This page contains all the readers’ comments on the “Olfactory-visual synesthesia” article, received between 2021 and 2025.
Comment by: Anonymous. November 27, 2021 at 3:09 AM
There is only one sort of scent/smell I can see in my head
or in my mind and it's only when I go out of town and lower down my window. And
I can smell the scent fresh but sharply that I think I can also maybe taste it
but it comes into the center in-between my mouth, my nose and my brain and the
shape is a soft shaped really light blue almost white cube that varies in size
depending on how much I breath in and focus on the shape and the longest it has
lasted was about 10 minutes but it's always only been this one scent/smell in
open fields when I go out of town and I can also smell and taste the size of
the shape when I focus in on it but I can do it without closing my eyes and I
can feel the softness in my nose even tho the scent/smell is fresh and sharp maybe
like breathing in fresh oxygen or also like the mickey mouse mask they put on
you at the dentist when your a kid.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). November 27,
2021 at 10:50 AM
That's interesting.... maybe you'll discover more if you
focus on more smells, if a strong experience gives you this kind of
shape/colour then probably for other smells you're experiencing it too, but
just very weakly. That was what happened to me. I wonder if the emotion of
suddenly being out of town comes into it, that can make for a stronger
experience than things that are just there every day. Fresh air is light blue
to white for me too! Thanks for posting!
Comment by: Anonymous. August 19, 2022 at 11:10 AM
Okay but, whenever I look at someone or something I get a
wiff under my nose of what my brains thinks it smells like idk if this is
synesthisa but im very confused and it has been happening for around a year and
a half now if you have any of advice on what this could be please reply, Thanks
:)
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). August 21,
2022 at 9:30 PM
If the smell you get when you look at the thing or person is
the actual smell they would have in real life, then that wouldn’t be
synesthesia but rather something called “olfactorisation”, where the brain can
recreate a smell you figure or remember and it does it so well that you
actually physically smell it. You could also call it olfactory hyperphantasia,
which would be the ability to recreate smells almost at will. A cool ability to
have!
Our sense of smell is better some times than others, it kind
of “comes and goes”, which is why these things can happen at a certain time in
your life, on some days more than others, during months or even during years,
or seem to suddenly start and stop for no particular reason. This might explain
why it’s only been happening to you for the last year and a half. Anyway, I
think it is something to be enjoyed 😊
Comment by: Anonymous. September 1, 2022 at 5:25 PM
There are a few specific insects that I can smell whenever I
see one. Each insect has a smell that is unique to that type. For example this
one kind of moth has the "moth" smell and I never smell that same
scent unless I see that one kind of moth. How can this be explained? Note,
these are not insects that emit odors.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). September
11, 2022 at 9:29 AM
This is very interesting, and it's a different type of
synesthesia to the one described here: this is concept-smell, when components
in a particular series or sequence each trigger their own consistent smell.
It's described on this page: https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/concept-taste-and-concept-smell.html
I'd like to add your example to the page actually, I think
it's quite unusual and illustrative. Thank you for describing it!
Comment by: Patrick. March 21, 2023 at 3:48 PM
My whole life, every thing that I smell has a texture. Some
smells are flaky, some are smooth, others are sharp points. I wouldn't say that
I see geometric shapes - it's more like the edge of a shape that I can feel
breaking against my body rather than something that I see.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). March 23,
2023 at 9:46 PM
Wow, I certainly recognise the "edge of a shape"
feeling as it's happened to me, although with tastes not smells. Like the shape
isn't complete or you only perceive the right angle making one side of a cube
or something, I felt that against my hands when I was tasting a wine the other
day. I loved the experience of tasting the wine in my hands. Very interesting,
your description!
Comment by: Anonymous. September 26, 2024 at 11:53 PM
I've only ever experienced smells as colours if the smell is
really bad. I worked in a building where a rat infestation was killed with
poison and I saw the dead rat smell as a shocking pink smell. And as a child I
identified the unwashed smell of disgustingly dirty houses as a yellow smell
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). September
29, 2024 at 9:32 AM
That's interesting, thanks for commenting!
Comment by: Mark Beaumont. November 2, 2024 at 5:56 AM
I have only just found out that synesthesia is a thing! As
far back as I can remember I have smelled in colour! My workplace smells blue,
my wife smells pale green but she has a particular perfume that smells pink
which is nice! Dogs tend to range from yellow to dark brown, kind of autumnal
colours! I could go on but you get the picture,I'm looking forward to finding
out more about this subject!
Comment by: Anonymous. February 11, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I've experienced something like this for most of my life,
but in the opposite direction (visual + sound triggers smell, rather than smell
triggering a visual) though I'm not sure if this is synesthesia. It has only
ever happened with this one thing, but consistently. When I see a camera lens
close up, or maybe an old time-y camera, especially if it's accompanied by the
sound of a camera shutter (but it also happens without the sound) it makes me
smell the distinct smell of a fresh polaroid photo. The smell isn't actually
there, of course, but it will stay in my nose for an amount of time between a
few hours to a day and gradually fade. It happens most often when watching
movies! Everyone I've explained this to simply brushed it off as exaggerating,
but it's nice knowing there are other people experiencing similar things with
their senses
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). March 5,
2025 at 4:30 PM
Hi! No, this wouldn’t be considered a type of synesthesia.
It’s interesting though, especially as the smell stays around such a long time
for you and not just a few seconds or minutes, so it must be a strong
experience.
In olfactory synesthesia caused by seeing or thinking about
an inducer or trigger, the inducers would be the different elements in a series
or sequence, so for example the colours might all have their own particular
smell when you look at them, or the days of the week would each have a smell
when you see them written down or perceive them in some other way. If it’s just
one concept you smell, or a few different but unrelated concepts, then that
wouldn’t be synesthesia, it’s more likely to be an association that your brain
conjures up a realistic smell for, and one of the names that can be given to
this process is “olfactorization”. Also, with synesthesia, the smells perceived
wouldn’t necessarily have a logical connection with their triggers, and your
combination of the camera lens and the shutter sound and the smell of a
Polaroid photo is quite a direct relationship, so I presume you made this
association a long, long time ago and it’s remained persistent since then.
You could take a look at these Tree pages that talk about
this subject:
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/smelling-images.html
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/concept-taste-and-concept-smell.html
Anyhow I think this is interesting and as an ex-photographer
myself I find all those old photo laboratory smells from so many years ago
quite persistent and they sometimes come up again for me when I look at or
think about an aspect of analogue photography. I’d love to smell Polaroids,
like you – I can kind of remember that smell. I think all the analogue
photography thing is connected to memory too, as it was around at a certain
time and you don’t get to smell it often any more, so maybe that aspect is reinforcing
the connection perhaps and making the smell stronger?
Comment by: Anonymous. November 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I saw a piece of old thick glass, with the green on tis
edge, clear enough though dusty with a glint of light. I saw it instead of pain
long with smooth edges and no point having a very long slim triangular shape
and where the long end ended with a dull point it was near my right wrist. All
of it suspended onside my transparent chest and abdomen. I knew the exact
microscopic spot in my inside right septum so deep and clear. I knew it would
work itself into a memory in the tissue.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). November 18,
2025 at 9:07 PM
I love this description, it's similar to some of my smell
experiences!
Comment by: Anonymous. November 26, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Just discovering this at my big age of 21. Have been telling
people all my life that smells “smell like shapes”. For example a few herbs
smell like a lot of small grain-like shapes or static. Some things like flowers
smell wide and round like dipping loops. I also experience this with taste
where some things taste like the feeling of fog, or they taste big and round,
or they will taste like the sensation of a headache. It’s strange lmao. At
least now I know I’m not crazy.
Go back to the page on olfactory-visual synesthesia
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