# Do you have Synesthesia?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 3, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229 "2002-12-03T15:49:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morgainelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Morgainelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgainelf)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/1 "2002-12-03T15:49:45Z")
I was prompted by **Zoe’s** post in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147586) to look up synesthesia. I’d never heard of the condition before, but I definitely have it. According to [this website](http://www.dischord.net/synesthesia/) I have both facetographemia (assigning personalities to phenomes) and sexographemia (assigning sex/gender to phenomes.) I’ve always experienced letters and numbers this way, and assumed that others did as well. I remember explaining it to my husband a year or so ago and having him look at me funny. I’d never mentioned it before, because it just seemed to be normal. (4 and R are the same for me, 5 and F are the same, 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are boys, 2, 6, 8, 9 are girls, 0 is neuter, and each has a specific personality for me. I won’t go into letters!) There seems to be quite a bit of information on the web about color associative synesthesia, but I haven’t found much regarding personality/gender associations. So, who else? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/2 "2002-12-03T15:59:58Z")
Yup, I do. I assign gender to numbers and letters as well. I also carry a mental image of the timeline of history as a sequence of connected line segments, with right-angle turns (in differing directions) at significant dates: Birth of Christ 1000 1900 1970 (I was born in 1967, so this is the first decade I remember) 1980 (The angles for 1980 and 1990 are obtuse rather than right) 1990 2000 I also have a semiphotographic memory, and so I visualize calendar dates the same as they appear on a monthly calendar page. ---
**Author:** ![Pablito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Pablito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pablito)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/3 "2002-12-03T16:03:10Z")
I haven’t followed your link yet, but I do know that the first time I saw the Grateful Dead in concert also happened to be the first time I took LSD: I saw black sheets of lightning bolts pouring from Jerry Garcia’s guitar. Lots of other stuff since. My mom always said that she would hear a person’s name and always have a color or pattern associated with that name. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/4 "2002-12-03T16:13:44Z")
1 - male; regal, yet aloof 2 - herm; sassy 3 - male; gregarious, earthy, hedonistic 4 - male; timid, skittish, prone to hysterics, generally unreliable 5 - male; friendly, yet sly; a slightly more sophisticated 3 6 - female; gentle, matronly, somewhat insecure 7 - male; cynical, stoic 8 - male; practical, guarded; at times moody, yet generally magnanimous 9 - female; genuine, outgoing, sexy; 0 - male; wonkish, tenacious ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/5 "2002-12-03T16:16:50Z")
Oddly enough, the production manager here at work told me this morning she thinks of vowels as female and consonants as male. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/6 "2002-12-03T16:16:53Z")
That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever smelled. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/7 "2002-12-03T16:21:12Z")
If I indeed have synesthesia, it’s not identified on **Morgainelf** ’s list. I perceive shape/texture/area from smells. For example, I have one perfume that I associate with a flat board with a ball on top, another that smells like horizontal wavy lines, and another that’s like a small pyramid with one of the edges facing toward me. You know, from this and what I posted in the “Why do we talk to ourselves?” GQ question, I feel like I’m outing myself as a crazy person. On preview: **cuauhtemoc** , that reminds me of a short story by W.S. Merwin, in which he devotes a paragraph to each of the first 10 numbers and their personalities. 2 is a little girl in a yellow dress, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/8 "2002-12-03T16:23:51Z")
Oh, I have the letters all figured out too. All of the genders and some of the personality traits are so obvious to me that I just take them for granted. My sister and I disagree on some of them, and we’ve had heated arguments about it. Apparently, ‘C’ is a boy in her twisted world, as is ‘9’. Insanity. And they were all firmly established by the time I learned to read. I expect it goes back even further than that. You know what probably encourages this trend? Shows like _Sesame Street_, where they anthropomorphize letters and numbers all the time. Maybe it makes them easier for kids to relate to? ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/9 "2002-12-03T16:32:12Z")
I like reading things about synesthesia, but it all seems very vague to me, as if it means so many things, it doesn’t really mean anything. I’ve yet to come across a decription of my own personal synesthesia thing, which is that certain multiplication problems have tastes. I loved math class when we were learning the times tables, it was like dessert. 8 x 6, for example, is lemon, like a lemon creme filling. It doesn’t work if it’s 6 x 8 though. And the number 48 doesn’t have a taste, it has to be expressed as 8 x 6. These are the ones that are the strongest: 8 x 6 = lemon 4 x 3 = chocolate 7 x 6 = vanilla 3 x 9 = mint I still get really happy if I have to buy 7 of something, and then discover in the store that they cost 6 dollars each. Ooooh, vanilla! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/10 "2002-12-03T16:42:56Z")
The closest I come to any of this is that I maintain that some movies are left-handed and some are right-handed and if you sit on the wrong side of the theater, you risk having the film (literally) strike you the wrong way. What? ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/11 "2002-12-03T17:12:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scarlett67 \* > \*\*Yup, I do. I assign gender to numbers and letters as well. I also carry a mental image of the timeline of history as a sequence of connected line segments, with right-angle turns (in differing directions) at significant dates: > > \*\* WOW!!! I thought it was just me! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/12 "2002-12-03T17:29:25Z")
I do, but only mildly. I see certain sounds; I actually found out this is the case by asking about this in this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=79413&highlight=white](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=79413&highlight=white) ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/13 "2002-12-03T17:34:12Z")
I thought synesthesia had to be a crossing of two senses? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/14 "2002-12-03T17:37:05Z")
I have mental colours for numbers and days of the week. They’re not fixed in stone, and they seem to have worn off as I got older. I also once saw some music when under the influence of psyloscibin (AC/DC, and it was a big purple worm-like thing). ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/15 "2002-12-03T18:25:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cuauhtemoc \* > \*\* > > 3 - male; gregarious, earthy, hedonistic > > \*\* I know that you were probably in a hurry and made a typo but “3” is obviously female and not “male”. I am sure that we all knew what you meant but I thought that you would get a big chuckle out of your mistake if I pointed it out. ---
**Author:** ![agroof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@agroof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agroof)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/16 "2002-12-03T18:35:13Z")
I have always encoded sounds visually. For me, high-frequency sounds are usually bright colors, and low-frequency sounds are usually darker colors. I also create specific mental images for particular sounds. According to my parents, as a young child, I identified “white noise” as sounding very white before I even knew what it was called. I thought it should be obvious to anyone that the sound was white. I don’t think in sounds. I don’t hear a voice in my head. Instead, I _see_ words as I think them. I see whole sentences at a time – punctuation and all. When I’m communicating verbally with another person, I also visualize – automatically – every word that is said and pay little attention to the person’s voice. For this reason, I’ve always been a superior speller, but pronunciation doesn’t come so naturally to me. I can read very quickly because, instead of “sounding out” every word, I process the meaning of whole groups of words at a time. Often, my dreams lack much sound as well. Usually, the people in my dreams have “thought bubbles” – exactly what you’d see in comic strips – and so I _read_ what they’re saying rather than hear it. Bizarre? Why do I invariably convert auditory stimuli to visual stimuli? I don’t have impaired hearing. Rather, it seems that my sense of hearing is unbearably acute – sensitive to an extent that sounds really _bother_ me. The sound of a vacuum cleaner, for instance, is just about as painful to me as a broken toe. Fire alarms are like death. I suppose I just try to block out these painful auditory stimuli whenever possible by creating corresponding images instead. Any wonder that I am a [visual](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=146385&highlight=visual+philosopher) philosopher? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/17 "2002-12-03T18:47:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shagnasty \* > \*\*I know that you were probably in a hurry and made a typo but “3” is obviously female and not “male”. I am sure that we all knew what you meant but I thought that you would get a big chuckle out of your mistake if I pointed it out. \*\* And I know you’re just having a laugh on me, for I know that you would never deign to propagate this vile heresy. It’s okay, I can take a joke. LOL Good one, **Shagnasty**! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![agroof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@agroof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agroof)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/18 "2002-12-03T18:48:12Z")
Uh, that would be **visionary philosopher**. Ah well. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/19 "2002-12-03T18:54:21Z")
i don’t know if this is related, but i have such a strongly visual memory that i often cannot remember if i have seen a film or read a book. that is, i’ll tell everybody about a wonderful film/tv show and go into the plot specifics…and everyone goes “uh, that a book” i have a fairly photographic memory and can remember illustrations and diagrams perfectly, which is very useful for exam revision! ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229/20 "2002-12-03T19:47:58Z")
I love reading threads about these things, because its just so **weird**!! I can’t imagine seeing numbers or letters as colours, or as tastes,. etc. I think the world must be a very stimulating place for you guys…kind of makes me feel like I’m living in black & white while you’ve all moved on to Technicolor! 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-synesthesia/140229.md?page=2)