Phantom...smells?

[AuroraSilvermist]

Have you ever smelled something very distinct that you know wasn't actually there?

For example, I'm constantly smelling two things; either cigarette smoke or bleach. Now, I do use bleach occasionally for cleaning, but not so as I'd be smelling it. I've never smelled bleach on a day that I've actually cleaned (since those cleaning days are few and far between). As for the cigarette smoke, there's no one in my family who smokes. We've never allowed smoking in our house when guests come over, either. Heck, none of our neighbors even smoke.

I'm not sure where the smells come from, or why, but I figure they don't have a rational explanation so perhaps they're paranormal. When I was younger I used to see ghosts rather regularly. I think now that I'm older, I must be smelling them. :doh2:

[Morr]

There was a period where I constantly smelled fresh flowers in my room.. Where there werent any fresh flowers nor anything that would make the room smell so distinctly of flowers.

I kept joking around about how maybe I'm supposed to get Stigmata (cause im a huge Christian Theology Geek, and the lore of Stigmata is that when a person recieves it he/she and their surroundings smell like flowers).

But I figure it might have been some sort of presence because it disappeared as it showed up, and there was a different vibe to my room after it left.

[~*Ginger*~]

Yes, from cigar or pipe smoke, to overly sweet smelling flowers, which I found later to be the scent of lilacs, and some type of cologne.
At different times along the years and in different places I was living.

[Catiana]

I quite often smell cigarettes when I'm in my room, but I've always figured that its either coming through my ceiling from my upstairs neighbors, or leftover from whoever lived there before me.

[AuroraSilvermist]

I quite often smell cigarettes when I'm in my room, but I've always figured that its either coming through my ceiling from my upstairs neighbors, or leftover from whoever lived there before me.

Yeah, I wonder about the people who lived here before us. It's very clear there were smokers in the family because there are burn holes in the carpet and the place smelled of cigarette smoke when we moved in. But...we've been here almost 5 years, so you'd think it'd be long gone by now.

The peculiar thing for me is that the smell doesn't limit itself to one area--it follows me around. If I'm in the kitchen, I smell it in the kitchen. If I move to the office, I smell it in the office.

My grandpa was a cigar smoker before he had a heart attack and had to quit. He passed away about 9 years ago. Hmm.

[semi]

A couple of the primary offerings made to the ancestors in my tradition are fresh flowers and tobacco. The dead seem to like them.

I've been frequenting a place lately where I keep seeing a little hunched-over old lady dressed in black. She's dead, but I see her now and then. The other day one of the guys there smelled perfume, then several guys smelled it. No one there---all a bunch of regular guy guys---was wearing it. But the scent was strong and it could not have come from outside. I think it was the old lady.

I smell phantom things all the time. I can tell when my dead father is visiting because I smell him. Other visitors have other scents. I think scent is often associated with visiting spirits because it's an easy medium for them to communicate through. Being non-corporeal, scent and sound are easier to access and use.

[Mab]

I do. Sometimes I just smell something really familiar from my childhood......something that reminds me of my mom or grandparents.

[~*Ginger*~]

As far as stale smells being in a place where your fixing to move into, you can take barbque briquets, and place them in something like an old pie tin, leave them overnight, and that usually eliminates the odors.
Some may take more than one night, depending upon the smell and how bad it is.

[bbnflpn]

i smell phantom smells often. growing up it was cigars and flowery perfume and from the most of the posters say it seems to be the norm. i have a real strong sence of smell so i can smell the smallest sent and it will bug me till i find out where its comming from. some times they are psycic events as well, the other day i smelled my boyfreinds calongne and he had left for work hours before. it was wafting over my head while i was reading a book. iguess he was thinking about me then or somthing.

[~*Ginger*~]

i have a real strong sence of smell so i can smell the smallest sent and it will bug me till i find out where its comming from.
Hmmm...
Now I'm curious. :spinnysmi

I've always had a very 'good nose', actually seems to be better than most of my family, that being parents and siblings.
And sometimes other people.

I can smell things other's either don't smell, or it's awhile before they do smell them.

For instance, hot wires, or burnt wiring, or something that's soured. Strange odors.

I'm usually the one of us that first asks, 'What's that smell?'

Are any of you the same?

[Penthesilea]

My most obvious instance of "phantom smells" occurred shortly after my mother died. The way our house is laid out very little separates the kitchen, dining room and living room. On the day this occurred, I was coming out of one of the bedrooms when I smelled fresh toast. My husband and children were all in the living/dining area and smelled it too. No one had made any toast. However, before her final illness made it impossible, my mother was always fixing toast for my oldest daughter, who would sneak over to Grandma's house when she wanted a snack. We took the scent to be a message from Mom -- that she was alright and keeping an eye on us. I've smelled things since that I couldn't find a source for and I assume they are paranormal in nature.

[Evendusk]

Is it possible to 'smell' emotions? Around 1990-91 when George Bush Sr. was president I could pick up on a certain emotion in the general atmosphere. It lasted for a few weeks and it was a slightly sad feeling that the US had peaked in its status and development and that from then on there would be a slow decline. One other person I know also picked up on it and though I asked around noone else did. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[Lunacie]

I've smelled my ex a couple of times since he died a year and a half ago - the smell of his bad breath (from bad teeth). I'm suprised I don't smell his cigarettes too. I've smelled other odd things too but it's been awhile now.

[Rosi]

I smell stuff all the time. I thought i was nuts. Let's see...one place I would smell cigars and sweat (ew). musty, moldy water, like an old basement, the usual flowers, and liquour, like on someones breath.

[Toki Wartooth]

I don't think I've ever had a phantom smelling experience. To tell the truth, when I saw the subject of this, I thought it was one of the weirdest things I've come to read all day.

I've smelled cigarette smoke and marijuana after people have smoked them...as in, a few days later. I guess stuff like that just lingers with me. I'm not fond of either of those smells at all, and I hate being reminded of them. I'm very unexposed to marijuana for the most part, so it's just...weird.

Other than that, I don't know of anything else. My nose has selective scent...I can walk past dumpsters and not smell anything, but I can smell when my mother's cooking something good three rooms over.

[skyler]

AuroraSilvermist, I created a thread a while ago about this because I find the same thing happens to me. Well, not anymore with the cig smoke (even though my mom still smokes) but it used to happen a lot.. one day it suddenly stopped.
I get other smells now.

I posted mine in Health and Beauty just to rule out the option of me being sick or something, lol. Luckily, nothing's wrong with me so who knows where these smells came from.
Here it is if you want to take a look at what others said:
http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=83255&page=1&pp=10

[Zoritsa_Nepenthe]

I thought for sure I had posted to this already.Anyways,where I used to work,every now and then I'd get a strong whiff of oranges...I'd walk the entire store(originally it was someones home)and could never find the source.Most times I was alone in the store when I'd smell it and no where near where anyone ate.

[Sage Rainsong]

It could be a ghost that smoked in life. Did any relative or friend smoke?
I had a wierd experience with phantom smells. I was with a friend of mine and we were working with fairy energy. All of a sudden there was a smell that was otherworldly it was like sweet candy and flowers. This was at a swamp in the fall there was nothing like this around. I guess my point is that smelling things is a very common psychic experience.

[Teresa]

Most of the time when it is a distinct smell I am being visited by a deceased person that I know.There are a few occasions where there were just ghosts I did not know who wanted something to be found before they could move on.Maybe try to communicate and see if You get anywhere?( just a suggestion)

[EponaCapaill]

I voted other because I do smell a phantom odor, but I haven't the foggiest idea why. I smell ammonia. I don't use ammonia in my house, so I can't explain it. I smell it when I am in the shower, I smell it after exercising, I smell it at work, etc, etc. I mentioned it to a doctor that I work with and he asked if I had ever had any seizures which I have not. I have heard that before a seizure some people will report smelling something, but I have been smelling this for years and no seizures yet. :whatgives

[Jenne]

My SIL does--she's always been able to sense presences of those who've passed on but still here on earth--and one is her granny. Her granny wore tea rose perfume, and from time to time, SIL smells it.

[CrunchyCreature]

When I was in my greatest danger of bodily harm from the ex this past week I smelled the scent of Old Spice. Why is that such a big deal? Because no one in that household wore Old Spice. When I talked to my long distance love, the one who organized my rescue, I told him about the phantom smell of Old Spice wafting round me when I was most afraid and he got quiet.
Seems he wears Old Spice deodorant.....

[rottencandy7]

one of my good friends will smell his grandmother once in a while upstairs. She lived w/ him until she passed but he'll distinctly smell her smell. I've smelled it too, its freaky. he's had ghosts pass through his house also.

[enchancea]

Im sure there was more than one occurance but I remember the most is the smell of roses, it was beautiful

[Agaliha]

A few years back strange smells with no explaination kept occuring in my home.

The first time it was the smell sorta like burning wires...my father, who worked as a firefighter before went into action and started to check the whole house.
It was only in one hallway-- by my brother's and my room. You walk out of the hallway and it's gone.Oh and the whole main house is open, there are no solid partitions going to the roof...and it's a 1 story. We searched everywhere for any cause. Nothing. There was also a weird feeling in the house and in that area. My cats were acting weird too...like nervous and starting down the hallway.
So that night I was paranoid about a house fire! Nothing happened.

This happened again another time. Same smell. Same spot. No cause that we can see.

Also around that same time I was into the Catholic thing...I was laying in bed, praying the Rosary...when I brought it to my face area and smelled something like Amonia! It was bizzare. We don't have amonia in the house....and my rosary wasn't around any cleaning supplies. When I smelled it later-- no smell. Nothing.

I asked about these on another board...and they said "Temporal lobe epilispy" and well the odds of 4 people (and cats) having an episode and the disorter at the same time is just unbelievable!! No one in my family has epilipsy of any kind-- me included.
So that's not it.

At the time I thought it could be a warning about a house fire...but we checked everything...and nothing happened.
I have a few other ideas...a ghost or entity of some sort.
I don't think it was bad just because it was a more "foul" smell.
I was also wondering if it was something about past lives-- I believe families are reincarnated together....and well I think in one of my past lives I died in a fire...maybe the same is true for them as well.

If and when it happens though I will be sure to pay attention!
It was bizzare!

And I'm curious what the significance of amonia spells are...

[AuroraSilvermist]

And I'm curious what the significance of amonia spells are...

Wee! An old thread ressurrected. :D

You smelled amonia; I smell bleach. Seems significant (at least to my small brain) that we would both smell chemical smells. I wonder about the significance, too. Either I have a really clean ghost who's trying to give me a not-so-subtle hint, or...something.

I'm pretty certain that my smelling cigarette smoke is tied to my mom, who isn't supposed to smoke because she has heart disease, smoking. I've noticed that I smell smoke often when she would be on her lunch break at work, so I think it's really some sort of psychic thing. Strange, but true. And yep, I've since busted her smoking in her car on her lunch break (she works in the office at Wal-Mart and, ya know, I occasionally shop there :p).

[Sowelu]

I'd smell perfume....sometimes the kind my mom would wear. When I was at the graveyard I could smell a light perfume-ee fragrance but it vanished shortly after.

[Agaliha]

Well, AuroraSilverMist-- I found this while doing a quick search:

There is a thread on another board all about Ammonia smells: HERE (http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13753&st=0)
One poster:
"I do want to note that out of thousands of ghost and premonition experiences I've read, ammonia pops up as a common 'smell' a lot. In fact, on ghost hunter sample interview forms, it's a common substance to ask someone if they've smelled.
I think that smell may be a scientific link between ghosts and reality. Ammonia is a common substance that's part of our bodies..."

Interesting, eh?
I guess maybe I attracted a Catholic with the Rosary? :confused:

[Catiana]

I had a weird experience the night before last (Monday night I guess) I woke up in the middle of the night and smelled cinnamon gum. It was really strong but only lasted a couple of seconds. The weird part is that neither my son nor me chew gum.

[Astara Seague]

mostly colonge or perfume.. sometimes flowers and once in awhile burned food I wonder if the ones who lived here before me were good cooks? NOT! LOL!!

[Rich]

sometimes i smell fag smoke n i think its my nan cos im in the house alone and no1 living wiv me smokes or im by myself n no1s around

and phantom smells i thought you were talking about dropping one and walking off to make people blame eachover but never mind

[Gypsy flower]

Flowers... usually lilacs

[Malcolm]

Actually yes.

When I was eighteen or so my Mom bought a house. The previous owner was old and was moved to a hospice shortly before we bought the house and died shortly after. About that time I started smelling "old people" cologn, you know that nasty kind your grandpa wears. Well I found a bottle in the back of the cabinet under the bathroom sink, open it up and sure enough thats was the smell. The odd thing is the bottle was so old when I opened it it was empty and the lid broke when I unscrewed it.

The house wasn't haunted I don't think but I would still occasionally smell it, particularily in the laundry room. It wasn't really scary or anything but it was wierd.

[Darklord_Kodiak]

This is a phenomena known as Clairalience or Clairgustance. There are also Clairhambience wich is tasting, Clairaudience wich is hearing and Clairvoyance wich is seeing. These are all ways of detecting a spirit. Yes I have encountered it on many occasions with pipe smoke.

[Caradne]

I smelled my aunts ciggie breath in my face the morning she died in another state so I know that can happen, but also keep in mind that phantom smells can be associated with disorders such as epilepsy and migraine headaches. :)

[Seshata]

I get woken by certain 'smells' (very specific) that are indicators that someone's died. Also when I and my husband visited the Stone Store down at the British Library (basically where alot of the Egyptian stuff is kept, but mainly statues and canopic jars and anything made of stone), even though it's kept clean my other half was the only one that actually smelt a perfume there. Sometimes you can have someone 'visiting' who has a particular scent or the scent of something that they specifically liked follows them pretty much as an indicator to you of 'who' they are.

BB

Seshata

[Auroro]

Yes, I have, and it was most likely a retrocognited or remote veiwing event.

[Rainmoon_mist]

I had an occasion in which I was visiting my nana. She lives in a home for elderly that is like an indoor apartment complex and everyone has their own door. I walked into the building and was overcome with the smell of urine. I was with my mother who smelled nothing. My nana came to greet us and asked if we smelled the terrible urine to which I affirmed and my mother said she could not. I felt a little less crazy having my nana smell it, too.
We discovered it was strongest over a friend of my nana's doorway. We called her out of concern that perhaps she was ill and in danger. She did not answer.
Later that night my nana reported that the smell got so bad she put a damp towel under her door to block it coming in as best she could. It kept her up most of the night until it suddenly disapated at about 1 in the morning.
Turns out- the person's door that it had emanated from was fine. However, her son was dying of cirrhosis of the liver (from alcoholism) a few states away. That night, he passed away. It seems as though his spirit and body was with his mother in his final hours. His mother, by the way, of whom smelled nothing through the whole ordeal.

[Silver Water]

Hmmm...
Now I'm curious. :spinnysmi

I've always had a very 'good nose', actually seems to be better than most of my family, that being parents and siblings.
And sometimes other people.

I can smell things other's either don't smell, or it's awhile before they do smell them.

For instance, hot wires, or burnt wiring, or something that's soured. Strange odors.

I'm usually the one of us that first asks, 'What's that smell?'

Are any of you the same?
I'm like that too, which is why it's so confusing to me when I smell things that I know aren't anywhere near me. Sometimes I will get a whiff of smoke when there is no source for it around. Not cigarette or cigar smoke either, but campfire smoke. Other times I will smell water or a swamp when, once again, then is none nearby.

[Sage WindMoon]

Hmmm...
Now I'm curious. :spinnysmi

I've always had a very 'good nose', actually seems to be better than most of my family, that being parents and siblings.
And sometimes other people.

I can smell things other's either don't smell, or it's awhile before they do smell them.

For instance, hot wires, or burnt wiring, or something that's soured. Strange odors.

I'm usually the one of us that first asks, 'What's that smell?'

Are any of you the same?


Yes, that's definitely me. I'm almost always the first to smell something in my household.

[PoisonIvy]

Here lately I've been smelling my grandmother in my kitchen. _whistle_ I know that sounds wierd,but it's a smell that I've only smelled at my grandmothers house two states away!
I mentioned this to my sister(not the kitchen part) and she said that she told our mother that she smelled our grandmother at my kitchen sink when she was over here last. Of course my mother thinks that we've lost our minds.
In the mornings,right before the sun comes up, I sometimes see a little light right infront of me and smell my grandmother and feel her presence. I also smell cigarette smoke and coffee brewing. Noone smokes in my house and I haven't brewed any coffee since last year. Grandmother always drank coffee and smoked before the sun came up!

[Shaw]

Smell is the sense most closely related to memory. This more that likely the spirit trying to convey a feeling

[WokeUpDead]

I don't know much about phantom smells but women have better senses of smell than men so it's probably a lot more common for them.

[TaysatWesir]

I do smell things around the house that normally not there like distinctive scent of dead family members.

[Seshata]

I don't know much about phantom smells but women have better senses of smell than men so it's probably a lot more common for them.

Not sure about that - hubby does alot of cooking (more than I do) and he has a pretty highly developed sense of smell - better than me! :)

BB

Seshata

[charmedkisses1]

It could be your brain...

[BlueMoon13]

Hmmm...


I can smell things other's either don't smell, or it's awhile before they do smell them.

For instance, hot wires, or burnt wiring, or something that's soured. Strange odors.

I'm usually the one of us that first asks, 'What's that smell?'

Are any of you the same?
Yes. I drive my co-workers crazy, but I'll smell one of the instruments burning out a few weeks before it goes down so often,my boss now expects it when I say "Do you guys smell something burning?"

I've often had phantom fragrance experiences-coffee, my( passed on) fiance's aftershave,
and a somewhat well-known "haunting" by Bridget Bishop in Salem,namely the smell of apples in a restaurant built on the sight on one of her confiscated apple orchards,when there's nothing apple being cooked. I've mostly smelled in the the courtyard behind the restaurant,though, rather than in it.

[Mistress_Ravenshadow]

everytime my spirit guide would come i could smell a kind of citrusy smell.. there was a spirit visiting my mil once and he smelled of new leather.. I believe it has to do with psychic/medium types of experiences.. perhaps when they come to us they use smell because it triggers our awareness and gets our attention..

[StarCraftLia]

f

[LadyTrinity]

Yes I have expeirenced them before. Sometimes it will be peanut butter or oranges or sometimes I will smell mc donalds and a mc donalds commercial comes on tv.. sometimes I will smell perfume in a concentrated area of a room but no where else.. strange :lookaroun

[wooleybob]

I've smelled the smell of a funeral home in my home before,all the flowers you smell..Spooky

[Avalonia]

I have a very keen sense of smell. I smelt oil before we learned the furnace needed to be replaced. I smelt something that smelled like wet-dead-dog, for lack of a better term, a few months ago - a few days later, we found out that the hot water boiler had broken and leaked. I often smell weird things relating to my childhood - like the smell of some toys that I haven't seen in 10-15 years, for no apparent reason.

And sometimes I'll smell food. Like freshly washed potatoes (my mother's smelt this, too, so I know I wasn't crazy when it happened), bread/rising yeast (when nothing has been baked for about a week), etc. 'Tis quite odd.

Don't think I've smelt any "phantom" smells, other than the occasional musty smell I randomly get - even though the only place I know it comes from is my grandmother's house, and it's always at my own house I smell it at.

I wrote smell a lot. XD

[cydira]

There's only three occasions that I smell something that's not there:

1. prior to a migraine, that will also include a taste :p

2. during a feaver, usually simmilar to a migraine

3. as part of a vision or other psychic event

that's my 2 cents

[KeelinConvallaria]

I remember in Gettysburg, PA, during a ghost-tour, we were standing outside of Jennie Wade's place. For those of you who don't know much about the Civil War: Jennie distributed bread to the Union soldiers during Gettysburg. A Confederate soldier's bullet went through two doors and struck Jennie, killing her. She was the only civilian killed.
Anyway, I was outside of the house she was killed, and I smelled bread baking. Normally, I would dismiss this as my imagination, but I smelled it even before the tour guide told us where we were. I was spooked.
Turns out there's a pizzaria across the street from the house, and that's the time of day that they bake the pizza dough. :lol:

[Agaliha]

Bump!

For the last year I've been smelling smoke at odd moments. Freaks me out. For one I'm allergic to all smoke. Two fires scare me.

Sometimes there is an explaination (the neighbors next to us use a wood stove), other times there isn't an explaination.

I don't know what it is. My grandmother was schizophrenia (and it is genetic), I considered the fact that it's olfactory hallucinations, but I don't know. I don't have any real symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis of schizophrenia...yet.

[Arion]

I smell things all the time that aren't actually there. I don't know why.

[atropa]

We lived in a house once that was inhabited by a spirit. We would smell this wonderful smell, like old timey men's aftershave or incense quite frequently. It would actually move around the room.

[ravenhecate999]

i think they could sometimes be paranormal, but most of the time they can be explained by somthing else.

[Darbla]

You didn't have an option for "Yes, but I have no clue where it came from" so I would have to pick 'other'. :)

I have smelled flowers and/or perfume that I know I didn't have around, both inside my house and outside. But compared to some of my friends, I'm convinced my nose is on the upper end of accute. Good thing since my sight and hearing are going. :D

Darbla