Thread: Anyone have Synesthesia

I would recommend you V.S.Ramachandran. He's a neurologist and did
a lot on synesthesia (also phantom limb, and schizophrenia). So some
of his talks are not all about synesthesia...

V.S. Ramachandran at Beyond Belief 2007 Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb-fj...om=PL&index=30

This might be what you're looking for. Enjoy

I have had spiritual crisises where I have seen sound coming out of speakers. I could see it as shape better than color but blue was one of the colors I could depict along with green & yellow. It was really trippy.

Hijo, that just sounds like a hallucination to me.

grapheme/numerical-colour. so, I see a different colour for every letter and every number.

Originally Posted by Noogah

Hijo, that just sounds like a hallucination to me.

No, it's not hallucination. Synesthesia is scientifically proven.
Watch the video I posted. It explains exactly what and why.

@People, who have it:
Are you glad that you do or does it annoy you?

Originally Posted by nerve

grapheme/numerical-colour. so, I see a different colour for every letter and every number.

^

For the first ten numbers and letters, this is how they are depicted in my
head (as an example, it applies to all numbers and the rest of the alphabet).

1 a
2 b
3 c
4 d
5 e
6 f
7 g
8 h
9 i
10 j

I think I've made a post on this before, but I had only listed the numbers.
Almost every multiple of 5 is black, and most numbers that have a 2 in them
are blue-ish whatever. Never gave this too much thought, it's minor for me
and isn't a glaring thing when I think about any number or letter in particular.

I'm sure others experience this to much, much greater degrees.

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.

I also see blue light sometimes from the TV speakers and such.

Originally Posted by dajo

V.S. Ramachandran at Beyond Belief 2007 Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb-fj...om=PL&index=30

This might be what you're looking for. Enjoy

Wow, thanks for posting that. Very interesting video, learned a lot.

Originally Posted by Invader

^

For the first ten numbers and letters, this is how they are depicted in my
head (as an example, it applies to all numbers and the rest of the alphabet).

1 a
2 b
3 c
4 d
5 e
6 f
7 g
8 h
9 i
10 j

wow that is so different from what I see:

1 a
2 b
3 c
4 d
5 e
6 f
7 g
8 h
9 i
10 j

@People, who have it:
Are you glad that you do or does it annoy you?

I'm glad I have it, for one thing it's interesting to bring up in conversation...it has never annoyed me, I didn't even realize I had it until a friend brought it up one day, and I was very surprised. I had actually suspected that I had sound - color synesthesia, because whenever I listened to music with my CD player (which was often at the time) the songs would seem to have a color. I never really looked into it, but of course later I realized it was the track number, not the music, that had colour. XD

I'm also glad I have it because it is fun to use in art. I already very much enjoy vocabulary and reading, and it gives words another dimension of beauty. (this is one reason it didn't occur to me that "rottingteeth" is not a pretty screen name - the colours overwhelmed the imagery.)

it never gets in the way. although I always "see" the colours when I read, I don't actually see them, they still appear black. I just sortof "know" what colour each letter is, I'm just...aware of it somehow. it's strange o_o

I have the ability to taste certain things I see or think of. It gets triggered pretty sporadically; there are periods of days where it will get triggered a lot, but then I may go without it being triggered for weeks. There's no telling what will trigger it, but the most common trigger is things of a sexual nature. That's right, I can taste sex.

...I don't know about the sex part, but I can taste things and even feel the textures of foods very clearly without actually consuming them...I have asked many times and never got a satisfactory answer: what do you call it? it's not like you can "imagine" a taste, right? doesn't "imagine" imply imagery?

I've been meaning to make a thread about different levels of imagination that people have...maybe later +yawn+

I see colors for notes (more of imagine, i don't physically see them)
But I have always given letters and number emotions, or I related them
For instance, N is 2.
4 is M
9 is cool.

Originally Posted by nerve

I'm glad I have it, for one thing it's interesting to bring up in conversation...it has never annoyed me, I didn't even realize I had it until a friend brought it up one day, and I was very surprised. I had actually suspected that I had sound - color synesthesia, because whenever I listened to music with my CD player (which was often at the time) the songs would seem to have a color. I never really looked into it, but of course later I realized it was the track number, not the music, that had colour. XD

I'm also glad I have it because it is fun to use in art. I already very much enjoy vocabulary and reading, and it gives words another dimension of beauty. (this is one reason it didn't occur to me that "rottingteeth" is not a pretty screen name - the colours overwhelmed the imagery.)

it never gets in the way. although I always "see" the colours when I read, I don't actually see them, they still appear black. I just sortof "know" what colour each letter is, I'm just...aware of it somehow. it's strange o_o

Really interesting. Personally I would love to have it.

Originally Posted by guitarboy

I see colors for notes (more of imagine, i don't physically see them)
But I have always given letters and number emotions, or I related them
For instance, N is 2.
4 is M
9 is cool.

That's association, not synesthesia.
You'd have to physically see them.

Hey, just found out that I may have another form of synesthesia.

I'm able to see colored outlines around people and objects ("auras" some people call them). However, I just read about "emotion-color synesthesia" - which is you see colors in response to people, words or other things which bring emotion to you - i.e. you may see the color pink around a boyfriend or girlfriend showing you love them.

Wow...that explains a lot...

I'm away to go and make an appointment with my doctor to see if I'm not seeing things, just to be on the safe side.

Originally Posted by Subaru

I'm away to go and make an appointment with my doctor to see if I'm not seeing things, just to be on the safe side.

But go see one, who actually specializes on this kind of stuff.

You know... a neurologist.

If I were you I would try out the tests they did in the video with
a couple of my friends. That should give you some feedback.

Originally Posted by khh

Wow, thanks for posting that. Very interesting video, learned a lot.

glad you liked it

For me things are 3d. I learned a year ago this is a type of synesthesia. Not flashy like the others, though.

Originally Posted by dajo

You'd have to physically see them.

You actually don't have to 'physically' (whatever that means) see them.

Hm, it's not a word? weird. Maybe I meant literally.

What I mean is, there is association. (Which I do too)
And then there is synesthesia, where you see a color
in a number (for example), because two different
sensory parts of the brain a cross-wired. So just as
you look at the sky and say 'blue', you might look
at an eight and say 'blue'. And actually see it, just
like you see the color of the sky.

Edit: That is if the visual cortex is involved.
But I think that is the case, usually.

But 'actually experiencing' it is not necessary. That's one of two experiences you can have with it.

I'm not sure if this is synthesis but when i feel certain rough textures(like sand paper or dry wood) or hear a board being scraped i get goosebumps in my skin and it produces a weird type of bittery taste in my mouth.

On very rare occasions I've vividly smelt something in a picture or on TV, but I don't have synesthesia... it's really interesting though.

Invader, what about really large numbers?

It often happens when I'm almost falling assleep and everything is silent I'll literally see any outside sound in white color. And that's it as far as "phisical" or "direct" synesthesia goes for me, apart from that it's just situations of imagination (mostly taste, if I think about a certain food it's as if I can taste it) and the typical associations of color/sex/personality/position with concepts like numbers/days of the week/months/etc.

I think there's a possibility I might be a synesthete too. I don't experience this often at all, only recently for the first time since I was a child. For instance when I had a pain up my leg I could see the pain as a bright pink light, sort of like electricity with smaller bright blue beams around it, it was really vivid...and as embarassing as it is to say it, i always see yellow and sometimes numbers during sex. I never really thought about it until I saw a programme about it. I'm not sure how i see them, I just do. Is this colour-emotion 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.