I'm sure this happens to us all

[cheebacheeba]

But, I'm not sure how many people talk about it, realise it's happening or consider it worthy of further thought or discussion.

This happened to me again, recently...I'm not even sure how to describe it properly.

I was walking in my hallway, and I smelled something.
Evidently, a ghost smell.
It smelled like nothing in particular, but it was kind of out of place.

I smelled it as I was walking through that hallway for a total of about one second, and towards the end of that I had just come to the realisation that what I was smelling was my grandmothers house.
Not within the last few years I saw or went to the place when she'd moved on, but circa 1988-1992.

Peoples houses have a certain smell, and I smelled that exact smell.

I wasn't thinking about the past, or anything.
I don't believe that I actually smelled the smell at all - it was like I thought the smell.
I went back into the hallway.
Nothing.
Hallway smell.

Though the strength of that tiny moment, was enough to almost time travel my brain - and now, I can't remember the smell, or even think about what it was, what it was like. I can visualise the place, but there's no smell with it.

Now, this happens infrequently to me, but there's a closely related phenomena.
Simply, when I *actually* smell a smell that strongly reminds me of something or a place/time in the same way. Family recipe, someones dirty laundry.
Most often it happens in a completely unfamiliar place.
In these cases you've got some time to ponder and reminisce.
^^
This is kind of the more common, less unsettling version of "that other thing" that I mentioned first.


As for the ghost smell/s
I kind of like it, and mourn that this thing goes by so fast.
For the same reason, it intrigues me and infuriates me akin to déjà vu
Maybe this is my madness. Maybe I have some kind of brain damage.
I don't understand how, or why this happens.
I haven't spoken about it - but when it just happened again, I started to wonder if this has happened to anyone else.

It kind of leaves me feeling a little forlorn, maybe that's too strong a word for something I do in a way enjoy...maybe just...a bit empty or something.
Melancholy.

Anyone want to weigh in here?

[hammerfan]

I've had that happen, too. Most recently in my apartment. Smelled my grandmother's perfume. Kind of freaked me out a bit.

[Jake.Ashworth]

I know exactly what your talking about. Its like for a brief moment you can forget about everything else going on in your world and settle comfortably into a nice memory. Maybe its your brain telling you that your overstressed and you need to disappear and stop thinking for a moment. I love those feelings, I love closing my eyes and just remembering the way things where when there wasn't so much going on in my life.

[ImmortalSlasher]

I think smells are very important memory triggers and help with feelings. I read that Disney is very careful with the sort of smells around their parks. Many things I recall are helped by their scent. Recently I remembered the smell of a doctor's office. Very different from hospitals. And the fear I had at getting shots.

[TheBossInTheWall]

A girl I used to know wears a perfume no longer made. Anyway her perfume, last time I saw her which was years ago, reminded me of the club Man Ray(since demolished) in Cambridge, MA. We both would go, though not as friends or what have you. I still miss the Man Ray club's general smell too. Smoke machine and some other kind of detergenty perfume smell I can't quite place.

[anglewitch]

Sometimes when I walk into house that I have never been in before I get dizzy then fall over. The same thing happens when I pull a book of a shelf in the library. I hate it when it happens. It comes unexpectedly.

[tfantasy]

I know exactly what you are talking about.

Mainly what happens to me are either premonitions or déjà vu. It's freaky, yet cool at the same time.

Example. I used to see my ex-husband with a little blonde girl playing in his backyard with a white fence. Well, he ended up remarrying, put up a white fence around his backyard, and has a daughter with blonde hair. How crazy is that??!! It only happens once in a great while.

It's very possible that our minds can do all sorts of things, look at dreams.

I do love it when a certain smell comes out of nowhere and brings back fond memories.

[anglewitch]

Originally Posted by tfantasy

I know exactly what you are talking about.

Mainly what happens to me are either premonitions or déjà vu. It's freaky, yet cool at the same time. .

That happens to me all the time.

That reminds me...

One time I drew this cartoon of two bee keepers. One of them was wearing cargo shorts and a bee had flown up his shorts and stung him in the rear. Well the next day I went up into the mountains with my boss and a guy I had never met before. We were going to rob some honey from a hive. Believe it or not the guy we were going was wearing cargo shorts, so when we opened up the hive a bee went up in his shorts and stung him in the rear.

That is why I am careful of what I draw these days.