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Using Pheromones for Attraction & Bonding: Pheromones Really Work!
Scientists discovered pheromones over 50 years in insects and mice and more recently in humans. Scientific research indicates that we think through our noses via mucus membranes in the human nose lining. Virtually all organisms, from yeast to insects to humans, produce volatile smelly pheromones that act as sexual magnets that send other messages such as dominance or fear.
Pheromones are chemical substances that function to both attract and/or elicit behavioral responses. The word pheromone is derived from the Greek word, pherein (which means "to bring or transfer") and hormon (which means to “excite”).
While most pheromones are transferred by volatile smells, others are transferred by pheromones in the skin, saliva, urine and vaginal liquids. (Cohn 1994)
Some pheromones are oil-like chemical odors that are infused into perfumes and oils. However, other pheromones are proteins, which must be transferred by physical skin-to-skin contact or by kissing. (Singer 1991) Kissing is nearly universal in human culture and may be an unconscious method of transferring protein pheromones.
However, in recent years the definition of pheromones has expanded to include those substances that can either attract or repel which plays a major part in how we respond to one another. While you may be attracted by the pheromones of one person, those of another person may repel you. (Nicoli and Nicoli 1995)
However, keep in mind that many other factors strongly affect human responses. Dewy, gorgeous and healthy looking skin, beautiful, strong and well-groomed hair, warm, optimistic and amiable personality - all play a role in mutual attraction between individuals.
Many scholars say the goddess Calypso represented the first feminist. She was a strong, pure, remote feminine, untouched and inaccessible, separate, distinguished and she held a different view of the world than that of men. Calypso serves as a very fitting name for our website dedicated to the beauty of the power fragrance and attraction: calypsos-oil.com
Questions or Advice?
Ask Dr. Loren Pickart: drlorenpickart@gmail.com
Call us at 1-800-405-1912 Monday through Friday (8 am to 6 pm) PST
Plant Pheromones vs. Human Pheromones
Several companies have been set up to develop human romantic pheromones for the general consumer. However, most of these companies have had disappointing results.
For example: An interesting experiment was performed where a variety of very expensive human pheromones from various companies were given to volunteers for testing. Then the volunteers were also supplied with various traditional pheromone-like oils from plants. The volunteers were asked to record their results as to whether other people were more friendly, talkative, and affectionate.
Surprisingly, in every case the test subjects found few positive responses to the expensive human pheromones. On the other hand, all the volunteers reported numerous very positive responses to at least some of the tested plant pheromones.
Human Pheromones Increase Attraction & Aggression
Another drawback to using human pheromones is they may trigger aggression. On the other hand, traditional plant pheromone all have soothing properties, encourage calmness, and have been also used for meditation and religious ceremonies.
In humans and other mammals, sexual attraction can also trigger aggression. Androstenone, a pheromone in pigs, triggers both sexual attraction and aggression in boars. Human men produce the same chemical in their armpits.
In mice, certain pheromones cause male mice to kill other male mice. The attacks depend largely on odor cues (male odors increase attacks, female cues decrease attack). In many mammals such as lions and bears, males will kill the offspring of a female so that they may mate with the female. Sex hormones stimulate production of urinary pheromones that increase the intensity of fighting in rodents. But the urine of castrated rats lacks the aggression provoking pheromone. Conversely, the urine of female rats contains an aggression inhibiting pheromone.
For these reasons, always stick to traditional plant pheromones.
Plant Pheromones Used in Perfumes
The ancient Greeks (and many other ancient cultures) routinely used plant oils for both medical and cosmetic purposes.
In the 1930's a French chemist, Rene Maurice Gattefosse, discovered the benefits of lavender oil when treating a burn on his hand. This started his research on the use of essential oils and Gattefosse later published the first modern book on the uses of essential oils.
Plants use chemicals to attract bees and other pollinators to their flowers. Some plant pheromones have similar chemistry to animal pheromones. Musk is a strong pheromone from musk deer, musk ducks, musky moles, muskrats, musk ox and musk beetles.
But similar pheromones exist in musk melons, musk hyacinths, musk cherries, musk thistle, musk rose, musk plums and musk wood.
The truffles prized by French gourmets as aphrodisiacs are a fungi that has an odor nearly identical to androstenol, a sex attractant for pigs and very similar to chemicals that act as sex attractants in humans.
Perfumes arose from plant oils with smells similar to animal pheromones. Plant oils with the strongest similarity to human sexual pheromones are from jasmine, ylang ylang and patchouli.
Why Expensive Perfumes Do Not Work
Studies by Alan Hirsch and Jason Gruss (Smell and Taste Treatment Research Foundation, Chicago, Illinois and University of Michigan) found that expensive perfumes are much less effective than many essential oils and common foods.
They studied the effects of numerous scents on sexual arousal of men and women by comparing their blood flow in sexual-aroused tissues (penile or clitoral blood flow) while wearing scented masks and while wearing non-odorized, blank masks.
Expensive perfumes increased blood flow by only 3%. In contrast the combined odor of lavender and pumpkin produced a 40% increase and many other plant scents also worked better than perfumes.
While the results are for men, researchers reported that women also responded poorly to expensive perfumes.
These scientists tested lavender which has a reputation as a mild attractant, but they unfortunately did not test many other pheromones with reputations as bonding smells such as ylang ylang, Asian Oud and others.
Hirsch postulates that scents may act on the brain (1) by reducing anxiety, which inhibits natural sexual desire, or (2) increasing alertness and awareness, making the subjects more aware of sexual cues in the environment around them, or (3) by acting directly to the septal nuclei, a portion of the brain that induces sexual arousal.
| Item Tested | Median % Increase in Penile Blood Flow |
| Lavender and Pumpkin Pie | 40.0 |
| Pumpkin Pie and Doughnut | 20.0 |
| Orange | 19.5 |
| Black licorice and Cola | 13.0 |
| Black Licorice | 13.0 |
| Lily of the Valley | 11.0 |
| Vanilla | 9.0 |
| Pumpkin Pie | 8.5 |
| Lavender | 8.0 |
| Musk | 7.5 |
| Peppermint | 6.0 |
| Cheese Pizza | 5.0 |
| Roasting Meat | 5.0 |
| Rose | 4.0 |
| Strawberry | 3.5 |
| Oriental spices | 3.5 |
| Expensive Perfumes | Averaged 3.0 |
| Chocolate | 2.8 |
| Cucumber and Good and Plenty™ (Licorice candy) | 13% |
| Baby Powder | 13% |
| Lavender and Pumpkin Pie | 11% |
| Charcoal Barbecued Meat | Inhibited - Anti-arousal |
| Cherries | Inhibited - Anti-arousal |
| Expensive Men's Colognes | Inhibited - Anti-arousal |
Why Expensive Perfumes Fail
The key to using pheromones and scents is to put them into contact with large areas of your body. Then the heat of your body biochemically alters the odors and blends them into your overall pheromone signature.
Your personal pheromone "odor signature" is a complex mixture of pheromones, body oils and fatty acids, sweat, and hormones such as androsterone secreted onto the skin from your apocrine glands. In addition, the 40 million skin cells that you shed each day add to your pheromone signature.
Perfumes that are dabbed on a small area - such as the wrist – are not effective. They exist as a separate smell and do little to change your total pheromone signature. Furthermore, the mixing of many different scents in perfumes produces a confusing pheromone signal.
Why Mothers Kiss Babies
Pheromone ID swapping!
While the effects of pheromones on humans are less obvious than in other mammals, they still strongly affect our behavior. Many pheromones are air borne particles that pass through air after evaporation by the heat of the body.
Some pheromones are heavy proteins that cannot be passed through the air by evaporation. These are passed by physical contact such as by kissing or skin-to-skin contact.
Kissing occurs in all human cultures and is a way of passing identification pheromones. When a mother kisses her baby, this increases the mother-baby bonding.
Pheromones act in two ways. The first is to "signal pheromones" that cause others to become aware of your presence and cause immediate changes in behavior by activating certain areas of the brain.
The second way is by "priming pheromones" which trigger increases in GnRH production and which often require kissing or skin-to-skin contact. This in turn, increases production of many hormones that affect development, metabolism, and mating behavior.
Often, fertile women have difficulty becoming pregnant. It takes on average six months of sexual intercourse for married couples to produce the first pregnancy.
One theory is that the woman's body is slowly adjusting to her husband's pheromones before becoming receptive to pregnancy.
Pheromones activate pre-coded genetic programs. The increased production of GnRH (Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone) starts the pulses and cycles of sex hormones which govern sexual development.
GnRH also affects activity in the brain that affects sexual development and behavior.
Pheromones Attraction More Powerful Than Strength
Male goats, sheep and pigs compete to dominate females based not on physical strength or beauty but on the strength of their pheromones.
The animals with the strongest pheromones display the most confidence and threat without giving signals of fear. This reduces the incidence of actual physical combat for females - especially among deer and moose.
Males with the strongest pheromones cause psychological castration of other males which helps remove them from competition. In pigs, the pheromone androstenone triggers the female's receptivity to the male.
While the effects of pheromones on humans are less obvious than in other mammals, they still strongly affect our behavior. Many pheromones are air borne particles that pass through air after evaporation by the heat of the body.
This type of pheromone dominance may also apply to humans since many researchers think human pheromone responses are very similar to pigs (Hard on our ego but probably true).
Truffles, which are fungi that grow underground near oak trees in France and Italy, are highly valued as human aphrodisiacs. Pigs are also passionately attracted to truffles and are used to locate the truffles.
So if you are a man, your pheromone smell may affect females more strongly than your good looks, money, or wit.
Why Women Call Men Pigs
Why do women often call men pigs when men rarely use this term for women?
Could it be that ever since wild pigs were domesticated 7,000 years ago, women intuitively knew that many male human hormones resemble those of pigs?
The key pheromone in pigs is androstenone, which gives the characteristic odor to urine from boars (male pig) and some of the odor to human male urine also.
Female pigs are extremely aware of the smell of androstenone, as are human females to male odors. Pig breeders spray androstenone from aerosol cans on the backs of female pigs to determine whether the female is ready for breeding - if the sow arches her back, she is sexually receptive.
Nipple Pheromone
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Newborn infants follow the breast odors emanating from their mother's nipple/areola region. These odors exert a pheromone effect that guides the infant to nurse at their nipples. (Winberg and Porter 1998, Porter and Weinberg 1999)
Within minutes after birth, the mother's breast odor causes the baby’s head to turn for the nipple guiding the baby to successful sucking for milk. Newborns soon learn to recognize their own mother's unique odor signature, which builds mother-infant attachment.
Nipple pheromones may also explain the irrational obsession of young men with women's breasts which has long been a puzzle. It may be that this is a natural bonding pheromone that men require for their emotional stability and helps tie them to women. This could explain why men are instinctively attracted to large breasted women.
Pheromones and 1,500 Human Genes for Smell
The airborne pheromones which increase interpersonal attraction often emit a distinct smell. Our response to smell is extremely important to proper body functioning. A very significant part of the human genome (about 5.0% or about 1,500 genes of our 30,000 human genes) is used to code the receptors of smell.
Two anatomically distinct organs respond to smell: the olfactory system located in the upper part of the nasal cavity and the vomero-nasal organ or VMO in the nasal septum.
Even though human interactions are more complex than other warm-blooded animals, odors and pheromones still influence attraction and bonding.
The wiring of the brain in humans and other animals sends signals from smells directly from the nose to the limbic area of the brain where our deeply felt emotions reside.
Insufficient Pheromones - Inadequate Emotions
A lack of smell limits emotional attachment. Approximately 1.3% of persons are born with a total lack of smell or Anosmia. And most of us lack the ability to smell certain fragrances. A study found 5 to 8% of students at Oxford University could not smell freesia, a very fragrant flower.
Persons with Anosmia often complain about a lack of libido. While they may marry, emotionally distant behavior remains a problem.
Some researchers have noted that the decline in sex drive with aging coincides with our decline in smell. One way to regenerate sex drive as we grow older is to increase our pheromone signal with essential oils and pheromones.
Pheromones Act Even If You Cannot Smell Them
While many pheromones give off distinctive odors that evoke emotions, they may be too weak to consciously detect. For example, male dogs can respond to pheromones from a female dog at distances up to three miles and at concentration that the dogs are unlikely to consciously smell. And women often like to wear their spouse’s unwashed T-shirts even though the pheromone scent may be undetectable.
In the Middle Ages, a man would wipe his brow after dancing and present it to his lady as a love token. This gesture, though not consciously realized, meant that the lady would have her man’s scent with her.
In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Othello goes into a rage over one of his missing handkerchiefs. The wives of Welsh miners working on night shifts would put their man's nightshirts in their pillows where they could sniff them.
Humans also respond to pheromone levels that are too low to smell. Sobel and colleagues (Stanford University) found that a air-borne fragrant pheromone (oestra- 1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3yl acetate) would activate brain centers even when present at concentrations below a threshold of conscious detection.
Sobel used Magnetic Resonance techniques to prove that exposure to pheromones (at undetectable levels) activate brain centers. Even when the experimental subjects could not smell the chemical, their brain centers that respond to pheromones, were activated. (Sobel et al 1999).
Other studies of brain EEG patterns of behavioral evidence have also come to the same conclusion: that we can be strongly affected by pheromones that we are not even conscious of smelling.
Smells Affect the Emotional Center of Your Brain
Smells activate nerves in the vomero-nasal organ or VMO in the nasal septum that act directly on the brain's emotional control areas.
All other senses such as sight, touch, sound, temperature are transferred through a series of nerve connections that change and moderate the effects so that the brain does not over-react to new stimuli.
However, the nerves that respond to smell are wired directly into the brain and the stimuli are sent pure and unmodified to the limbic center of the brain.
There are three general areas of the brain:
The first and most basic is the brain stem, which controls basic functions such as breathing and heartbeat.
The next higher area is the limbic system in the central area of the brain. The limbic system is where emotional responses are concentrated. When various areas of the limbic system are activated, a person feels intense emotions. Some limbic areas cause feelings of peace, contentment, and attraction while others areas causes feeling of anger, rage, hostility, loneliness and so on.
The conscious brain is the topmost and outer area of our brain. This is where we spend our time thinking but the conscious mind is not where our emotions are developed. Why we love someone is more how he or she smells to the limbic system than what we consciously think.
In rats, surgical ablation of the vomero-nasal organ or VMO in the nasal septum produces dramatic impairments of mating, dominance status, and gender recognition.
Washing, Cultures and the Decline of Bonding
Numerous scientists have observed that as cultures advance to higher levels of bathing, interpersonal bonding seems to decline. They suggest that the washing removes skin pheromones and weakens the interpersonal bonding in families and between couples.
In the Roman Republic, family ties were strong. However, as Rome evolved into the wealthy Roman Empire with its adequate water supplies and free municipal baths, personal bonds became weaker, divorce became common, and social disorganization increased.
With the rise of Christianity, with its dislike of nudity and bathing, family ties began to strengthen. It is said that few people bathed for the next 1,500 years in Western Europe.
In North Africa and the Middle East, where Islam prevailed after the collapse of classical Roman culture, a somewhat different scenario occurred.
Musk, a strong pheromone obtained from the male musk deer, was a special favorite of the Prophet Mohammed. The El Ktab, a classic Islamic text, describes musk as "the noblest of perfumes and that which provokes men and women to venery". Islamic culture always emphasized the use of perfumes and pheromones. (Kohl and Franceour 1995).
"I will be arriving in Paris tomorrow evening. Don't wash!" Napoleon - Message to Josephine
Cleanliness Could Produce Loneliness
In the United States, California led the way on personal cleanliness. By the 1940's, many Californians bathed or showered daily and washed away their personal pheromones, while most of the USA stuck to weekly bathing.
However, California soon led the USA in divorce rates and family breakdown. Likewise in Europe, Scandinavia led the way in personal cleanliness in the 20th century and soon experienced family breakdown and chronic cultural complaints of interpersonal coldness and a lack of bonding.
Immense social programs, prosperous economies, and a basic friendliness of people both in California and Scandinavia have not solved these problems.
While many social historians would disagree that a lack of pheromones could cause family breakdown, there are other precedents where chemical changes may have altered history.
The poor leadership of the upper classes in the Roman Empire may have been influenced by chronic lead poisoning. Wealthy people use lead cooking pots and the bones of wealthy ancient Romans often have lead concentrations 100 times the level that causes brain dysfunction.
REFERENCES
Auguste Galopin in "The Perfume of Women and the Sense of Smell in Love"
Culter WB, Friedmann E, & McCoy NL, Pheromonal influences on sociosexual behavior in men, Archives of Sexual Behavior. 1997;27(1):1-13.
Cohn BA, In search of human skin pheromones, Arch Dermatol. 1994;130(8):1048-51.
Singer AG, A chemistry of mammalian pheromones, J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 1991; 39(4B):627-32.
Nicoli RM & Nicoli JM, Biochimie de l'Eros, Contracept Fertil Sex. 1995;23(2):137-44.
Sobel N, Prabhakaran V, Hartley CA, Desmond JE, Glover GH, Sullivan EV, & Gabrieli JD, Blind smell: brain activation induced by an undetected air-borne chemical, Brain. 1999;122( Pt 2):209-17.
Porter RH & Winberg J, Unique salience of maternal breast odors for newborn infants, Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1999;23(3):439-49.
Winberg J & Porter RH, Olfaction and human neonatal behavior: clinical implications, Acta Paediatr 1998;87(1):6-10.
Kohl JV & Franceour RT, The Scent of Eros (Continuum Publishing) 1995. This is a very excellent book for the general public on pheromones and behavior.