Even though they happen in our heads, the sights and sounds of dreams are usually conveyed by the two main senses: seeing and hearing.
Dream scenes consist of seeing something happen in your mind. In dreams, people can speak and music can play.
Dreams that rely on the other three senses—taste, touch, and smell—aren’t completely unheard of. They are, however, rarer. Smell, for example, occurs in less than one percent of dreams.
How rare? There is no published data on dreams of this distinction. Dream journalers report dreams expressed in terms of these less-relied-upon senses from time to time. When they happen, the dreamer’s subconscious is usually making a point. Exactly what that point is needs to be discerned.
It’s worth giving these dreams their special designation to group them. Maybe call them after the alternate sense that was used. Overall, maybe call them “sense dreams.”
Sense Dream Examples
Taste Dream: prompted by a sandwich you ate, a drink you sipped, a dessert, or spoiled food.
Touch Dream: burning, electricity zapping, rough edges, a soft comfortable bed, or the feeling of nothing at all (as when you’re falling in a dream).
Smell Dream: a bitter smell, sweetness, perfume, cooking food.
What does a sense dream mean?
The smell, feel or taste can be the main message or a way for your subconscious to modify a dream symbol.
For example, a particular taste experienced in a dream might be a way to tip you off as to what it means. The cold, greasy hamburger lets you know that your subconscious wasn’t evoking just any old hamburger. Rather, it was referring to a unique hamburger, either from your direct experience or imagined. The fact that it was cold and greasy means something.
When you’re trying to understand the dream, note the mental sense that was activated.
Conversely, if a certain sense should have been activated and it isn’t, note that too.
If someone is spraying a bottle of perfume around in the dream and you notice that there’s no smell at all, that could mean something to you.
The more you concentrate on the information from a particular sense in your waking life, the more likely it is that you’ll have dreams that highlight the sense when you dream.
Also on the blog:
I just want to say that this post is awesome!