Of your 5 senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch – which is most powerful for you?
Smell has an immediate “bring me back to” a point in time, where I can see and hear whatever was going on at that time. We are using sight nearly 100% of our time awake, and same with hearing. Tasting can bring me back, but the smell is the reminder.
How about you? Which sense can take you to a back to that place in time?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
9 responses to “Your 5 Senses”
Sight is my main sense… even though I’m half blind without my glasses.
I’m thinking smell too as a trigger to times past,but sound can almost turn the same trick. I just removed some old asphalt from my driveway and replaced it with gravel. I like the sound it makes because it takes me back. We also installed a catch on our screen door at our cabin because when the door slams It’s a moment in past time. The only thing missing is my Mom yelling at me not to slam the…BAM…door.
I would have to say that all five senses can trigger memories for me.
Sight: That “golden hour” after a rain storm, as the sun begins to set and the air fills with what looks like golden light, reminds me of a lost childhood memory of my home world that no longer exists.
Sound: Music. A symphony can take me back to a singular moment in time. Beethoven’s 5th and 9th symphonies remind me of the bitter cold of the Russian winter during the retreat with Napoleon. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture takes me back to Waterloo…
Taste: Bengal Spice tea, takes me back to India and an enchanting young lady whom I shall not betray with further words…
Smell: A very powerful sense that binds well many ties…the aroma of Cinnabar and a woman named Jasmin.
Touch: I am a very tactile person, and through out the ages I have touched my fare share of life. Perhaps I shall leave that statement as it were, where it is. Use your imagination…
Hearing —- After experiencing two really awful airliner crashes in my life, I am very aware of the sound of any aircraft in the sky around me. Life in Los Angeles has me aware of the sound of gunshots, as opposed to the sound of fireworks and firecrackers going off. I seem to live near airports and now live in a right-to-carry state and near the Phoenix International Raceway and it’s fireworks display cracking in the air.
Taste —- I long for the taste of my Grandma’s fried chicken from my childhood. Lately, at a potluck with friends, I tasted that fried chicken that brought back the memory of my Grandma’s chicken dinners. I complimented the fried chicken —– finely, someone knows how to fry up good chicken. The person who brought the chicken told me that it was from my local supermarket.
Taste again. In selecting candy, I cannot taste chocolate. I love butterscotch candy.
Smell —- I love the smell of butterscotch and caramel. I love the smell of cinnamon rolls in the air. My personal choice of perfumes is Brown Sugar and cinnamon. I try to keep my body smelling like cookies. In the night I can smell the aroma of my partner. Old Spice and body musk captures my attention and I lay there trying not to touch him and disturb his sleep.
Touch —- I am always reaching out and touching the cats. Not all of the cats want to be touched. I favor this old tattered and battered cat. He has a scent of testosterone that attracts me. He loves to be touched and held, but he is always torn apart and full of scabs and scars. I don’t want to hurt his new wounds. His ears are so chewed up that they no longer stand upright. He is always getting into fights with neighbor cats and he always loses —— because he has no claws and his teeth are broken off to nubs.
Sight — Obviously with the sight of the most tattered cat in our household, I am not much on how things look. But then, there is nothing so pleasing as my partner in a pair of pajama bottoms. I think I over-celebrated the look of him from behind in his pajama bottoms, for he stopped wearing them. He now chooses to come to breakfast in his combat cargo pants. Oh well!!!
Tattered and torn up cat.
@ladybarbara I may yet surprise you one morning…wearing my pj bottoms with amorous intentions…(let your imagination run wild)…lol
For others that might read this…yeah I know, GET A ROOM.
@immortal_pirate I like the look of you in the grocery store. If I lose you, I ask someone if they saw a tall old Sea Captain looking guy. When I find you, I am in awe of how good you look.
Sight is the sense that will bring memories back the quickest. But I don’t believe it’s the most powerful. Sight is easy…it’s kind of like cheating. You can describe a memory by sight and someone else can help you to recreate the memory in your thoughts – because people can generally see the same things.
Smell for me, is the most powerful. A scent can bring back a memory that comes rushing through, those are fun. But I most enjoy the ones that start with a subtle reminder. When I smell a scent that has a bit of familiarity my mind begins to search my memories to match that scent. As I think and breath in the scent, bits and pieces come through and finally…the memory. It’s like uncovering buried treasure.
@mj right? that’s how I feel as well. smell is powerful
Those who fail to smell the past are doomed to smell it again!