Ghost question (aroma)?

Question

My mother was telling me that she awoke a few nights ago and felt like someone was in the room with her. She said she could almost see a ghost like image above her and could smell cigarette smoke.

She said she might have been dreaming, but thought this really happened while she was awake.

The thing that stuck out was the aroma of cigarette smoke. Can a ghost have an aroma?

I'm worried about that if it wasn't a ghost or dream, what if there really was someone in her room?

Anyone have any enconters like this, where the image/unknowen had an aroma?

Answer 1

Yes  there are many recorded cases of people smelling things which either dissapeared very quickly, or had no reason to be there.

Just as ghosts appear to our eyes, and a prickly feeling to our skin, our noses are sometimes the sense that picks up on the paranormal too.

I lived in an 1850's rectory for some years. One of the centre rooms we hardly ever used, but historically was the main living room of the house. Occasionally I would walk through this room and smell snuffed-out candles - a distinctive smell that should not be there.

Although there used to be a fireplace in that room, it was removed completely in 1970 during alterations, so the source was unknown.

Ask her if the air seemed thick or heavy. Thick air is a common sensation when there is spirit activity - and also causes fog inside rooms.

Join a paranormal web forum for more information if you are interested.

Answer 2

I've heard of this happening to a lot of people...while they were awake...so it's not sleep paralysis as someone suggested above.  Psychics will also tell you that this happens. This also happens with the saints..the smell of roses etc.

Answer 3

I've had that sensation before. It's creepy.

Answer 4

I think that it's common for this to happen.

Answer 5

People that believe in ghosts think they can give out a smell although how they would actually produce airborne molecules to fly up your nostrils no one knows.

It sounds like she was dreaming or maybe a little sleepy and confused. Could the smell have come from outside, from a fire or a passer by smoking? Maybe someone hanging round the house, make sure she locks up properly at night.

Answer 6

For years, I had a pipe tobacco smoker spirit around me. He would show up in different places.

When he would show up at my business, my poor secretary would start sneezing. She had a allergy to pipe tobacco. Though she couldn't smell the tobacco, she would sneeze.

Then there is another spirit, when he shows up, he smells like a skunk. No, it wasn't a real skunk, he would show up in the winter, where the snow is deep.

There are other times, I will smell flowers, when I smell flowers, I hear of someones passing. My sister, when she smells flowers hears of a birth.

It is just another way, that a spirit uses to communicate they are there.

Answer 7

there are paranormal experiences that have a smell.

Does your mother know any dead person who smoked?

If it belongs to the house and it happens again. Tell it to go away. Bless the house and the room.

Answer 8

A Ghost or unexplained presence (as I prefer to call them) are manifestations of our subconsciuos mind. Sometimes in a state of semi-sleep, when the line between being awake and being asleep begins to blur, a person can see, touch, hear, smell things that appear so real that you can swear they were really happening.

The question you should ask your mother is... what else she remembers of that experience? Did she scream? Did she try to move?

Experience tells me that she will say that she wanted to but couldn't and if that is the case, there is no need to worry.

Your mother has only experienced one of the millions of hidden wonders and phenomenons of the human mind yet to be explained by science.

But there is no need to be scared and be worried of a ghostly presence.

Answer 9

There are actually lots of accounts of "phantom aromas" that have be tracked as localized and moving, turning corners, etc., as well as more normal sources such as someone standing outside the window smoking as they wait in the shadows (I've personally caught one of these, particularly because it was right outside my infant daughter's bedroom).

Also, some areas have porous materials, such as wood or styrofoam ceiling tile, that can trap odors and then release them under specific conditions (combinations of humidity and temperature, usually, but I've also known light to sometimes be a factor as well).

Answer 10

In the tv show ghost hunters they talk about the ghost giving off  cigar or perfume smells.

Answer 11

There is a famous building (to us anyway) where I live. It was built as a private residence, had lots of tragic events in the house, was abandoned for a while and the city bought it, rebuilt it and made it into a museum of sorts along with a few offices in it.  

The owner of the house was known to be a heavy smoker, but died in the 1970's.  And from time to time there are people who come in from out of town that have no idea about its history and complain of the odor throughout the property.  The most complaints happen on the 2nd floor where these offices are.  The interesting thing is, most of the structural renovations went on there on that floor.  The house itself, while it is restored to period correctness, it does not have much left that was actually there when the home was first built.  So where does that smell come from?  I don't know for sure, I can only suspect...

There are cases where it is possible to heat an item and it will release the suspect odor into the room.  But there is a phenomenon called a phantom smell.  I believe that the story I described above is a true case.