A Smoking Visitor ... again!!!

This morning, I am sitting here working as usual, and I am smelling cigarette smoke in the house to the point it has caused me a headache. I am going to have to take something for it, as it feels like it could potentially be a nasty one. I used to get migraines and had auras, but never a cigarette smoke aura! Smells sometimes do that to me, especially smoke or strong perfume. Ugh! I feel sick almost.

and one more thing. I have gotten 3 blank emails this morning; there is nothing in the RE: line, as to who it came from or why, no error message, absolutely nothing! and this is my work mail, which I never use for anything but work. I did ask Krista by email if perhaps the front office were sending out blanks, LOL, but I received her emails just fine. Another oddity in my day.

Right now, there are some personal issues going on with my daughter and her family and even though my "deceased ex" was extremely close to them, whether or not he is trying to tell me he's worried, or for me to contact them, or pay attention to something? I have no clue! for goodness sakes!

In search of wondering if anybody else experiences this, I came across this letter and reply back, just surfing a few moments ago.

Topic: Paranormal Phenomena

Expert: Sean & Beth Campbell
Date: 10/7/2007
Subject: Phantom smell - cigarette smoke

Question
Dear Sean and Beth,

I am reading a question posted by a previous reader about her experience with cigarette smell followed her from work to home and caused "cloudes" in her contact lences. My Mom has been experiencing this for a few years and I really want to help her. My Mom and Dad are retired and the children are all grown up and have left home. No one in the family can smell smoke apart from Mom, even when we are sitting next to each other. Sometime the smell is so strong that she has to keep her nose insider her sweater or under the duvet cover at night (she cannot smell smoke then - very strange). It seems that the "smell" is in the air but no one else can smell it. The scent is strongest when she is alone in the house.

They have been living in the house for 16 years and it only started a few years ago. The smell sometimes will disappear for months and will come back. Is this spirit meant any harm (how do we know)? How can we get rid of it?

Your help will be much appreciated.

Kind regards............Katie

Answer
Thanks for trusting us with your question, Katie.

It's very tough to answer to a smell that only 1 person can detect, unless they claim to be a "sensitive", which doesn't sound like the case here. As we've mentioned before, if a spirit manifests itself through scent it's usually a smell connected to that spirit and is usually detected by anyone nearby (again, unless communicating through a medium). As your mom doesn't claim to be a medium, why she as opposed to everyone else is able to detect a scent is a little problematic. However, it doesn't prevent you from trying a couple things to get rid of the entity. A couple things you can try...

1) Actually expressing your concern to the entity. There are some serious paranormal investigators who believe if you actually speak out loud to the entity when it seems to have manifested. The idea is that, assuming the entity is just trying to get someone's attention and if they know they are causing alarm, they will back off.

2) If that attempt is unsuccessful, or if you are uncomfortable trying that, you might try to bring a medium into the home. The idea is that a medium will try to see why a spirit hasn't passed and try to help them do so. Be selective in the process as there are charlatans out there trying to make a buck. They should NOT charge anything and should be willing to explain all aspects of their service.

We wish you the best of luck with this and feel free to follow up if you need further help.

Respectfully;

Sean % Beth C.
www.Campbellpi.org

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By the way, I never believed in ghosts, or spooks, or none of that stuff, but I do know there are things we cannot necessarily explain. Have any of you guys ever had this happen? If you find any good sites on this type of stuff, send it my way.

and here's an interesting take on a YAHOO Psychology Board. Considering I used hypnosis to quit, do you figure the mind is playing tricks on the senses? That doesn't make sense does it? I have to admit that in the last few weeks the thoughts of smoking a cigarette have hit me at times. I haven't smoked in years myself, so this could apply perhaps. However, I don't know how the mind can physically produce the smell?? strange, very strange indeed.

Resolved Question
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I keep smelling cigarette smoke for no reason. What could this be?

I am always alone when it happens. It is always in my livingroom. It is as if someone is smoking right in the room with me. No one has ever smoked in my home. My husband has never smoked. I have not smoked in one year. I do not crave them, what so ever. The smell is so real, it isn't as if it is blown in my face, just in the same room. It's weird. I lost my father almost one year ago to lung cancer. He was a heavy smoker. He smoked almost to his dying day, even after he was diagnosed. I do think of him when I smell cigarette smoke. Also, the anniversary of his death is in one month. Could that be related to this? What could this be? As I am typing this I am smelling it. I have no clue. Please don't answer if you think I'm crazy. I am VERY serious about this.

Reply:
There is a phenomenon in the psychological field that relates to memory which is known as "spontaneous recovery."

Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a response (a Conditioned Response; CR) that had been extinguished (or forgotten). The recovery can occur after a period of non-exposure to the Conditioned Stimulus (CS); in this case, the months since you quit smoking. It is called spontaneous because the response seems to reappear out of nowhere.

The stimulus for you could have been a number of things, possibly the lighting of a cigarette, or the exhalation of cigarette smoke. The conditioned response was that you smelled cigarette smoke - maybe you had a specific opinion about the smell, that you liked it or strongly disliked it. Now that you have quit smoking for nearly a year, your brain is spontaneously recovering the response of smelling cigarette smoke after your memory of cigarette smoke had been extinguished (forgotten). Over time, there is a possibility that the original stimulus - exhaling smoke or whatever it may have been - was replaced by a secondary stimulus - something present in your living room, for example. Your brain began associating the smell of cigarette smoke with this secondary stimulus.

Furthermore, this theory is even more applicable in your case if there is something in your home that triggers a memory of cigarette smoke in your brain. You said that you always experience this when alone and when in your living room. The fact that this occurs under these conditions suggests that there is something either physically in your living room - or something psychological that takes place in your mind when alone and in your living room - that reminds your brain of smoking/cigarette smoke.

Luckily, spontaneous recovery is only temporary. Depending on how many years you smoked, this could take a variegated amount of time to wear out. Usually, spontaneous recovery only occurs once (not to say that you will experience the effects of it ONLY once, but that it only occurs in one large block of time) and after it is forgotten this time, you will most surely no longer experience this random cigarette smell.

and bloggers, what's your take on this?