Odd question - smells of the deceased?

My mother lost a very dear friend a couple of years ago. She told me recently of something I found strange and wondered what others here might make of it. She says that sometimes when she comes home and enters her own living room she can smell the odor of her friends house very strongly (not a bad odor - just the smell of that friends house - I suppose all our homes have a unique smell)

This happens infrequently but has happened on several occasions.

She also says that sometimes she has a very strong sense of someone sitting on her bed when she is reading before going off to sleep.

My mother has never been one for anything ghost related but she feels adamant that something other-worldy is going on. She's also 100% truthful.

Just curious to hear your thoughts.
Thank you in advance.

Ive heard of such things before, and i have an oddly strong sense of smell myself and can often smell things others tell me are not there. However, im fairly confident i just have an obnoxious ability to smell very tiny concentrations of things. Im essentially doomed to smell cat pee and chemicals everywhere forever. I wonder if any of the deceaseds belongings are in the house? Most items can pickup the general smell of someones house, and i can assure you i will smell that smell no matter how you clean it.

Anyway what do you want to hear? If ghosts can appear to us or move objects, why cant they smell?
If its really a smell from beyond i would say her friend is visiting her.

When my mom brought me home for the first time, a day or two after I was born, she said she was sitting in a chair rocking me when she smelled cigar smoke. It was strawberry, like the kind my great grandpa smoked. Nobody else in my family smoked and grandpa had been dead a few years, so it was kind of strange. She said she just felt like he was near.

I guess it's possible if you believe in ghosts.

My opinion on this is that it's not a "ghost". It's the spirit of the deceased. There is a difference.

Absolutely, I believe her friend is trying to say, "Hi! I made it to the other side. I'm okay. I'm here with you because I love you."

AngelicView

reply to post by brintonwhite


I live in the house my paternal grandparents built in 1960.My grandfather passed in '93 and my grandmother passed in '04.Shortly thereafter I moved in.My grandfather,when he was living was a carpenter/farmer and could often be found working on some project in his shop,or pushing his old plow in his garden plot.My grandmother was a housewife in the old sense of the word.She never held a formal job but was always busy doing something.Some of my fondest memories revolve around "helping" my grandmother can fruits and vegetables in her kitchen.To this day I occasionally catch a whiff on the air of beets boiling on the stove.Or sometimes I will hear the sound of my grandfathers tablesaw ripping through some lumber.Whether these are real or imagined I cannot say.It use to freak me out a little,but I have come to take comfort whenever these events occur.I can't help but take these as a sign that my grandparents are still with me in a sense,and are looking after me.

Thank you very much for your responses. Also, my mother had no possessions of her friend. It all went to a charity shop.

She can ask whatever is there to "Go into the light". This can help spirits who are still attached to the physical realm or who are struggling with the crossover.



Congratulations, you are beginning to identify aspects of the rabbit hole.

Hmm I don't really know about that one. I know personally that every so often I'll smell something that isn't there when I'm thinking a certain thought or when a memory is triggered.

Although somewhat different, I know a woman who used to be able to smell death on the living. She was never wrong, and the subjects always died within two days. This perhaps was some kind of psychic gift that she had. She considered it a curse, and for years prayed to be relieved of it. About 15 years ago, she was in a serious car wreck with her husband; both were ejected from the vehicle.

When she regained consciousness in the hospital, they told her that a part of her skull had been lost in the accident, and that there was the possibility of some brain damage as well. She lost her senses of smell and taste completely as a result. Other than shoulder problems, this was the only damage she got from the accident. The woman is now about 70 years old, and although she misses her normal senses of smell and taste, she considers the loss of the "gift" to be a prayer answered...

yes... ghosts can have smells about them ...
most memorable one I encountered was a woman - everytime she was around there was a strong scent of jasmine in the air ...

reply to post by visualmiscreant


My god that would be a terrible curse i cannot think of anything much worse but i have heard of it happening before

Originally posted by visualmiscreant
Although somewhat different, I know a woman who used to be able to smell death on the living. She was never wrong, and the subjects always died within two days. This perhaps was some kind of psychic gift that she had. She considered it a curse, and for years prayed to be relieved of it. About 15 years ago, she was in a serious car wreck with her husband; both were ejected from the vehicle.

When she regained consciousness in the hospital, they told her that a part of her skull had been lost in the accident, and that there was the possibility of some brain damage as well. She lost her senses of smell and taste completely as a result. Other than shoulder problems, this was the only damage she got from the accident. The woman is now about 70 years old, and although she misses her normal senses of smell and taste, she considers the loss of the "gift" to be a prayer answered...

Wow. That's strange. Like you say, different to what I explained but very freaky.

Originally posted by Expat888
yes... ghosts can have smells about them ...
most memorable one I encountered was a woman - everytime she was around there was a strong scent of jasmine in the air ...

So you think she might have had a spirit with her?

smells communicate messages probably much stronger than any other sense. It might be argued that sound, specifically music does a better job but sound can be so much more confusing.

edit: and also stimulate memories

It's a lot more common than what you first think it is, it's often reported that a smell associated with the deceased is often picked up upon, something which can easily be related to the deceased person almost as if they are trying to remind you of themselves.

Good examples; the smell of perfume/cologne that was worn, the smell of smoke/tobacco if they smoked, the smell of a drink, smell of favourite flowers, the list is endless.

Originally posted by brintonwhite

Originally posted by Expat888
yes... ghosts can have smells about them ...
most memorable one I encountered was a woman - everytime she was around there was a strong scent of jasmine in the air ...

So you think she might have had a spirit with her?

she was a ghost - is still around ..
In a small village in southern china according to the people in the village she is the ghost of a girl who commited suicide near the spot where the well is during the time of the Tang dynasty... after the man she was supposed to marry married another woman the girl killed herself .. she appears around the well has been seen by the villagers there often .. saw her on several occasions as well when was there ... the villagers set out food , drink and make-up for her .. shes harmless and they pity her ...

reply to post by brintonwhite


S&F for you because people laughed at me when I said I could smell certain things in rooms!

I have smelled:- Cigar smoke, Whiskey, Violets and Lavender floor wax (not sure if this is used anymore, but its quite a strong smell, and once you sniffed it you would always remember it).

This was on different occasions, in various places, but strangely, no one else could smell any of them or no one else was about. I do relate the smells to certain people that have passed, and it is very rare, it isnt as if I can smell them constantly or anything.

I had a woman sitting on my bed in the mid 1990s, so can relate to that too (cos she sure as heck wasnt a living person), but no smell that time.

All too familiar. There are some odors I (and myself only) associate with certain events or feelings and only I can smell them at times.

But the smell of deceased/rotten flesh is never, ever a good sign.
Go see someone who knows about this kind of stuff.

Edit: my bad, misread your OP. At any rate, what i said still stands, just not as worrying ^^;

The only time I ever recall smelling something relating to a deceased relative was in 2005. We were living in a house that had a small tree in the garden. My grandfathers ashes had been spread around it. Every now and then I would clearly smell cigar smoke, and my grandfather was the only one I know in the entire family to smoke cigars. Neither of my neighbours smoked at all, nor were any windows open at the time. Believe me, you smell something that out of place, you tend to check out the source.

My great grandfather died in my early teenage years. (We were very close.) On several occasions in the years following his death I would catch a whiff of him. The first time I broke down crying but eventually I became used to it and would say hello or tell him what had been going on in my life. It has been a long time since I have had this happen but I can still recall the emotions I would feel when it did. I liked to believe it was him stopping in to check on me.