Ramblings of a
Liberal Hypersomniac

You know how Oprah has, on her show sometimes and in her magazine every month, the section called "This is what I know for sure"? Other people say they know that Death and Taxes are for sure. I've paid taxes and I've experienced Death. I know I will die. What comes after that is a mystery. I was raised in a religious household. I celebrated Christmas, Easter and Lent. I've been to church, not often mind you, but I do know that these holidays mean more than candy and presents. But if I'm honest I can't tell you for sure that I know there is a Heaven or a Hell. Whether there is an afterlife or just nothingness I don't know. I won't know for sure until I get there. But none of this is what I'm talking about.

What I do know is that my Mother died almost 5 years ago. And since that day there have been two incidences that have made me sway more towards the there is something afterlife than not. I'm not a holy roller that is why I admit to my lack of church upfront. I'm a suspicious person who relies more on fact and science than on mysticism. But twice in the past 5 years, as I was sitting at my computer, I smelt something. Not the cat's litter box which needs to be changed or the garbage that needs to go out; But a smell that was unique. The bodily smell of my Mother. I know you think I'm nuts. You think that I miss her so much that I'm imagining her. Maybe you think I was doing something that involved her or a memory of her and my mind conjured up her smell. Because smell and memory are very closely related.

The connection between odor, memory and emotion has an anatomical basis. The primary olfactory cortex, which receives information about smells from nerves in the nose, links directly to the amygdala, which controls expression and experience of emotion, and the hippocampus, which controls the consolidation of memories.

Odor-evoked memories may seem clearer or more intense than other memories because they appear to be more emotional than memories triggered by visual, audio or other types of cues, Herz finds.

Psychologist Rachel Herz, PhD, of Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia was quoted in the article "Certain smells evoke stronger memories". There are many article like this that report similar findings. Smell and memories, emotional ones, are intrinsically linked.

I have distinctively smelt my mother 2 times. Her bodily oder which is something I think we each may know of only a few people in our lives. Our spouse or significant other, our children and our parents. Maybe a few others depending on the person. But it is definitely the people we feel closest too, who we've spent a lot of time with because we Americans spend so much time showering, putting on lotions, deodorants and powders that is is rare to know the real smell of most of those around us. So it is those we spend a lot of time around. Good times and Bad. Stressful times and Non stressful times. The times when we really sweat. When our truth whether it be smell or otherwise comes out.

I smelt her and it made me take pause. Why was her I smelling her now as opposed to other times? I'm not sure exactly yet. I'm trying to analyze that. Maybe she is just letting me know she is here. Maybe the universe is just letting me know that there is something more. Something beyond. Or maybe my mind needed hope and my olfactory senses gave it to me by conjuring up the smell out of the millions of molecules around me. I don't know the why or how for sure. All I do know is it did happen and I'm better for it.


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