BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?

Subject: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 05:24 PM

I had a strange experience last night.

I suffer from perennial allergic rhinitis which results in me having to take anti-histamines all year round and occasionaly having nthe need to have polyps removed from my nasal passages. Worst effect is that I very rarely have a sense of smell. Oddly enough when I am ill, like I have been this week, it comes back a little.

Back to the strange experience.

I often hear a snippet of a tune which reminds me of another. Or see someone that reminds me of someone else. But last night, for the first time, a sniff of something in the distance reminded me of something else. I could distinctly remember the aroma. Warm, oily, floral and spice intermingled. For the life of me I could not remember what it was. I cannot smell/remember it now but it was very pleasent and even more strange while it lasted.

What do you call the memory of a amell?

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 07:06 PM

I 'think' you are close to the phenomenon called 'synesthesia', in which one can 'hear numbers' or 'smell colors'...

It is quite a field of research right now to study exactly how the brain processes memory and relates it to other senses.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Janie
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 07:12 PM

Olfactory hallucination?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 07:31 PM

The term you want is 'odor memory'.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: bobad
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 07:35 PM

Info here : http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/Smell/memory.html

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Alba
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 07:54 PM

It is also said that those that have crossed over use smell to get our attention.
I smell my Mother's perfume when she is around and I smell the scent of freshly peeled Oranges when I am in strange places when it is someone I do not know who is trying to get my attention
There are quite a few smells that I associated with different people who I am close to who have crossed over and visit from time to time.
Just how it is for me so I thought I would throw in my tuppence worth...* smile *
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: bobad
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 07:59 PM

"It is also said that those that have crossed over use smell to get our attention."

I always blamed it on the dog.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Alba
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 08:03 PM

LOL

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 08:05 PM

"I always blamed it on the dog."

Me too, especially after eating sweet pickled cocktail onions.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: bobad
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 08:11 PM

You know you shouldn't be eating those Peace, they always give you gas.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 08:12 PM

Gas. Sheesh. I was being followed by people from OPEC.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Janie
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 08:25 PM

Good site, bobad. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: open mike
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 10:25 PM

i have experienced fragrances in dreams...
not as often as "sights" and "sounds"

jsut waiting for the day that we can send and receive
scents via smell-o-vision or something similar..
we have jpegs and mp3 -- what 's next/?

hhh....patchouli....and Nag Champa....and lavender....

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Amos
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 11:36 PM

Odd you should mention that. The one time I was fairly certain that my recently deceased father was "present" in my home, one of the reasons was the unusual smell of his tobacco (he was a pipe smoker). It was not smell I had ever smelled anywhere else, but it was sharply present in my room that morning.

As far as a remindment of odors past, they are not hallucinatory. Some studies claim that olfactory is one of the most vivid links to past moments, and faint traces of a smell can suddenly present long-buried memories of timmes and places long past.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: mrdux
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 02:50 AM

"But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection."

        – Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, vol. I: Swann's Way (1913)


       "Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell. . . musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is. . . it has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be, um. . . smelly."

        – "Rupert Giles" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (28 April, 1997)

michael

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Rasener
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 04:08 AM

DtG
Can't you ask the owners of the house to move you out of the garden and into the house. :-) Get well sooon.

I am sure some of you blokes wiil associate with this.

That beautiful aroma of your favourite perfume. There is one perfume which I can't remember the name of now, but if I get a whiff of it, it always reminds me of the lovely shags with one of my favourite ex girl friends of many years past. Now why would it do that, when I can't even remeber her name anymore :-)

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: freda underhill
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 08:27 AM

Deja vu is a very sensory thing - and is often associated with a sensation of a smell or colour. i've heard that memory and smell are somehow connected, in the brain.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 08:40 AM

It's not quite what I had in mind but certainly gives us some interesting food for thought.

No, my experience was a lot simpler realy. Perhaps I didn't explain it too well. Because I cannot smell too well (OK - get the jokes out of the way!) I forget what things smell like. Just like if you don't hear a tune very often and then hear a snippet it drives you mad trying to remember what it is.

Well, the smell last night was like that. I got a 'snippet' of this particular smell which was familiar but much to far back in the archives to recognise as a common one. Because it was only a fragment of the smell I could not ask anyone else what it was - It was gone as soon as it came. It is probably the first time I have 'remembered' a smell in this way. That is what was odd and a very new experience!

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Stu
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 09:43 AM

A smemory?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Alba
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 11:53 AM

stank for the smemory?.. grin

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 01:17 PM

Fuel oil can trigger bad memories for me. It reminds me that dead bodies smell the same black, white, yellow, Christian, Jew, Muslim etc.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Kaleea
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 02:16 PM

smellmory?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Slag
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 02:28 PM

A long lasting stench?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 04:29 PM

Alba, I'm with you on that. I go farther too- I hesitate to admit that I 'smell' campfires, gasoline, flowers, on television. And a number of times I have smelt activity at the other end of the line through a telephone... My daughter has done the same.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Divis Sweeney
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 04:41 PM

Lifebuoy soap. My mum used this Carbolic Soap when she scrubbed a half moon at the front doorstep. She washed the collars of shirts with it. It was used for everything around the home, and when I was washing that night to go out I stood and picked the stones out of it ! Always had a clean fresh smell. When I smell it today reminds me of the old days. I still keep a bar of it in my bathroom.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Peace
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 04:48 PM

Divis: It was Sunlight soap for me. Every now and then after I'd played in th coal bin for a few hours, my grandmother would decide my ears needed scrubbing. Why my ears always got it is beyond me, but they did. Honest, she'd be in there with the face cloth and knuckles and she'd remove a layer of skin. And of course the dirt would go. I had the shiniest ears in Montreal.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 05:05 PM

Oh- and Pepsodent toothpaste! By chance I bought Pepsodent and in using it suddenly identified the product we used when I was a kid. It was toothpowder in those days but the smell and taste were the same.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Micca
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 05:15 PM

Could the word be "Nosetalgia"?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 05:31 PM

I stink therefore I ham.

As you get older Nosetalgia is not what is used to be.

So memories of school are knowstalgia then?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Alba
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 06:00 PM

"Nosetalgia" *giggle*

Nosetalgia should have been a name in the TV programme 'Up Pompeii' Micca...*grin*


"Pleasure is the flower that passes, remembrance, the lasting perfume" ~~Jean de Boufflers

Jude

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Severn
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 06:07 PM

What would be the opposite of "Arrividerci Aroma"?


A "Re-Scent Au Courant"-ce
The Chosen Phew?
Deja Phew?
A Stench supporter?
Nose-Fare-Of 2-A Sequel? (What the aforementioned Buffy responds to)
In-Stinked-Of Behavior?
"You Reek-a! I've-a found it again!"?
An 0l'-Factory Rebait?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Peace
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 06:14 PM

What would be the opposite of "Arrividerci Aroma"?

Buongiorno fettore?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Severn
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 06:16 PM

Refresh?









(meant as another suggestion, actually)

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 07:08 PM

A friend of mine said that the aroma, and the taste, of his grandmother's pancakes had him completely mystified. He knew that, grandmother or not, she used a commercial pancake mix and that she didn't do anything special with it. Nevertheless, neither he nor anybody else seemed to be able to duplicate the smell and the taste. Weird!

Then one morning he was riding up in an elevator in a hotel with a couple of other people, an elderly gentleman and a waiterr from the hotel's room service with a cart full of covered dishes. From the syrup bottle and other things on the cart, he could tell that there was a plate of pancakes there—and they smelled just like his grandmothers!

He glanced at the older gentleman and noticed that protruding from the breast pocket of his suit jacket were a couple of White Owl brand cigars. Click! His grandfather had smoked White Owl cigars!

So it wasn't just the pancakes, or the cigars, it was the combination of smells.

Tricky!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Slag
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 11:04 PM

That's one smell of a memory you have.

If you replace the word "memory" and memory related words with "smell" in some titles you get some interesting titles like:

" Smell Me to God"
"Smells are Made of This"

or the line out of "Lonely Stree" ".. where old hotels and smells meet..." (kinda makes sense).

" I Re-smell You."   with the line "...tell them I re-smell you."

any others?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 04:11 AM

The smell of damp and pipe tobacco takes me straight to my grandparents' house. Tarry coal burning, I'm in the Isle of Man, it's hot, it's 1962. Boiled eggs are my 3rd birthday, sunshine, salad with boiled ham in the bay window, Mum in a white print dress.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 02:07 PM

reminiscent?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 02:19 PM

then there's 'Feeling Scentimental over you...'

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 02:33 PM

And it's three score and ten
Boys and men were lost from Grimsby town
From Yarmouth down to Scarboro
Many hundreds more were drowned
Our herring craft, our trawlers
Our fishing smacks, as well
They long defied that bitter night
And battled with the smell.

Just to drag it kicking and screaming back to music....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: GUEST,LilyFestre
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 02:42 PM

According to a class I took over the weekend, aromatherapy deals with smells/scents that are related to medicinal purposes. Smells/scents that bring back memories are referred to aromacology. I'm not sure of the spelling, but I think I'm close!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 05:36 PM

Pink carbolic soap and fresh cow dung... takes me right back to my grandfather's farm kitchen. Suddenly I'm 5 again, and helping with the milking. The most stressful thing is 'will the sun shine again tomorrow' and the most important thing is 'when is supper ready?'... now THAT is therapy.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Aug 06 - 07:22 PM

Geeziz Liz....Did the cows crap in the kitchen or what?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 07:39 AM

The smell of a mine? (no not a smell of mine)

descent?

or is that the smell you get when the parachute fails to open?

Oh no! that is indescent

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 07:44 AM

Great mines stink alike.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 07:48 AM

A SCENTimental memory?
G.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: Alba
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 09:16 AM

giggle
Good to see you Giok:)

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call the memory of a smell?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 06 - 05:46 AM

I stopped smoking 10 years ago, but I still smell tobacco smoke even when I'm alone.
The aroma of new mown hay takes me back to my boyhood.