Olfactory Hallucinations

I don't know if others get these, but once in awhile I get strong olfactory hallucinations. I should probably call them olfactory flashbacks or something, because they are not full blown hallucinations in that they trigger the brain directly, and don't masquerade as coming through my smell receptors in my nose. There are a couple of strange things about them:

1. They can be quite strong, yet never interfere with my actual sense of smell, so that I can have, for instance, a strong olfactory hallucination of bubblegum, but can still effectively taste wine and not miss anything, while still having this intense bubblegum sensation. In fact, sometimes when I am having these things, my sense of smell is particularly acute.

2. I tend to get them when I have a cold, though, which means that either my mind is making up for a lack of olfactory stimulus, or that these things do get masked by actual smells.

3. They often hit me when hungry, and often are of things that I have not eaten or thought about in awhile.

For instance, right now, as I was getting ready to reheat some turkey pot pie, I had an intense smell of barbecue pork raging, which was then joined by cinnamon candy (atomic fireball, after sucking on it for about 20 seconds). Now they are alternating. My sense of smell is not quite at my usual level, but it is not altogether gone, either.

Strange. I am going to eat lunch and will see what happens.

NOTE: Due to the fact that this post has become a spam magnet, comments have been closed. Please feel free to email me at EKeilholtz [at] aol [dot] com if you have any comment, question, addition, etc.

Posted by erik at November 29, 2006 12:01 PM