#clairscent

*pounces the Nonny and weeps tears of joy* I KNEW I WASN'T ALONE! T_T

If these scents are truly inexplicable, and there is no conceivable physical source for them, and you feel like you're sensing them rather than physically smelling them, you might have clairscent, which is the olfactory version of clairvoyance. (This is something that happens to me a lot, actually.)

There is also a phenomenon known as "phantom odors," which involves smells that have no earthly cause showing up where they do. The difference between phantom odors and clairscent is that phantom odors may be detected with the physical nose and smell receptors and may also be detectable to more than one person if a group is present. Clairscent may only be detectable to one person in the group and is sensed psychically rather than physically.

So to answer your question, it could be supernatural, it could be that your sniffer is psychic, or it could be random smells wafting up through your vents that you haven't found a source for just yet. Try a little investigation and see what develops!

Now I know the majority of my followers are skeptics and don't believe in this kind of stuff, and that's totally fine with me. I'd still like to be able to put this post up without any nasty eye-rolling comments, though. I'm not sure to what extent I believe in this stuff either, but I've been doing a lot of reading on communicating with spirits (thanks, Mike!) and the funny thing is, I laughed about this silly exchange until I really thought about it. Then I realized that I have had a paranormal experience involving my sense of smell. I remember very distinctly being at the New Market battlefield many years ago, walking along reading various plaques, and suddenly being absolutely overwhelmed by the scent of blood. It was a dry summer day, and I remember how the field smelled normally, but then all of a sudden it changed, for about thirty seconds. It was so strong I gagged. And then it went back to normal, smelling like grass and dirt and dry summer.