I was having a discussion the other day about the power of a song to take you back to a specific place and time in your life. There’s a song on the Garden State soundtrack — The Only Living Boy in New York, by Simon and Garfunkel, that brings me back to a certain point in my life. The same boy who wrote me the most romantic love letters I have ever received also made me a mix tape or two, one of which had that song on it. At the time, I was living in Boston and he had recently moved to New York, so I imagined him wandering around, exploring the city, and the song to this day makes me think of him and smile.
Similarly, when I was at OJ, one of the guys there was wearing the same cologne as someone I dated at one point. It’s amazing how the scent kept making me think that he was lurking around somewhere, even though I haven’t seen him in ages, and I certainly haven’t smelled him in even longer.
Both of these things are so powerful, it’s almost frightening. And talking about it with other people makes me realize how pervasive this is — a song or a scent bringing you back to a specific place and time in your life — good or bad. The brain works in strange and mysterious ways . . .
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Yeah, I think both music and scent bypass our logic/language portions of the brain and go straight to the reptilian/primitive part.
It’s that immediacy which causes the strong impact.
Yeah, I think both music and scent bypass our logic/language portions of the brain and go straight to the reptilian/primitive part.
It’s that immediacy which causes the strong impact.
Reptilian. . . I like that thought.
Reptilian. . . I like that thought.