Synaesthesia

[Kassandra]

[quote=Joelle][quote=Kassandra]"I have synaesthesia which sometimes manifests as the ability to 'smell' emotions." --Elisa[/quote]
"I had not heard of this before, but had an experience with this while shopping this weekend. A woman started a conversation with me. She was a very angry person. I began to smell something and new it was her. I attempted to find pleasant things to re-direct her. This was useless, she had made her choice.[/quote]

I seem to be opening up to many new things during this stage in my life. I don't always understand but I'm learning a lot by staying in touch on the boards." --by Joelle [originally posted on "Ask Andre" thread][/quote]

It sounds like you may be experiencing it too. It's not an actual physical smell, but a "sense" smell.

It's called "clairolfaction," as it's related to the olfactory faculty. It's just another "clair," like clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, etc., but it doesn't get a lot of attention like those more exciting psychic abilities. There won't be any hit shows on NBC about the Psychic Smeller. Here's some info about it: http://www.leylijnen.com/clairolfaction.htm (I think this was originally in Dutch), and here's some exercises I found for developing it http://sherryandrea.com/2009/03/12/clai ... -smelling/ (it's funny, this author seems to have cut-n-pasted the last part of her info from the article above)

You know, it's always some kind of panicky emotion, like the fear and isolation I sensed from the girl in the coffeeshop, or the biting anger you sensed from the lady while shopping. I even get big "whiffs" before a world tragedy, a flood or an earthquake. I actually "smell" the upcoming tragedy, or according to the first article above, I'm smellling the death of the peoples' spirits already "decomposing" from their bodies. Ugh, morbid. Honestly, besides thinking, "uh oh, something's coming" I never know what the tragedy will be, so I never mention it to anyone as it would be useless. I just turn the TV on later, and there's an earthquake in Mexico, or something.

And I haven't observed whether I smell positive, happy moments. That sure would be nice! I'm going to look for that next time (wonder what the joy of a lottery win would "smell" like.....now there's a smell! )

As far as the synaesthesia, I also see colors and shapes when I hear music, especially rock music with a good guitar solo (Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix music are very "pretty" to listen to/see). This is very enjoyable. It looks like the "skins" on media players....again, no practical purpose, just a miscellaneous "clair" I experience.