Broadcasts from Deep Space 002: Capsaicin

“I crushed the Paqui 2022 One Chip Challenge”, or so the strip of paper stuck to my bedroom wall says. A few days ago, my childhood best friend and I attempted the infamous challenge. If you’ve somehow missed the craze, Paqui’s “One Chip Challenge” is a package containing a single chip, dusted in Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers. To keep it brief, it hurt. Yes, the chip did not disappoint in its promise to incinerate our mouths, and as my friend and I suffered through the combustion of our remaining taste buds, one thought kept coming back to me: why the hell am I doing this? Not that I regretted doing it; quite the opposite, actually. Despite the searing pain, I never wished I hadn’t eaten the chip. Rather, I wanted to understand why myself, and so many others, enjoy the experience. On the surface, it doesn’t make much sense. Capsaicin, the molecule that causes the ~spicy~ sensation, was evolved by many plants as a defense mechanism to stop animals from eating them. Yet, humans can’t get enough of it.

Recently, I was having a conversation with someone, and we got onto the topic of roller coasters. Just wait one minute, I promise this is relevant. I told him that I loved roller coasters and thrill rides, and he quickly expressed the polar opinion. Of course, I immediately asked him why. Motion sickness. Fair enough. He then asked me why I like them so much. I thought for a few seconds before I gave my response. “They force you to feel something.” There is sometimes nothing more painful than to feel that you don’t exist. When you’re flying through the air at 100 miles per hour on a giant metal contraption, you most certainly exist. You might exist more in that moment than you ever have in your entire life. Or perhaps, you exist most when your tongue and cheek cells are being sizzled off. See, I told you it would connect back. Yes, capsaicin and spicy food are just another way for us to force ourselves to feel something. When your mouth is burning, there’s no way to not feel it. You embrace the experience and have it for the sake of having it, even if the chances are you will be done with capsaicin before capsaicin is done with you.

Humans love to categorize each other, right? I wrote a whole speech on it one time. So, here’s my contribution. I think you can tell a lot about a person whether they enjoy forced experiences or not. It often comes down to whether you’re comfortable giving up some amount of control over your mind and body. When you start a movie, you have to pay at least some attention to enjoy it, and you can usually pause or rewind it at any time. However, when you, say, jump out of an airplane, there’s probably a fairly low chance that you’ll be able to focus on anything but the fact that you’re plummeting towards the earth at 150 miles per hour. Personally, I love that feeling. My brain constantly pours out an endless stream of thoughts, so to have something external force my attention towards it can be pretty refreshing. Even if that something is the erosion of my mouth tissue. So next time you see someone, ask them to jump out of a plane with you. Who knows what they’ll say.