In this article, published in the New Yorker, Maria Konnikova looks at the powerful effect touch has on human development and wellbeing, including increasing immunity. Read the full article here.

By identifying the brain activity that gives rise to the heightened awareness and sense of agency in lucid dreams, neuroscientists and psychologists hope to answer fundamental questions about the nature of human consciousness, including our apparently unique capacity for self-awareness. In this article in the Guardian, David Robson discusses lucid dreaming and the current research [...]

Two researchers who discovered the molecular basis for our ability to sense temperature and touch have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. David Julius’s and Ardem Patapoutian’s discoveries provide crucial links between external stimuli — such as temperature or touch — and the electrical signals that drive nervous-system responses. They were looking [...]

A series of essays by massage therapists for the Massage is for EveryBody campaign run by ABMP. Subjects include experiences of working with underserved communities and other marginalized groups, helping to spread awareness of the healing potential of touch. Read more here.

In this article published in the Guardian, Elle Hunt considers some of the causes and effects of chronic stress, and what steps we may be able to take to support ourselves. Read the full article here.

Deepak Chopra discusses 'brain sync', the shared consciousness we experience when two or more minds come into alignment. Read the full article on Medium here.

There’s growing evidence that signals sent from our internal organs to the brain play a major role in regulating emotions and fending off anxiety and depression. This article by David Robson, published by the Guardian, considers the relationship between interoception and wellbeing. Read more

What are the ramifications of the lack of human contact as a result of the pandemic? There may be a tsunami of need for touch, with an increase in cases of depression by as much as three-fold, or even seven-fold according to one study. This article by Douglas Nelson, published in Massage Magazine, explores how [...]

An article by Joe Moran, published in the Guardian, notes that we have become 'skin-hungry' through social distancing, and explores the crucial role touch plays in our wellbeing. You can read the full article here (first click Read More to activate the link).

When Jacques Lusseyran was eight, he was blinded in an accident. In Nazi-occupied France in 1941, aged 17, Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty two boys, using his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually he was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters. He [...]