Philosophical question, if light reflects, do you see light or the object - being silly.
Recommend this[to anyone] - happened to watch it last night.
Synaesthesia
- Thread starter Gilly
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Philosophical question, if light reflects, do you see light or the object - being silly.
Recommend this[to anyone] - happened to watch it last night.
Ah, I understand. When you said light I read colour, my mistake
I haven't, but I will. I knew it was about a savant but I didn't realise quite how much crossover into synaesthesia he must have.
ASMR
I thought you were kidding until the last line! You are serious on this? Is this the only type you have pinpointed as being part of this experience?
It's really interesting that your parent and their sibling have it too. There's no proven genetic link at all, though it is recognised to exist within family groups. Most often this is just put down to people recognising what it is in themselves and being diagnosed with it, and then educating others that also then recognise it in themselves
Wow, I didn't actually think I'd get a positive result
Yeah I am serious.
The colours are scary close a lot of the time between my mother and her brother. I see them a little differently I think, whether that's effected by a generational thing with names seeming old fashioned or different experiences with different people. I don't know why it differs or why at all but I see names in colours if I read them or hear it.
Countries do it too, I recognize in my mind though that often it is the countries flag colour or football kit that influences it. For example Argentina is sky blue, Holland is orange, Brazil is gold. I know that sounds obvious as that's the colours the tv uses or computer games, but it isn't just that - it's literally the colour I see when I see the name.
It is really hard to explain it, sometimes its relatable and easy to understand and explain, other times it is random and you sound bat**** crazy.
I don't get it from musical notes.
I do sometimes think that sometime things smell "the colour of green". Again sometimes its relatable like conifers. Other times it is a weird.. damp cold, earthy smell that has no consistent source. This experience has grown weaker as I've grown older though. I rarely have it.
I don't know.. I hadn't really thought about it that much.
I think I have this (albeit very mildly). I only really get it when I have no other stimulus, e.g. when I'm lying in bed in the dark. If there's a sudden sound (e.g. a car horn outside, pipes/floorboards creaking, a door slamming next door, etc.), I'll see a flash of monochromatic geometric shapes, e.g. black & white parallel lines, zigzags, tessellated squares etc.
It's common in young children as the brain develops and the neurons are making connections.
I remember having extremely vivid dreams as a child where I could hear and feel light, smell sound etc was very odd! Then later when I heard about this I realised it was a form of synaethesia
I remember having extremely vivid dreams as a child where I could hear and feel light, smell sound etc was very odd! Then later when I heard about this I realised it was a form of synaethesia
Sometimes when I think of boobs my trouser department comes to life. Is this synaesthesia?
That's just normal penile tumescence...
Still one of the greatest
I saw the thread title
I saw you were the last person to post
I knew what to expect
You never failed
Oh, and i agree, still in my top ten EVER.
Took the test and as expected, with 'no' to everything, I am unlikely to have it.
I know what you mean about militant 'sufferers', I have friends who go out their way looking for 'conditions' to 'suffer' from and harp on about how 'difficult' life is with said conditions..
I think your subject matter is interesting because it's quite well accepted now that music can have a range of effects on the brain that most people should be able to relate to..
Have you heard of it? Do you know what it is?
This can come in many, many different forms. In essence, this means that when you see a colour, you hear a sound. When you hear a sound, it triggers a particular smell, or even when seeing particular letters/words/numbers getting a feeling of a particularly rough or smooth surface pressed against an area of your body. The most common forms appear to be smell/taste crossover - which makes sense when you think of the olfactory senses and where they are processed.
I am convinced that I am a synesthete, and my GP at the time concurred. The problem is, the type of synaesthesia I encounter is heavily colour-oriented. This is a problem due to my colourblindness and a lack of a test capable of fully diagnosing my condition without being reliant on true colour perception. As I delve more and more into the area of study I find more and more how very different my world is to everyone else's. It is little wonder that I struggle for clarity when I am using colour-coding in excel or similar with my more normally-sighted colleagues
Colourblindness is another thing that is largely misunderstood. Most people I have discussed synaesthesia with haven't even heard of it but most are aware of colourblindness even if they are ignorant of the true meaning of it. The response tends to be 'Oh, you're colourblind? What colour is this then?' *holds up random object*
More militant or irritable colourblind people have been known to follow that question up with another question, along the lines of 'if I were in a wheelchair would you ask me to stand?' I don't go in for that sort of histrionics but it is a sort of a disability in that it's something that I and others can't do that most people can.
Anyway, the true purpose of this thread is to bring to light the existence of synaesthesia, and to see if there are any people here that are or know others that might be sufferers. There's a lot of information on the synaesthesia battery site, and there is also a test.
I encounter a few of the synesthete symptoms, but most common is the impression of a colour when I hear particular sounds. It's often a heavy impression that intrudes on my mind, but sometimes something that is just a background idea.
Please take the test and report back
Taste with me. When given oxygen in an ambulance I told them to take it away as it tasted pink and my favourite colour is a person. The Man who Tasted Shapes is a good book to read.
Soldato
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I've heard of it but would be hard pressed to define it. I saw a documentary on it once a very strange thing. What was interesting is there seems to be a link between it and imagination. Our ancestors may have been synaesthetes and may have lead to the unique human ability to imagine. No other creature appears to have it. They have consciousness and know fear, pain, pleasure even communicate on various levels but lack anything resembling imagination the ability to conjure concepts and to create plans and imagine outcomes purely in our heads which arguably is what sets us apart. All other creatures live purely in the right-here and now, we live in the past, present and future.
Theres also a link between schizophrenia and creativity that may also be related, David Bowie was incredibly creative but as he said himself theres was madness in his family and his brother was a diagnosed schizophrenic who died in his 20's. There is also an incredible jazz trumpeteer who also has it. Whatever pushes them to be amazingly creative can also push them into madness. Two sides of the same coin so to speak.
Theres also a link between schizophrenia and creativity that may also be related, David Bowie was incredibly creative but as he said himself theres was madness in his family and his brother was a diagnosed schizophrenic who died in his 20's. There is also an incredible jazz trumpeteer who also has it. Whatever pushes them to be amazingly creative can also push them into madness. Two sides of the same coin so to speak.
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Still one of the greatest
I was just about to post this too, one of the best trance tunes, remember I used to cruise to this when I'd just passed my test, didn't taste any colours though
Synaesthesia is a really interesting condition and does make you wonder about how we all see the physical world differently but take it as normal that we're seeing everything the same way.
Soldato
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I 'see' the shapes of farts. Does that count?
Soldato
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I'm affected by Synaesthesia. Had it all my life, but only knew it was called Synaesthesia in 1997 (aged 18) when my mum looked into it. I have the most common version, coloured-hearing.
P.S. I've not met another synasethete yet, but want to
This is how I see numbers, letters and notes (yes I have perfect pitch too).
As you can see, some of the notes are the same as the corresponding alphabet letters, but not all of them.
P.S. I've not met another synasethete yet, but want to
This is how I see numbers, letters and notes (yes I have perfect pitch too).
As you can see, some of the notes are the same as the corresponding alphabet letters, but not all of them.
I was just about to post this too, one of the best trance tunes, remember I used to cruise to this when I'd just passed my test, didn't taste any colours though
Synaesthesia is a really interesting condition and does make you wonder about how we all see the physical world differently but take it as normal that we're seeing everything the same way.
Much of what we experience as the "Real World" doesn't exist at all!
There is no such thing as colour, It is just EM radiation of varying frequencies.
What we experience as "Sound" is not what you think it is.
Our sense of heat and cold is also not what you think it is either,
And so on!
There is nothing magic about synaesthesia, it is just one sense bleeding over into another because they are all analysed by the same brain and the Brain is a sort of distributed processing thing. We all probably get a bit of it, some just get rather more.