Reading through hundreds of forum posts I’m intrigued by what appears to be two schools of thought on mone-related attraction.
The broad consensus appears to be that mones merely bring out an attraction that is already there in some form. That they merely act as a turbo-booster or disinhibitor for feelings that already exist.
Then there are observations that pop up saying that the mones took someone from being an (at best) average looking nobody into bed with a beautiful woman. I am especially taken by a 2006 post from a woman who said she was surprised that a physically unattractive man could flick her ‘do me now’ switch just by standing next to her.
My theory, for what it’s worth, is that we all have buried layers of attraction that are quite unconscious, the same place that mones plug into. We may unconsciously sense when someone could be a great lover/have good genes/complementary immune system and this may fly in the face of our rational mind and circumstances.
However, if true this theory takes us to the grey area of the power of pheromones to disrupt everyday life. And the limits of that will vary wildly depending on a host of complex interacting factors well beyond the limits of this post.
I personally disagree here, mones create feelings that wouldn’t be there otherwise, but if you are an unattractive person it still won’t help much. Mones do their own thing, but are useless without YOU. Women for example have a critical moment, a second at most, where they decide if they want to give a man a chance (in a sexual way) or not. Mones can help with that critical moment. If you’re a boring person, she will still reject you.
I think that you’re overvalueing looks. You seem to measure somebody’s attraction by his looks. And that’s why you’re confused when a not so gorgeous looking guy dates a model. Attraction felt by females to males goes way beyond looks, looks have their own important role but aren’t as important as you think.
The system sensing the mones is directly connected to nerves/brain thus can cause emotions to pop up and influence the thought of the other person. It’s not the same system that selects potential mates, as that is the brain’s subconscious “program”. That “program” also evaluates whether the mone signature of the other person is good or not.
Yes, we do sense when somebody is a potential lover and/or has good genes, but that is neither solely decided by looks nor by mones. There’s more playing into it, like you subconsciously analysing body language and environment.
Thanks for the reply Mysterion. I think we actually agree to some degree on the relative importance of appearance for women. Male attractiveness for a woman is a complex, subtle and variable thing. However, in the example offered I was struck by how the woman herself was surprised to feel attracted to one average-looking guy over another. In her case she put it down to pheromones and if true it is relevant to the point.
Thanks for the clarification on how pheromones are received by the brain - that’s new information for me.
Well many women have no idea why they feel attracted. Easy to think it was mones. Maybe they played their part, maybe not. But don’t give that statement too much importance, it simply says that she the cause of her attraction wasnt the looks, but another factor. There’s a dozen other factors. Not only mones.
Oh, I agree there. The question of attraction and mones has been bugging me since I first found this site though, perhaps I’ll settle on there being a subtle, ambiguous answer.
I tell you, I’ve had some experiments of late that have caused me to throw out many of my assumptions about mones. “You can’t wear 20 mcg of -eNone.” Mix it with TAC, and you Can. Women go wild for it. “You have to have a cover scent.” Not really. “It’s like kicking a puppy.” No, women treat you like a puppy sort of. Men generally ignore it. “It’s 20% mones, 80% you.” No, it’s 50% mones, if you get them right.
Men are more visual then women when it comes to attraction. Women are more emotional when it comes to attraction. Sure looks may get our attention but they wont keep it. Its more about the way you make us feel then about how you look. I am not surprised by her post and her observation. Keep in mind although she felt those feeling she didn’t act on them which pretty much proves there is more to attraction then mones alone. It takes more then just arousal to move a women to sex.
Your theory is not far off at all. we do have senses in our subconscious and they are triggered by different cues, pheromones being one of those cues. If pheromones were the only cue we would all be banging like animals in heat out of pure instinct. However we are humans not animals. Logical, thinking creatures and pheromones will not erase what’s in our consciousness. They will not make us forget our likes, dislikes, wants, needs or preferences. Using them simply gives you an edge. They make us hear those subconscious cues as well as the conscious ones giving the user a chance to express their potential.
I don’t think they can disrupt everyday life. They stop and make you notice it though. Make you look beyond the surface and see more then what we were conditioned to believe is attractive. They make you feel more and sense more but they can not make you do something your not willing or wanting to do. They cant make you see something that is not there.
Thank you Tisha, I know you have dealt with the same question put differently many times over the years. I like your observation that mones stop and make us notice life, very neatly put.
I’m still curious about the potential of mones disrupt everyday life if that everyday life is more powerfully conditioned than 21st Century USA or UK. For instance in a repressive social environment would the repression always win?
Sure. A society where it is not permissable/generally acceptable for women to talk to or show any interest in men outside the home. Saudi Arabia for instance.
Would the social conventions be so powerful as to cause the impact of mones to always be repressed - ie the effect is still felt but not acted upon?
Obviously a difficult question to give a blanket answer to, for which my apologies
Yes attraction and arousal still occurs for Saudi women. There hormones and thus their pheromones are not repressed. They still feel it. They just don’t express those feeling because of their culture and the fear instilled in them to do so.
Think of it this way. Suppose a person is beaten since childhood but they don’t cry or yell out because they know the beating will be worse if they did. Does that mean they don’t feel it ? Of course they do. Repression doesn’t change your feelings it changes your response to those feelings.
I think it’s important to look at the effects of different mones when asking how much mones affect attraction. I agree with Tisha about mones not making you do things you don’t want to do, but I think mones can make you get the urge to do something that you might otherwise not have the urge to do, feel things that you might otherwise not feel.
Not only mones.
