Tinfoil Hat – Mind Control and Coercive Psychological Systems

“Our senses play a vital and complex role in forming our thoughts, impressions and behaviors,” writes the ScentAir.com website. “Sensory branding is based on the idea that humans are most receptive, and most likely to form, retain, revisit and reinterpret memory, when all five senses are engaged. By hitting more than one sense, brands can establish a stronger and longer-lasting emotional connection with consumers.” ¹

www.cidpusa.org/smell_taste.htm

The Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, once included an attraction with warning signs stating that simulated drug odors would be present. The push to include olfactory senses in one’s overall experience has been gaining momentum in everything from new cars to supermarkets to gaming consoles. Researchers at ScentAir, for example, “uses ‘scent marketing’ to boost sales in grocery stores by dispersing the smells of your favorite products in hopes of consumers opening their wallets to purchase them, writes the foodfacts.com website. “In the U.S., consumers spend an estimated $500 billion a year on food. With smell accounting for 75 percent of what we taste, ['Early Show' Contributor Taryn Winter Brill] remarked there’s no denying a psychological effect.” ²

“‘Smell is the most underrated sense, but next to vision is the most information-rich one we have,’ says [Professor Bob Stone], speaking to Soldier Magazine,” in Roby Crossley’s article for the develop-online.net website announcing the creation of a ‘smell effect’ peripheral.³ Foodfacts.com continues with Melvin Oatis, clinical supervisor of the New York University Child Study Center, saying, “The sense of smell is so primal, it goes into an odor part of the brain before it can all register and it’s an unconscious wonderful thing that happens to you.⁴

And increasing hunger is not the only effect. “Gamers who received peppermint scent showed significant improvements in their video game play, such as an increase in the number of levels completed for Perfect 10, greater number of hits and stars during Snowball Fight, and the number of levels and distance completed for the Obstacle Course,” notes Dr. Bryan Raudenbush of Wheeling Jesuit University. “They also said that the video games seem less mentally demanding, that they felt they didn’t have to put forth as much effort in order to do well, and showed less anxiety.” ⁵

“A team of engineers at Birmingham University are working on a device that exposes gamers to context-sensitive scents during their gaming sessions,” reports the joystiq.com gaming website.⁶ “Numerous pots of paraffin wax that are laced with a variety of aromas… are said to capture the smell of a wide range of locations and situations, from the cordite residue of gunfire to the burnt rubber rising from a racetrack,” explains Rob Crossley. “These pots of wax are placed into a boxed fan, which is fitted to a PC and throws a scent under the player’s nose when triggered by an in-game event.” ⁷

ScentSciences.com	image source: gizmowatch.com

Related links

¹ Scent Marketing, ScentAir.com, at http://www.scentair.com/scent-marketing-overview/ (retrieved: 24 October 2011).

² “Scent Marketing,” foodfacts.com, 25 July 2011, at http://blog.foodfacts.com/index.php/2011/07/25/scent-marketing/ (retrieved: 24 October 2011).

³ Rob Crossley, “Science team creating ‘smell effect’ peripheral,” develop-online.net, 27 April 2009, at http://www.develop-online.net/news/31750/Science-team-creating-smell-effect-peripheral (retrieved: 24 October 2011).

⁴ “Scent Marketing,” foodfacts.com.

⁵ Bryan Raudenbush, “Effects of Peppermint Scent Administration on Cognitive Video Game Performance via the Nintendo Wii,” Sense of Smell Institute, Fragrance Foundation, at http://www.senseofsmell.org/feature-detail.php?id=6 (retrieved: 24 October 2011).

⁶ Griffin McElroy, “Science team creating ‘smell effect’ device for games, joystiq.com, 28 April 2009, at http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/28/science-team-creating-smell-effect-device-for-games/ (retrieved: 24 October 2011).

⁷ Crossley, “Smell Effect.”

Related videos

“Embarrassing Bodies – Smell effect on pain threshold,” video at YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMAlxFUu2Ro (retrieved: October 2011). (Watch it here)