The Phantom Touch

I am inclined to believe that it is not just one's brain that has a memory, but that other areas of your body can remember and voluntarily relive sensations as well. I say this because why otherwise do I still feel the 'Phantom Touch' of a hand placed at my waist as if his is there right now?  I am not actively trying to remember the feeling, have no intention to relive it, but the sensation remains.

Is there something in your body, your skin, that voluntarily remembers and relives sensual contact, and if so, why does it linger after some people's touch and not for others?

I recall an article that stated that your brain will record events in your long term memory that are either life threatening, shocking, or physically stressful. The scientists conducted a test to see if a person would better remember information if they were first told it while their hand was submerged in icy water. A control group was told the same information, but had their hands submerged in luke warm water.  In the end, the group that had their hands in icy water retained the information for far longer than the control group did.  This can certainly be understood as a survival mechanism (Self: fire = bad, don't forget), but how interesting is it that this long term memory could also applied to a pleasurable and emotionally linked event. Could a light touch from your loved one can be as important to survival and thus be stored just as long as something life threatening?

If any of you have ever been away from your loved ones for a long time, a spouse or significant other, maybe you will know what I am referring to.  Six months ago she touched your thigh, 4 days ago he held your waist, a year ago she ran her fingers across your neck, yesterday he kissed your hand.... and yet now you get the shivers as your skin itself chooses to relive the sensations.  The emotional uprising that that person excited out of you may linger on your skin for days, weeks, even years in your skin's 'memory'.  Alternatively, say a man bumps into you on the busy subway... you would just brush it off and may not even remember the feeling by the time you get to the office. Thus, I choose to apply the rationale that one will not store in memory a sensation derived from a person with no strong emotional value.  You will forget the sensation of the subway man's jolt, but retain your lover's hair gracing your fingertips.

I haven't done any true 'tests' to prove this hypothesis, but I can testify from personal experience that I can still feel the 'Phantom Touch' of those whom I care for as if they are touching me right now. Why the feeling comes and goes at seemingly its own 'will', I don't know. Maybe for me its a way of surviving the separation from them (survival mechanism?), or maybe its just my imagination gone wild, but either way it gives me a smile on my face and warmth in my heart to feel it.

Can you feel anyone's Phantom Touch?