Oh I can cite several instances of the power of suggestion convincing people that they taste/smell/see/hear what isn't there. Obviously there are limits as even your experience with PUSD proved. Interestingly, you did indeed taste fruit though didn't suspect you weren't vaping Desperado and definitely didn't pinpoint the prominent flavor in the profile: pineapple. The mind is super impressionable. And I mean all minds, not yours. Nothing to be ashamed of at all in that incident, as it could and probably has happened to all of us. I'm not trying to diminish your perspective on five pawns either -- only riffing on a topic close to my heart. I first tried them about a week or two into this, and I know for a fact that the fantasy they work to produce through packaging and product description served its purpose with me. There I was, self conscious about being clowned by scientist pals for inhaling unknown and unregulated compounds -- "smoke juice" -- which was already a running joke among them, and 5P arrives looking like top shelf scotch and sounding like a tasting menu at Alinea. It provided the legitimacy I needed then. Later I tried the same steeped samples and decided I didn't like any enough to buy in bulk. Anyhow, while I agree that suggestion alone won't allow you to taste shrimp scampi in a menthol blend, it can theoretically convince us we're tasting two types of extracted vanilla bean when all there actually is a budget baker's trusty bottle of imitation. Especially when we've paid well for the experience.
Random aside: Mentioning Alinea spurred a thought. Will we one day see a tasting menu restaurant like it offer custom blend vape pairings per course? I'd love that.
Lots of excellent and interesting points there, and I do believe you're right. On so many levels the mind can convince us of things that aren't necessarily real. It's no doubt why a meal can taste extra good when you're sharing it with someone special. It can even seem magical. Later, if you eat there again, it never quite lives up to that night.. I was recently in Paris and I couldn't get over how the compaillette tasted like no bread I had ever had in the U.S. I wondered if it could be local ingredients, the Parisian air influencing the crust - all sorts of fanciful theories. In the end, I'm sure it was just my frame of mind, and little more. I guess that's all fine. Whatever makes our experiences more enjoyable is ok by me. I guess I don't mind deluding myself somewhat. I cling mostly to science in terms of my beliefs, but I'm by no means immune to a little romance!
