Phantom smells

luvmy2cats

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Have you ever experience this. You smell something that isn't there or more commonly an odor is there but you don't precieve it correctly. Like a fresh bowl of strawberries might smell like garbage. I get phantom smells a lot. The smells are never pleasent either. I will smell burnt wiring, poop, puke, decay, garbage, and a recent one for me is like a rotting tuna smell.
 

natalie_ca

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luvmy2cats

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

That's not good


Phantom smells can be the result of a sinus infection, or worse.... a brain tumor.

Here are some links for you to read. You really should see a doctor about this as soon as possible.

http://www.doctorhoffman.com/wwphant.htm

http://boogerz.blogspot.com/2006/09/...om-smells.html
I have had sinus infections before but I doubt it's a tumor because I've had this for a long time; and if it was a tumor I'd probably definately know it by now.
 

ghosthunterbeck

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From another perspective, this has happened to me and my husband on several occasions -- take a look at my screenname and you might get an idea of where I'm heading with this.

When we moved into our last home, the smells were pleasant -- baking pies and coffee, and they came from nowhere. We didn't have any candles burning or anything of that nature, but we could smell them, and it was a very welcoming thing.

On the other hand, we have lived in a place that had "bad" smells as well that came from nowhere. We seem to attract this kind of thing. When these experiences have happened, it's been at least the two of us who have noticed it, if not friends of ours, too. The chances of both or all three of us having an infection or a brain tumor are pretty incredible.
 

maija

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Originally Posted by vickywild

Sometimes I smell aftershave at 2-3am in the morning.
Maybe you have a secret admirer from the world we can't see!
 

strange_wings

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Some smells can stay in the walls, central air filters, or in poorly cleaned (or not replaced) carpet, as we all know too well. The burnt wire smell would worry me. Is your wiring up to date? and are there any overloaded outlets?

I've had the infections smells too.
I cannot stand the smell of pickles now.

And on the other hand, my old house did have smells. These were very odd as they were like a cold spot, you could find definite borders to it. One occasion I had been sitting on my bed drawing and decided to get up. When I leaned to the right my face went into this horrible dead smell. Leaned back, no smell. Right of it, left, above, below - no smell. It was a roughly a 2 foot diameter ball of noxious smell.
We'd also smell old fashioned lavender smelling perfume from time to time. No one in the house used that or any candles, and we didn't have close neighbors.
 
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luvmy2cats

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

Some smells can stay in the walls, central air filters, or in poorly cleaned (or not replaced) carpet, as we all know too well. The burnt wire smell would worry me. Is your wiring up to date? and are there any overloaded outlets?
Well, I've never smelled the burned wiring smell in my house but I've smelled it other places. As for the other smells, sometimes they'll be in the house or they'll be somewhere else.
 

carolpetunia

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One of the strongest "scent memories" for me is the smell of what my grandfather called the barn -- actually an old carriage house turned garage at the back of their property. It was built of unpainted wood, the dirt floor had been packed down and oiled to control dust, and there was a loft where Grandpa stored bushel baskets of pears from the big pear tree in the back yard every fall.

The barn had also absorbed some of the smoke from the nightly burning of the household's trash -- Grandpa and I would sit in the back yard and watch the fire burn in a rusty old oil drum until it was out. (Strange that the smell of burning trash should be somehow so pleasant!
)

All those things combined to create a very distinctive scent that instantly draws a big smile from me whenever I encounter it -- because I just adored Grandpa.
The odd thing is that I encounter it in the oddest places... walking in a mall, sitting in my living room... never in any kind of place where there could actually be such a combination of things.

So I've always wondered if that scent is being brought back to me by some random neuron firing in my brain... or by a little visit from Grandpa. Either way... I love it.
 

catkiki

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I absolutely hate the smell of onions. To me they smell like B.O.

Also, every school cafeteria smells the same to me. It brings back memories!
 

lunasmom

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What type of housing are you in? If its an older house or when your around a wooden object of a house, previous smells can be absorbed.

For example, if you were in an 100 year old house, and you smelled pipe/cigar smoke in what USE to be a smoking room, then that's just from the wood, nothing too phantom about it.

Wood is a porous material that is able to absorb a lot including scents. So say you smelled the pies often in the kitchen area. Perhaps someone at one time baked a lot of pies or the room use to be part of a bakery. The wood has absorbed the smell so much that its still in the walls.
 
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