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Did the Human Touch Become a Victim of Education?

By: Shama Kern

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Often language cannot adequately convey meaning. Let’s look at ”love”. You can love your wife, your children, your job, your cup of coffee in the morning, your new hunting rifle, God, or your country.

Clearly loving God is a very different concept from loving your job. Love for your family is a totally different concept from loving a specific brand of beer. We use the same word “love”, but its meaning changes based on the context. The word by itself does not have meaning.

It's the same with "touch". Your laptop has a touchpad. There is no emotion in such a mechanical touch. You can touch someone’s body. That might be anything from friendly to sensual to sexual to painful to lethal according to the kind of touch.

A bodyworker can work on you with a clinical touch. Some massage therapists have the magic touch and can take you into a blissful state. A story or a movie can touch us intensely.

One word, many meanings. Touch might be mechanical, sensual, loving, aggressive - without knowing the circumstances, touch has no clear meaning of its own. Our intentions give “touch” its meaning. Our intentions are generally clear when we touch an object. But that clarity is often not there once we touch people.

When you touch a cat or a dog, they simply roll over and enjoy it. It is not an issue for them if you are a man or a woman. They just love it. No mind games here. The same goes for babies and young children. They simply enjoy being touched or hugged or stroked. And they also love touching one another quite naturally.

Some years ago a very interesting study was conducted with new born babies. One group of babies was held and touched all the time, and the second group was deprived of all touch. The study had to be aborted because the vital symptoms of the group of babies who were not touched began to deteriorate and the researchers were afraid that they might actually die.

We all know that young children and infants love to be touched and held and stroked. But there comes a time when this changes and for some reason it is not appropriate anymore. At what point does this happen and for what reason? Clearly the children learn it from the adults, it is part of their ‘education’.

Now let’s enter the world of adults where we have to deal with intentions, fears, cultural and religious issues, judgments and interpretations. If a man hugs another man, it could be a friendly back-slapping affair. But it can also make someone feel uncomfortable if he associates hugs between men with homosexuality.

Hugs between men and women can be a pleasant interaction or an inappropriate sexual advance. So when we hug people, we are entering the world of the mind. Different cultures have their respective touching rules. Arab men kiss each other on the cheeks, whereas for American men this is not acceptable at all. Some cultures permit hugging, others totally shy away from it.

So what is the conclusion of all those ‘touch complications'? Most people love to be touched but are prevented from experiencing it due to cultural taboos, mind games, ill-intentioned people, shyness, or in some countries by the law. Massage therapy can be the perfect way to bypass all those cultural, moral or religious limitations and enjoy touch for what it can be - a deeply relaxing, healing and wonderfully pleasant experience.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Shama has over ten years of experience with the human touch in his capacity of Thai Massage instructor. You can download free videos and get more information at www.shamakern.com

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