Do Ghosts have Fragrances

Hello my name is Jeff,

My family and I have lived in our house for the past 3 years. About 6 months after we moved in we noticed weird things happening in our house that was unusual. We are not sure if the house is haunted or not but we cannot think of any reason why it isn't. The one thing that does happen more often than not is that a certain fragrance (sometimes the same sometimes not) comes and goes as quick as it came. This is not a usual house smell. It is very weird and I'm trying to figure out what would cause it. Does anyone have any input?

I have heard stories similar to this before. Some people will ocassionally catch a smell of their late grandfather's favourite pipe tobacco or their granmother's perfume ... that kind of thing.

Also, if some of the phenomena involved is creating biochemical triggers in the brain from the past... could be a kind of time-slip thing to some extent.

Is it a fragrance or an odor? An odor could also be mold. Do you have a basement? Is it always dry?

Yes as it is.. Always try to find a normal reason for why things happen.. Start with the mondain and if none of those help, then its time to jump to paranormal.. The person above me mentioned mold.. Good chance..
Could you tell us what you are sensing? or smelling that would make you feel its paranormal?

But to give you a straight answer, yes some energies can give off sertin smells.. Sometimes just a quick draft, and then its gone.
Most of the time those energies can not pick up on you and the family..
I belive most hauntings are this... Things that happened long ago that left an imprent of our current reality.. We still dont know what reality is yet..
So IMO something that happens that leaves energy imprints.. Thus the ghosts dont have a mind like us.. They dont feel smell or touch anything..
its just energy replaying that instance over and over agin..

I have been in rooms where it got really cold in sertin spots.. And I would pick up a sent of womans perfume, or an old dog smell, then it would be gone.. Yet I like to consider the mondain reasons for this..

Its always sound advice from a ghost hunter like myself.. To try to answer your questions with normal every day events that we seem to glorify in our minds to make our lives more mystical, or important..
Keep an open mind, yet keep your feet firmly on the ground when dealing with ghosts..

I have had the experience of smelling my late mother's perfume and sensing her presence in the months since her passing. I have found it very
comforting and reassuring to know that she was close by and watching over me. I have also had the oposite experience, of smelling foul odors that would manifest themself spontaneously and then just as quickly dissapear. I almost always felt a sense of impending doom or malicious intent along with the bad odors, do you get any sense of a presence associated with the smell or is it just the odor (and I said odor because you implied it in the way you described it)?.

If it is mold or mildew it will not disapate quickly or come and go spontaneously, it will be a persistent odor. Occasionally chemical leaks occur from local industrial facilities and will cause foul, or sometimes not so foul, odors that wll linger for an hour or more and then disapate; do you have any industrial chemical facilities or factories in your area?

It's my personal opinion that odors or smells/fragrences that accompany a haunting or visitation usually entail the perception of a presence, that is you feel like someone else is in the room with you; any sense of that happening? I will be interested to hear how this all plays out as I am very interested in such things and have had numerous experiences with the supernatural over the last several years.

Good luck.

There sure seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that they can have smells that are strongly attached to them. I know a couple of people who have lost close family members that have weeks later all of a sudden smelled the perfume/cologne of that person and had a strong sense they were present.

[edit on 8-29-2007 by Valhall]

Many times over the past 16 years since my grandfather died I have smelled maple candy. when I was a child ther was always maple candy at my grandparents house. During some of the most stressful times of my life I would smell this fragrance and be comforted. This is not something that I really ever mentioned to anyone including my husband, who never met my grandfather. Then in 2001 we had some very bad news and wre both beside ourselves. During that time my husband started asking me occasionally "do you smell maple syrup?". So I definitly believe you can smell dead people.

I think some spirits but not all are associated with scents. Perhaps their scents are a method of making contact with us, trigger a memory or recognition.
Personal experience also supports my beliefs, rotten cherry blossoms was the scent associated with my childhood bestfriend that passed on.

reply to post by KnightHawkE146


In all i have read ,watched on net / tv the odour & spirit have a very big connection ,people who claimed to ghosts,hauntings,paranormal activity in their houses or so any area so many of them say they get a smell (the odours differ) before the cold feeling (to say) ,some experienced odours with the activity.

It all comes down to afaik it's a yes odours definitely can be smelled with a presence ..from really nice smells to really foul odours .We have a saying in S.Africa i will translate " Ryk soos die dood" - "Smells like death" ..a eerie smell,that only if the smell is awful though*

*Fragrance is popular with ghosties*





[edit on 8/29/2007 by qonone]

I've always had a sort of tongue-in-cheek/serious theory - ghosts ARE scents.

Not wanting to derail - but it seemed like it fit the topic somewhat.

Ok - here's the idea. I can't really even call it a theory, more of a rumination.

You have a lot of scent receptors which apparently don't code for any describable odor at all, and you also have a vomeronasal complex which detects various chemicals in the air you breathe, again not producing an overt sensation of aroma.

No one really knows what the function of the non-scent scent receptors are for, they're theorized to be pheromonal sensors like the ones in the vomeronasal organs usually are. But they're tied into your memory and emotional centers like the other scent detecting cells.

At one time the military sponsored research on "neutral scents" - the chemicals that trigger the mysterious scent detecting nerves that don't evoke a sensation of smell. The hope was that mammals have another route of communication by leaving complex molecules that communicate fear, distress, pain or the like. Evolutionarily, it would confer advantage on your tribe/pack/whatnot if you were eaten at location x by a saber-tooth tiger, if you could leave a warning that would cause the others to avoid the area. Sort of a last message.

The idea was that if that WAS the function of those nerves, and such a scent could be produced in mass quantities, that you could make "people repellent" or what not.

Back to the idea of a ghost - what if this is what ghosts are? A pheremonic communication by someone in pain, dying, stressed out due to grief, you name it. A long lasting scent chemical which was emitted by the person and absorbed by the surroundings, to be picked up later by other people and interpreted as half-sensed images, creepy sensations, sonic illusions and the like?

Where do you find ghosts? Cemeteries - lots of dead people there to emit that last bit of panic scent for a long time. Houses - closed in spaces where people have been emitting such scents to linger on the walls, floors etc. Dead bodies in walls - scents. Prisons - lots of people in despair and stress. All those stories about houses picking up evil from crazy people that lived in them? Maybe it's a scent trace that tells you - evil violent person lives here- avoid!

Could you abolish a ghost with a nice dose of ozone, a coat of paint, a can of Lysol or an open window?

This past winter I lost both my Mom and my Daughter within 6 weeks. I have found that my Mom smells like every cookie she ever baked and my Daughter smells like every white fragrance's flower I have ever smelled.

I also lost my Grandma (Maternal) in 1994 and she has always come in smelling like her favorite perfume.

In 1985 I lost my Great Grandma and her scent smells like those fruit flavored certs.

I have also had the unfortunate experiences to live in places previously owned by less favorable souls and their smells have been more like rotting flesh or as I put it the gates of hell.

This is a very interesting topic and one that I hope many more people will join in and share their experiences for all to read. If we are moving into another dimensional realm of our current existence it is possible that the veil of secrecy will undoubtedly become less dense and we will be able to tune into more of the paranormal worlds that were once taboo and scary. Many more people are accepting the unknown as just a normal part of the new paradigm.

reply to post by Tom Bedlam


that last part

Could you abolish a ghost with a nice dose of ozone, a coat of paint, a can of Lysol or an open window?

actually I think in some cases you could. alot of "cleansing" rituals including "smudging" and the ingredients found in them could be compared to spraying a can of lysol. works on the same premise of "clearing the air". So yeah, good point, ghosts or some types of ghosts could be just a residual odor that those with appropriate nasal receptors could pick up.

reply to post by KnightHawkE146


Yes, some do. In my parent's recent place wich used to be a mission house
in the 1800's in Sweden, there are ghosts. Many times my parents smell cigarette smoke as if someone is walking by smoking a cigarette. Many other things are happening there as well, like children running up and down the stairs laughing. One night when my wife and I where visiting, I woke up in the midle of the night by childrens voices whispering next to our bed, as if they where wondering who we where. I refuse to stay at my parent's house now, when we visit Sweden.

Amon Goeth


[edit on 29-8-2007 by Amon Goeth]

-Interesting thread. The last 6 months or so, I occasionally wake to the strong smell of good coffee. I do have an automatic coffee machine but on these occasions I awake early, before it does it's thing. The sensation quickly fades as I get out of bed and get going. It really had me going the first few times it happened as I thought I was running late when it was really the other way around I just figured that my subconscious decided I needed a little help waking up sometimes so, I just put it aside as one of life's little jokes. Now I'm not so sure.

We do have a basement but it is not mold. Good thought though. Most of the time it happens on the 2nd floor in the master bedroom. It is a perfume type smell. It has happened in other parts of the house. I find it intriguing and want to learn more about the people who have lived their. It is an older house built in 1964. Not sure how many owners it has had. There have been other things that have happened also like the sound of someone sitting on the floor upstairs. We though it may be the house settling be we are not sure.

Comrad, I live in a big beautiful full brick home all by myself, that I've had for a few years, and I've smelled wonderful perfumes waifting heavily through the air every now and then.

The home was built in the 1970s, so it's not that old. The original owners have past on though, and so has the doctor that owned it before me.

I have enjoyed the smell of the perfume, because it's almost to the point of overpowering, but it really smells good when you smell it; others have smelled it also. It only lasts for about 5 minutes each time, and it's always in a different part of the house; but the perfume can be smelled in the main bathroom and kitchen more than any other place.

I had the main bathroom and kitchen remodeled when I moved in, as well as the rest of my home. I hope this helps comrad.

My sister can't stand the smell of White Diamond perfume b/c of this. She smells it at the oddest times, she used to live with our grandmother who would wear this. Also her x husband's mother loved that scent and she would smell it and feel her presence too. Double teamed...

After my Mom passed, the renovations to her house made her kitchen my bedroom. Several times I awoke to smell her poundcakes baking. Comforting and unsettteling at the same time.

a reply to: KnightHawkE146

My wife died last October 2016, and ever since then, I occasionally smell the smell of bandaids, hospital, and stuff like that, cause she died in the hospital. Whenever I am with someone and I smell the smell, I ask them, "Do you smell bandaids?" and they say no and don't smell anything. What I want to know is,when I smell bandaids, is my wife trying to tell me or warn me about something?

a reply to: chuxter56
I have no idea. Maybe there is a ghost expert on this site. I don't know if there is.

Have you noticed something you needed to watch out for after smelling the hospital smells? If you have noticed a pattern, maybe the smell is trying to tell you something.

As far as strange smells in the house, I always look for logical explanations first. I smelled something bad in a relatives kitchen one day when opening the freezer. Couldn't find any reason for it. It seemed to come and go. One day several days later my relative found the reason. She stored potatoes in a bucket under the sink. There was a rotten potato on the bottom. Apparently when I opened up the freezer I was disturbing the air enough in the kitchen to catch a whiff.