Thread: Anyone have Synesthesia

sorry to bump an old thread up, but i'm a synesthete with a lot of knowledge on the subject and wanted to throw in my two cents.

first of all, experiencing synesthesia isn't purely visual. you can imagine smells and sounds. some people even imagine tastes. the things you 'see' aren't in front of you and are not physical at all - they're just in your head. i mean, some people see it right in front of them but that's uncommon and i imagine would get very annoying.

i have multiple forms of synesthesia but there's another thing about it that makes it unique - the things you see or hear while experiencing synesthesia don't change. when i hear a musical 'C' tone i see a vivid green line. that C tone will always produce a green line for me. what changes that is the instrument being used to play the tone. for instance a bass tone produces a pinkish brown line instead of a green one, which i see when listening to a guitar play the note.

when instruments are combined, their corresponding images mend together in my mind to create a unique, but consistent image of the song playing. so no matter what, the same song will give me the same mental paintings, unchanged.

to have the same, unchanged patterns is what tells you you are truly a synesthete. if they change (for instance listening to a bass play a C tone produces green, then pink, then orange lines), you just have a knack at visualizing the things you hear or feel. anyone can do it, but synesthetes have an involuntary, consistent reaction to whatever senses are affected.

i personally don't find it annoying since i've lived with it all my life, but i confuse people when i talk about it. :<

Originally Posted by Subaru

I remember I played "Blind Man's Bluff" with my nieces (It's like hide and seek only your blindfolded when you're the seeker). I was the seeker and I was always able to keep track of my nieces whereabouts even when I was blindfolded because whenever they made a sound I saw a flash of blue and the blue was strongest and brightest when I was facing them.

And before you say, the blindfold wasn't see through.

Haha that is so cool. You could probably use that well in paintball or something lol

Originally Posted by Scatterbrain

It often happens when I'm almost falling assleep and everything is silent I'll literally see any outside sound in white color.

That's pretty much as far as it goes for me too. I've wanted synesthesia since I heard about it but I never considered this to be synesthesia. Because it generally only happens when I'm falling asleep and suddenly hear a noise, even if it's quiet. I just get this flash of white and sometimes other colours, but very pale ones. I think it's just something to do with the brain overreacting or something. Like it suddenly tries to perceive the sound with other senses. Not sure though.

Here's a question for you synesthetes.... Have you found a use for these abilities in every day life? Or even not in everyday life, but have you found a use for them?

I read about some guy who had grapheme-colour synesthesia and he could learn languages in a few days because he wasn't just connecting words, but colours too, so it makes it easier for the brain to remember.