Scent memory

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I remember when I was about 13 or so, me and my friends would sneak into by older brother\'s room and sneak a look at his Playboy magazines, and the magazines would always have a perfumed scent to them, though I never really noticed what the scent was called. Now, every once in awhile a friend will show me a centerfold from some magazine or another, but really I have not looked through a Playboy in a few years, but just a few weeks ago I walked past a woman, and she was wearing a scent that as soon as it came over me; I felt like taking her into my arms and, well, you know /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif But I recognized later what that scent was; it was the SAME exact one from the Playboy magazines! I think what happened was that my brain connected that very scent with feelings of \"amour\" and when this woman walked past, her scent triggered all the sensations I was feelings while \"studying\" those Playboys years ago. I couldn\'t believe how powerful a feeling it was! What do you guys think?

\'Slinger out.

[Whitehall]

Such things happen and when they do, they can be powerful.

I had a girlfriend I was mad about but we had a terrible breakup and I was crushed. When I got back into the dating game (but not completely healed), I gave a bottle of perfume to a woman I was dating. The problem was that it was the same fragrance as my ex-girlfriend wore. When the new woman put some on and I got a wiff, I literally came close to fainting, I was so overwhelmed with the memories of the gone-but-not-forgotten ex-girlfriend. All the longing and desire came back in one emotional tidal wave.

Yes, scent memory can be very powerful.

[PHP 87]

In the NLP world, that is known as \"anchoring\" associating a smell or some other type of stimulus with a memory.

But doesn\'t Playboy only have samples of Men\'s colognes?

PS: Be wary of new lovers who give you cologne as a gift for the reasons stated above - many of them do it on purpose.

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Is there more info on this nlp stuff and reversing anchors? I think scents are very powerful memory anchors. When I was young that used to happen to me with a scent of a shampo I used a lot at a camp I went to. Each time I would smell it I would be reminded. And also now with the Ex- each time I get in our landrover he kept I get flooded with memories associated with a different time period from the smell of the car and it reminds me of our dog we lost.

There are other triggers and anchors too though which got me thinking. This last weekend I wore some short shorts and a tank to the beach and got burned Really bad on my legs! Bright red and very painful and burning/stinging for a couple days. Now they are healing.
I haven\'t felt any pain for a while. But this morning I opened my dryer and picked out the same shorts and was about to wear them today and as soon as I started to put them on my legs started burning with intense pain where the burn was! I think just the shorts themselves I remembered and associated with the pain from that day and felt it again! Very strange!

And this got me thinking- when we have a fallout and bad things- experiences with a person we can forgive them and all and try to work things out but maybe it is just too deeply anchored now automatically and subconsciously. You see this person and just there presence triggers the negative feelings again making you not like to be around them even though all that was in the past they are still a trigger for it! So how do you reverse and clear out those negativities? Thanks!