International Association for the Study of Dreams

[timeisnotlinear]

I think I've mentioned this before, but I was a little while ago.

Last night, in one of my dreams, a dream character mentioned the smell of some water. They mentioned it had an aquarium like smell, or a fish store like smell. I didn't smell anything at the time the character said that, not that I tried to either. However, upon waking, it occurred to me that I don't recall ever smelling anything in dreams.

Anyone have a distinct smell they remember getting from a dream environment? And if they smell that smell in waking life, do the dream memories come flooding back like real life memories and smells often do?

[Away]

[timeisnotlinear]

Wow, yes you do have smell in your dreams quite often.

In my dream last night we were walking down a trail and there was water flowing down the trail with us. A character mentioned, to our presumed guide for the walk, that the water smelled like an aquarium or fish store. I would have assumed that at that point I would have been able to smell it since a dream character mentioned it, but I don't recall smelling anything. I touched a handrail and got some mud on my hand from doing so.

Water was a theme of the dream I suppose in retrospect. After that we went down to a lower lodge and left from there. In order to leave we had to have our car started by a mechanic that got under the car to deal with something electrical. For some reason he had purple hands. As he crouched down under the car he was in a puddle of water, I remember thinking to myself, "I wouldn't mess with anything electrical while I was in a puddle. The car started and we drove off, we drove in the wrong direction though and wound up in a snow covered area (frozen water) that was actually a ski resort. There was a very strange building that was extremely tall and had lots of pine trees growing out of planters on each balcony level. This was the second building that had interesting architecture that I recalled in the dream, the first being another building with a modern glass and steel construction as we drove down the highway in the wrong direction (unknown to us).

I only mention the water and the strange buildings because I still have a vivid memory of them and why waste that.

[Away]

Yeah, I thought the same thing about electrical and being in a puddle, while I was reading it.

I am not sure what I would think of in dreaming though.

I like your dream, that is neat about the different buildings. And I wonder why the guys hands are purple...

[Gone]

Mark

[Away]

[timeisnotlinear]

Elew, the buildings also had very vivid colors and very distinct shapes and I'm not sure if both of the "mechanic's" hands were purple, or just the one.

Tsunah, if you are partially stuffed up in the waking world, if you do smell in the dreaming world is that event more intense or less intense than when it occurs in the waking world?

[Gone]

Mark

[timeisnotlinear]

Well, I'm no physicist, but I would hazard a guess that Atoms are the key factor. Light, sound, smell....none would exist without atoms as far as I know. Even in dreams, because without the atoms, there would be no brain.

[Amy]

I've rarely experienced smell in a dream. Once or twice, maybe three times so far

[danR]

I don't recall smelling or tasting anything in a dream. That could be , or , depending on what the dream could be, of course.

[BlindDreamer]

I was born totally blind, so you'd imagine that my sense of smell might have been moved up a few notches in the dream world, but I hardly ever do--except for two notable examples in the last two weeks.
1. I was aware of the textures and sounds around me, the emotions and thoughts within me during this particular dream. I was with a man, we were in love, and walking through a garden when the most sensuous fragrance of roses nearly overpowered me. Somehow, it had to do with healing, as I was sick in the dream.
2. I dreamed I'd just entered my college dorm room, when I heard Carol Burnett's voice shouting for me to come to the window. I felt a bouquet of flowers being thrown into my arms. I buried my face in them. She called them "roses and lavenders." They smelled like most roses do--not very much.
But normally, my sense of hearing is the major player in my dream world.

[timeisnotlinear]

Hi BlindDreamer,

Welcome to the IASD Discussion Boards.

Wow, so both times you can remember smelling something in a dream, it was roses.