Using olfactory cues to remember your trip of a lifetime

Are you taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe? Would you like to
be able to remember it well for the rest of your life? Then use
olfactory cues to memorize it.

Science shows us that memories triggered by specific smells are among
the most vivid we experience. You can profit from this fact to bring
back memories of an enjoyable trip abroad. It works like this: Buy a
bottle of cologne or perfume that is fairly unusual and that you find
pleasant but not fabulous. Take this cologne or perfume with you on
your trip. Do not wear it before the trip, but wear it every day
_during_ the trip. After the trip, don't ever wear the perfume or
cologne again. This will associate the smell of the perfume or cologne
with your trip.

The advantage to this comes later, often many years later, when you are
thinking about your trip to Europe. Just pull out an old bottle of the
perfume or cologne that you wore on the trip, and take a sniff. You'll
find that very vivid memories of the trip come flooding back into your
mind--practically as if you were suddenly transported back in time.
This works because olfactory (odor) cues are very powerful memory
triggers. Smelling the one perfume or cologne that you previously used
only during that trip instantly brings back memories of the trip.

I tried this on my first trip to Paris, and it worked amazingly well.
Even today, years later, every time I get a whiff of that cologne
(Antaeus by Chanel), I'm zapped back onto the streets of Paris during
that first wonderful week in the city.

There are variations on this theme. You could fix up a photo album of
your trip and carefully dab a bit of the magic perfume on the pages,
then keep the album in a relatively airtight place so that the odor of
the perfume stays for a while. Each time you open the album to look at
photos, you'll smell the perfume, too, and the memories will be much
more vivid. It sounds weird, but it works. Don't forget that Proust
wrote an entire novel triggered by the smell of a madeleine (a small
butter cake).

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
Are you taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe? Would you like to
be able to remember it well for the rest of your life? Then use
olfactory cues to memorize it.

Great post, this sort of thing does work.

Doesn't have to be Europe, or indeed a trip! This sort of thing can help
bring back memories of many a trip or event in your life.

I guess with a lot of people it's music that does that too, often when I'm
away somewhere I tend to hear a particular track on the radio a few times,
and I'll forever associate that with the trip away I had.

Mark Hewitt writes:

Doesn't have to be Europe, or indeed a trip! This sort of thing can help
bring back memories of many a trip or event in your life.

Absolutely. I only mentioned a trip to Europe because this is
rec.travel.europe (and I used the technique to good effect on my first
trip to Paris).

I guess with a lot of people it's music that does that too, often when I'm
away somewhere I tend to hear a particular track on the radio a few times,
and I'll forever associate that with the trip away I had.

Auditory cues are pretty strong, too, although I think that olfactory
triggers probably produce the most vivid recollection. I think for many
visitors to Paris, the sounds of the Métro become anchored as strong
auditory clues, since they are distinctive, consistent, and repetitive
(at least for tourists who take the Métro).

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Following up to Mxsmanic

Don't forget that Proust
wrote an entire novel triggered by the smell of a madeleine (a small
butter cake).

Forget digital, what we need is smell capture photography to
produce scratch and sniff albums. For my Thames project I will
need sea air, grass, beer, mud, cows, diesel and er sewage.
--
Mike Reid
Virtual Thames walk "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk/thamesphoto.htm"

Mxsmanic wrote in message . ..
Mark Hewitt writes:

Doesn't have to be Europe, or indeed a trip! This sort of thing can help
bring back memories of many a trip or event in your life.

Absolutely. I only mentioned a trip to Europe because this is
rec.travel.europe (and I used the technique to good effect on my first
trip to Paris).

I guess with a lot of people it's music that does that too, often when I'm
away somewhere I tend to hear a particular track on the radio a few times,
and I'll forever associate that with the trip away I had.

Auditory cues are pretty strong, too, although I think that olfactory
triggers probably produce the most vivid recollection. I think for many
visitors to Paris, the sounds of the Métro become anchored as strong
auditory clues, since they are distinctive, consistent, and repetitive
(at least for tourists who take the Métro).

Isn't this concept the basis for Proust's "Remembrance of Things
Past," where a certain smell (can't remeber what) triggers a larger
chain of events?

Mxsmanic wrote:

Auditory cues are pretty strong, too, although I think that olfactory
triggers probably produce the most vivid recollection. I think for many
visitors to Paris, the sounds of the Métro become anchored as strong
auditory clues, since they are distinctive, consistent, and repetitive
(at least for tourists who take the Métro).

In London the most rememberable sound from the Underground is the
constant repeating 'Mind the Gap'.

I wish I had a recorder with me while traveling on the Underground. At
one station I had an empty drink cup and sandwhich wrapper. I looked
everywhere for a trashcan but none to be found. I asked an officer
where a trashcan was. He replied that for security reasons all
trashcans have been removed from most stations and also many streets.
He then went on to tell me to do what everyone else does, leave my trash
on a train car seat but don't get caught.

That was one of the funniest moments during my trip to London!

Mike M writes:

Isn't this concept the basis for Proust's "Remembrance of Things
Past," where a certain smell (can't remeber what) triggers a larger
chain of events?

Yes, I believe so. The smell was that of a madeleine, a small
butter-and-egg cake.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 13:51:06 +0000, Reid wrote:

Following up to Mxsmanic

Don't forget that Proust
wrote an entire novel triggered by the smell of a madeleine (a small
butter cake).

Forget digital, what we need is smell capture photography to
produce scratch and sniff albums. For my Thames project I will
need sea air, grass, beer, mud, cows, diesel and er sewage.
A brief encounter on the Champs Elysee
Now when I pee it stings,
These foolish things,
Remind me of you.

On 5/2/04 8:36 pm, in article ,
"Mxsmanic" wrote:

Mike M writes:

Isn't this concept the basis for Proust's "Remembrance of Things
Past," where a certain smell (can't remeber what) triggers a larger
chain of events?

Yes, I believe so. The smell was that of a madeleine, a small
butter-and-egg cake.

I was just looking for madeleines in the supermarket this evening. I
couldn't find them, and just as I was about to ask what aisle to look on, I
had a brain seizure and couldn't remember their name.

Proust, I ain't.

Perhaps I should have described their smell?

J;

Jeremy Henderson writes:

Perhaps I should have described their smell?

I don't find their smell that distinctive, but my sense of smell seems
to be in decline these days.

Good madeleines are very hard to find these days, although so-so
madeleines can be found in any French grocery store.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.