Today I was in a restaurant. On the menu I discovered a lot of dishes, but the most attractive was either cheese pasta with leeks and fresh salad or an elegant ragout with creamy fish and buttered potatoes. Well, I thought to myself, certainly both dishes taste delicious and it does not matter what I choose. Shortly after the waitress had disappeared, something strange happened. At first, a smell from the neighbour table got into my nose. I could not define the smell. It was very strong and intense. Perhaps a dead dog or a wet jacket, which was molding. Suddenly an incredible smell appeared, like I had never smelled in this form.
The smell of the fish, the smell of the orange juice, that came across my table, the noodles with cheese from another neighbour table as well as from a hot Grog, then again from a potato casserole, and of course still the dead dog from the table behind me. This sensation lasted for about two or three minutes, and then disappeared again. On the one hand, I was glad that all of these smells disappeared, because getting my meal directly under my nose would have been barely endured, and the smells of the neighbour dishes had been already so extremely strong. But on the other hand, I was amazed that my sense of smell had tripled or quadrupled in its capacity, and would have liked to explore the intensified meaning and its possibilities closer and closer.
No, it was not a dream – if you ask yourself that question at the moment!
I immediately had to think of Patrick Süsskind, who wrote the book “The Perfume“. Surely you remember, in the book there is a person who has a supernose from birth on and can perceive all kind of smells. He was simply smelling on a perfume bottle and suddenly he knew all of the secret ingredients and compositions of the perfume. When he was lying in the woods on a meadow, he smelled every flower, every stalk, and every other natural product by merely engaging in or concentrating on it. I had always wondered whether it was possible to reinforce, refine, and utilize his smell, as was the case with the protagonist of the aforementioned novel.
I always thought the author Süsskind had only devised the story of the man with the supernose, but since today I know that it is indeed possible to experience such a multiplication or amplification of a smell. Probably there is only one person who can do this or he or she does not show up in public. In our world, especially when you live in the city, it is perhaps also a question of pragmatism whether you really want to possess such an ability. I would have not been able to stay any longer in this restaurant, if the intensification of my smell had not automatically again turned off. One thing is clear to me, at any rate: a human can strengthen his senses much more than he thinks! It is perhaps known by blind people who have lost their sight and then have increased their sense of hearing. Of course, out of necessity, because the loss of a sense increases the concentration on the other senses. In any case, I know now, Süsskind’s Perfume is not a pure fiction.
~.~
If you are interested in this topic, you might like to visit the workshops of the Matrixblogger or subscribe to his Youtube channel:
