Chronaromaportation

Listen, I don’t have much time. Ironic, wouldn’t you say, considering that I’m about to tell you the secret of time travel? Wouldn’t you think I’d have all the time in the world? And I do, I do — just not here-and-now time. That’s running out for me. They’ll be here any minute, and if I’m not gone by then I don’t know what will happen. They say they just want to talk — want me to share my secret “for the good of the country and the sake of the economy.” Ha! They clearly don’t know me very well. Just because money has persuaded THEM to sell out, they assume it will persuade me. They can’t seem to hear what I’ve been trying to tell them from the beginning, which is that, for me, wealth isn’t about money. It’s about memory. Have you ever found yourself staring into space, remembering? “Lost in thought,” we say, and that phrase is a pointer toward the truth, but it’s not the whole truth. “Traveling in thought” would be more accurate, because you’re not lost at all. On the contrary, you’re exactly where you think yourself to be. Your consciousness has traveled in time — literally, not metaphorically — to that experience. I’m going to repeat that, just to make sure you take it in: Memory is LITERAL time travel. Both those NOWs exist; our bodies are doubled. We just don’t REALIZE we’ve traveled from one of our bodies to another because we’ve been taught to ignore that kind of perception.

When we enter a memory, we flicker between two different worlds — call them Now and Now Prime. Whichever Now has the strongest sensory vibration, the most sensory evidence, “wins” your consciousness — which is why someone in Now can recall you from Now Prime by shaking your shoulder or hollering in your ear. But the same is true for Now Prime. If you can get the sensory signal strong enough, you can travel FULLY to Now Prime, leaving the regular Now timeline for good.

Which is what I’m about to do. Buh-bye, suckers! You missed me!

But I find myself reluctant to go without telling someone — YOU — the secret. It’s so simple, really. I want you to know the trick of it, just in case. We’ve got to share these powers.

I call it Chron•aroma•portation: literally, scent-powered travel through time.

Aromaporting, for short.

You remember that strong sensory trigger I was talking about? Although humans don’t have anything like the olfactory capabilities of a rat or an elephant or a shark or a grizzly bear, our sense of smell is linked to our memory map like no other sense. Smell unlocks memory — and memory, as I’ve already said, isn’t something we HAVE but somewhere we GO.

The more specific and complete the scent pattern — the stronger the sensory evidence — the more fully you travel.

I’ve gotten this down to a science, quite literally. My chemistry dissertation is how they found me, after all. I’ve been collecting, analyzing, and bottling these moments for years — and I’ve been aromaporting for even longer.

Here’s how I do it — and how YOU can do it, too.

STEP ONE • the AROMAMOMENT
The most important part of aromaporting is to anchor your landing points — the moments in time you’ll be able to return to most easily. You do this by paying attention to the complex set of scents that exist around you at any given time: what we call the AROMAMOMENT.

Try it right now. Notice everything you can smell — not just the primary odor, but the faint accessory scents as well. The scent of the wool of the sweater you’re wearing. The scent of your hair, depending on how long ago you washed it and what shampoo you use. The lingering aroma of the chicken tikka masala you heated up for lunch.

Your house has a smell. Figure out what it is and notice how and when it changes. The people you love have different smells at different times. Learn them. Build a store of those moments. Get in the habit of noticing, collecting, and cataloguing the tiny olfactory differences that separate one moment from another.

A couple of examples from my own collection:

*******

July 7, 19– : Afternoon at the beach. Ocean brine, low-tide brack and seaweed. Coppertone lotion. Faint smell of grease and sugar from the snack bar. Sand and hot skin. The smell of the pages of P’s book. The Tide detergent my towel had been washed in.

*******

December 24, 20– : Christmas Eve with G and the Bs. Balsam fir, Scotch tape, mulled wine (cinnamon, cloves, star anise, pepper, ginger), the sharp citrus oil from someone peeling a clementine, not-unpleasant odor of burnt gravy from where it dripped on the bottom of the oven, earlier. When the front door opens, rush of ozone scent: impending snow. The familiar half-wet-dog scent of the blanket I’m wrapped in. Sweetness of beeswax candles. The smell of champagne laughter.

*******

The more attention you pay to each aromamoment, the more fluidly you’ll be able to return to that moment again.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you really, really want to be able to remember and revisit a specific point in time, make a point of not just noticing but actively SETTING an aromamoment. CREATE an anchor scent to remember, and then deploy it in some way, so that it’s an integral part of the moment. Now close your eyes, so as to keep focus on the olfactory, and then inhale, three times, deeply.

Remember: Aromamoments are the key to chronaromaportation.

STEP TWO • the SLIP
To slip from Now to Now Prime —

…

— I just heard the slamming of a car door. They’re here. No time for any more. You’ll have to figure out Step Two on your own. You can do it — the key part is Step One. Remember to NOTICE YOUR AROMAMOMENTS — they’re the key to powerful memories and the vehicle that lets you travel in time whenever you are.

Must go. Burn after reading this (and note the scent of the smoke) —

Chronaromaportation was released on the Full Moon, February 2021

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