Lilac Smell

[Wings of Selkhet]

On Sunday (mother's day), my mother and I were walking in the woods. We decided to take a trail we'd never taken before, and we ended up on it for two hours, because it turned out to be a lot longer than we thought it was. We had no idea where we were going to end up. After about an hour, we both started to smell lilacs. The scent was really strong. We thought there must be a lilac tree around, so we looked on the trail and off the trail, but we couldn't find one, let alone any trees or flowers that gave off a scent. We thought nothing of it and moved on, but when we finally came out of the woods, we realized that the trail we had taken ran past two cemeteries and a monastery. We told my grandmother about the lilac scent, and she said she was convinced it came from a "spirit" in one of the cemeteries. The cemeteries were actually incredibly full; there must've been a lot of people visiting their female relatives on mother's day. Cars actually waited in line to enter.

I'm perfectly convinced that there's a logical explanation behind this , and I don't believe in ghosts or paranormal activity at all, but I just thought I'd share anyway, because it's kind of spooky.

[ForRizzle]

All the fresh cut flowers people brought to the graves on Mothers day..

[Hoagy]

smell is probably one of the most common reported 'phenomena'.

I know someone who smelt roses, her grandmothers favorite scent, when she was in a rough time in her life. You can either take it as a 'spirit', or as I think, that it's more of some kind of auto-reaction to maybe comfort you in someway by reminding you of something familiar.

[coldethyl]

All the fresh cut flowers people brought to the graves on Mothers day.. 

616854[/snapback]

that's the first thing i thought of too.

[AnimangaBloodThorn]

Smells are common in the spirit realm, I smell weird things sometimes and my mother swears she smells her father's aftershave when there is none in the house.

But, since you were so close to a graveyard and there were so many people visiting, it may have just been the flowers and perfumes.

[DEATHBOT 2000]

Sometimes I smell something that reminds me of a holiday, or even an ex-girlfriend! There's no reason for it, the smell just seems to come from nowhere.

It seems like the brain has the ability to create 'smell' memories, the same way it does audio or visual memories. Maybe we as humans just haven't got the hang of controlling and being able to conciously access these memories, and our brain is just letting out information at random.

[henpeck69]

I think you were smelling fresh cut flowers or someone there had on lilac perfume. But it is odd, isn't it?

[Tia]

It's odd that you would smell the flowers but not have seen the cemetary.

[Amalgamut]

smell is the strongest sense tied to memory.

[Elfstone810]

Yes, I've heard that if a naked man runs past you wearing a strong cologne, what you'll actually remember is the cologne. Not that I've ever had a naked man run past me so I could see.

[Amalgamut]

Yes, I've heard that if a naked man runs past you wearing a strong cologne, what you'll actually remember is the cologne.  Not that I've ever had a naked man run past me so I could see.

618012[/snapback]

We can always arrange that for you.

[Method]

Its what you precieve it as.

[coldethyl]

Yes, I've heard that if a naked man runs past you wearing a strong cologne, what you'll actually remember is the cologne.  Not that I've ever had a naked man run past me so I could see.

618012[/snapback]

i think there needs to be way more naked men running past me.

[NME_locus]

Man, i'll smell weird random things a lot. it always puts me in alert mode. like for instance, i'll smell a scent of something and then it's gone when there's no breeze, or smell perfume when there's no one around like say a empty house. I believe it's an indication. should i be talking to a shrink?

Edited May 12, 2005 by NME_locus

[coldethyl]

well smells can trigger memories so i don't see why it can't be the other way around as well.

[Ghost-lover312]

I smell odd things all the time that shouldn't be there. Like one of my old teachers used to wear this (nasty) colonge(can't spell) stuff and the other day I smelled it just out of the blue. I want a naked man to run past me.... jk

[dariaru05]

I saw a naked guy run past me back in college. I can't tell you what he looked like or smelled like. All I remember is that he must have been cold. (it was 28 degrees F that night.)

[Amblinman]

Certain smells can induce emotions such as an unexplainable feeling of happiness and well-being even if you can't exactly remember the connection. I get an eerie feeling of euphoria every time I go into a library and smell the scent of old books and paper. I have no idea why.