(MADRID) -- Ready for an earthquake of the senses? Then forget a night of sex and go for a simple kiss, experts advise in Spain where kissing is in fashion.

People who regard kissing as a mere act of foreplay have learned nothing yet, the daily El Mundo admonished, stressing that ``the perfect kiss is a more intense experience than intercourse''.

Many men rush for the so-called French kiss where one person sticks his tongue into the other's mouth, but skillful kissing requires much more imagination and offers virtually endless possibilities, experts say.

Kissing releases sexual hormones, adrenaline and a substance called dopamine, all of which result in feelings of pleasure. The area of the brain which controls the mouth is larger than that which is linked to the genitals, and a kiss mobilises no less than about 30 facial muscles, according to the experts quoted by the paper.

The mouths that meet secrete chemical substances which are addictive, and we become hungry for more, scientific studies show. Men who kiss their wives when leaving for work lose less working days to illness, have less traffic accidents and live five years longer than non-kissers on the average, according to a German study quoted by the Spanish press. ``They start the day with a positive attitude,'' says Arthur Sazbo, one of the authors of the study.

One of the greatest benefits of kissing may be, that it is perceived as more of an act of love than sex is. Prostitutes often refuse to kiss their clients on the mouth while consenting to everything else, Spanish analysts say.

Kissing is also often not erotic, and can be a great expression of tenderness as in kisses given to children, older people or friends.

In the age of cybersex, kissing may become even more important because a real-life kiss is a much more sensual experience than an entire orgy of virtual sex, according to analysts. The golden rule for a good kiss is ``sincerity'', said Alonso Caparros, author of a book on kissing.

The fairy tale of a frog turning into a prince when kissed was symbolically true, Caparros says, recommending that women kiss their grumpy husbands to show that they accept them as they are.

The pleasure of kissing is thought to derive from our earliest years. Babies first go through an oral sexual phase and getting to know their environment by putting objects into their mouths.

Some experts believe that Jews invented erotic kissing in the western world. The Old Testament is the first text which is known to give thorough descriptions of it, and contains highly poetic passages about the pleasures of kissing.

The homosexual kiss was first mentioned in Greek texts. None of the ancient authors worried about catching a disease through a kiss, and there is little reason to worry even now, doctors say.

You may not want to give a meningitis patient a prolonged French kiss, Madrid physician Albuquerque Sacristan advises. But the amount of saliva exchanged is usually not sufficient to transmit viruses, and nobody is known to have caught AIDS through a kiss. ``The kiss offers endless possibilities, positions, types of kiss and spots to kiss,'' Caparros says.

The requirements for a successful kiss are ``the four p's: patience, passion, parsimony and an adequate pressure'', he advised. It is worth practising, but the art of kissing is even more subtle than that, Caparros said. ``There is also the pleasure of the kiss of innocence, the one given to someone who is being kissed for the first time.'' (DPA)