Smelling scents while dreaming

[Daisy]

As I have posted previously, I have always had extremely vivid dreams, which I remember very well. That's been since childhood. In fact, I always enjoy going to sleep, because without doubt it'll be interesting. I like reflecting on my dreams during my morning shower and trying to discern if there's any real meaning to them, or if they are just random scatterings of imagination. Since I've been attempting conscious OBE these past few weeks, although I have not yet attained that goal, my dreams have been changing in character. Normally my dreams are vivid, colorful and bright. I generally have memories of sights and sounds, but none of the other senses; no touch, taste or scents.

The latest change is something that I don't recall ever happening before. I could actually smell something in my dream-I awoke with the scent still fresh. I can't identify what the smell was; however it was very distinct. Is this common for others? I have to assume it has something to do with the energy work I've been doing, and am hopeful that it's a sign that I am progressing. I am certain that it was not a scent in my house that I was incorporating into the dream.

Interestingly (to me, anyway) is that this occurred after a couple of weeks of not really doing much energy work; I've been very busy and preoccupied with my husband's illness. Worry over his condition has prevented me from relaxing to any significant degree, and I wake up with a start many times in the night just to make sure he's still alive. When I do sleep now, it's fitful and I wake up still feeling tired. It is my hope that after his operation and he's well on the mend that I will be able to go back to the routine I had established of relaxation and energy raising.

Anyway, I am rambling a bit, so I'll wind this up. The question to the forum then is: do others experience taste, smell and touch when they dream? Does anyone have an opinion about what this might mean, in terms of my progress? Or is this merely a side effect of an over-stressed and worried mind?

[Tom]

Smell and taste are not common in dreams because they don't tend to get as much attention during the day as sight and hearing do. The more your attention goes toward smell and taste during the day, the more they will appear during your dreams. I don't know to what extent you have been doing this, but it is something to consider if you want to do it intentionally. I happen to love coffee and whiskey (Glenfiddich and Oban are my favorites so far) and often experience both taste and smell during dreams when these appear.

[enoch]

Kind of along the same lines but recently, when I've been doing my reality checks, I've also been sniffing a little bag of chamomile. Then I've been hanging the bag on my bed post at night in hope that if I catch a whiff during sleep it might trigger me to reality check. I don't think I can ever recall smelling anything or tasting anything in dreams :?

[CFTraveler]

The only smell I remember having in dreams is of pancakes. A few years ago (over 10) I was in a car accident and afterwards I kept smelling pancakes on and off for days. Finally my dr. sent me to get an EEG (which I passed) - the techs assured my it wasn't seizures, and the phenomenom went away- but ocassionally I'll dream I'm eating pancakes and the smell is delicious in the dream, and sometimes I can still smell them when I wake up.

[Daisy]

Pancakes! Yum! That's one I wouldn't mind (there's an IHOP right around the corner from my house!). That's funny, though---I wonder why an accident would trigger pancake smells?

Could be worse, anyway...at least you weren't smelling something gross!

[Matt]

I've smelled only a few times in dreams. Once it was because I was a talking to someone in the dream and they wanted to communicate something and did it by causing me to smell a certain scent

[stargazer]

I had read once that you supposedly can't smell in dreams because sense of smell is in a part of the brain that's the waking repertoire, not the sleeping. I don't know how true that is.

Had a lucid dream not long ago where I pushed a window open, enjoying the very real feeling of the window, leaned my head out, and breathed in to see if I could smell anything. No smell. But when I brushed past a tree, a branch scratched me and yep, it hurt. So much for the pinching theory!

I did smell during an OBE from a lucid dream. I was at an ex-bf's place, and it reeked of cigarettes. (He's a smoker) 'Course I didn't recognize that he was my ex until I woke up, but at the time? Not only could I smell the cigarettes but it's like, I could smell every cigarette that had ever been smoked in the room, and every cell in my body could smell it. Very unpleasant experience but it helped wake me to the fact that was I having an OBE.

[CFTraveler]

Stargazer wrote:
sense of smell is in a part of the brain that's the waking repertoire, not the sleeping. I don't know how true that is.
But when you lucid dream, you are probably involving parts of your brain that are supposed to be asleep. So I suppose that it means that smell in dreams has to be a sign of lucidity.

[enoch]

One technique I applied whilst attempting to attain lucidity was a scent trigger. That is: during the day, aswell as performing regular reality checks, I also took a sniffster of a bag of chamomile which I kept in my pocket all the time. I'd sniff it and repeat "Am I dreaming?" Each night I would tie the bag around my bed post and hope that during the night whilst dreaming I would catch a whiff and trigger the question. There are many examples of scents, sounds and even touch influencing dreams. Good luck and all :wink:

I don't recall ever having expereinced smell or taste during a dream but I have a feeling that these functions, at least smell, are taken for granted and that's why we don't use them in our dreams. I do experience touch sensations in dreams though. I recall a dream where I was being held prisoner and was pushed from behind in an effort to get me out a doorway and onto a walkway and the sensation was very vivid. Some of the feeling dreams are very real. I have been shot with bullets and cut with swords and while it didn't feel as painful as it would have if it had been a waking experience it was still painful and of the same type of pain. I remember once I was dreaming that I was laying down and some nasty guy was giving me an injection into a vein in my wrist and it hurt and I woke up and my wrist still hurt. I have the same type of experience oftentimes with sex dreams, I will wake up 1/2 way to the point where I am aware of my room but the escalation of climax will continue while I am awake to the point of orgasm.

Smell is a clairvoyant ability just like clairaudience and there shouldn't be any reason why it couldn't be experienced in dreams.

Edit:

Just for the sake of information sharing I am going to add something about the sexual experiences because of the subtle aspect of their nature. I was reading other things in this particular forum and thought it a good idea to add this to this thread. I told that I sometimes wake up while in the process of climax but it is not the thoughts and the dreams that cause the climax and orgasm. While still asleep and on into the waking experience of this, mostly during the waking and waking into waking parts I can feel myself "causing" *eh-hem* the experience with one of my subtle bodies.