Touch and learn

As a nation we have been trained not to touch people, exhibits, or images. ”Don’t touch” sign boards are prominently displayed in museums, places of religious worship and exhibitions.

Once I walked in to Sathya Sai Baba museum in India. It is a wonderful museum depicting the life of Sai Baba from his birth to adulthood. However, I was somewhat dismayed because of the “Don’t touch” signs and “No photographs” warnings.

If you cannot touch and feel the beauty of product, we have to take in what our eyes see. When you look at a statue, your understanding of the object is not complete. For instance, devotees and visitors to St. Anthony’s church, Mt. Lavinia are allowed to touch the saint’s feet. Those who touch his feet with devotion feel a sense of satisfaction, fulfilment and inspiration.

Unfortunately devotees are not allowed to touch the images of numerous gods erected in temples and Kovils. They are kept away from images perhaps for reasons of cleanliness or safety. Although adults obey the rules, children somehow touch these images purely out of curiosity.

As Mark Twain once said: “Don’t look at the world with your hands in your pockets. To write about it you have to reach out and touch it. “In order to test the reality of this statement try to touch your dog or cat and see how it reacts. Most animals love to be touched by humans. When you touch a dog, it wags its tail. When you touch a cat it purrs. If they can talk, they will say: “We love to be touched”.

When we are in love we touch the other person’s body. The real sensation comes from touching. Can you even think of falling in love without touching each other’s body. The sense of touching is so great that some people try to touch the bodies of unknown persons in buses and trains. There have been many unpleasant situations arising out of forceful touching of others, especially young females.

There is a blind man selling sweep tickets in Colombo. He would run his fingers along the currency notes and give you the exact balance. Most blind people have highly developed tactile organs. Sometime ago I worked with a blind colleague who could identify anyone by touching their hands.

Women use their tactile organs to the maximum when they buy clothes or any other item. They would feel the texture before buying a saree. Even if they want to buy an ordinary commodity such as rice, they would first feel the quality before buying. On the other hand, men would simply look at the item they are going to buy. They are never in a mood to waste time by touching shirts, rice or even a television.

Touch is more than a substitute for vision. As children we loved to touch the body of our parents, brothers and sisters. Later on we extent our desire to touch others outside the family circle. So we lean against our friends and hold their hands. Even the handshake is an extension of our desire to touch others, some people are proud to say that they have Shaken hands with kings and presidents.

In our oriental tradition we retrain from touching the body of a stranger. Even the Japanese bow their heads without shaking hands. However it is only by touching the other person that you come to know the real person in front of you.

Learning to develop the sense of touch is something useful and desirable. When Sathya Sai Baba appeared before a large congregation some time ago, there was a mad rush to touch his feet. Similarly, when we worship our parents and teachers we invariably touch their feet. That shows the importance of tactile sensitivity.

The sense of touch is capable of extraordinary developments. Look at a man who is about to cut down a huge tree. He would keep on looking at the tree and then touch it. By doing so he would gauge the real strength or weakness of the tree.

Every now and then we hear of “touch healers”. Instead of giving medicine, they would touch the patient’s body to heal him. Many religious leaders had healed sick people simply by touching them. There is a recorded instance of “touch healing” by the late Indian sage J. Krishnamurti.

However, he did not practise the art of healing by touch.Ayurvedic physicians feel the pulse of the patient as a part of their diagnostic process. Similarly, a mother would feel the temperature of her child by touching the forehead.

According to renowned psychologist Frank A. Geldard of Princeton, the human hand is an amazing sensitive instrument. His experiments have revealed that people can identify different materials by touching them. Unknown to many our finger tips are very sensitive to smoothness and roughness. There is also a popular saying: “Don’t believe until you touch it”.

What you see with your eyes can be an illusion. Human mind is capable of projecting all kinds of images and illusions. A husband who suspects his wife of infidelity may “see” her sleeping with another man. In one recorded instance, “the other man” happened to be their own son who had returned from abroad.

The sensory organ - the skin - is full of hundreds of thousands of receptors, when you touch someone or something, you feel the sensation of hardness or softness, heat or cold. Some regions of the skin are so sensitive that we feel even a drop of rain water or a puff of air.

Scientists have found that even sound can produce a wide range of skin sensations. For instance, when you listen to your favourite song or piece of instrumental music, you feel liberated. You feel it in the skin. Those who prefer loud music feel the intensity of sound waves striking the skin.

Some people are so obsessed with touching that they carry some item such as a string of beads in their pockets. Those who meditate can be seen counting the beads one by one. This is supposed to be a good exercise in building up your concentration powers.

Meanwhile, the soles of our feet are also extremely sensitive. In order to experience the sensation, remove your shoes and walk on the grass early in the morning. Once I met an Indian sadhu who preferred to walk barefooted. I asked him why he did not wear shoes or even a pair of slippers.

What he said was quite interesting. “I am a child of the earth. If I wear shoes, I will be disgracing my mother earth. “He had a point but we simply cannot walk barefooted for obvious reasons. However, we can refrain from wearing shoes or slippers when we are relaxing at home.

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum is one place where visitors are allowed to touch and handle the objects on display. Michael Cohn, the museum’s senior instructor of anthropology says, “If they can’t touch the things, it might as well be a movie or TV show”.

This is food for thought if you are planning to hold an exhibition of sculpture.

Tel: 038 2238338