Third Eye on the Prize
Third Eye on the Prize is a poetic, grounded podcast for people willing to stay present when life's waters get choppy.
Hosted by writer and artist Debra Sansone, the show explores presence not as a concept, but as a lived practice under pressure: in moments of unexpected change, parenting, relationship, grief, intuition...even collapse.
These episodes don't aim to soothe or bypass discomfort, but to stay with it long enough for something honest to emerge.
Drawing on storytelling, spiritual inquiry, and embodied attention, Third Eye on the Prize questions easy narratives and spiritual shortcuts, inviting listeners into deeper contact with themselves and the world as it is - messy, intelligent, and alive.
Taking a look at the turbulence happening in the world right now through the lens of presence.
As always: keep your third eye on the prize, and remember, truth is beyond belief.
Third Eye on the Prize
There's No Taste, Touch, or Smell Online
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The online world privileges sight and hearing while neglecting smell, taste, and touch—and that imbalance may affect us more deeply than we realize.
We spend hours each day working, learning, communicating, and being entertained through screens. But what happens when much of our experience is filtered through only two of our five senses?
In this episode, we explore the profound role our senses play in helping us feel grounded, connected, creative, and fully alive. Drawing from neuroscience, embodied experience, and the chakra system, we'll consider how smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing each contribute to our well-being—and what may be lost when some of them are underutilized.
From the scent of a pine forest to the warmth of a hug, from the taste of a nourishing meal to the feel of grass beneath your feet, this is an invitation to step out of the head and back into the body.
Because being alive is a full-sensory experience.
🌿 Stay Connected
💌 Share your reflections: info@thirdeyeontheprize.com
🌐 Explore more at: https://www.thirdeyeontheprize.com/joinme
🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/third-eye-on-the-prize/id1839927637
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3sE2FureJVUfsYuchJ3zgg
🎥 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thirdeyeontheprize
💌 If this episode spoke to you, share it with a friend, leave a review, or send me a note—I’d love to hear how these conversations land in your life.
These days we have two versions of experience IRL in real life and online. Not telling you anything you don't know. But it's safe to say the online part has probably expanded for you, especially since COVID, right? We spend a lot of time on the internet, by some accounts, six or seven hours a day and do a lot of useful things there. But I want to explore some of the profound effects on the body and the nervous system. We evolved from animals. Observe your cat or dog. It's clear the most primary sense for them is smell. It's how they explore the world and gather information in order to make smart decisions. They're constantly sniffing things. Anytime something different enters into our living space, something I bought and brought in, or even something moved to a different spot than it was before, my cat immediately checks it out with her nose. I'm sure. Okay, fine. You might be thinking, well, what does that have to do with me? Well, I want to talk about the online experience as it relates to our senses. We have evolved to have five senses. Our nervous system depends on multi-sensory integration. The brain combines and processes signals from all the senses to create a clear, unified picture of our environment. And there are several ways imbalance can happen. When we're relying too much on only a few senses for extended periods of time. Like when we're online and we're only using sight and hearing. The other senses, smell, taste, and touch are deeply wired to the limbic system, which controls emotion and memory. When those senses are deprived, sight and sound can become hyperreactive. This could relate to how vulnerable some people are, especially young and neurodivergent people, to overstimulation online, leading to mental health problems like depression, anxiety. Touch also includes our body's awareness of its position in space, which is critical for balance and movement. So I hope you'll humor me because I want to relate this to the chakra system. Some of you are already familiar with chakras, but for those who aren't, there are important subtle energy centers in the body. The disciplines of yoga, acupuncture, tai chi, energy healing, all grounded in an awareness of the ways that energy works and flows or is blocked in the body. And within the human body, each of the five main chakras corresponds to one of the senses. There are other chakras too, below and above the body, but it gets pretty intricate. So for now let's just talk about these five. The root or first chakra is at the base of the spine, corresponds to the sense of smell. It's primal, relates to safety, sense of security in the world. Its element is earth, its color red. Imagine you're an infant. Is someone taking care of you? Are you being fed and held lovingly? Is someone keeping you warm and safe? These are the basis of good, solid root chakra energy. Feeling grounded and rooted. But there's no smell online. You can spend an entire day connected to hundreds of people. You see them, you hear them, but never once engage the sense most tied to grounding and survival. The second chakra, and these move in an upward direction through the body, is in the sexual center of reproduction and the creative center. This chakra corresponds to the sense of taste. Its element is water, its color orange. It makes perfect sense that the force that creates life itself is also connected to the energy that creates anything. Art, scientific discoveries, innovation, inventions, breakthroughs. Creative energy is a rich and abundant and savory like the sense of taste, flowing like water. Moving up through the system, the third chakra at the solar plexus or diaphragm is where we hold our sense of agency in the world, sometimes called the battery or power center of the entire organism. This is where life force energy or prana is stored and regulated, giving us fuel for digestion and the motivation to accomplish things. The corresponding sense of the third chakra is sight. Its element is fire in the color yellow. Heat, spark, ignition. Healthy third chakra energy means we have confidence and autonomy. But it can also be where ego energy gets stuck if we're overly attached to separateness and our individuality. The visual system is one of the most energy-demanding parts of the brain. Early in pregnancy, maybe around week four, brain tissue begins to form two optic nerves. The eyes are literally part of the central nervous system. It makes sense that we rely so much on sight. But excessive time on devices doesn't just create eye strain. It can really knock us out of balance. Continuing to move up the chakra ladder, we come to the fourth or heart center. The corresponding sense of this chakra is touch. Its element is air, its color green. Of course, we also associate the heart with love. Love is so often expressed through touch. Hugs, embraces, caresses. We feel each other's warm-bloodedness and life energy. It's the most natural impulse to comfort a friend with an arm around the shoulder. Perhaps that's why loneliness can persist even when we're constantly connected online. The real life component is missing. But with your head on another's chest, you feel their warmth and hear their heartbeat. Touch is central to the connectedness and love a mother or father feels holding their baby. And both air and love are boundless. They want to expand outward. Next up is the fifth chakra, in the throat, the seat of communication. Speech and language are central, of course, in conveying thoughts and feelings to others. But this chakra is also about speaking one's truth, about self-expression, finding my unique voice, and listening as well as speaking. The power of sound vibration. The corresponding sense for the throat chakra is hearing. Its element is sky, its color blue, especially a light or luminous blue. Sky is sometimes referred to as ether or space. The Sanskrit word is akasha, the open expanse that allows everything else to exist and pass through it. So if smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing are not just biological functions, but kind of gateways into dimensions of experience. What happens when day after day we engage only two of them? You're on a Zoom group call, it's cool, everybody's excited, commenting on the chat, posting a zillion emojis, all the hearts flying up the screen. It's not a substitute for actual touch. Every morning my cat jumps on the bed and sits on my chest. I scratch her under the neck, stroke her, and she purrs. There's no virtual substitute for that. So before reaching for another screen, just ask yourself this question. Today, what senses have I neglected? Have I smelled the earth after rain? Have I savored the taste of something delicious? Have I felt another living being? Listened to birds instead of notifications, gotten out of my head into my body. Being alive is a full sensory experience. The online world will still be there when you return to it. But this moment, this body, this breath, this living world only exists here and now. As always, thank you for listening. Until next time, keep your third eye on the prize, and remember, truth is beyond belief.
