I've been researching illusions and I found out there are auditory illusions, optical illusions, and touch illusions but I'm not sure if there are smell illusions can anyone tell me?
Yes. My pleasant farts are unappreciated by those around me who are typically under some strange olfactory illusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone im sure there is a way to create smell illusions through electrical impulses to the brain
I can say that there were times when I was sick that I smelled things that were extremely unusual, but you have to define what you mean by "illusions." In a psychological sence I was not having illusions.
I would think that when you buy those bottled , incense or candle type of fragrances that are supposed to smell like pine, flowers or other various things they would be an illusion to the real deal. There are some places that spray certain types of smells into the air to intice you into becoming hungery like at a movie or inside of a mall. Then there's the fragerences that men and women put on to attract others to them because they could never smell that good so they cheat and put perfumes on instead, sometimes to hide their own body odors.
I keep smelling cigar smoke I keep smelling the scent of cigar like one that is half burned or like the actual smoke smell and there is no one smoking or no evidence of any one around smoking. I smell it as I am out in a park riding my bike, in the University libary, in a store. No smoke but I smell it. It is starting to irritate me. This has been happening for about two weeks now. Any ideas ??? Sincerely, Dave
When I had chronic sinusitis for several years I frequently hallucinated various smells that were not there. Often it was the smell of rotten meat (putricine, cadaverine, hydrogen sulfide and scatole). After the (life - saving) surgery I got a series of sinus infections and almost lost my sense of smell altogether. As the nerves regrew I got a lot of bizarre hallucinatory smell sensations pretty much all of the time. Those eventually went away as I healed over the years. Now my sense of smell is pretty good most of the time and I don't get the hallucinations any more, thankfully.
hmmm... here's a couple: "There is a story of a man who got the experience from laughing gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but when he came to, he had forgotten it. At last, with immense effort, he wrote down the secret before the vision had faded. When completely recovered, he rushed to see what he had written. It was "A smell of petroleum prevails throughout." and "Dr. Wilder Penfield makes important discoveries in neuroscience when a patient smells burnt toast as the initial signal for an epileptic seizure"
Sinusitis does give you this rotten odor...mine's been sulphurous too, but also managed to smell like rotted paper. Try irrigating your sinuses with saltwater-there are several products on the market to do this with. See if it gets any better. But if you can easily, go see an ENT. My experience is that sinus problems can totally derail your life.
