The Powerful Sense of Smell and its relation to memory
“When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered· the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls· bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory” -Marcel Prous
I was sitting on the train home, and with all that has been going on with me lately I miss home more than ever. I closed my eyes in meditation and fell into slumber; unfortunately for me I missed my stop. I remained on the train and sat there till it went back my direction of my stop still sitting with my eyes closed. This person waltzed by with a fragrance so sweet and immediately sent me back to grade 3 of elementary school. One of my favorite teachers of all time wore this perfume. This fragrance brought me all the way back to morning prayer where I stood next to my teacher every morning and there I replayed some of the most fond moments of elementary school. Smell is definitely the most powerful sense.
http://www.tsbvi.edu/seehear/summer05/smell.htm
