Whenever I hear the song "Hello" by Neil Diamond I smell cigarette smoke. Yes, it's an old song, I know. It happens EVERY time and it's been like this for years.
Does anything like this ever happen to anyone else?
For the record, I don't smoke and no one I closely associate with smokes either. So it's not "real" cigarette smoke.
2007-07-12 15:41:10 · 8 answers · asked by Amy 4 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
Actually, this is not an unusual occurrence at all. Senses can easily become linked to particular memories. Smell is a particularly powerful example of this. Think about times in your life when you have smelled some food's aroma or other familiar scent and thought of a particular person or location in your life. The connection between memory and sensation is so strong, in fact, that people are encouraged to bake cookies just before a showing in a house they are trying to sell. The smell of the cookies evokes, in many people, memories of comfort and feelings of home. Your example is simply one sensation evoking another in very much the same way as that.
2007-07-12 15:53:03 · answer #1 · answered by Mister Shamrock 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think there was probably some smoke around either the first time you heard the song or if you heard it at some time when something else important was going on...for example, your boyfriend proposes to you while this song is on the jukebox and someone at the next table is smoking. When you hear the song, the entire experience comes back to you and it's memorable because something else important was happening at the time. Wow - this sounds like babbling!
Anyway, I'm really showing my advanced age with this, but when I was a freshman in high school, they had an initiation event on a Saturday night. They felt if they allowed it to happen in a controlled environment, it wouldn't happen in the halls at school. I was scared to death to go to it - but they took attendance (sophomore class), and if you weren't there, things could get bad. In the car on the way there, the song "Eyes of a New York Woman" was playing on the radio. Everytime I hear that song, I have a queasy feeling in my stomach!
2007-07-12 23:33:47 · answer #2 · answered by Julianne 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think that once when you were very young you heard the song while there was smoke nearby. now whenever you hear the song, you associate it with smoke, but you dont know what kind of smoke so your mind thinks of cigarette smoke, which why you think you smell it.
2007-07-12 22:45:04 · answer #3 · answered by Jonathan Markezzi 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like conditioning, you may have simply learned to associate the song with cigarette smell. Not unusual behavior.
2007-07-12 22:59:08 · answer #4 · answered by JL K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, but that's definitely so interesting!! I get senses of nostalgia when listening to certain songs... but that's about it. Songs can be really powerful memory-inducers.. I can remember smells and feelings, but those memories are usually not brought about by songs. Interesting!
2007-07-12 22:45:25 · answer #5 · answered by of 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is called classical conditioning. Have you ever heard of Pavlov's dog? At least you dont salivate when you hear Neil Diamond.
2007-07-12 22:52:11 · answer #6 · answered by Max 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Every time i hear rap music. i have a desire for ribs and chitlins ...we all form strange mental connections. Every time i hear George Bush i have a desire to go to the bathroom.
We are products of and victims to our genetic bio- chemical and electrical systems.
2007-07-13 00:58:19 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is probably that you once heard that song somewhere when someone was smoking and you have memory of something when you heard it so its somehow coming back to you.
2007-07-12 22:52:50 · answer #8 · answered by FireAngel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋