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Synaesthesia - do you have it?

It's when your senses get mixed up, i.e. you can "see" or "taste" sounds or something like that. I have the most common type which is that, for me, letters and numbers all have particular colours and I was just curious to see if anyone on TSR has it?

xxx

Its supposedly a neurological condition so I assumed it fits into the "health" part of H&R btw!

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Reply 1

ForumFreak

Yes I have the same type as you. Its useful for making up and remembering pin numbers and stuff.

Reply 2

dutch_stud

Funnily enough I feel that sometimes I make associations like that as well, but I am only very sometimes and very subtly aware of them. I think there is a lot of psychology that falls behind the subject of synaesthesia.. and I think it plays a role, though perhaps a subtle one, in many people's lives.

Reply 3

WelshMike

I sort of 'picture' days ... if that makes any sense at all, which it probably doesn't.

Reply 4

SianyLou

this might be unrelated but ever since i was a child i always made masculine and feminine associations with letters and numbers.. my dad used to test that i wasnt just attention seeking by going through the alphabet. i never faltered. and still don't

Reply 5

goodLife

I used to (and still do) associate the subject maths with the colour red, French with green, biology with blue etc.

Do I have it?

Reply 6

ForumFreak

Yeah that sounds like it

Reply 7

sebbie

are there any bad effects associated with the condition, it sounds really weird!

Reply 8

squigaletta

I have it, for names (inc days and months), my bf tried to test it, and I got them all right! ha to him the non believer

Reply 9

halfoflessthan50p

I dont have it (numbers are just values and days are just dates for me) but i think ive had the kind of symptoms youre talking about whilst on mushrooms.

Reply 10

ForumFreak

sebbie

are there any bad effects associated with the condition, it sounds really weird!

I see the months June and July as the same colour so I often get dates mixed up. My friends birthday is June 6th but I sometimes cant remember if its June 6th or July 6th!

Reply 11

gianthead

are you trying to tell me there are people who don't see colours for letters and numbers? that's be really scary, like being blind! :eek:

no seriously, it can't be a condition, l mean everyone l know agrees that days and months etc have colours, they just can't agree. l think wednesday is granite pink (yuk!) and my brother says it's turquoise.

Reply 12

Lady Stardust

I see the number 1 as red and the number 2 as yellow.

Reply 13

sluggabed

goodLife

I used to (and still do) associate the subject maths with the colour red, French with green, biology with blue etc.

Do I have it?

no...everyone does that.

synaesthesia is where you can taste a colour, or see a sound etc...wassily kandinsky was an abstract artist who had synaesthesia -his paintings were what he saw when he heard music. ie yellow was violence, strong colours were loud, triangles were trumpets (i think..)

http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu/LK/Presentations/facultylecture/img/kandinsky.yellow-red-blue.gif

one of my friends has synaeshtesia..she can see shapes when she tastes diferent foods.

Reply 14

Yerb

Wow, I did a double-take when I saw this. A bunch of synaesthetes? Awesome!

What number do green and red add up to? [Out of interest. In case anyone, by some bizarre twist of nature, hears the same colours as I do. ^.^]

~ Em

Reply 15

mc_watson87

crazybored

I have the most common type which is that, for me, letters and numbers all have particular colours and I was just curious to see if anyone on TSR has it?

Like the best mathematicians in the world are like that and they combine the colour or shape to get another shape and can work out mathematical problems insanely quickly. :eek:

Reply 16

Esquire

I think all synasthetes are just fakers and attention seekers. It's a bit like talking to religious people that believe they "speak" to God....

Reply 17

squigaletta

Esquire

I think all synasthetes are just fakers and attention seekers. It's a bit like talking to religious people that believe they "speak" to God....

There is a clinical test for synaethesia (i can descirbe it if you wish) whereas there is no clinical test for talking to god, a very poorly informed post from someone who has not experienced this.

Reply 18

FrisbeeFan

I associate keys with different colours - eg. D major is a golden reddish-orange colour, A major is greeny turquoise, Eb major is dark yellowish brown/golden and so on. I doubt very much this is actually synaethsesia though - when I hear these keys I don't literally 'see' the colours in front of my eyes. I think it's the same with the majority of people who associate numbers with colours.