In the manifestation world, we often talk about getting the mind to believe something has already happened. I found a way to do that almost by accident. I call it a scented future memory.
What is a scented future memory?
A scented future memory is a goal statement that places one real sensory detail, preferably a scent, in the moment after the goal comes true. It follows a simple pattern: “When I reach my goal, I will smell, hear, see, taste or feel something specific.” In my experience, the scent is the part that matters most. It makes a future event feel like a memory you already have.
Scent anchoring means pairing a scent with a feeling so the scent can bring the feeling back later. A scented future memory puts the scent into a moment that hasn’t happened yet.
How I used one to manifest my apartment
When I was manifesting my current apartment, I didn’t only affirm that I would find a beautiful place. I described the kitchen, and I named the scent it would have. My statement was: “When I have my apartment with white stone counters and blue-gray cabinetry in the kitchen, I will make it smell like Jo Malone Peony & Blush Suede.”
That fragrance opens with red apple and settles into peony and soft suede. Each time I said the sentence, I wasn’t thinking about applications or moving boxes. I was standing in that kitchen, and it smelled like that.
The next month, I signed a lease on a new apartment without seeing it first. I chose it because of its unit number. When I walked in, I found that exact kitchen, and it was even better than I had pictured. I was shocked.
Looking back, I think words alone would have kept the apartment in the future. Once I could smell the room, the scene stopped feeling like a wish and started feeling like something I remembered.
Why does a scent make a goal feel real?
The brain treats the future and the past more alike than most of us would guess. In 1985, the Swedish brain scientist David Ingvar wrote an essay called “Memory of the future.” He argued that the brain stores plans for the future and can recall them in detail, much like memories of the past. Years later, Harvard psychologist Daniel Schacter and his colleague Donna Addis found that when we imagine a future event, the brain builds it from pieces of real memories, using much of the same system it uses to remember.
Psychologists Marcia Johnson and Carol Raye studied how we tell real memories from imagined ones. Memories of things that really happened tend to carry more sensory detail: what we saw, heard, smelled and touched. Imagined events tend to be vaguer. So when you give a future scene a specific scent, you give it one of the main signs the brain uses to judge that something really happened.
Smell also has an unusually direct route to the parts of the brain that handle emotion and memory, the amygdala and the hippocampus. Sights and sounds travel through the thalamus first, a part of the brain that sorts incoming signals. Psychologists Rachel Herz and Jonathan Schooler found that memories brought back by a smell were more emotional than memories brought back by a picture or a word.
Imagining a future event also changes what we expect and what we do. In a 1982 study by Gregory, Cialdini and Carpenter, people who imagined an event judged it more likely to happen to them. Homeowners who imagined enjoying cable television were more likely to sign up for it later, when they had the chance.
Feelings matter for the choices that move us toward a goal. In “Descartes’ Error” (1994), neuroscientist Antonio Damasio wrote that feelings in the body act as signals that guide our decisions. He called them somatic markers. He described patients with damage to a part of the brain that links feelings to choices. They could still reason through a problem, yet they struggled to make even simple decisions. A goal you can feel gives those signals something to work with.
Where this meets Neville Goddard
Neville Goddard taught his students to imagine their wish as already fulfilled, and to make the imagined scene vivid enough to feel real. He also taught that the minutes before sleep are the best time to do it. The research above suggests why vivid detail matters: sensory detail is one of the ways the brain marks an event as real. A scented future memory puts that into one sentence you can repeat all day, and it uses smell, the sense with the most direct route to emotion and memory.
How to write a scented future memory
A scented future memory has three parts. The first is the moment: one specific event after your goal comes true, like signing the lease, landing the client or getting the keys. The second is the sense: one thing you will smell, hear, see, taste or touch in that moment. Be exact. A named perfume works better than “a nice smell,” and “the clink of crystal champagne glasses” works better than “a celebration.” The third is the feeling: how you will feel right then, such as proud, calm or at home.
Here are three examples. “When I land my first client, I will hear the clink of crystal champagne glasses.” “When I buy my dream house, I will make it smell like my favorite fragrance in my bedroom.” “When I get the keys to my new home, I will light my favorite candle and feel completely at home.”
If you can, keep the scent nearby and smell it while you read your phrase. The research on smell and memory used real scents, so smelling the real thing is the closest match.
Pair it with a step. Research on imagining suggests that picturing the steps toward a goal helps you follow through. Alongside your future memory, write one phrase for your next step, like “When I sit down at my desk, I will send one proposal.”
How to make a scented future memory in SOMOTE
With SOMOTE Plus, open a Playlist, tap When… I… and type the moment in the first box and the sense in the second. SOMOTE joins them into one sentence and adds it to your Playlist. From then on, it appears on your screen throughout the day while you work. You can also record it in your own voice, or let it play in Sanctuary before bed.