:20The cloth surrogate quickly became mother
09:23A banquet of security and comfort
09:26Indeed, the baby monkey's affection were so strong
09:37It often opened a mechanical window just to stare at her
09:40But the power of touch becomes most poignant when it is missing
09:50Touch-deprived monkeys become neurotic
09:53A-social, depressed and confused
09:55But with even a surrogate to hold and touch
10:03The baby can explore and play without fear
10:06Okay, go
10:12Blow, blow, keep blowing, keep blowing, blow
10:16Okay, thank you
10:18Good, Tanya
10:19Now you want to sit down here
10:21And Eli will come in and give you a massage
10:23Hopefully that will make you feel better
10:25Thank you
10:25Even after childhood
10:29Our health can benefit from just the right touch
10:32A simple massage can calm the breathing
10:35It helps a young patient find relief from an asthma attack
10:39Touch is an ancient healer
10:47Linking body and mind
10:48It can lower blood pressure
10:51Quiet the pulse
10:52And help us deal with the stress
10:54That is so much a part of modern life
10:56So we have this terrible dilemma
11:03Of knowing on the one hand
11:05That touch is very critical
11:06For our health and for our well-being
11:09On the other hand
11:10We have all these taboos
11:11That are continuing to develop
11:13Against touching people
11:14This massage is provided by a professional toucher
11:19An intimate stranger
11:20Like our doctors or our hairdressers
11:22And as I get my wonderful massage
11:36I don't think of taboos
11:38Or even of the stranger who caresses me
11:40You can just imagine the variety of touch I'm enjoying
11:44All the textures of rub and knead and stroke
11:48All the tiny twinges and tingles
11:52All of them are just small dabs of color
11:55On the huge palette of touch sensations
11:57They're very subtle
11:59But also more elaborate
12:01Than pain and pleasure
12:03Hot and cold
12:04And together they create a caravan of relaxations
12:08In this ocean of calm
12:09Sensations flow both ways
12:15The hands wield pleasure
12:17And also respond by feeling pleasure
12:20Just how they do this
12:22Is crucial to almost every aspect of our lives
12:26Potter John Leach wedges clay
12:30His experienced hands vent the air from the clay
12:33As he prepares to throw a new work
12:36He lives and works
12:41Close by the ruins of Muchelny Abbey
12:44On England's Somerset marshes
12:46With his hands
12:55John imparts form to what was before
12:57A simple lump of clay
12:59I'm looking for plasticity
13:11Texture
13:14Color
13:15Even tactile qualities
13:19When the pot is finished
13:21I can feel some of those tactile qualities
13:27As the clay spins through my fingers
13:31And as I draw it up
13:36The slow, steady
13:39Rhythmic spiral movement
13:42This is going to be a tall jug
13:45I hope
13:46A baluster type
13:48So that is the basis
13:50For
13:52The cylinder is the basis for hollow wear
13:55So invariably one makes
13:58The cylinder first
14:01You extend the clay as far as it will
14:06And feels right
14:08What a marvel of design
14:15Is the human hand
14:16The fingers are especially sensitive
14:21They can detect changes
14:23Of less than two thousandths of a centimeter
14:25On the smoothest surfaces
14:27Sensory nerves
14:30Or touch receptors
14:31In our hands
14:32Send messages about pressure
14:34Heat
14:34Cold
14:35And pain
14:36Up 17,000 fibers
14:39To our brain
14:39Without that intricate feel for life
14:43There would be no artists
14:45To make sensory and emotional maps
14:47Of the world
14:48Like John
14:49We've become voluptuaries of touch
14:52It's wonderful to feel a shape
14:55Sometimes with your eyes shut
14:57And suddenly the fingers become more sensitive
15:04It's almost as though your eyes
15:06Have travelled down
15:07To the ends of your digits
15:09What's finished now
15:16It's what is known
15:18As a sense of oneself
15:20And we have it because receptors
15:23In our joints, muscles and tendons
15:25Tell us where our hands and feet are
15:27And help to make the world feel three-dimensional
15:30John calls his kiln
15:36The dragon
15:37Its temperature soars
15:43To over a thousand degrees
15:44The blistering heat
15:46Could easily scorch skin and clothing
15:48But nerve endings
15:50Sensitive to heat
15:51Allow John's assistant
15:52Nick Reese
15:53To judge exactly how close
15:55He can dare the leaping flames
15:57There are 200 times as many pain receptors
16:10As heat receptors
16:11And if he steps too near
16:13They'll fire off their alarms
16:15The kiln is based on a traditional Japanese design
16:33Fueled by timber
16:35Hot ash plays a critical role
16:38In colouring the pottery
16:39Beauty depends on the perfect heat
16:42The perfect moment
16:44The glaze must reach the highest temperature
16:47At precisely the right time
16:50A small ring of clay is used
17:03To test whether the fire has done its job
17:05And melted the glaze
17:06Too hot to handle
17:10It's quickly cooled
17:11Because the final decision
17:13Depends upon touch
17:14That feels pretty smooth to me
17:32That's nice and mature
17:34What do you think?
17:36That's perfect
17:36No problem there
17:37Okay
17:38Yeah I'm happy with that
17:39Yeah good
17:40Okay
17:40Brilliant
17:41How do we make sense of the world?
17:53Certainly not with our touch receptors alone
17:55But they just provide raw data
17:58They sing with sensations
18:00We interpret these sensations
18:05As the whisper of a breeze
18:08The grittiness of sand
18:10The warmth of sea or sun
18:12The wriggling weight of a child
18:15Our brain compares the messages it gets
18:21From these receptors
18:22To the whole directory of our experiences
18:25And then sensation becomes perception
18:30We take touch for granted
18:35It seems so effortless
18:36I mean I'm now holding a cup of coffee in my hand
18:39And it has a certain weight
18:41And it's warm
18:41But think of what's going on inside my brain
18:44When I'm holding this cup
18:45There are receptors in my fingers
18:47Receptors for warmth
18:49Receptors for touch
18:50And the messages go through sensory nerves in my arm
18:53To the spinal cord
18:54Then through a relay station in my brain
18:56And eventually to the final destination
18:58Which is the cerebral cortex
19:00There's no literal image of the cup in my brain
19:07What you have instead is a pattern of activity of nerve cells
19:10And that pattern of activity is unique for this particular object
19:14The cup of coffee that I'm holding
19:16If I were holding a banana
19:18It would be a different pattern of activity
19:19If I were holding a pen
19:20It would be yet another pattern of activity
19:22Each pattern being unique for that object
19:24And that pattern of activity of nerve cells
19:27Is more or less synonymous with my experience
19:30Perceptual experience
19:32Tactile experience
19:33Of the cup or banana or pen
19:35The entire skin is covered with sensory nerves
19:40So that every part of the body
19:42Is linked to a location in the brain
19:44Vertical strips of neural tissue
19:48One on each side of the brain
19:50Receive sensory information from the opposite side of the body
19:54This results in a kind of map
19:57Showing how the brain pictures each part of us
20:00A very different image from the one we see in a mirror
20:04To the brain, some parts of the body
20:07Like the legs, trunk, and arms
20:10Seem quite small
20:12Others, like the hand, thumb, and face
20:16Loom large
20:17Because to the brain they are gigantically important
20:21Of them all, the lips are the most sensitive to touch
20:25The sensory map is present at birth
20:29But its interconnections increase at an incredible rate
20:33Depending on each child's experience
20:36As it explores toys, people, and the objects of its environment
20:41So enriching a child's mind is not just a catchphrase
20:50Stimulate a child's senses
20:52And you enhance its world
20:54People used to think that the brain was rigid
20:59It set in infancy
21:01And then didn't change for the rest of our adult lives
21:04Now experiments we have been doing recently
21:07On human patients suggest that this dogma is wrong
21:10That in fact, even the basic sensory maps in the brain
21:13Can be modified
21:15And these experiments are
21:17On patients who have either lost an arm
21:22Someone whose arm has been amputated
21:23Or the sensory nerves going from the arm to the spinal cord
21:28Have been yanked off the spinal cord as a result of an accident
21:30I had both my legs amputated from below the knee
21:34And I still get pains
21:36And lack of tingling and pins and needles in my toes
21:41Sometimes my leg feels so real that I can almost touch it
21:46I can actually go with my hand and feel that there is something there
21:50And I can actually feel my ankle and my toes
21:57As if they were real
21:59But of course, it's only a sensation
22:02I dream
22:03And I'm walking in the sand
22:06And I can feel the sand going through my toes
22:09And I can feel the ocean water on my feet in the cold
22:12Or I can feel myself running
22:15And having the muscles contracting all through my legs
22:20It's just in my toes
22:23It feels like someone is really pinching them tightly
22:26And holding it
22:27And the pain, you know
22:28And it's really real
22:31It's a phantom
22:32It could happen at any time
22:34Sometimes, you know, I am in the bus
22:36And I feel that
22:37I register that
22:38I register that I have my knee
22:40That I need space there
22:42And I can almost go there
22:45And of course, it's my wooden knee
22:48But it's a dream
22:49And I wake up
22:52And I feel like, you know
22:54Sometimes it's like
22:56Wow
22:57Where are they, you know
22:59They're supposed to be there
23:00It's like a ghost haunting you
23:03You can feel it
23:04But you can't see it
23:06Derek, I'm going to touch
23:08Different parts of your body and face
23:10With this Q-tip
23:10And I want you to close your eyes
23:12And each time I touch you
23:13Tell me where you experience the sensation
23:15And what kind of sensation you experience
23:17Okay?
23:18Close your eyes
23:19I felt the touching on the phantom thumb
23:24The phantom thumb
23:25Close your eyes again
23:26Just the phantom thumb?
23:30Just the thumb, okay
23:31Just on my forehead
23:35Just on your forehead
23:36Just on my nose
23:38I'm going to move the Q-tip
23:40Along your jaw
23:41And again, tell me what you experience
23:43Keep your eyes shut
23:44Felt it through the phantom hand
23:50Okay
23:51Run across the knuckles
23:52Of the palm
23:53So you felt the sensation
23:55Running across the knuckles
23:55Of the phantom palm
23:56Okay
23:56Now, what has happened
23:58In this patient is
23:59He's lost the arm
24:00Therefore, if you go to the map
24:02There is no information
24:04Arriving in the region of the map
24:06Corresponding to the hand
24:07Because there is no sensory input
24:09From the hand
24:09Therefore, the neural signals
24:12Going from the face
24:13To the face region of the map
24:15Which happens to be
24:15Right next to the hand region
24:17Invade the territory
24:19That originally received signals
24:20From the hand
24:21Therefore, when I touch
24:22The patient's face
24:23The messages go to the
24:24Not only to the face area
24:26As they should
24:27But they're also invading
24:28The territory
24:29Corresponding to the hand
24:30And these messages
24:31Are then relayed
24:32To higher centers in the brain
24:33And the higher centers
24:34Interpret these signals
24:35As arising from the face
24:37And from the missing hand
24:39And this is what gives rise
24:41To this curious illusion
24:42That we call the phantom limb
24:43It's as if the nerves
24:48Reaching the sensory cortex
24:49From existing parts of the body
24:51Were spreading into the dead zone
24:54A dramatic demonstration
24:55That pathways in the brain
24:57Can be changed after infancy
25:00So now what I'm going to do
25:04Is to dip the Q-tip
25:05In some hot water
25:06And put the hot water
25:07In different parts of your body
25:08And different parts of your face
25:09And don't be startled
25:11It's not hot
25:12It's just warm, okay?
25:13But tell me what you experience
25:14Okay
25:15Close your eyes
25:15What do you feel?
25:24I felt the sensation
25:25In my phantom thumb
25:26What sensation did you feel?
25:28Gradual warming
25:29The warming, okay
25:30Close your eyes
25:31That switched over to my pinky
25:39And what did you feel
25:40In your pinky?
25:41Just gradual warming again
25:42The warming again
25:43I felt the sensation of the touch
25:44But the warming
25:45The warming, okay
25:46Just on the nose
25:51Just on my forehead
25:56So you feel the warmth
25:57In the nose
25:58But not in the phantom
25:59Yes
25:59Okay
26:00Now what you've just seen
26:01Is quite remarkable
26:02When I moved the Q-tip along his jaw
26:04He felt the Q-tip moving along his palm
26:07Of his phantom missing limb
26:09And when I put hot water
26:11He felt warmth in his missing thumb
26:13In his phantom thumb
26:13Now what this suggests
26:15Is not only is there remapping going on in the brain
26:17But the remapping must be organized and precise
26:20Because the temperature
26:21The warmth pathways must find their right target
26:25Find their way to the warmth centers in the brain
26:27And similarly
26:28When I move the Q-tip
26:29He experienced movement
26:30This again means that the remapping
26:32Is very precisely organized
26:34This is important
26:35Because it's the first clear demonstration
26:36That in an adult human brain
26:38You can get the emergence of new organized pathways
26:42Which didn't exist before
26:44Once again welcome to another meeting of Stumps Are Us
26:48This group of amputees in San Francisco meets regularly
26:53Has done any real research on mapping the brain
26:56As far as phantom pain is concerned
26:57And what to do to alleviate it
26:59As a result of Ramachandran's work
27:01They know that their symptoms are neither psychosomatic
27:04Nor a cry of protest from severed nerve endings
27:07But some of their physicians still don't seem to understand
27:11I just wanted to know, doctors, that we have to
27:15We know what we're going through
27:17How do we educate our doctors?
27:20How do we get them to listen
27:22And not tell, like B, that we need a psychiatrist?
27:25That's been said to me too
27:26But of course everybody knows I do
27:28But...
27:28I think the problem is that
27:33When physicians are confronted with something
27:34They don't understand
27:35Okay, so you see a set of symptoms
27:37There's no pattern
27:39They don't really understand what the symptoms are
27:40There's a tendency to just assume that it's psychological
27:43And say, well, you should go see a psychiatrist
27:45But we now know that that's complete nonsense
27:47That phantom limbs, phantom limb pain
27:49Has its origin in the brain
27:51There's changes in the neural circuitry in the brain
27:54And that might help explain what's going on
27:56The idea that it's just psychological is just, you know, it's nonsense
27:59And the funny thing with the phantom pain
28:01Is that when I woke up
28:03The first thing was
28:07My leg is there
28:09Wow, what did they do that they didn't cut it?
28:12I saw it, totally smashed
28:14And I went and I reached
28:15And of course it wasn't there
28:17So that was my first experience
28:18It's like a
28:19Like when you
28:22Your hand falls asleep
28:23Or your legs fall asleep
28:26It intensified that
28:29By 10
28:30Her legs were hurting really bad
28:32She would have us rub her feet
28:34And her feet weren't there
28:35But we rubbed her feet
28:36And that made her feel better
28:37But we would be at the bottom of the hospital bed
28:40And we would just rub
28:41Where her feet used to be
28:42And she felt better
28:43Now this observation has important implications
28:46Because it suggests
28:47That although
28:48We experience the sensations
28:50As arising from out there
28:51In the external world
28:52Or in my hand
28:53Or in my face
28:54In fact
28:55They have their origin
28:56Inside the brain
28:58Okay
28:59And a dramatic way
29:00Of demonstrating this
29:00Is in conscious awake human patients
29:03Who are undergoing neurosurgery
29:04Where you open the skull flap
29:06And you stimulate parts
29:08Of the sensory map
29:09In the brain
29:09Observing the living brain
29:12During surgery
29:13Was pioneered by
29:15Wilder Penfield
29:16A Canadian neurosurgeon
29:18Who first tried it
29:19In the 1930s
29:20To treat epilepsy
29:21Once the skull is opened
29:24It is possible
29:25To touch the brain
29:26Without the patient
29:28Feeling any pain
29:29And to talk to the patient
29:30About his sensations
29:31Penfield found
29:35That his electrical probing
29:36Could produce
29:37For example
29:38A ticklish nose
29:39Working with patients
29:43In this way
29:44He plotted the first
29:46Sensory maps
29:47Even though
29:48The stimulus
29:49Is being applied here
29:50To the brain
29:51He doesn't say
29:51It's tingling here
29:52In my brain
29:53He projects the sensations
29:55Out there
29:56In the external world
29:56Or onto his hand
29:58Or to his face
29:58Touch is our link
30:03To the outside world
30:05Where a rich tableau
30:06Awaits us
30:07At this cattle fair
30:09In central Italy
30:10There is much prodding
30:12Padding
30:12And testing
30:13Of the animals
30:14Also much testing
30:16Of one another
30:17By these shrewd farmers
30:18For touch can speak volumes
30:21Reveal a mood
30:22Betrayal line
30:23Only when the buyer
30:38And seller reach an agreement
30:39Do they clasp their hands
30:41Only when the broker
30:43Seizes both hands
30:44And shakes them three times
30:45As the deal's settled
30:46Hand clasps
30:49And handshakes
30:50Have served throughout history
30:51To pledge one's good faith
30:53A kind of contract
30:54That says
30:55Well
30:56Let's at least pretend
30:57We'll deal honorably
30:58With one another
30:59But if touch is a kind of language
31:05Are there touch dialects
31:07Or do people all over the world
31:09Touch in similar ways
31:10In order to study touch
31:13We move to countries
31:16Where people still live
31:18In face-to-face community
31:20People who have grown up together
31:22Know each other
31:24And where there is
31:26Exists a basic
31:27Situation of basic trust
31:29Here in the semi-desert
31:35Of southern Africa
31:36The Himba maintain a way of life
31:39Centered on small village communities
31:41This village owns a herd
31:59Of over a hundred cattle
32:00It's a cohesive social
32:02And economic unit
32:03Every group
32:11Every person
32:11Is a unique product
32:13Of their sensory experiences
32:15Moving among many cultures
32:20And communities
32:21Professor Ibel Ibesfeld
32:23Hopes to find behaviors
32:24Common to people
32:25Everywhere
32:26He is seeking
32:31A universal grammar
32:32Of non-verbal communication
32:34Gestures
32:35Facial expressions
32:37And touch
32:38He has spent a lifetime
32:40Traveling to remote groups
32:42Of people
32:42And first visited the Himba
32:44In Namibia
32:4525 years ago
32:46Ibel wanted to compile
32:50Film footage
32:51Of different peoples
32:52When he found
32:53That little existed
32:54He set out to create
32:55His own film library
32:57But how do you film
32:59But how do you film
32:59Something like touch
33:00Ibel's camera features
33:04A right-angled mirror
33:05Hidden in his lens
33:06So his subjects
33:08Quickly forget
33:09That he's filming them
33:10It's an unobtrusive way
33:15Of filming
33:16It's not a sneaky way
33:17They know that I film
33:18And they know that I film
33:20Them
33:20And you get a very friendly
33:24Impression of the way of life
33:28Of these people here
33:29And they get close to you
33:33Somehow
33:33The basic difference
33:45Between this society
33:47Of the Himba
33:48And our society
33:48Is that the Himba
33:50Grow up in a community
33:52From early childhood
33:53And know each other
33:55And this personal knowledge
33:57Creates a basic trust
34:00People somehow are related
34:04In a friendly way
34:05Here if you observe people
34:12You will see that they
34:13Freely touch each other
34:15In many situations
34:17They invite each other
34:20To come by touching
34:21They comfort a baby
34:23Which has fallen
34:24Or a child
34:25A toddler
34:26Which has fallen down
34:27And by touching
34:29Fathers enjoy
34:31Their little frei
34:32Or how you say in English
34:33The babies are always
34:37In close contact
34:38With someone
34:39They're never exiled
34:42To cribs or cradles
34:44They're free to hug
34:45To cling
34:46We can only speculate
34:48About how different kinds
34:50Of touching affect us
34:51One thing we do know
34:53It all starts
34:55With a loving adult
34:56And that's one of the patterns
34:58That Eibel is seeking
34:59If a mother wants
35:03To comfort her little baby
35:05She hugs it
35:06Pats it
35:07Now
35:08Interestingly enough
35:10Amongst adults
35:11You observe
35:12In certain situations
35:13Of distress
35:14That a person
35:15Gets hugged
35:16And patted
35:17These are actually
35:18Behavior patterns
35:20Which are derived
35:21From the mother
35:23Child relationship
35:24And used to bond
35:26Amongst adults
35:27This is a funeral
35:31For one of the elders
35:32Of the Meadowpole tribe
35:33In Papua New Guinea
35:34At this mourning ceremony
35:37Men and women
35:38Are overcome with grief
35:39And they hug one another
35:41It's a familiar scene
35:43Such touches
35:44Come from deep wells
35:46Of grief
35:47Aibel believes
35:53That this behavior
35:54Began
35:54As a form
35:55Of nurturing
35:56By mother
35:56Recreating the behavior
35:59In an adult
35:59Triggers childhood
36:00Memories of comfort
36:02And strong family bonds
36:03Sometimes
36:07The need to be hugged
36:09Is so overwhelming
36:11That if no one else
36:12Is around
36:13We hug ourselves
36:15Aibel has found
36:23That the Himba culture
36:24Is changing
36:25And that includes
36:26How much touching
36:27Is considered appropriate
36:28Opua trading town
36:34Is luring Himba people
36:36Away from their
36:36Small pastoral communities
36:38These Himba
36:44Are on the threshold
36:45Of a new way of life
36:46In a much larger community
36:48They will no longer
36:51Be on intimate terms
36:52With everyone they meet
36:53And many of the touches
36:55That once seemed spontaneous
36:57Will no longer feel right
36:59Aibel's work
37:03Also throws light
37:04On the intriguing origins
37:05Of the human kiss
37:07In a world without
37:09Prepared baby food
37:10And electric mixers
37:11Mothers fed their children
37:13Chewed food
37:14It's known as
37:15Kiss feeding
37:16Kiss feeding
37:17Occurs
37:18In all cultures
37:20So far as we know
37:21And
37:23It was
37:24Originally
37:25Found in Europe
37:27Mothers
37:29Mothers
37:29At a certain stage
37:31Of the development
37:32Of the baby
37:33Feed their babies
37:37In addition to
37:38The milk
37:40With pre-masticated food
37:42From mouth to mouth
37:43And this behavior pattern
37:47Got ritualized
37:49In a variety of ways
37:52To kissing
37:53Today
37:57Love play
37:58Frequently involves food
38:00And advertisers
38:01Can't resist
38:02Making a meal of it
38:03Showing kissing
38:04Eating
38:05And the promise
38:06Of sex
38:07All rolled into one
38:08Here
38:13Strangely enough
38:14They're advertising
38:15Ice cream
38:16These photographs
38:23Invite all of us
38:24To be voyeurs
38:25Into the world
38:26Of private touches
38:27In public
38:30Most people
38:31Are too shy
38:32To do more
38:33Than hold hands
38:34Or share a hug
38:35Our primate cousins
38:39Happily groom
38:41One another's hair
38:41Or skin
38:42For hours
38:43In our impersonal society
38:49We've replaced
38:51That important
38:52Bonding ritual
38:53With chit chat
38:54What's called
38:55Grooming talk
38:56Where we offer
38:57A friendly pat
38:58On the shoulder
38:59In a crowded beach bar
39:05People see
39:06The press of bodies
39:07As a plus
39:08They come here
39:10To be close to others
39:12To enjoy touching
39:13And being touched
39:15But how about
39:22Accidental
39:23Or unfelt touches
39:25Do even these
39:28Influence our mood
39:30And behavior
39:30One effort
39:32To solve that mystery
39:34Took place
39:34In a public library
39:36How's it going
39:45Hi
39:46Well I found most
39:46Of the books
39:47I'm looking for
39:47But I'd still like
39:48To find that new one
39:49By West
39:50I think I have
39:51Just what you want
39:52Oh great
39:53Right over here
39:54Yes
39:56I think what I found
39:57Was on page 428
39:59Ah
40:01For real
40:02Oh yeah
40:03How about that one
40:04That does look interesting
40:05Thank you
40:06You're welcome
40:07If you look for them
40:09The world is full
40:10Of subtle touches
40:10That we barely notice
40:12With our wide awake
40:13Conscious minds
40:14But they can carry
40:16Eloquent and powerful messages
40:18People in libraries
40:20Who are touched
40:20In the most insignificant
40:22Seeming ways
40:23Report much more satisfaction
40:25With the library
40:26The librarian
40:27And life in general
40:28In a related experiment
40:30Staged in a restaurant
40:32Customers who were lightly
40:34And unobtrusively
40:35Touched by waitresses
40:36Consistently left bigger tips
40:39Even touches so subtle
40:42As to be overlooked
40:43Don't go unnoticed
40:44By the subterranean mind
40:46Just bring the bag in
40:48Touch comforts us
40:53It reminds us of that time
40:55When mother cradled us
40:57And we felt safe
40:59Adored
40:59And perfectly lovable
41:01You take those
41:03And you put those
41:03In the fridge
41:04Okay
41:05And then those
41:06In the fridge as well
41:07As adults
41:09We still crave
41:10Those affectionate touches
41:11But partners sometimes
41:14Lose touch
41:14With one another
41:15You got a few minutes
41:17Yeah
41:18In our lives
41:20We find ourselves busy
41:22We find ourselves preoccupied
41:24We find ourselves
41:25With lots of demands
41:26Made of us
41:27Demands of looking after family
41:29Demands of job
41:30Demands of our social activities
41:33But we lose sight
41:35Of our close relationships
41:36It's very much easier
41:38To put those on the back burner
41:39Than it is all of the other things
41:41Not much room
41:43Will you see if you can
41:45Put them all in that drawer for me
41:46We don't actually spend time
41:50Communicating through touch
41:52It's lost to us
41:54And what we really do need to do
41:56Is take time out
41:57To begin to restore some of that
42:00In our lives
42:01Put the carrots away for me
42:04Surely adults know how to touch
42:08And to do what comes naturally
42:10That may well be the case
42:12For this couple
42:13As they relate to their children
42:14But what about with each other
42:22In Britain
42:24A marriage counselling organisation
42:26Called Relate
42:27Concentrates on a couple's use of touch
42:30Their habits and inhibitions
42:31And their sexual ease with one another
42:34This is often the barometer
42:42Of a relationship
42:43In which the emotional climate
42:45May have changed
42:47See you later after work
42:48Bye bye then
42:49Bye bye
42:49In order to be able to help you best
42:55I'm really going to have to
42:56Know a lot about what's been happening
42:58For you sexually
42:59So I'm going to ask you
43:00Quite a lot of questions
43:02Counselling can reveal explicit details
43:04Of a couple's sex life
43:05So with the help of Relate
43:07We have reconstructed
43:09A typical case history
43:10Taken from their files
43:11I thought it was okay
43:15But now I'm aware it wasn't
43:18And
43:18So there was a certain predictability
43:22About what was happening
43:23Is that
43:24Would you agree?
43:25I just felt that
43:27When he touched me
43:29It was because
43:31It was because he wanted sex
43:32And that just
43:33You know
43:34Just put me right off
43:35I just
43:35Right
43:37So every physical contact
43:38Was a signal for sex
43:40That's what you're saying
43:41Yeah
43:41Yeah
43:41And
43:42And there wasn't anything
43:44Really outside of that
43:45Right
43:45We just
43:46We didn't cuddle anymore
43:48Or he didn't
43:49You know
43:50Kiss
43:51Just kiss me
43:52Or
43:52You know
43:53Any of that before
43:54When did you last have sexual contact
43:58Six weeks ago
44:03Six months ago
44:04No
44:05It was more like two months actually
44:07And was that a successful encounter
44:13Or was that
44:14No
44:14No
44:15I was finding I wasn't getting aroused anymore
44:19I mean it was just becoming really routine
44:21And
44:22It sounds as if it got very fraught somehow
44:26Between you
44:27It was very tense
44:28The whole business of physical contact
44:30Seems to have got very tense
44:32Is that right
44:34Yeah
44:36As if you anticipate that it won't go right
44:39So you
44:40You choose not to have any contact at all
44:42Mm
44:43It's not like it was
44:50Is it
44:50No
44:52But
44:52I mean
44:52I'm not
44:54100% sure what you mean by touch
44:57But
44:57Sexually
44:58It's been good
44:59In the past
45:00Much better than it is now
45:01Right
45:02So in the last
45:03Four or five months
45:05You've attempted to make love to each other
45:08But it hasn't worked properly
45:09Is that right
45:10Yeah
45:10Okay
45:11And that's really what's
45:13Brought you through the front door
45:15To see me
45:16Right
45:17Okay
45:17What I
45:18I'm first going to
45:20Require of you is that
45:22I'm going to place a ban on sexual intercourse
45:24For the moment
45:26That really is the
45:28The area that's actually
45:29Continued to be difficult
45:30And we're going to put all of that performance anxiety to one side
45:34And get you back into being together in an intimate way
45:38Which is more comfortable and more relaxed
45:41And get rid of all this tension
45:42Well we agree that that seems to be a sensible way forward
45:47Okay
45:48Now over the next week
45:49Before you come back and see me next week
45:51What I want you to do is to find
45:54Three separate hours
45:57Of prime time
45:59When you can be together
46:00In an intimate way
46:01You're making an investment
46:03For the rest of your lives
46:05I think I need to say that to you
46:06And you're
46:08You're going to have to find some quality time
46:10When you can be together
46:12And
46:13I want three separate occasions of an hour
46:16During this week
46:17Right
46:20Many people find these sessions awkward
46:41They feel shy and embarrassed
46:44To luxuriate in the other's pleasure
47:02To savor touch as a sweet reward all its own
47:06Without thinking about sex, time or performance
47:10Forces them to communicate in new ways
47:13The first stage is non-sexual touching
47:18At times they might close their eyes
47:21So they can focus their minds just on feeling
47:24For now they must decide who is to give
47:30And who is to receive
47:31The caresser taking pleasure in touching
47:36Sensing the partner's enjoyment
47:43The caressed one relishes each delicious touch
47:59For satisfying lovemaking
48:15One needs to feel both relaxed and aroused
48:18Touch can bridge that seeming contradiction
48:21This therapy
48:26This therapy
48:27Known as sensate focusing
48:28Heightens all the senses
48:30But it's especially good
48:32At teaching couples to be more fluent
48:34In the language of touch
48:35What can happen in an adult relationship
48:42Is as the relationship develops
48:45The couple actually begin to just be involved in genital touching
48:50And so it becomes very focused and very narrow
48:53It's as if the rest of the body doesn't exist
48:55And for one or other of them
48:57This may actually begin to feel like a real pressure
49:01Like it's not how they want to be
49:03And yet they find themselves unable to ask for what they need
49:09Most couples run a telepathic sexual relationship
49:12They don't actually communicate verbally
49:15They hope that somehow the message will get across
49:18And of course it doesn't
49:19A couple may devote three or four sessions to touch alone
49:29Before they move on to the more sexual part of the program
49:32At this stage the aim is not to arouse
49:40But to achieve greater intimacy
49:42And a genuine expression of love
49:45Being involved in gentle touching exercises
49:53Is a very powerful experience
49:56And as a result of that
49:58Couples can find themselves returning to lost
50:03Unawakened feelings from the past
50:06Our hands can become messengers of our emotions
50:14And few have understood this as well
50:17As the great French sculptor Rodin
50:20Rodin was a dreamer who dreamt with his hands
50:24And he loved sculpting hands
50:27If there is one work of art that expresses Rodin's sense of touch
50:33The intimacy of space
50:35And the fluency of bodies
50:37It is the kiss
50:39Enveloped in each other
50:54Glued by touch at the hip
50:55Hand and shoulder
50:57They seal their closeness with their mouths
51:00Touching in only these few places
51:03They seem to be touching in every cell
51:06For some the sense of touch is the only way to experience fine sculpture
51:21Visiting the Rodin Museum in Paris
51:25Has been a lifelong ambition for Joya Stanky
51:28A lively 73 year old
51:30Who has been blind for 13 years
51:32Of course at first when touching you feel a bit intrusive
51:37And then it takes you over
51:39You become part of it
51:41Once Joya realized that touch was the passport to a world of beauty
51:47That had been closed to her
51:48She began visiting galleries again
51:50Many of which now treasure her as an expert on touch tours for the blind
51:55But she is convinced that all of us need to refresh our sense of touch
52:00This is the sensation
52:03Or the sense that I think
52:06We don't put enough importance on
52:08We think it's just for utility
52:10You know, feeling things
52:11For their identifying
52:13Or whether they're hot, cold or material
52:15And we don't realize
52:17That nearly all our information
52:19From childhood has come from touch
52:21And not just from the fingers
52:23From all parts of the body
52:24It's a completely different type of vision
52:31With the fingers
52:33Than seeing with the eyes
52:34It's more of an insight
52:37And it's also
52:39The one we started off with
52:41We were born with
52:43And we carry and develop
52:44Once we're aware of it
52:46All through our lives
52:47And could be the last sensation
52:50Last sense we're left with
52:51At the end
52:53Our lost contact
52:54Our lost touch
52:56We feel our way through life
53:00From birth to death
53:01Touch is what gives us our grasp on life
53:05The feeling of being alive
53:07Best of all
53:09It allows us to rejoice in one another
53:11And perhaps that is the most touching thought of all
53:16Our lost touch
53:17To life
53:19To love
53:19Is our lastarent
53:20Your heart
53:21The feeling of being alive
53:21Their dedication
53:22To act
53:23Authentic
53:24và
53:25Ґ
53:27Ґ
53:28Ґ
53:29Ґ
53:59Mystery of the Senses was produced by WETA Washington and WGBH Boston,
54:20which are solely responsible for its content.
54:23A production of WETA Washington and WGBH Boston.
54:33This is PBS.