We are constantly bombarded with stimulae. Sounds, smells, lights and colours. Textures and tastes. So much so that, the only way to appreciate any of them is either to learn how to block them all and focus on one at a time, or have someone doing it for us. How?

Sensory deprivation results in enhanced awareness, and with it, the rediscovery of sensorial pleasure. Picture the scene:

A blind is covering your eyes, your hands and maybe the rest of your body is restrained, tied up. The room is mostly silent. You can still hear the sound of traffic outside, but that is gray noise that your brain will deal with easily and eventually block it. A candle burns in the room, creating a constant in your nose, a calming sense that you will soon embrace and block, as well as the constant texture of the mask over your eyes, the rope around your wrists, or the bedsheets under your body. They will all fade.

Then, as your senses adapt to the new reality, unable to see or move, surrounded by grey noises and smells, sensorially deprived to an extent, you will provably try to rely on your ears to know what's going on. You may hear, as a whisper, the way I move in the room, around you, trying to guess where I am and what I will do. But then, something cold is touching the side of your leg, slowly and very lightly running along your leg towards your hips, without sound. What is it? A finger? My lips? One of those forks and knives I carefully arranged next to the bed before covering your eyes?

Your heart starts to beat fast. You try to use your limited senses, your hearing and your tact, to make up the scene, to understand what is going on. You jumped in surprised when something touches your lips lightly. What was it? Lick your lips, try to taste whatever that brief touch may have left behind ...

If you have never tried, you will be amazed by the way your body will react ...