Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

I'm not sure if this is actually a paranormal experience or just some sort of weird occurrence. Hopefully some of you have heard of something like this in the past and might have some tips about different methods I can use to investigate it further.

Before I get into the experience itself let me give you a little bit of background. My sister and I live together in a house that's about 10 years old now. We've lived here for just over 2 years, the previous owners were the original owners. As far as I know, there were never any deaths in the house. The subdivision itself is around 12 years old now, but I may be off by a year or two. Our house was one of the last to be built in the neighbourhood, hence the age difference between our place and the overall subdivision itself. Based on what information I've been able to find, the subdivision is built on what used to be farmers' fields.

About 4 months ago we started noticing something strange happening at random times throughout the house. There's been no apparitions, no orbs, no unexplainable sounds, no doors closing on their own, or anything like that at all. All we've experienced is a fairly strong scent. I know, weird right? The scent itself reminds me of, for lack of a better description, an old lady's perfume, heh. You know that too strong perfume your grandmother may wear? The one where the scent is much stronger than the light, fruity scent of many modern perfumes? Yeah, that's the scent I'm talking about.

Well that type of scent has been randomly materializing in different areas in our house, once or twice a week, for about 4 months now. It's not a faint whiff either, it's pretty potent. If I had to describe the potency, I'd say it's about as strong as standing behind somebody wearing "old lady's perfume" in line at the grocery store. Usually it will just appear, hang around for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, then go away. Although a few times I've noticed it lingering for around 5 minutes, and on one occasion it lasted over 10 minutes.

The location seems to be different every time we notice it too. Our house has 4 levels; basement, main floor, second floor, and attic. We've caught it at least once in every room on each floor, except for our utility room in the basement that holds our furnace and water heater. Granted we don't go into the utility room too often, so who knows if we've missed any appearances of the scent in there. Sometimes it will materialize out of the blue in a room that one, or both of us are already in. And sometimes we'll walk into a room and notice that it's already there waiting for us.

There doesn't seem to be any real pattern to when it appears or why. As far as we can tell, it's entirely random. At first we thought okay, something has been spilled and we didn't notice it right away. But after the first few times of searching for any sort of spill, and finding nothing, we threw that theory out the window. We've gone through the house, opened and smelt every bottle of perfume she has, every bottle of cologne I have. We've gone through all our cleaning supplies and air fresheners too. I even went up into our little crawlspace of an attic once and searched for anything up there. My thoughts were maybe the previous owners left an old box up there, and it had a perfume bottle in it that has started leaking or something. We've literally gone through every potential source of scent in the house that we could find, and have found nothing similar. No perfume, no cologne, no cleaner, no air freshener, no soap, no shampoo, nothing. No potential source of scent we own smells anything like this random "old lady's perfume" stuff. Nothing is even similar to it at all.

At this point we're stumped, we can't find the source of this scent, and have no idea what could be causing it. I've heard of other people noticing distinct scents in conjunction with other seemingly paranormal occurrences. But I've never heard of a case where a specific scent keeps showing up with nothing else of note happening, like we've been experiencing.

So are we losing our minds or what? Have any of you ever heard of anything like this before? I don't know that I'm ready to label it as anything paranormal, but it's definitely something that has no obvious explanation that we can think of. What makes it stand out for me is the fact that we've noticed it happening all over the house, and the fact that it's so potent when it does happen. It's not like some old spilled perfume is coming out of the carpet in one room or anything. It's strong, and you can't miss it when it does appear.

Any thoughts?

No I haven't heard of perfumes being smelled in every room of a home, but I have a friend who cannot keep roses in her home. She says that the elderly spinster sisters that once owned the home didn't like them. Each time she buys a bunch they die within one hour, but not any other variety of flowers. Strange isn't it? She never saw them as far as I know, but always 'felt' an acceptance that they were there.

Question: Do you feel a presence at all?

reply to post by heffo7


That is strange, yes.

Neither of us have ever really felt any sort of strong presence. On a couple of occasions we've had that "I think I'm being watched!" feeling, but never anything stronger than that. And even that feeling we've just usually chalked up to being weirded out by the random scent.

Granted, we just may not be very sensitive when it comes to feeling any actual presence. I've had more typical paranormal experiences in the past that involved seeing and hearing strange things, but I've never really been able to feel or sense any sort of entity or presence.

I have experienced cologne smells lke that. But my house is old, and the previous owner died in it. (found 7 days later)

I also "feel" a presence with the smell. Doors here do open and shut, sounds, knocking, muffled voices etc. It is not scary and we have lived with it for a few years.

Do you ever "feel" anything when you encounter the smell?

Maybe try making some small talk and see if anything tries to let you know it's there.

ETA... Nevermind about feeling a presence. I got caught up bringing in groceries and couldn't hit post quick enough.

I will sometime smell lavender in the room and I dont have anything that is lavender. I also recently have been smelling a certain smell that again I don't have in my home. It's weird. I always get this calm sensation when I smell it. At first i would get up and smell around looking for a source and there never was. It just comes out of nowhere. I dont know what it means either, if anything.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


I haven't actually tried communicating with whatever it might be. Don't know why really, just sort of haven't tried it yet. Next time I notice it I'll try making some small talk, see if that does anything.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Same here. At first I would get up and start searching high and low, determined to find out where it was coming from. Now I just sort of notice it and *sniff* Yup, there it is again. And then go back to whatever I was doing.

Interesting. Pay attention to the weather--temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, etc. I experienced a similar phenomenon in an apartment I used to live in, but it didn't smell like perfume that's for sure. When it was hot out and it was about to rain, I'd smell this... I don't know, musty, maybe mothball type of scent at random places throughout the apartment. I was thinking the same thing, that it might be paranormal, until I had a short circuit in a wall and had an electrician come out to fix it. Long story short, it turns out there was a massive water leak in the apartment above me before I moved in, the landlord did a half-assed job cleaning it up, and I had a mold problem as a result. When the weather acted up, so did the smell of the mold. When the problem was remedied, the smell went away... and so did I shortly thereafter, but that's another story.

Anyways, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. The next time it happens maybe you should take pictures of the area or try some EVP and see what you come up with. Smells are one of the most powerful triggers of memory, so maybe it works the same way in the projection of past events on the environment.

reply to post by NthOther


All excellent points, thank you.

I didn't think of paying attention to, and relating it to the weather at all, but I will from here on out. Although for the past 2 and a half months our weather has either been cold, or cold and snowing, heh. But I don't know details like exact temperature, or whether or not it was actually snowing when I noticed the scent.

I think next time I notice it, I'll run a voice recorder for some EVP when I try to talk to whatever it is (if it is indeed something paranormal). I'll snap some random pictures at the same time, see if anything turns up on those.

The fact that you're smelling it in every room has me thinking that perhaps whatever it is is in the ductwork. Were it me, I would have all the ducts cleaned and see if that helps.

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


Last time I had the ducts cleaned was mid-August of 2010. We also change our furnace filter every 2 months or less. The filters we use are rated for 3 months, but we prefer to change them out before they reach the end of their suggested lifespan.

We first noticed the perfume scent in early/mid October. So something might have gotten in there sometime between August and October, I'm not sure.

Could be that the previous owner spilled a whole bottle of perfume somewhere in the house, or I can even imagine a little kid walking around with a bottle dribbling it everywhere. It may be it's saturated into carpet (or wood floor). Many perfumes have an oil base and it's hard to get rid of as oil stays. The scent could strengthen or weaken with changes in temperature or humidity.

Or, it could be one of your relatives who passed on long ago just hanging out with you and that is the only way they can get your attention ; )

reply to post by Griff56


Do you know of a grandmother that has passed away, or some other older female relative? If not, if it is paranormal, my guess is that it is someone who used to live there on the land. The farmers wife, perhaps? Many times, newer houses will show signs of paranormal activity because the land itself is haunted, and not actually the home.

Have you checked the light bulbs? Or are any of the light bulbs left from the previous owners? The reason I ask is that I remember a few years ago that you could buy "scented light bulb rings." It was a type of air freshener that you put on light bulbs and the heat would release the scent into the room. They smelled very old lady'ish, and even after removing the ring from the bulb, the bulb would still smell. I know that's a theory that is kind of out there, but it could be a possibility.

Scents are a known form of haunting though. You may just have something going on. Let us know if anything else develops.

If you want to learn more, search "Phantom Scent, Phantom Odor, Phantom Smell, etc"

A reoccurring phantom scent has presented itself to me and my family in our current home.


FIRE!! Oh no, something is on fire!!! I'll run all over my house frantically searching for any smoke, spark, or flames... even run outside sniffing the air and checking our property. This happened over and over. Smoke, fire type scent and I'd panic looking for the inferno.

Then one day I realized the scent was isolated and compressed into one mass, and this invisible ball of scent would move and stop. You can actually follow it around the house. You can walk through it, then find it again, then follow it. Almost like this scent is an invisible entity moving around my home. Because of this, I nicknamed the phantom scent "Fire Monster."

I don't know what my phantom scent is, but I do feel presence, but no negativity. It comes and goes, and NOTHING in my home smells even remotely close to smoke/fire.

reply to post by Griff56


My Moms friend lived in a house in Manoa that backed up to a graveyard. She thought her house had a ghost. She thought it was a little boy, and you could sometimes hear him running on the stairs, and every now and then in the main bedroom you would smell perfume, but not one of hers. She believed it was the little boy spraying the perfume to get people to notice him.

I heard the running and I smelled the perfume, and I dont know what to think. It sure sounded like footsteps on the stairs, and the smell of the perfume was very noticeable, but I really dont believe in ghosts. I kind of wonder if sounds, or sights, or smells, cant sometimes bleed through from other times. Or get imprinted on a place, like a photograph only in smell and sound as well as sight.

Its probably not too helpful, but thats my take on it.

uuuh, i have experience with this. my grand-grandmother used to love a certain kind of flower i didn't know the name in english (sorry)... and time to time you can actually smell those flowers in the house (she was the original owner of my flat), mostly when we're passing through harsh times... we all know that is actually her trying to calm us...

Thanks to all for your responses. I'll answer them as best I can, apologies if I miss anyone.


reply to post by Rockerchic4God


I hadn't thought of that. For all I know, you very well may be right. I do know that the previous owners had at least 2 young kids, based on there being 2 children's bedrooms setup when I originally viewed the house. The only thing that makes me go "hmmm" with that theory is that we had already lived in the house for almost 2 years before the phantom scent started showing up. That alone isn't enough to discredit your theory entirely though. Unless I can come up with more evidence of something paranormal happening, I'm leaning towards the situation having a "real life" logical explanation. Something like what you described, or something possibly getting into my ducts as was suggested earlier in the thread.


reply to post by gemineye


Both of my grandmothers are still alive. The most recent female death in my family was a great aunt on my mom's side, just about 3 years ago. The most recent death overall was an uncle (mom's brother) who passed away this past December. I never really knew the great aunt well, so off the top of my head I don't know if my phantom scent matches any perfume she may have worn in her life. And my recently deceased uncle rarely wore cologne at all, let alone something with this potent of a scent. Plus he died a month after we first started noticing it appearing.

It may be somebody who used to live on the land too. I don't know exact details about the area at this time, except to say that my neighbourhood and much of the surrounding area was all farmland up until about 15 years ago when it started being developed.

I've never heard of scented light bulb rings, heh. I didn't notice any sort of additional ring of any kind inside the sockets of the lightbulbs I've changed since moving in, which is the vast majority of the bulbs in the house. There's maybe 5 or 6 bulbs at most that are still there from before we moved in. I'll check those out today and report back.


reply to post by Sahabi


Wow, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing. Maybe a previous resident died in a fire? Not sure. I will say that smelling fire/smoke would be creepier than what I'm noticing, some old lady ready to go out on a hot date or something, heh.


reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


I'm not one to write off any possibility unless I can disprove it to a reasonable degree, so it may even be something like what you described. Some sort of residual memory crossed over from another timeline maybe?

When it comes to footsteps or other strange noises, I haven't heard anything that seems outside the normal sounds that come from within any given house when it's settling or whatever. I mean I have on occasion heard a creak or two that sounded vaguely like a footstep, but they were never distinct enough to label as anything other than normal house noises. I've certainly never noticed any distinct sounds like what would be made by somebody walking down the hall, or up the stairs.


reply to post by Caggy


Thank you for sharing that. For all I know, I really could have somebody visiting who chooses to communicate by spraying her perfume around. I'm going to take the great suggestions from so many in this thread and see if I can dig up more evidence to support one theory or another.

reply to post by Griff56


That is what I do now. I don't know where it comes from but I could be inside or outside and it will happen.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
I will sometime smell lavender in the room and I dont have anything that is lavender. I also recently have been smelling a certain smell that again I don't have in my home. It's weird. I always get this calm sensation when I smell it. At first i would get up and smell around looking for a source and there never was. It just comes out of nowhere. I dont know what it means either, if anything.

edit on 2/17/2011 by mblahnikluver because: (no reason given)

Which reminds me that years back, I was writing a letter in my kitchen, winter, windows tightly closed and no flowers nearby (winter!), and we, my son and I, smelt an incredibly strong smell of lavender. (My son identified it, I didn't even know what it was! He was about 9 at the time.) I was writing to a cousin in the UK who is much older than I am - maybe she likes lavender?
After my brother died years later, I often smelt in our house, the very strong scent of photographic chemicals mixed with orange scented household cleaner that his place had always smelled of...
(We did have some of his chemicals in the under-sink cupboard, but that doesn't explain why the smell would fill the whole house, and only sometimes!)
Vicky

reply to post by Griff56


I get this strong smell of cologne sometimes, hanging around me, in different places in the house, not specifically this house, but different places we've lived since it started, at first I was at a complete and total loss. My husband doesn't use cologne (allergic) and my son was way to young at the time, so we didn't even have the stuff in the house, besides it was a specific cologne that I just couldn't for the life of me place where I knew it from.

Then, a couple of months after we had moved into a bigger place, and I went to go pick up my stuff that was stored at my dad's somehow, a basket ended up with my stuff. When we unloaded it from the car, I asked my hubby, what it is, he just told me that he thought it was mine. Turned out, it was some of my deceased brother's stuff, why it was stuffed into the garage with all my stuff I don't know, but never mind that. In the basket amongst other very sentimental stuff that I found, I found a couple of bottles of cologne, when I opened it to smell it, it hit me what I had been missing all this time, where I knew that cologne from that seemed to just appear (for want of a better word) only to disappear shortly thereafter. The cologne I smelled, was the cologne my brother used to wear.

I still smell it every now and again, although it doesn't happen nearly as often as it did soon after he died. Mostly late at night when I'm up by myself on my pc. I'll suddenly smell him, and now that I know what/who it is, I greet him.

My mom as well, time and again, she tells me, she smells him. So yes, I'm pretty sure that's what's happening there, it might not even be the property, but somebody from your or her past, that's just checking in to say hi, making sure you're doing ok. Be thankful it's a perfume smell, can you imagine the predicament, with the one where it's a smoke/fire smell, and you eventually stop paying attention to it, because it's just the, as she/he called it, the fire monster, then it turns out there really IS a fire, that would be really bad. You can't make that mistake with perfume, no matter how old granny-ish

Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to do any harm, so maybe just find a way to find comfort in it. Good luck.

reply to post by Griff56


Pratical answer =
I notice fragrant smells when my neighbour has her dryer on and the scent blows out of the tubing.

Paranormal answer =
We actually have 'guests' in our house - old man aftershave and also blossoms. We smell them during tricky times in our lives. I find them very comforting and am grateful for their company.

SO - if you are not frightened in your home and feel no negativity then live and let 'live' I say.