Although
it isn’t totally clear whether this type of synesthesia exists “in its own
right”, with smells triggering exclusively tactile sensations, for some people with
olfactory-visual synesthesia a strong tactile component also forms part of the
experience.
Perhaps
what we have here is a concurrent somewhere between the visual and the tactile,
where smells are “felt” rather than “seen”. Taste-to-shape
synesthetes (i.e. those who perceive geometric shapes in response to flavours)
also report this type of simultaneous tactile/visual perceptions, although clear tactile examples are more easily found in taste-to-shape synesthetes than in their
smell-to-shape counterparts.
Here are
some descriptions written by people with this type of synesthesia:
(Image: Shpongulate,
2019.)
“I
notice that I experience the shapes of these smells in my upper body, in my
arms, and the edges of the shapes are near my hands. Although I've never
really thought about it that way! In one sense the shapes
are just "in my mind", but spatially they are close to my body, and
effectively standing on me.
It's
really interesting to compactify these into visual shapes, because they really
aren't JUST visual, it's a multisensory experience with its own flow of energy
that defines what it is.”
Source
(image and text): This post and comments on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2019. )
"I recently
got a perfume tester and it smelled like ribbed plastic feels when you move
your fingers along the lines up and down the piece of plastic. Smooth and
warm...
I don't
have this with all smells but this was very distinct, I felt it in my hands and
could see the piece of plastic when I closed my eyes. (It's glossy and
offwhite).
I have
another perfume, a floral perfume, that feels like wood. It’s a smooth textured
hardwood like the side of an old table, no sharp edges, just smooth.
Gasoline
feels like cubes of metal. I can feel the sharp edges and the cool surface of
the metal cubes when I smell it."
(Source: This post and comments on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2021.)
Go to the page on olfactory-visual synesthesia (smell-colour and smell-shape)
Go to the page on gustatory-tactile synesthesia (taste-touch sensations)
Go to the page on gustatory-visual synesthesia (taste-colour/shape)
Go to the page on olfactory-auditory synesthesia (smell-musical notes or sound)
Go to the page on taste-colour synesthesia
Go to the page on taste-shape synesthesia
Go to the page on smell and memories (not a type of synesthesia)
When I was a child, there was there odd scent in the dwelling I was in, and the smell made a small prickly ball appear in my wind that grew bigger and more prickly as the smell was a around. I could fell the rough prickly texture in my fingers. (So happy to have found this site and put words to experiences ty)
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