Some scents do not appear alone.
They arrive simultaneously for different people, in different places, under circumstances that do not intersect. There is no shared source, no coordination, and no physical explanation for the coincidence.
One person mentions an old memory; another suddenly notices a familiar scent.
Someone drifts between waking and dreaming; elsewhere, someone fully awake senses the same trace.
No one transmits the scent, yet it appears as if it has been collectively summoned.
This phenomenon is known as synchronized scent.
Synchronized scent is not purely personal. It does not belong to a single memory, a private childhood moment, or an isolated experience. Instead, it functions like a signal broadcast on a shared frequency, received by those whose internal states are momentarily aligned.
In these moments, scent ceases to be a fragment of the past. It becomes a marker of resonance.
Those who experience synchronized scent often fail to recognize its significance immediately. Only through later reflection, or through comparison with others, does the simultaneity become apparent.
Synchronized scent tends to emerge when:
- Multiple individuals are connected to a shared memory stream or transitional phase
- A collective emotional shift is occurring without direct communication
- A deeper, shared memory layer is being reactivated
Crucially, synchronized scent does not demand instant interpretation. Attempts to assign meaning too quickly often distort the signal.
Within the Scent Signals Archive, synchronized scent is documented as a relational indicator, suggesting that individual perception can momentarily align with a broader field of shared experience.