Phantom Smells

[debadoo]

I am so curious to find some people who have either experienced this phenomonon or have at least heard of it. My mom passed away in 2004 and on my way to visit the cemetery last summer, I got a whiff of flowers next to me in the car. It wasn't just a particular flower, it was mixed scents, like exactly what you would smell going into a funeral parlor. The strange thing was there weren't any flowers around. Then the other day, as I was cleaning out my van, I got another floral smell, only not mixed like the first time it happend. Sweet smell, not of any one particular type of flower. I watch TAPS (Ghost Hunters) every now and again and this was one of the subjects they were discussing. They said that a phantom smell can be floral, cigarette smoke, perfume. Is what I am experiencing real, or is it only my immagination? I never even knew what I was dealing with until I watched this episode. Luckily for me, I just so happend to be watching t.v. for a change...

[a_blue_fish]

My friend smells cigarette smoke sometimes when no one in her house smokes. I swear I smelled a dead body randomly once. It was freaky.

Edit: Zomg. Bad grammar.

Edited May 10, 2006 by a_blue_fish

[exeller]

They said that a phantom smell can be floral, cigarette smoke, perfume.

Can it smell like anything else? Because The room in my house that I spend all my time in smells really strange, not a good smell though. It smells unlike anything else in the rest of the house, but I don't really think it's a ghost and don't really know what causes it to smell this way.

[Acenaspheru]

oh yes, it's real. whether or not it's paranormal is beyond me, but it is real. when i first moved into this house *for about a month* you would walk into perfume spots. it was rose perfume but it was like spraying it in your mouth it was so heavy. you couldn't just smell it you could taste it. then you'd walk back to where it was and it would be gone. my personal oppinion is that it was one of the previous owners trying to make sure we were good people because the people right before us trashed the place.

saying that, i have to ask is there anything in the van/car that might give off the smells? maybe someone wore heavy perfume? like the taps team says, debunk everything you can and when you've eliminated the normal, all you're left with is the paranormal...

[Captain Rachael]

In my previous house, we were living with the Ghost of a woman who had been seriously injured when the house was being built. The walk in wardrobe in my parent's room always smelt of sawdust at certain intervals during the year. Perhaps that had something to do with the haunting.

Our sense of smell is pretty weak, and it can play tricks on it - do you have a pet that notices anything strange?

[earthchick]

Yes I get phantom odours all the time. So much so that my husband and children really kid me about it. For me it can be just about any odour and doesn't always have a connection to a spirit. Sometimes it is a sort of precognitive or telepathic thing. I'll give you an example: One Saturday afternoon I was lying on my bed resting when I got a sudden, very strong odour of fish cooking. My teen girls were in the family room, so I yelled out and asked if one of them was cooking fish. They weren't cooking anything and they couldn't smell it either, even though to me it seemed to be permeating my bedroom. About an hour or so later the phone rang and I answered it myself. My parents are fishing enthusiasts and my mother gets really excited when she catches a good fish. She called to tell me she had caught a really big lovely trout and it was in the oven cooking. She bragged that it was so big they'd be eating it for several meals. After I got off the phone the phantom odour was gone.

Cigarette smoke, burning paper, flowers, perfume, the scent of decaying leaves on an autumn day, crayons, paint..........I've smelled them all and more, and they usually end up being connected to something that is either happening right then or is about to happen.

Some odours though, have to be connected to a spirit. For instance, I often smell pipe tobacco, but I don't know anyone who smokes a pipe anymore. My grandfather used to though.

On the whole, I have an extremely strong sense of smell anyway (for non-phantom odours). I can often pick up on scents that others can't, such as the very faint scent of perfume from someone who had been in a room hours ago. I often wonder if that might be the reason why my sense of smell has become part of my tiny abilities.

[Reincarnated]

whoever smelt it, dealt it, stop blaming the ghosts

[dekra]

Yup, it happened to me a lot of times... I could smell the flower jasmine, the scent of burning candles, perfume and cigarette... I know it was my grandfather who passed away last March 1987... The last time it happened was in January of this year, on the day of my wedding... I smelled a candle burning and cigarettes in my hotel room even if I am the only one there and its a non-smoking room

[distortedpandy]

I swear I smelled a dead body randomly once.

and how do you know what a dead body smells like?

As skeptic as I am, I will admit to smelling randomly out of no where, cigar smoke, jasmine, heavy perfume and lilies, which always remind me of death.

[ShadowDancer]

my husband was holding his dearest grandmother's (very precious) bible during a very stressful moment, he was asking her for help. An overwhelming aroma filled the air...... it was her perfume. It stayed a while, then left. After that he would often smell the bible hoping for the scent again, but it didn't happen. He is sure she was with him at that moment.

[bLu3 de 3n3rgy]

Yes scents can be manifested from residual engery or spirit

[greywolf]

hi,

i have went on several investigations where no one saw anything,but smelled perfume etc.i believe a persons spirit can hold their scent.thanks

[Ferran the Skeptic]

This doesn't really apply so much, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Sometimes I catch a wiff of what I'm POSITIVE is my girlfriend. If that sent you smirking then get your mind out of the gutter. You know what I mean. People have distinct scents. I find often that when I think about her, and she is miles away, I'll catch a wiff of what I KNOW to be her.

My explanation: your mind manifests such sensations to accompany vivid thoughts. The mind can create sensations very easily. Examples: hallucinations, painful dreams, phantom limbs, and sleep paralysis.

[Taulha]

Weird, when I feel scared an I'm out by myself at night I get an arouma of vanilla, and some type of friut. It's a scent that belongs to my friend but she is very much alive. I've smelt other things that are pleasant liek that before. I could be logical memories kicking in and making you think your smelling it. But I don't know.

[earthchick]

This doesn't really apply so much, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

My explanation: your mind manifests such sensations to accompany vivid thoughts. The mind can create sensations very easily. Examples: hallucinations, painful dreams, phantom limbs, and sleep paralysis.

Yes, of course, that is quite true. But as you said, it doesn't really apply to the type of "phantom odours" we're talking about. I guess you would have to experience it to know the difference. These are not odours that come of thinking about someone or something.....as in thinking of elementary school recalls the scent of crayons. They come randomly out of the blue for the most part and cause you to wonder what on earth they could be about.

[dariaru05]

You're not alone in the phantom smells category. My first post was on this subject...

My first real boyfriend had recently died and I was very emotional. Even though 13 years had passed since the relationship ended, there was a lot of regret and unfinished business on my part.

The day after the funeral I was feeling very sad and guilty and just awful and I caught a whiff of his smell. (I know what you all mean by someone's distinct smell. I never could figure out when we were dating what this smell was exactly...Probably a combination of laundry detergent, cologne, and antiperspirant) I felt nice, like you feel when you get a big warm hug. Then, the smell went away.

I still alternate between believing this was a supernatural experience and the fellow was telling me that everything was ok,

and believing that I manufactured the odor from the recesses of my memory in the state of upset I was in.

Anyway, good luck with your smells.

Edited May 11, 2006 by dariaru05

[Taka]

This topic reminded me of something that happened to me last week, actually.

My grandmother (not exactly blood related) had passed recently and I hadn't attended her funeral or burial. That day, I'd been cleaning up a few things, just here and there really, and talking to my online friends instead.

Anyway, last week [during the evening] I swore that I smelled steak, and thought mom was cooking. My brother had told me she was going to order pizza for supper, so I was crushed...and I love Pizza Hut pizza more than any other type of food. So I was pretty sad.

However! As I was coming up the stairs to ask her why she was cooking, I noticed the smell of steak (sauce) was coming from the hall way and not the kitchen. Mom wasn't cooking, and I was so happy. Because I love Pizza Hut that much. Anyway, confused, I proceeded to tell her that the hall had a strong steak sauce smell to it.

The smell was so strong; I'll put it lightly, that it was giving me a nauseating head ache. It also lasted for several minutes, and fluctuated throughout the hallways. I tried to point it out to my mom and brother, but they could never smell it.

That’s really the only way I could describe it, that it smelled like steak sauce. I’ve not been able to figure out where it was coming from, and why it moved so quickly too. If anyone has any suggestions for keeping it at bay, or what might have caused it, I’d love to know, because I’m in no hurry to take a whiff again. D:

I've not smelled it since my brother sprayed air freshener, it was just so god-awful.

Phantom smells always fascinate me.

Edited May 11, 2006 by Taka

[KarenESP]

Hi Guys, searching this topic, found this message board and signed up. Last night, smelled acrid smell of pipe tobacco or cigar so intensely it burned my nose. Looked over to my boyfriend, a cig smoker, and asked him what funny stuff he was smoking... He said he hadn't lit up in hours and looked at me like I was loosing my mind. I went around the house checking oven, looking all over for the room mate who I found wasn't even home, sniffed outside both doors front and back in case it was someone burning something outside that just wafted into the house, found nothing. Sat back down by boyfriend quite perplexed and then smelled it again, faintly. To my relief, boyfriend smelled it too, he described faint cigar smoke and then he even got up and looked around the house a bit LOL.

Looking on the internet, I find there is a neurological condition for people smelling phantom smoke; mostly it is smoke too, not flowers or the other smells listed here. This of course does not account for the both of us smelling it. (NOTE: mostly this is just one person alone smelling phantom smoke all the time and most frequently in a car where no one has ever smoked before. This happens so frequently that it really gets on their nerves and they seek medical attention for it. Therefore this would not apply to a random phantom smell from time to time, in my humble opinion)

Long story very short, I was a paranormal investigator in the mid 90's, that worked it's way into developing myself as a medium and using EVP extensively for the benefit of the bereaved, mostly for parents who lost children, teens or young adults. I don't like the paranormal breaking into my reality when I'm not looking for it and I really don't do any of that anymore. I usually avoid the ghost hunting shows too, just to keep things calm in my life and normal vs. paranormal. The night before the phantom smoke, I had been sucked into a particularly interesting ghost hunting show on TV. I watched the whole thing. They received wonderful class A EVP voices and it was fascinating, the story behind the spiritual presence, yada yada... I couldn't turn that one off. (Mostly on those shows when they say the received a Class A voice, it's usually only a Class C or D voice - and this time, the recorded EvP voices were truly clear as a bell and amazing). I had my own website for ten years: The Underground Paranormal Stories Exchange Network - now defunct - but I don't recall many posts about phantom smells.

I almost feel like the watching of that ghost show the night before triggered a paranormal event. Also, just before the smoke yesterday, I was at work and when I opened the ladies room door - a painting had flown off the wall and landed squarely in the middle of the room. Another realtor just so happened to be right by my side when I opened the door and remarked on the improbable location of the painting in the ladies room. I brushed this off because I am stuck in this building hours alone and don't want to think that 'anything is up' here. That realtor mentioned it to yet another while I was here yesterday. This is why I avoid the ghost shows folks. LOL. (I am just writing that off to - the painting fell off it's hook for whatever reason and just "bounced" to the middle of the floor)

I am now going back to read your posts again more carefully in this forum. I have smelled flowers before - I have smelled the smell of fresh bread... no reason for these - mostly when I was actively paranormal investigating, just before or just after - but only very sporadically - maybe once a year. Nothing as pungent and well - literally as " nose burning "- as the cigar smell yesterday. Thanks for listening.

Edited August 4, 2013 by KarenESP

[KarenESP]

, it doesn't really apply to the type of "phantom odours" we're talking about. I guess you would have to experience it to know the difference. These are not odours that come of thinking about someone or something.....as in thinking of elementary school recalls the scent of crayons. They come randomly out of the blue for the most part and cause you to wonder what on earth they could be about.

This Is exactly what happened to me last night with the cigar smoke - what on earth could it be about - the only cigar smoker I know is my Uncle Wibee who had a stroke and yes is in peril - but he hasn't passed over and I sure wasn't thinking of him at the moment, although I had just gotten off the phone with his daughter hmmm..

[MrBene]

Parosmia?

http://voices.yahoo.com/smell-cigarette-smoke-even-if-nobody-around-is-5830422.html

[KarenESP]

Parosmia?

http://voices.yahoo....is-5830422.html

Yep, that's the term... but it sounds like something that annoys people all the time, like ringing in the ear, until they get treatment for it, not a once in a while thing (I didn't feel like looking it back up to get the official term, LOL)

Edited August 4, 2013 by KarenESP

[brlesq1]

When I was in college, we lived in old houses(some were 100+) instead of regular dorms. The original houses were cut up and turned into student sleeping rooms. My room's closet had an odd smell, rather unpleasant. I could tell that prior occupants of the room must have smelled it too, because the closet's interior was littered with those air fresheners that stuck on the wall (do they even make those anymore?). Anyway, I'd have maintenance come over to check out the smell, and though they smelled it, they never found the source. Later, I learned the original owner of the house had hanged himself in what was now my closet.

[moonshadow60]

After my uncle passed, I would often smell the scent of his cologne in his driveway, but not in the house. He wore Drakkar Noir. It was a comfort to be welcomed by that scent when I went to visit my aunt, his widow. Wasn't overpowering, just a soft breeze of that cologne when I walked from the car to the front door. Nobody else mentioned smelling it, but I am guessing that others were aware of it.

(Edited to correct lousy spelling)

Edited August 12, 2013 by moonshadow60

[KarenESP]

Thanks for your replies moonshadow, brlesq1 and Mr. Bene

[coolguy]

Sometimes I smell a cigarette smoke when nobody smokes in my house,