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52 Deception at Work

We often pay too little regard to the importance of smell and its impact on the subcon-
scious. The Greek Orthodox Church incorporates all five senses into its services, including
the burning of incense. Aromatherapy was first practised by the ancient Egyptians and there
is a strong connection between the impact of smell and memory.13

DEBT COLLECTION AGENCY

A London debt collection agency sprays men’s armpits14 to warn away others, but it
demanding letters with a clear non-smelling improved debt recovery by over 17 per cent.
solution of the pheromone andosterone. The trouble is, pigs like pheromones and eat
This odourless stuff is normally emitted from the letters and women find them a turn-on.

DEJA VU subconscious, triggering memory and an
inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Some scientists believe that déjà vu is a
phenomenon where a smell too faint to
be consciously recognized registers in the

KEYBOARD ERRORS smell-proof rooms and wore clouded
goggles and earplugs so that they were
When the odour of jasmine or lemon was forced to concentrate on the smells provided
diffused into a room, keyboard errors fell by to them. While they sniffed away, their
30 per cent. According to research by Neil brain activity was monitored. Chocolate
Martin of Middlesex University, smell has a consistently suppressed theta waves,
significant effect on the way people behave. making it more difficult for the subject to
Subjects were asked to smell a number of concentrate or carry out complex tasks.
odours including chocolate, spearmint,
coffee, almond, strawberry, baked beans,
rotting pork and garlic. They sat in special

The human brain is truly amazing: some people are able to speak in reverse and to decipher
a tape recording played backwards. The subconscious also reacts to what are called ‘embed-
ded commands‘, and these are very important. They can be considered an adjunct to neuro-
linguistic programming.

DON’T SPILL THAT! critter and deserved a smack round the
ear. You could be right, but chances are his
When Johnny walked across your new carpet subconscious recognized the embedded
carrying an overfull bowl of mulligatawny command ‘spill that ’, which is precisely what
soup and you told him, ‘Don’t spill that’, he did.
that is exactly what he did. Until now, you
probably thought he was a careless little

If you are not convinced about embedded commands, let’s look at another example:

13 Aroma processing is wired directly into the limbic system, where much memory is stored and emotion resides
14 Don’t ask how the chemical is collected