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Synaesthesia

Out of interest, does anyone here think they have synaesthesia?

Synaesthesia is a "condition" (urgh, I hate that word!) where two or more senses in the brain "cross over", if you like. For example, some people see* colours when they listen to songs, when they smell perfume, or when they see letters. Some synaesthetes taste things when they hear words, some have personalities for numbers. Any mix of any 5 senses - sight, sound, touch, taste and smell - could be regarded as synaesthesia.

*I say "see". This can mean physically seeing the colours (projected), or seeing them in your mind's eye (associated).

Seeing numbers/hours/days/weeks/months etc in a specific location in space, for example in a line that changes direction when it gets to 100, or in a circle with April in the 3 o'clock position, is also a form of syn.

It's not an illness, it's just a different way of thinking I suppose. Most synaesthetes don't even notice their syn while doing day to day stuff. It's estimated that as many as 1 in 20 people have at least one form of syn. Synaesthetes are born with it. The most common is grapheme -> colour (where letters evoke colour). Every syns' colours tend to be different for each letter, but a general trend is the letter A being red.

I am a synaesthete, and I wouldn't have it any other way :smile:

It fascinates me.
For me, scents, songs and chords evoke colours, and letters and numbers evoke colours and personalities.

If you want more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaesthesia

If you think you have a form of synaesthesia, do post in here as I'd love to hear from you :smile:

I'm sure I'm not the only one!
Edit: That's not to say non-syns aren't welcome - if you're interested, syn or non-syn, post away :smile:

Reply 1

Mayfly

Yup, grapheme -> colour but nothing else (my A is red too...)

I didn't even realize I had it, until I read about it and thought how cool it was. I sat down in front of a book, and decided to assign random colours to letters and force myself to 'see' them. As I was doing so, I thought "this is so stupid, why am I making myself pretend a D is orange when it's clearly dark blue?" I think it's because it's more of a very strong association for me (ie. like the word B makes a Bee sound for you, it's also like blue for me. It just is. The way a tree is a word and also a thing, if that makes sense) whereas I thought it should be a physical sight. On some level, I 'see' it that way, but not as clearly as if the text was actually red, if that makes sense.

It does explain my extraordinary skill at scanning books for words in primary school though.

Reply 2

faber niger

17

I'd love to have it! :yep:

Reply 3

nuodai

17

I have numeric synaesthesia, whereby whenever I look at anything I associate a number with it based on things like shape, colour, sound, smell... all sorts. It's entirely subconscious but it makes remembering numbers much easier :p:

Reply 4

be-lie-ve

I don't consider myself to have it any more, mainly because I convinced myself to suppress it because it was 'weird'.. but when I was younger, letters had their own personalities, which I think is a 'symptom'.

Reply 5

C274

OP

Mayfly

Yup, grapheme -> colour but nothing else (my A is red too...)

A is red for me as well. I wonder why that is?...

As you're a grapheme -> colour syn, what do you think of this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/a85c/?cpg=76H ?
Personally I'd love one......

Reply 6

BlackHawk

17

I do, I taste colours. :smile:

Only 'synthetic' colours though, ie those not usually found in nature. My brother sees shapes as colours, and my sister sees numbers as colours. Maybe it's got some sort of genetic link.

Reply 7

C274

OP

be-lie-ve

I don't consider myself to have it any more, mainly because I convinced myself to suppress it because it was 'weird'.. but when I was younger, letters had their own personalities, which I think is a 'symptom'.

Aw, that's a shame :frown:

Syn shouldn't be something to be ashamed of! Oh well, now you know what it's like to be on both sides :smile:

The way I see it, non-syns will never understand having syn, and syns will never understand not having syn.

Reply 8

RJ555

14

Yep, well sort of, I have "Ordinal Linguistic Personification" which I believe is classed under the umbrella of synaesthesia.

Numbers have genders and personalities, they always have for me, simple as that. Most people don't understand this, but i cant imagine it any other way. Tis just how I am.

I also see other things as having genders, the alphabet, objects (e.g. i cant think of wardrobes as being anything other than a masculine entity), and sometimes textures/feelings/senses but to a lesser extent.

EDIT: The way Id describe it to anyone curious is a "strong assosiation", something that you just accept to be. If you look at something thats yellow, your mind just instantly tells you "that is yellow", you feel it. Thats how it is.

Reply 9

=nuke=

11

I wish. It's one of my main interests.

I can smell and taste a few songs but most people can do the same.

Reply 10

Adam Sheridan

7

It has been something I've looked into for a fair bit, everybody has it to a certain degree.

I don't know about you, but I would really like to 'sample' a form of it for a day or two :s-smilie:

.

Apparently some strong mushrooms and certain types of acid can induce similar effects.

- Adam

Reply 11

C274

OP

RJ555

Yep, well sort of, I have "Ordinal Linguistic Personification" which I believe is classed under the umbrella of synaesthesia.

Numbers have genders and personalities, they always have for me, simple as that. Most people don't understand this, but i cant imagine it any other way. Tis just how I am.

I also see other things as having genders, the alphabet, objects (i.e. i cant think of wardrobes as being anything other than a masculine entity), and sometimes textures/feelings/senses but to a lesser extent.

Cool. Did you get officially diagnosed with OLP or did you just find out about it and realise you had it?
I suppose I have it, too, and the same with letters.
Having a gender for everything sounds really cool, I'd love to know what that feels like. :smile:

RJ555

The way Id describe it to anyone curious is a "strong assosiation", something that you just accept to be. If you look at something thats yellow, your mind just instantly tells you "that is yellow", you feel it. Thats how it is.

*nods*
Like, if someone asked you, "What colour is a carrot?" you'd know straight away it was orange, without having to think about it.

Reply 12

username91207

16

For some reason I always think of a small letter e as happy, an a as really grumpy, and the number 9 as also happy, but that's about it so I don't think it counts :frown:

Reply 13

RJ555

14

C274

Cool. Did you get officially diagnosed with OLP or did you just find out about it and realise you had it?
I suppose I have it, too, and the same with letters.
Having a gender for everything sounds really cool, I'd love to know what that feels like. :smile:

No, I realised when I was 15/16ish myself, it just matched how I felt and I knew I had it. Up until that point I thought everyone did the same, it came as a bit of a shock to me. :p:

And it just feels "normal". :yep:

Reply 14

C274

OP

snowyowl

For some reason I always think of a small letter e as happy, an a as really grumpy, and the number 9 as also happy, but that's about it so I don't think it counts :frown:

Ooh, that's interesting...no idea if that would count! Maybe you'll develop more syn over time? I dunno.

Reply 15

makinghistory

Ah there was a programme about an autistic savant who had synaesthesia and he used it when he was remembering Pi to a a gazillion decimal places. There was something on Richard and Judy about it as well.

In my mind I think of certain things as having colours and certain personalities (people I don't like are purple, friendly people orange, people on the fringe blue, science is blue, R.S is orange or yellow, English is yellow or red, Maths is purple) but I don't think it's strong enough to be synaesthesia (thats a b**** to type!).

I love to have the taste one, you'd just find a word that tasted good, say it all the time, it'd be the best weight loss diet ever!

Reply 16

xMiss_Sarahx

Oh my gosh, my mother and I both associate certain colours with numbers (especially those up to about 12), we both thought it was completely normal and have often discussed it, but then we started asking people what colours they see certain numbers as and got given funny looks and called weird.
I think i've found about one other person who's the same, everyone else thinks I'm a bit of a loon because of it!!

Reply 17

C274

OP

xMiss_Sarahx

Oh my gosh, my mother and I both associate certain colours with numbers (especially those up to about 12), we both thought it was completely normal and have often discussed it, but then we started asking people what colours they see certain numbers as and got given funny looks and called weird.
I think i've found about one other person who's the same, everyone else thinks I'm a bit of a loon because of it!!