"Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch...our five senses connect us to the world around us. Consider the fact that we can hear sounds from a distance and see things at an even greater distance, but to feel and touch things we must get closer and closer to them, and to taste them we must even put them in our mouth. So the five senses can be classified. Hearing and sight leave human beings freer, while smell, touch, and taste tend to ensnare them, because they require them to come closer to objects and other beings.
But it is often the case that the higher senses - sight and hearing - lead people to the lower senses. Yes, eyes and ears try their utmost to sign contracts with the nose, the mouth, and the hands! A man marvels at the beauty of a woman, at the sound of her voice...Will he be satisfied merely to look at her and listen to her? He will not rest until he can get closer to her and breathe her perfume, caress her, and embrace her. But a spiritualist knows that he can break this contract, that if at times he resists approaching people and things in order to feel, taste, and touch them, he will make greater contact with their subtle being by means of his ears and eyes, and he will be freer."