Does anyone have the slightest speculation on what’s responsible for the supposed “purification” result wherein you stop smelling? I’ve read in the past about ascetics wearing the same blanket for thirty years without washing it, yet it smells like roses. I always figured that was just superstition. And suddenly I’ve noticed that I can’t tell clean clothes from dirty by sniffing them anymore (I’ve had others verify, so it’s not just my sense of smell). Even after super hot, highly exertive days.
Everything else that’s happened physiologically as a result of yoga I can sort of wrap my mind around with rational explanation. This I can’t. Smelly sweat is from bacteria, not from me personally. Why should yoga practices make my native microbes less smelly?
This is just weird. And I don’t feel particularly pure (though kundalini is flowing free and pretty unobstructed).
I’m not looking for mythological riffs from the yogic literature. I’d love to hear some left brained scientific suggestions.
body smells go away when you flush out toxins and eat less. liquid toxins are flushed out with water, and solid toxins are flushed out with veggies, pref. raw.
Meat and other animal products cause odors because they digest slowly.
I would expect spiritual purification would cause you to eat better.
Also the less stress you have, the less smells you have.
Of course there’s likely a spiritual side too.
May I take a shot:
Odour = toxins broken down by bacteria
Less toxins = less bacterial activity = less odour
Which is what Etherfish is saying anyways. But I like looking at skeletal formulae. 
I"m eating tons of meat and fried foods.
oh Jim. I thought you were having a vacation with your Karma 
. the forum has been too quiet without you.
Do you know some chemisty or medical students, or any university students that can eventually take your sweat into the lab? If what you are claiming is very extreme, like no smell even after you wear the cloths for 10 days, then there are something worth investigating. Try. You may help yoga enter into the focus of scientists!! But before then, any explanation are unlikely to be very reliable.
If this is difficult for you, try this next time you go to vacation with your Karma , especially to hotter places like india; bring only 1 or 2 set of clothes; and see how your companion response. The weather of United States is too nice for anyone to sweat too much.
Hi Jim
I can’t help you scientifically - but I can tell you that I stopped using deodorants a couple of years ago.
When relaxed and on a diet that I naturally “want” I smell nothing. But the instant I stress…“perform”…“impress”…or “improve” (which, come to think of it always implies fear) it deposits itself in my sweat. I have watched it. It is consistant.
The diet varies. I simply listen to my body, one day it wants only veggies, at other times it eats chicken, fish and shellfish or whatever. The only thing I always feel a natural…not aversion, but rather total disinterest in…is alcohol in any way. I used to drink beer and wine (only a glass or two a week), but not for the last two years. I drink water and tea.
I also used to have acne on my back. It cleared two years ago. If one or two comes back - it is always in connection with stress (as described above).
My theory (completely unscientific 
) - is that the Prana that flows through the body burns away the “litter” before it reaches the sweat. The more prana; the less smell.
That’s about it…
It’s good to be back from summer holiday!
Katherine, I"m still impressing and obsessing plenty. And fear creeps in between AYP sessions. But no smell. Plenty prana, though. Tons of it. But “wrong thoughts” don’t have a cause/effect re: my yoga. Rather, it’s the other way around. The yoga changes the thoughts, rather than thoughts changing the yoga. Anyway, the presence of - or type of - thoughts don’t matter, because while the engine may or may not race, the transmission is in neutral, so that engine ain’t driving the car. I care less and less what my mind’s doing.
And, Alvin, I just moved to a fourth floor walk-up apartment in 98 degree heat. Five hours of backbreaking labor that left my clothes drenched with sweat. All clothes smell like they’ve just been washed. It’s freaky.
Listen, don’t get me wrong. I’m doing pretty well with the yoga thing. The grasping and recoiling are getting more and more insubstantial. But they’re definitely there, no question. Sainthood isn’t even on the horizon (and I still dont’ taste nectar or feel jewels in my stomach or see others as sharing my identical stillness). But even if it was, why on earth would that affect the bacteria in my nooks and crevices?
I have a biochemist friend I’ll ask…
Jim & K (Katrine, not Karma),
While I’m not in the right frame of mind to hobnob with bacteria at this moment, I am with Katrine… stopped using perfumes altogether some five years ago… now I feel sick as several dogs when I smell them on others. But I do use an odorless stick now and then… (suddenly getting a brainwave) maybe the bacteria don’t like the vibration and temperature change. How 'bout that Jim? That sounds reasonably scientific.
Great. But I guess what he finds out may be: “oh, your sweat is very dilute. How come?” In other words, you can find out how the sweat content has changed in the lab, but it’s very hard to know the changes in your body that cause it. Of course, the sweat content is still worth knowing.
It sounds like you’re having a good progress, anyway. The smell of my sweat has changed over the years too; and it’s still oscillating, probably according to my diet, stress level, etc.
A bit off the topic here: Jim, I’ve learnt that you had quite dramatic energy symptoms before, so you’re probably experienced in dealing with that. Can you give some comments on my problem on
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1381
concerning the pressure in the forehead? People here don’t seems to have this problem. It’s not causing me troubles. It’s just that I want to know what it means, and how I can ease it a bit without slowing my progress down.
Alvin, I don’t usually try to understand problems like that. I just use them as evidence that I need to self pace. Do less, remove the last practice you added. Just sounds like too much too soon.
Not to pry, but pee on a ph thingy and tell us what it looks like.
where do I get a ph thingy?
biochemist friend was stumped, btw.
Jim,
I have the same situation as you describe. I stopped wearing deodorant a while ago (I do rub a large smooth chunk of mineral salt under the arms after showering though). I sweat profusely while doing yard work and such but I cannot remember the last time that I smelled from sweat. I eat a mainly organic diet and just figured that was part of it.
Paul
I’ve had similar experiences and so has a friend of mine. I distinctly remember him years ago after a folk dance in the summer taking a stunned sniff of his T-shirt.
Jim, you were wondering about the possible science of this. I think it is just that the body starts to put out sweat that is very low in the fatty acids that lead to the smell. And that very pure perspiration in turn, may be due to the very low stress.
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget…
Welcome to the Hotel AYP,
Such a lovely place, such a lovely face
litmus paper. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve been told that the best litmus paper is the kind designed to focus on the ph range of peepee and saliva. I learned about it in Green For Life by Boutenko who advocates people eating more greens and using ph paper to make sure that the body is alkaline enough. Also, for the saliva to be alkaline the mineral balance of the body needs to be adequately high.
That’s about all I know on the subject of acid vs alkaline with some diets and body types–if they get too acidic the body takes calcium from the bones to buffer the situation and you run into a mineral deficit.
Maybe it’s all Internet babble for all I know, but I’m inclined to believe it. I think I read from the Bragg books of the alkaline link to smelling nice.
Most people can adjust their mineral balance through diet, but maybe your body type and or de-stressing via practice has helped your body function differently.
“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”
“Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air”
OK, you guys got the good lines.
ha ha wikipedia quotes Don Henley as saying it refers to a desert flower, but they can’t figure it out because coleus is the closest flower name. Common knowledge: colitas means tails in spanish and is dope culture slang for long buds that look like tails. Unless maybe he had left over lobster from a restaurant on his lap. Of course that would imply unusual hunger. . .
Yes alkalinity is supposed to be very good for everything in the body, including a robust immune system. But if you eat tons of meat, you’re more likely to be acidic. unless prana does something to body ph.
sometimes I like mineralized bottled water because it tastes great. I like Evian, Aquafina, and a cheap one is Nestle’s new “Pure Life”, for mineral taste.
Estherfish,
Prisoners of our own device was still available, but you had to cut to the unsolved mysteries of the song I suppose. Thanks for throwing in the wikipedia and giving us something to consider! Anybody wiki-ed for yoga practices? Maybe someone could throw a link to Hotel AYP.
-Yoda
“and still those voices are calling from far away… wake you up in the middle of the night… just to hear them say”
hehe had to add that
Also… you can purchase the ph stripes at most nutrition/health stores or online.